Into the Breach

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy-RPG / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Into the Breach is a Turn-Based Strategy-RPG with Roguelike elements where you play as a time-traveling mech operator on a mission to hold off a giant bug infestation threatening the last remnants of humanity.

As Strategy-RPGs go, Into the Breach is fairly simple and straightforward. You only control three characters, and each of them can only move and make use of one or two types of attacks. What’s more, you’re always told where enemies will be attacking after your turn, so you can pretty easily plan ahead to dodge them or push them out of the way before they can carry out their attacks.

However, don’t let that fool you into thinking this game will be a walk in the park. While Into the Breach is simple, it is also punishingly hard. You’re frequently outnumbered by your enemies, it only takes a few hits to kill one of your characters, and in addition to protecting yourself, you are also charged with protecting all of the buildings the mechs and monsters are clomping around in – too many damaged buildings and the monsters take over the planet, you lose.

This is where the game’s Roguelike elements come in. Every time you die in this game (and you’ll die a lot), you will send one of your three characters back in time (“into the Breach”) to try again, and that character will keep whatever experience they gained the previous time around.

This is a great twist on the Strategy-RPG formula, but I have my issues with it too. Only being able to send back one character means that character will quickly become more of a “hero unit” for your otherwise weak team. What’s more, since you can only have one of these “hero units” on your team at a time, you’ll probably just stick with one the whole way through to build them up rather than see much variety.

In the graphics and sound department, there’s nothing special going on here, but the game isn’t ugly to look at, either. It manages to make for a convincing post-apocalyptic theme without going the route of desaturating everything and making it dull. It works well enough for what this game is.

In the end, those looking for a challenge in a Strategy-RPG that really makes you think about every move you make, Into the Breach is a solid game that cuts the fat off the genre and makes you focus on the strategy elements.

tl;dr – Into the Breach is a Strategy-RPG with Roguelike elements that simplifies the genre and has players focusing on just the strategy. It’s very difficult, but fans of the genre will find it to be an excellent challenge.

Grade: B+

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