Into the Breach

Très bon

based on the graphics alone, i wasn't too sure. but for only $3.50 i figured why not. now I've had it for a day and have already played it for 10 hours straight... it's good~

TLDR: [b]Mech vs Monsters turn-based strategy on bite sized maps with tightly designed gameplay that fits somewhere between chess and checkers. You don't have to think far ahead and if you think your moves through well, you're rewarded.[/b] I like strategy games, but they can also take a lot of time so I've avoided a good majority of them and it's seldom that I don't regret the time sink involved if I do start one up. [b]Into The Breach drew me in with a crazy good sale price, pixel graphics, and small maps that brought to mind a much cooler Advance Wars. Into the Breach's engaging, fun, strategy, that is as bite sized or deep as you want it to be, has left me with no regrets.[/b] I didn't research the game before playing and [b]maybe it was the 'When you are defeated, send help back through time to save another timeline!' on the store page, but I kind of expected there to be some roguelike elements here. Outside of the ability to carry one of three pilots with their earned experience into a new run, there's not.[/b] I was a little concerned given how I got utterly obliterated on my first run and felt like some unlocks to power up my runs could be needed. Fortunately, [b]this game is well designed and once you get the mechanics figured out and know how to use movement, sacrifice hp, repair hp, use push attacks, debuffs, abilities, and map hazards to your advantage, it starts to feel like there's always a way to win [i]and[/i] meet the bonus objectives if you put in the mental work.[/b] Certainly there are times that require things to get ugly but it's well balanced feeling. Granted, my take is based on a playthrough with normal difficulty and taking on the final mission as soon as possible. I believe each run consists of four islands, which contain different mission zones that have unique bonus objective awards to aid your squad in the current run. Then there's a final mission. You can access the final mission before all islands are complete and its difficulty scales according to your progress. I took it on ASAP because I was feeling confident that run. I completed my first run at about five hours in. [b]Even with my little time in the game, I'm willing to bet the tightly designed challenge holds up on later missions and difficulties just because learning and honoring the mechanics pay off so well.[/b] If one of your three squad units is destroyed, the pilot is dead. If they've been unlocked they can come back on another run but you can't send them back in time with their earned experience... because they're dead. If you finish the mission after a unit has been destroyed, the unit comes back for the next mission without a pilot and no pilot bonus stats. [b]There is no save scumming, one turn reset per battle, and you can always undo a move but you can never undo an attack. It's an interesting and effectively balanced mix of hardcore difficulty with some grace[/b], to the point that you're not going to feel like you should give up an entire run if things go south once. If they go south more than once, there is the option to end the run and send one pilot 'back in time' for a new run. [b]I'm not big into replay value because I have a huge library of games, but it's obvious there's a ton here.[/b] I finished the game early, so I could go back and do a full length game finishing all the islands. Once you finish an island, you can start a run with that or any other island you've finished. This creates the opportunity to mix and match what enemy and mission types you're coming up against to either maximize your fun or squeeze out as many or as little power bonuses for a run as you want before taking on the final mission. Maybe you do all islands in an order of your choosing. Maybe just a few and then the final mission. [b]The biggest sources of replay value are going to come from pilot and squad unlocks.[/b] I only unlocked one pilot in the five hours it took to beat a run for the first time by finding them in a time pod that can be collected on random mission maps. It looks like there's close to a couple dozen pilots to unlock. Squads are unlocked with a currency earned through achievements and finished runs. Each squad seems to fundamentally change how the game is played with unique attacks and abilities. I was successful with an unlockable squad called the Flame Behemoths. One of the units doesn't have a base attack at all but can teleport and switch places with an enemy--much more useful than it sounds! The main offense unit in this squad has a fire debuff that only does attack damage if a fire debuff has already been applied. This is much different than the default squad available when first starting the game. [b]If strategy is your thing, each squad is going to give you a different experience and keep things interesting even without choosing a higher difficulty level.[/b] It's kind of like how different characters in Slay the Spire offer a different gameplay experience, except there appears to be over a dozen of these squads to unlock in Into the Breach. All that to say, there's a lot of replay value here. I consider myself relatively casual, if experienced, as a strategy gamer, with some time in Battlesector and a long history with the Jagged Alliance series. I would say [b]this is an extremely easy recommend on sale and still worthwhile at full price for a serious strategy gamer.[/b]

战旗经典

S+ strategy game.

Subset Games please come back