Into the Breach | Nintendo Switch Review
Into the Breach is an incredibly fun and addictive little game that has been well ported to the Switch due to the pickup and play nature of the console.
You control powerful mechs sent back in time to defeat an alien threat. Set across four different islands, each containing a series of randomly generated challenges. The goal is to fight off the Aliens without losing all your power bars. if you fail you must warp out of the timeline and restart on a whole new timeline again.
Unlike most “permadeath” games where when you die you lose all your progress and have to completely restart. You can carry some of your progress with you to the next attempt. One pilot, provided they are alive, can be carried forward keeping their XP and abilities. If you have unlocked any other units they remain unlocked. But you do lose all your purchased weapons and upgrades.
It is a nice blend between having death matter and avoiding the frustration of having to repeat all the early game over and over.
In to the Breach is a turn-based strategy, played on small maps that resemble an 8 x 8 square chessboard. The gameplay has elements of chess in terms of the strategy for attacking and defending.
Each of your three mechs has different abilities. Long-range artillery, medium-range tank shells and close quarters punching for the first set (you unlock others later). Some have out and out direct attacks that yield heavy damage, others do smaller amounts of damage but can be buffed by pushing enemies into squares that can kill them (water, fire, mountains or other dangerous areas), and some even have additional passive attacks like creating smoke clouds that cancel an impending attack.
Each game has a very similar setup, you have 5 turns to stop the aliens. The key is that you can see where the aliens/natural attacks are going to hit in the next round (the red squares in the screenshot above). You then decide on the best strategy to minimize those attacks with what you have available. Making use of the elements in the map that can help kill of the enemy (storms, water, earthquakes, fire etc.)
Do you try to attack and kill the aliens with direct hits? Do you try to just defend yourself from their attacks either by pushing them back to squares where their attacks won’t land a blow or where they will be killed by some natural elements? There is no right way and sometimes taking a moment and thinking about all your moves can yield the best results.
There is also usually mini-challenges within that loop. Blow up a dam, protect a power plant, find a drop pod with upgrades that help to keep things interesting and can earn you more rep to spend.
And once you have completed enough of the zones on an island there is a boss battle to complete. Once you have completed enough islands you can take on the final battle.
Overview: A brilliant little game with tons of replay-ability that has been really well ported to the switch. Everything is easy to use from menus selecting units and upgrades in-game.
If you want a great turn-based strategy that will challenge you, and keep you coming back for more. Then Into the Breach is top of our list of recommendations.
Please Join us on your Social Platform of choice
