Into the breach is a game I’ve heard about for a while but had never picked it up to play until recently. In spite of having a copy of the game on the pc I picked up the switch version in the hope that having the game in a handheld console would get me to give it a go. I have now little over 5 hours of game time under my belt and I can safely say it is one of my favourite games going forward.

Into the breach is a strategy game that looks like a mix of chess and pacific rim. We control up to 3 robots called mechs that have been sent to save certain regions of a planet from the alien ‘vek’ hoard. It is a turn based system that involves moving our mechs to strategic positions either to attack the enemy or to defend certain structures. It should be noted that any damage to structures within a region will cost you grid damage which is effectively your health. There are four islands in the game, and one vek hive, to defeat. Each island is broken into several regions, each with their own tasks and rewards. These rewards can be used to upgrade your mech as well as to improve your grid capacity that powers the mechs.

There are three difficulty levels: easy, normal and hard, of which normal was difficult for me. Playing easy helped me get a grasp of the game and actually enjoy it instead of being disheartened as was the case with ‘normal’ difficulty level for a while. Now that I’ve ‘beat’ the game on easy, I’ll slowly progress to ‘normal’ and let’s see how I fare then.

All in all, this is a very satisfying game to play and highly addictive. The different mech team options, each with their own attack options, allows for a fresh interesting game everytime. Since each battle is essentially around 5 turns each its easy to have a quick game during a break. Definitely recommend this game.

Rating: 5/5

Links: Into the Breach