INTO THE BREACH

Nintendo Switch, also PC and MAC

INITIALLY coming across as a mash-up of Battletech and Advance Wars, Into The Breach is a turn-based strategy game that’s full of surprises.

The tactics involved are more unique than expected, while the structure riffs more on the looping rogue-like genre (with obvious links to the dev’s previous hit Faster Than Light).

The Shakespearean story that threads through the action is that the world is all but lost to an alien invasion, with you tasked as a time-travelling mech pilot to return to a point in history where the fight is still winnable.

So three mechs of differing abilities drop on to a series of claustrophobic 8x8 tile maps. Each map has different win conditions, from wiping out aliens to saving power plants or outlasting a timer.

Alongside these are other considerations too – buildings full of civilians must be protected to preserve the power grid. If the power runs out it’s game over. And if a mech pilot dies, their life and experience is gone forever too – thankfully the mech’s AI can at least continue the fight to ensure you always have three at your disposal.

Into The Breach operates on an incredibly tightly designed micro level of strategy – almost puzzle game-like – with mech placement and push/pull abilities used to the max to ensure the aliens never hit where they intend.

And when you fail to save humanity, you can choose a pilot to start again on another time stream, perhaps with different mechs, to live, die, repeat, ad infinitum to your delight.