Minimalistic tactics with depth in Into the Breach

The last time I discussed Into the Breach was in 2018 when I played the game on Nintendo Switch. I really enjoyed the game but didn't feel like I'd given it as much time as it deserved. After all, this is a strategy game involving mechs developed by the creators of FTL. Every piece of information there is a huge positive for me—even though my repeated failures to complete an FTL run continue to haunt me to this day. When I played the game then, I basically completed one 2-island run with one squad (I think it was the Rift Walkers, but it was possibly Rusting Hulks) and then called it a day. Despite how much I enjoyed it, I just moved on at that point.

Now that I have a Steam Deck, I've been impressed enough with it as a platform that I've really embraced treating it as my primary gaming device where possible. I've been revisiting old favorites and trying out new ones that I might have otherwise skipped because they didn't seem like the kind of games I wanted to play sitting at my desk. Truthfully, Into the Breach kind of works in both settings, but it serves to contextualize why  I ended up revisiting it in the first place. I bought it a second time because it was on sale, I've been spending a lot of time on Steam Deck anyway, and I always felt like I hadn't given it a fair shot in the first place. Oh, and it also has an Advanced Edition now with a lot of new content.

There is such elegance in this game's design that I really appreciate. There are insectile aliens invading Earth and essentially wrecking whole cities. In fact, it seems it may have already happened. Your role is to lead a squad of time travelers in an effort to change history. Each move the aliens make is projected, so with careful movements, you can prevent them from destroying buildings and wipe them out in the process. 

Even with projected enemy movements, some situations can be impossible to escape unscathed.

There is some leniency in accomplishing your objective, of course. Losing one building isn't going to result in defeat, but if you lose too many, your whole run is over. Losing all of your Power Grid ends your run. Each time a building is hit, you're going to lose 1 unit of Power Grid health, but many buildings incur a penalty of 2 units of health instead. Since the tougher enemies can hit multiple squares on the grid, you can sometimes lose half of your health in one shot if you're not careful. This is why displacement effects are often more important than sheer power. You'll frequently be in a position where moving an enemy out of the way is your best bet until you can whittle them down to low enough to be defeated.

What makes the game so interesting is the variety of different squads you can employ to combat the Vek and of course the variety of enemy types as well. Uncovering the different ways each squad of 3 synergizes together is always a fun tactical challenge. One example is the Blitzkrieg squad, which initially seems pretty tough to handle. It consists of the Lightning Mech, which has a primary attack that chains through enemies, allies, and buildings alike. Although this is theoretically quite powerful, it creates a lot of problems. There are many situations in which you could back yourself into a corner in which your only method of attack also ends up killing your allies. This is a big deal in Into the Breach since pilot deaths are permanent (at least for the rest of that run). Since pilots unlock a variety of skills as they level up, keeping them alive is an important benefit to your squad.

The Blitzkrieg squad also features the Hook Mech, which can either grapple onto terrain or pull an enemy directly to it. On the surface, this synergizes perfectly with the Lightning Mech because it allows you to more easily position enemies right next to each other. However, the Hook Mech also has pulled the enemy directly next to itself, meaning it's setting itself up to be hit by the chain lightning as well. This is likely why the Hook Mech is Armored, a mechanic in which all damage is reduced by 1. The base damage on the Lightning Mech's attack is 2, so this helps it to take a few stray hits if necessary. Even so, it's not ideal to take damage in any circumstances if you can avoid it, so this still seems less than ideal. Luckily, the game affords you options to perfect that strategy. If you still want to use the Hook Mech to enable chains but also not take damage from chain lightning, you can have a pilot that can move after attacking pilot that particular mech. Alternatively, you can just make sure you upgrade it with plenty of health so it can take multiple hits.

The third mech in that squad is the Boulder Mech, which hurls boulders at enemies for decent damage. On top of that, it also pushes enemies to the left and right sides. You can use this to pop enemy Vek into the water, instantly drowning them, or just to move them out of the way of structures they'd otherwise destroy. You have to be careful, though, because you can also do things like inadvertently knock enemies into buildings, which depletes your precious Grid Power. A lot of the strategy in the game hinges on weighing the pros and cons of any particular action and whether or not what you're doing is going to back you into a corner. Another beautiful bit of synergy with the Boulder Mech is that the boulders themselves can enable a lightning chain. If you have a boulder in between some buildings or enemies, the lightning will continue. The boulder will be destroyed harmlessly but the damage will continue throughout the entire chain.

This one squad that I've just spent multiple paragraphs describing is just one squad in a roster of about 13 of them, all of which have a pile of interesting synergies. I haven't even talked about the strategy inherent to managing the protection of your buildings versus blocking the spawn of new Vek from the ground. That adds a whole new dynamic to boulders, which persist in the environment, or things like the bombling launched by the Bombermech, or the spiders birthed by the Arachnoid Mech. Suffice it to say that it's an incredibly cool game that I could probably write a whole book about. In the meantime, I'm really glad I spent more time with it this time around and will likely play it some more in the future.