{"id":10035,"date":"2021-10-26T11:39:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T08:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=10035"},"modified":"2021-10-26T11:39:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T08:39:09","slug":"into-the-breach-complex-simplicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/into-the-breach-complex-simplicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Breach \u2013 Complex Simplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Into the Breach puts you in the shoes of\u00a0time traveling\u00a0mech-pilots\u00a0that are attempting to save as many timelines as possible from the\u00a0Vek,\u00a0a species of building sizes bugs\u00a0that\u00a0would much appreciate human civilization not existing. As\u00a0traditional weaponry has proved ineffectual, your squad of three giant robots is the only thing capable of wiping\u00a0the threat off the face of the Earth.\u00a0As classic as it gets, but the beauty comes in the form of the game itself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0first\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0eight\u00a0unique\u00a0squads\u00a0you\u00a0can\u00a0play as.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Into the Breach\u00a0is a fun little grid-based strategy game that seems deceptively simple at first\u00a0glance but\u00a0will instantly punish you for taking it lightly. Your mechs\u2019 abilities\u00a0are quite ordinary; punch an\u00a0enemy to knock them back one square and deal 3 damage. Shoot an enemy to knock them back one square and deal 1 damage. Easy, right?\u00a0Well, that\u2019s how they get you. When an enemy is moved by your (or its allies\u2019) attacks, their attack pattern stays the same. So, if you just saved a civilian building by\u00a0knocking an enemy away, you might have just doomed their neighbours or one of your own mechs\u00a0who now stand in the path of the acid blob that\u2019s about to be spat out. This still sounds easy enough, but when you deal with four bugs with unique attacks in the middle of a civilian suburb,\u00a0you\u2019ll soon realize that each move of yours must be taken with caution.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Literally the first turn of the first mission. I swear, it\u2019s not as bad as it looks.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As stressful as they are, those difficult situations are also the main attraction of the game. You start each turn looking at a\u00a0hopeless puzzle, yet\u00a0you pull through and feel like a genius for doing so. Even if it seems impossible, there is always a correct play that turns the tide, or at least holds it back for a moment.\u00a0It\u2019s no shame to win via timeout, since every mission last for only a few turns, and every objective other than survival is just an added bonus.\u00a0It\u2019s not your mechs that you\u2019re supposed to protect though, since your campaign health bar is counted in\u00a0civilian\u00a0casualties.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All your classic biomes: forest, desert, arctic, and… high tech nuclear wasteland.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The future Earth that the game takes place in has only four large islands that are still populated by humans, and you luckily\u00a0have to\u00a0only save two of these to be able to take on the last mission. However,\u00a0the more islands you save, the more experience you gain and upgrades you purchase for your lethal toys, making them just straight up stronger, as well as more varied and complex in their playstyles.\u00a0It\u2019s not all positive though, since the\u00a0Vek\u00a0will also grow stronger the more time you give them, so you\u2019ll have to make the decision of whether you want to grow stronger with the added risk of losing your precious pilots. When a mech is destroyed in battle, it will work just as well as it did before\u00a0next time, but you will lose whoever was riding said mech at the time. As pilots level up with each battle\u00a0and\u00a0gain abilities of their own,\u00a0it is heart breaking to permanently lose someone on the last island, since there\u2019s no time to level up the next pilot.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Into the Breach is game that is very lightweight with its aesthetics, story and starter difficulty, yet as time goes\u00a0on it gets more and more intense and deep in its mechanics. I once spent 40 minutes thinking about a single turn in the final mission, finally got the answer to the situation, and felt like a true hero.\u00a0At least until the next turn\u00a0in which\u00a0I was again stuck with a new\u00a0nigh impossible conundrum.\u00a0\u00a0This is what strategy games are all about.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All\u00a0pictures\u00a0used\u00a0are\u00a0screenshots\u00a0taken\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0author.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Developer:\u00a0Subset\u00a0Games<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Publisher:\u00a0Subset\u00a0Games<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Platforms: Nintendo\u00a0Switch, Linux,\u00a0macOS, Microsoft Windows, Google Stadia, Mac OS<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Release\u00a0Date:\u00a0February\u00a027, 2018<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Genres:\u00a0Roguelike, Indie, RPG,\u00a0Simulation,\u00a0Strategy<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEGI 12<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the world is being ravaged by giant insects that threaten to destroy all of humanity, there\u2019s only one logical solution: giant mechs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":10041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[380,225,1456,263,1454,1455],"class_list":["post-10035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-grid","tag-indie","tag-intothebreach","tag-strategy","tag-subsetgames","tag-vek","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}