Into the Breach

Remember all those bits of great XCOM combat where every move is important and you only have to hold out for a few more turns. This game has boiled those moments into a single game of mechs fighting bugs. Incredibly fun and satisfying until you hit a moment where you get screwed through no fault of your own at which point you may rightfully be very upset. Fortunately that doesn't happen that often.

Into the Breach is deceptively crystal in its presentation and gameplay. Every possibility, option, and strategy is communicated to the player at all times, and failure to exercise the best method is always your own fault. The amount of abuse I allowed this game to inflict on me is lunacy, but I felt like I gained new knowledge and motivation with each failure, and if I started over then I could finally win. Probably the best game of the year.

Almost more of a puzzle game than a strategy game. It seems like there's always a way out of a situation, and if there isn't, then it becomes a balance of strategic sacrifice and compromise. It's seriously well-tuned. I wish the core campaign was longer and didn't demand so much repetition. You can beat all 4 islands and the boss ending in just an hour or two, and subsequent playthroughs aren't that drastically different

repetitive and constrained almost to a fault. each turn is a miniature puzzle that is never quite the same as any other, but the fatigue does set in after a dozen hours or so, and it's never quite challenging enough to really dig deep into, even on its hardest difficulty. still, i vastly preferred this to ftl, and it's undoubtedly the best game one can play on an 8x8 grid. yep.

Difficulty level is too high. I could barely even get through two levels.