Into the Breach (2018)
Into the Breach is a 2018 puzzle video game made by Subset Games.
Insectoid Vek claw up from beneath the earth, and the last human cities stand behind three pilots in time-traveling mechs. Each campaign is a tight tactical puzzle on a small grid, where you see exactly what the enemies intend to do next turn and must rearrange the board to blunt it. Shove a Vek into its neighbor, cap a burrow, take a hit on the mech instead of the town. Defeat folds back into the fiction: a pilot slips through time to try the doomed timeline again. From the makers of FTL, it turns strategy into a chain of small, solvable emergencies.
Quick answers
What is Into the Breach about?
Insectoid Vek claw up from beneath the earth, and the last human cities stand behind three pilots in time-traveling mechs. Each campaign is a tight tactical puzzle on a small grid, where you see exactly what the enemies intend to do next turn and must rearrange the board to blunt it. Shove a Vek into its neighbor, cap a burrow, take a hit on the mech instead of the town. Defeat folds back into the fiction: a pilot slips through time to try the doomed timeline again. From the makers of FTL, it turns strategy into a chain of small, solvable emergencies.
When was Into the Breach released?
Into the Breach was released on 27 February 2018.
Who made Into the Breach?
Into the Breach was made by Subset Games.
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- Companion guide: Mecha & Giant Robots: The Complete Guide
A few thoughts on Into the Breach
Edge of Tomorrow shares the core loop: die, reset, fight the same alien invasion smarter each time. Pacific Rim delivers the mech-versus-monster spectacle the grid only implies. For the war-weary sci-fi soldiering underneath, John Scalzi's Old Man’s War throws ordinary people into a hopeless galactic defense.
Mechs and makeshift armor standing between humanity and something enormous
Into the Breach puts three pilots in giant mechs against the Vek, and these share that same mismatch in scale. Pacific Rim pits kaiju-sized jaegers against monsters from the deep, Bio Booster Armor Guyver fuses its hero to alien battle armor he can barely control, Appleseed arms cyberpunk soldiers for a war beyond human strength, and The Dark Knight Returns ends with Batman in powered armor for one final stand.
Time loops and foreknowledge that still can't guarantee a win
Into the Breach lets a defeated pilot slip back in time to retry the same fight, and these circle that same idea. Edge of Tomorrow traps a soldier reliving one battle until he gets it right, The Time Traveler's Wife lives with knowing pieces of its own future, Redshirts turns knowing your doomed role into the whole plot, and Interstellar bends time itself against a dying earth.
Alien invasions where the last humans dig in and hold the line
Into the Breach frames every match as the last defense a city gets. War of the Worlds throws ordinary people against an invasion nobody can outfight head-on, Stargate SG-1 spends years guarding earth from threats most people never learn about, Silo keeps its last survivors underground rationing hope along with supplies, and Old Man's War puts aging recruits on the front line of an endless war.
Small squads where every member might not make it to the next fight
Into the Breach makes losing a pilot permanent, and these share that same weight. Mass Effect 2 builds its story around a mission unlikely to bring everyone home, The Scorch Trials keeps a small group alive against an engineered wasteland, Fist of the North Star follows survivors for whom every encounter could be the last, and 20th Century Boys carries a handful of friends through a fight spanning decades.