Subset Games, the creators of popular rogue-like spaceship sim FTL: Faster Than Light, announced a turn-based strategy game called Into the Breach.
Into the Breach will task players with saving a procedurally generated, grid-lined world via turn-based combat reminiscent of the Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics series. But instead of guiding knights, wizards, and other medieval fantasy tropes, Into the Breach players will control various mechs and their pilots. This sci-fi focus--as well as random elements and gorgeous pixel art--are Into the Breach's most obvious connections to its predecessor.
Subset Games said on its website that Into the Breach will also require players to defend the civilian buildings used to power their mechs, find "powerful new weapons and unique pilots" so they can mount the best offensive, and "send help back through time to save another timeline!" when they're defeated. This all takes place on 8x8 grids filled with various terrains, multiple enemy types, and interactive environments that can turn a battle's tide.
"Into the Breach will be on Windows, Mac, and Linux," Subset Games said. "But it will not release on all three simultaneously. As a small studio, we found managing that large of a release for FTL very difficult, so we’re going to spread it out more this time." FTL was available on PC before heading to iOS--where it's actually been more favorably received, according to MetaCritic--so it will be interesting to see if Into the Breach also heads to mobile.
| Name | Into the Breach |
|---|---|
| Type | Turn-Based Strategy |
| Developer | Subset Games |
| Publisher | Subset Games |
| Platforms | PC, Mac, Linux |
| Where To Buy | Steam |
| Release Date | TBD |
What is that actually intended to mean? That the iOS version has a slightly higher Metascore? It also has only 17 critic reviews on that platform, compared to 41 on the PC, and only 6 of those reviewed the game on both platforms. The rest are mainly from reviewers more accustomed to writing about typical mobile shovelware, potentially skewing their scores. And if we look at user reviews there, the PC version actually has the higher score, and with far more reviews. Looking at the number of user reviews at Metacritic, as well as on the iOS app store and Steam, I get the impression that the game may have sold around 10 times as well on the PC as it did on mobile. I do think that the new game will probably come to mobile platforms eventually though. The interface looks very much like it would transition well to touchscreens, so they likely designed the game with an eventual mobile port in mind.
FTL is a pretty good game, and I've gotten quite a bit of play out of unlocking all the different ship variants, though I did find it kind of disappointing in some ways. For a game about traveling across the galaxy, its story is pretty much nonexistent. It's never even mentioned why your ship needs to be the one to defeat the enemy battleship. All the little side encounters are also glossed over in a line or two of text. Likewise, your crew might as well be mindless robots, since aside from their race, they have no real defining characteristics to differentiate them, nor do they communicate with you in any way. The game is entirely about the battles, and upgrading your ship, and doesn't go much into other territory to flesh things out, which seems like something of a missed opportunity. It's still a rather good game in other ways though.