‘Into the Breach’ Mobile Review – Sublime Strategy
When you read about games online, certain types or games are always called "perfect for Switch." Since I play a lot of games that can be played on more than one system, I like to talk about what makes a game stand out. Some games are perfect for a platform but don't work well on that platform. FTL by Subset Games was one of the few games that not only worked well on iPad, but also worked best on iPad. Since then, the studio has been working on Into the Breach (Free), a turn-based tactical game that came out first on PC and then on Switch. Having played it on both, it was perfect for Switch and was my favorite way to play the turn-based strategy game.
In an ideal world, a mobile version of Into the Breach would be good enough for me to say that I now have a new best way to play it. I can't say that this iOS version of Into the Breach is the best way to play because of two things. One is a small thing that I like to see in ports, while the other is something that more people will care about. Before I talk about the port's features and what I'd like to see, I find it interesting how Into the Breach is put together and how it makes you forget what you're used to.
Even before I saw footage of Into the Breach a few years ago, I was sold on it because I always check out games from developers who have made games I've loved before. My friend's short description of the game as "chess with robots and a great soundtrack" made me even more excited. After a few plays, I was blown away by what Into the Breach wants from players.
Most turn-based strategy games are about killing enemies while staying alive, but each enemy in Into the Breach is treated like a puzzle. You can see what every enemy will do next, and your goal is to try to stop them with as few deaths as possible. This means protecting buildings on your grid that need to stay up so the game doesn't end, keeping your units alive, and sometimes taking damage or giving up things to protect something important on the level.
As you win smaller battles on different islands, you can improve your grid and your mechs and also get better as a pilot. This pilot can go on in a different time. In Into the Breach, losing is not the end of the story. With each run, you slowly unlock more of the game. You can play with new squads that change your strategy a lot, and you can also protect more islands.
Each run has randomly generated levels, and if you play through Into the Breach more than once with the same squad type, you'll understand what it's all about. When I was obsessed with the game on Nintendo Switch, the first few hours were hard because I was used to playing turn-based strategy games in a different way.
Early on, you should start to learn how to cover those tiles to stop enemies from spawning there or to give up your own unit's health to protect the grid. There are different levels of difficulty, but they aren't like "easy" modes. This isn't like the casual options in some tactical RPGs. Into the Breach is hard, and you'll have to keep going back to the basics until you know what to do. You'll realize that Into the Breach is one of the best independent games ever when things start to make sense, both early on and later on.
On iOS and Android, Into the Breach comes with the Advanced Edition content right away. This adds nearly all of the new content from a paid expansion to the game for free. It adds 5 new playable squads, a lot of new weapons, new music, a harder difficulty mode (as if the default ones weren't hard enough! ), new pilots with random new abilities, and more. Into the Breach was underpriced for what it offered when it came out, but now that it's a complete package, it's an even better deal.
A lot of the new content will be most useful to people who have already played a lot of Into the Breach, but if you're moving to mobile from another platform, the fact that progress doesn't sync across platforms might give you some new options right away to keep things more exciting than usual.
Into the Breach has full support for controllers, and I've played it for a few hours with an iPad and a bluetooth mouse that made touch controls look like they were being used. Right now, the controller support shows Xbox button prompts even when a DualSense controller is used, but it works fine. After how nice it is on Switch, the lack of haptic feedback is a bummer, but the options to change the size of the interface are nice. It's cool to see how the touch interface and controller interface change based on what you do. I like playing it on Steam Deck, but if I wanted to use traditional controls, I would rather play it on Switch or, for the best touch experience at a much higher resolution, on iPad. Right now, my favorite ways to play the game are on the Switch and on the iPad.
Right now, the lack of iCloud progress sync between iOS devices is the biggest problem with Into the Breach on iOS. I played on both an iPhone 11 and an iPad Pro (2020), and I had to basically treat them as two different profiles with their own progress. I hope that this can be added in an update in the future.
There is one thing to remember about Apple Arcade games and even the recently released Poinpy, which Shaun reviewed. You can't just buy Into the Breach and have it on your phone by itself. It's only available to people who pay for Netflix, and it costs a lot more than Apple Arcade. I don't think it's worth getting a Netflix subscription just for Into the Breach. If you have a Switch, I'd recommend getting it there instead. If you do have a Netflix account, though, Into the Breach is my favorite new show since Devilman Crybaby and Seinfeld.
Into the Breach is a must-have if you like turn-based strategy games, and the iOS version is almost everything I wanted from a mobile port. I hope that updates in the future will add cloud syncing between devices and maybe even haptic feedback. Even though the last one is more of a want than a need, it's important in a game like this to be able to sync your progress with the cloud. If you waited years for Into the Breach to come out on mobile, the wait was worth it. It looks great and is fun to play, and the content in the Advanced Edition is almost like a full paid expansion that owners already have for free. Subset Games really went the extra mile here. Even if you don't plan to subscribe to play this on your phone or buy it on another platform, the soundtrack is great, so you should at least check that out.
