Michael Crider
The Epic Games Store for the PC continues its weekly giveaway. Some weeks are better than others, and this one is very good indeed: You can grab Into The Breach for nothing, nil, nada. Into The Breach is an excellent turn-based strategy game, one that we selected as one of the best games of 2018 (that didn’t need a graphics card).
Into The Breach is often described as “giant robot chess,” and that’s a pretty good way to sum it up. You control up to three robots at a time, moving across a very small turn-based grid, to punch giant alien bugs in the face. (You can also shoot them and zap them, but punching is great, as explored in the documentary Pacific Rim).
Different machines have different weapons, and it’s possible to predict the bugs’ fairly basic movements to make them harm each other, or fall into environmental traps. In fact, as the game stages get progressively more difficult, even your fully upgraded mechs won’t be enough, and you’ll have to rely on strategic positioning of the aliens to turn their strengths into weaknesses.
As you move from battlefield to battlefield, you’ll get access to upgraded equipment and more skilled mech pilots. The punishing difficulty means you’ll probably have to restart several times, but thanks to some sci-fi buzzwords, you can bring your best pilot with you into each new game, and try different combinations of a few dozen robots to find the best synergistic strategy for defending the planet.
Try Into The Breach. It’s free until Thursday, September 17th, on the Epic Games Store. It’s also available on the Switch or Steam (if you hate Epic) for a very fair $15.
