Into the Breach - The CURRENT game from the developers of FTL - Catch All

kazooka wrote:

It's a little easier than FTL, which I kind of appreciate. I saved a timeline on my third game. The trick now is unlocking new squads, which seems more difficult than saving timelines.

Listening to the Waypoint podcast, and Austin Walker, who sounds like he has a deeper understanding of the game than I do, still hadn't beaten the final mission after 30-40 hours. I've only managed it once, so maybe I just got lucky. Or maybe it's just a lot easier with only two islands saved.

Well I just played my first game on Normal difficulty. I beat it. It was really easy. I got bored after the first two islands due to the lack of challenge and rushed to the final mission. It was also easy. Most games don't have to be difficult to be fun, but roguelikes kinda do. That's the key feature of the genre. The game needs to be difficult to encourage players to replay the game and try out new strategies.

Sigh. So I'll give Hard mode a try this weekend and hope that the difficulty improves substantially. I'll also aim to finish all four islands. Maybe that makes for a more challenging game? I sure hope so.

I’m with you, Veloxi. FTL and Darkest Dungeon occupy the sane space in that I love them and they give me a tonne if anxiety.

I’m really excited to play this but given my extremely recent unemployment, I’ll hold off until financials are more stable.

this seems like it has potential but honestly i'm not in the best mental shape right now and can't even seem to grasp the basics of how to play and am not finding the tutorial or youtube let's plays terribly helpful'.

First night and either I'm an idiot or I'm bad at strategy games. Likely that second bit. XD Fun though.

krev82 wrote:

this seems like it has potential but honestly i'm not in the best mental shape right now and can't even seem to grasp the basics of how to play and am not finding the tutorial or youtube let's plays terribly helpful'.

I spent an hour and a half or so today playing the tutorial mission and most of the missions on the first island. The basics of gameplay are very straightforwardly given to you, even if you skip the tutorial. You can hover each of the three units that you are given to see what movement and attacks they possess; hovering/clicking your units even displays a pop-up showing an example of the unit's attack. After each turn in which the enemies move, they telegraph the attack that they'll execute when it's their turn to do so, meaning you know exactly what must be done to mitigate or prevent damage to your units and/or your buildings.

That's the beauty of this game. The basic mechanics are simple as hell to learn, but how successful you are from mission to mission largely depends on your tactical decisions on the tiny 8x8 grid. ITB is an instant classic as far as I'm concerned. In the long run, it may not garner the amount of hype that FTL had, simply because it's not quite as difficult from a trial-and-error perspective of difficulty that was present in FTL. I referenced the wiki multiple times while playing FTL, but with ITB, a wiki (or other resource) really is not necessary. It's totally turn-based, and there is no time limit, so you can take as much time as you want to plan the movement and attacks of your squad. FFS, you can even undo a unit's movement, for every unit during a turn, or completely reset your turn (once per battle) if you realize there is a better tactical way to approach your current turn.

Played for a couple of hours on easy after a nice chap bought this for me

I'm really loving it. I'd really baulk at calling it a mecha game though, It reminds me more of xiangqi.

Managed to get my first win on 3 islands with Blitzkrieg. I don't even really like Blitzkrieg's playstyle, but it worked for some reason.

One of the things I really enjoy about ITB is how piecemeal the game is. Each level takes like 5-10 minutes and the game loads super fast so I can just hop in and do a level or two.

Koz wrote:

Managed to get my first win on 3 islands with Blitzkrieg. I don't even really like Blitzkrieg's playstyle, but it worked for some reason.

One of the things I really enjoy about ITB is how piecemeal the game is. Each level takes like 5-10 minutes and the game loads super fast so I can just hop in and do a level or two.

Blitzkrieg is probably my favorite squad so far. I love setting up big chain lightning hits with them. Plus the boulder launcher is my favorite artillery so far. The boulder can block enemy shots, block spawns, and extend the chain lightning.

What’s the difference between easy and normal? It says score but I’m not sure what score is.

EriktheRed wrote:

Blitzkrieg is probably my favorite squad so far. I love setting up big chain lightning hits with them. Plus the boulder launcher is my favorite artillery so far. The boulder can block enemy shots, block spawns, and extend the chain lightning.

Yeah, they are my favorite so far. While I was annoyed with the tank not having any damage output, I was fortunate to further find a weapon that shoots at a target (for no damage) and causes three tiles around them to also push, so they are the ultimate positioning unit. With the whip having upgraded damage, I just wreck through huge numbers, and it's lovely. About to head into my fourth island with them (hopefully I won't regret doing that before the final mission).

Was able to finish first zone on first island this evening, really digging it. Glad I'm able to play after-all (after spending a few days functionally disabled it's a big relief to still be able to game, along with other stuff.

Djinn wrote:

Sigh. So I'll give Hard mode a try this weekend and hope that the difficulty improves substantially. I'll also aim to finish all four islands. Maybe that makes for a more challenging game? I sure hope so.

Well I just finished my first Hard mode playthrough this evening. All four islands. I beat it again. I want to enjoy this game more, but it's just so easy. I swear such brilliance as mine is a heavy cross to bear.

Okay, Hard mode was actually pretty hard. Most of the maps required a lot of thinking, I failed a good chunk of objectives, and I beat the game with only two power remaining in my grid. It was a hard-fought victory. I'm looking forward to going for the achievements and beating the game with every squad. However, I still believe that the game needs to get a 4th difficulty level in a future patch or expansion.

I really struggled out the gate with the default squad but once I unlocked Rust, I started breezing through missions. As I've unlocked a few more pilots, I'll probably go back and give the default squad a go again.

Blitzcrank team is easily the best team. Pull those bug bois in to chasms and water for maximum pleasure.

Djinn wrote:

Well I just finished my first Hard mode playthrough this evening. All four islands. I beat it again. I want to enjoy this game more, but it's just so easy. I swear such brilliance as mine is a heavy cross to bear. :(

May be your time would be better spent assisting Google with AlphaGo's training.

Snark aside, I was having a hard time progressing on normal with the squad whose goal is to have enemies damage themselves. Had a look at easy.... which is way too easy. I often found myself passing the last turn because I had killed off all the enemies and I had all their spawn locations covered.

Back to normal for me.

The game is deceptively simple, but between the push ability of attacks, trying to get the bonus objectives, deciding when it’s OK to take damage, etc - there is a lot to consider.

On my first attempt, I fell short on winning the first island on normal. First mission was pretty easy and I got 1 bonus objective. I think I got 2 bonus objectives on the next one, then died on the 3rd.

3rd time was the charm - got through the first island and managed to make all objectives. Spending the 6 corporate reputation was fun, along with choosing the island reward. Got the power grid up to max, a cool weapon for my artillery, another power core and something that heals.

Even though each unit has only a couple choices of what to do, it can take a while to decide where you want to move to, and who should move in what order. So much of it is about positioning and what you can do to effect the enemy’s positioning

I've only found a few moments to play. I cannot wait for a little more free time to really dig in.

So far - on easy - I've had fun learning the ropes. Looking forward to the jump up to normal.

This game is dope.

Edit: For what it's worth, I didn't like FTL all that much.

Bumped the difficulty down to easy and finished off a 2-island run over a few beers last night. Really cool stuff! I played the...orange squad (I can't remember their name right now), who have skills related to smoke. I loved how differently the squads play. Really looking forward to trying some random runs. I have the lightning-based squad unlocked for my next attempt.

I have a very minor complaint. Maybe I'm comparing it too much to FTL, but it feels like the upgrades are very minimal. I like the feeling of slowly powering up my character(s), but upgrades mostly feel like alternate choices in Into the Breach. It may have been difficult, but I feel as though I could have cleared the final stage with my original crew (I think I had +1 damage on one mech, and an extra weapon on another).

It's not enough for me to dislike to game, but it's enough for me to consider FTL the superior title. Does anyone feel similarly...Or better yet, can somebody change my mind?

A_Unicycle wrote:

Bumped the difficulty down to easy and finished off a 2-island run over a few beers last night. Really cool stuff! I played the...orange squad (I can't remember their name right now), who have skills related to smoke. I loved how differently the squads play. Really looking forward to trying some random runs. I have the lightning-based squad unlocked for my next attempt.

I have a very minor complaint. Maybe I'm comparing it too much to FTL, but it feels like the upgrades are very minimal. I like the feeling of slowly powering up my character(s), but upgrades mostly feel like alternate choices in Into the Breach. It may have been difficult, but I feel as though I could have cleared the final stage with my original crew (I think I had +1 damage on one mech, and an extra weapon on another).

It's not enough for me to dislike to game, but it's enough for me to consider FTL the superior title. Does anyone feel similarly...Or better yet, can somebody change my mind?

Pilots make a huge difference.

Finished 3 islands on normal! It does seem that you need a bit of random luck in the early game to get going. I've run into quite a few early games where you just get wrecked by chance (probably depends on what mechs you have, and I only have two types unlocked.

There are some impossible situations which can just mess stuff up. If you get a couple of those situations in a row, then yeah, game over, bye bye power and hello swarms of Vek.

I really want more of those pods though so I can unlock more Pilots. I've only got 3 so far.

Not only do experienced pilots make a big difference, but the two simplest upgrades, health and speed, are what really rescue you from the random bad situations. A pilot with the "move through enemy" skill and +2 speed can strike almost anywhere on the entire battlefield. Keep them in the center, and react as needed.

Agreed. I just unlocked that one earlier today and he's now my favourite. Not being blocked in is probably the most useful skill I've seen so far. It enabled me to finish a run on Hard! Now to just finish unlocking all the squads and then hunting down all the cheevs.

My problem with experienced pilots is that I can't keep them alive.

BlackSabre wrote:

Agreed. I just unlocked that one earlier today and he's now my favourite. Not being blocked in is probably the most useful skill I've seen so far. It enabled me to finish a run on Hard! Now to just finish unlocking all the squads and then hunting down all the cheevs.

Ooooh! That’s a good one.

I just got the one that allows drop anywhere on the field as well as the “take two actions instead of a move and action.”

Finished a 2 island game for the first time. So much win!

Do. Not. Understand. Love for the Blitzkrieg squad.

Following this thread, that's the first additional squad I unlocked, and I'm missing something, because I can't do sh*t with them.

One mech doesn't do any damage, the other mech is friendly-fire all the time. And the third mech is less useful artillery.

Jonman wrote:

Do. Not. Understand. Love for the Blitzkrieg squad.

Following this thread, that's the first additional squad I unlocked, and I'm missing something, because I can't do sh*t with them.

One mech doesn't do any damage, the other mech is friendly-fire all the time. And the third mech is less useful artillery.

This is why they are loved....

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/N0PI7X0.jpg)

Be sure to buy the upgrade to prevent chain lightning damage to buildings. Also the friendly fire damage isn't so bad on the grapple tank, since it has armor. Also you can use the boulders from the artillery tank to extend the chain.