But wait, there’s more. Seven new Vek and three new Psions along with 10 new boss battles are also available. There are also 39 new weapons and equipment, two new tracks courtesy of composer Ben Prunty, and support for seven new languages including Korean, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and more.

Sans balance changes, those who want to play without all of the new content can do thanks to the optional content toggles. Veterans can try out Unfair Mode which doubles Grid power gains but provides a much more challenging experience. Check out the notes below for details on other changes.

Major Additions

• 5 New squads & 15 new squad achievements!
• 7 new Vek, 3 new Psions, & 10 new boss battles!
• 12 new missions & 3 new bonus mission goals!
• 4 New pilots & 10 new random pilot abilities!
• 39 New weapons & equipment!
• 2 new music tracks from composer Ben Prunty!
• Even more challenging difficulty mode, Unfair Mode!
• 7 New Languages! (Arabic, Thai, Swedish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and Latin American Spanish)

Other Changes

• Optional Content Toggles – All of the new content (enemies, pilot skills, etc) other than balance changes are possible to turn off if you would like the base-game content experience.
• Weapon reactor usage reduced – We wanted to encourage players to immediately try out equipment they find, so we reduced the reactor power to equip most gear.
• Store Changes – Since you can now instantly equip most weapons without needing an additional reactor core, the reputation cost to purchase weapons has increased by 1 and the store options are limited in the first 2 islands.
• New weapon mechanic: KO effects – Certain weapons will trigger an additional effect if the primary target is killed by the attack.
• New tile mechanic: Cracking – Certain weapons will cause the ground to crack. If the tile is damaged again, it will shatter, destroying the tile and anything standing on it!
• New status effect: Boost – This will increase the next attack’s damage by 1. Highly effective for AoE attacks!
• Unlocking Squads with Coins Change – The cost of unlocking squads with coins has been reduced to account for the extra squads.

Notably, however, the game hasn’t released for either Xbox or PlayStation in the four years since its original launch- so is that something that could change soon? While it’s certainly possible, it seems like it’s not exactly a priority for its developers.

Speaking recently with Push Square, when asked about the possibility of Into the Breach coming to PS5 or PS4, programmer Matthew Davis said that it was certainly “within the realm of possibility”, though added the caveat that Subset Games would like to go back to developing something new and original soon, rather than having to work on another port.

“It’s within the realm of possibility,” Davis said. “We’ve got nothing against PS4/PS5. But I’d like to get back to original development in the immediate future.”

Davis went on to explain that as just a small 3-person team, Subset Games has to prioritize its work accordingly, which means developing ports and then maintaining them following launch is far easier said than done.

“We’re a very small studio with only 3 full-time developers,” he said. “Every port takes up time not only in its initial development, but also in post-release support and maintenance.” While the team would love to have the game available everywhere, it’s also eager to work on new content and other projects. “It’s a difficult balancing act.”

Recently, Subset Games announced Into the Breach: Advanced Edition. Due out next month, it’ll add new mechs, pilots, weapons, and much more in what’s looking like an impressive expanded re-release. Read more on that through here.

In our review of Into the Breach back when it first launched for PC, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, “Strong art and music combine with excellent mechanics and an emphasis on strategy and players choice to create one of the best strategy games in years.” Read our full review through here.

Into the Breach is currently available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, iOS, and Android.

Along with new five mech squads and 40 new weapons, there are more enemies and bosses to tackle. More missions and objectives, new Pilots and new Pilot Skills are also coming. Those looking for a tougher challenge can look forward to a higher-difficulty option. Seven additional languages are also supported with the update.

In addition, Into the Breach is also coming to Android and iOS devices on the same day courtesy of Netflix. A Netflix subscription is required but there are no ads or micro-transactions. The mobile version also sports a new UI optimized for tablets and phones.

Into the Breach is currently available for PC, Nintendo Switch, and Google Stadia. Check out our review here for more details on the base game.

Subset Games’ FTL: Faster Than Light is renowned as one of the best roguelites ever made. Whatever it seemed to be missing was addressed when the Advanced Edition released as a free update. Except the game still had no Steam Achievements.

Rejoice then, for the developer has finally addressed this issue. It announced on Twitter that Steam Achievements are coming over seven years after launch. Anyone can view the complete list now but you’ll only be able to unlock them later this week (since they’re still in the testing phase).

Some of the 51 Achievements include setting ships on fire, boarding Rebel ships, winning battles, collecting Scrap and more. If you need a reason to revisit the roguelite – besides enjoying an exceptionally well-crafted roguelite – then later this week is the best time. Alternatively, you can read our review for Into The Breach, Subset Games’ latest title which is an excellent turn-based tactical strategy game.

We're putting the FTL achievements on Steam (only 7 years after release!). They're partly visible for players while we test, but not yet achievable. We'll be releasing the update later this week!

— Subset Games (@subsetgames) January 20, 2020

Microsoft have announced which games will be coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC this month. Those subscribed to the service on PC will get access to a pretty solid duo, with Frostpunk and FTL: Faster Than Light both joining its catalog of games in January.

Frostpunk is an excellent city-building survival title that constantly forces players to make tough decisions against a backdrop of a harsh, desolate, wintery apocalypse. 11 bit Studios have also been supporting the game excellently since its release, so it’s definitely worth diving into, if you haven’t already done so.

Meanwhile, if you like roguelikes or strategy titles (or both), the space-faring indie hit FTL: Faster Than Light is a game you’re going to want to check out- though the game was also recently free on the Epic Games Store, so there’s a good chance you might not need to make use of Game Pass for this one.

Microsoft have also confirmed the lineup of games that will be coming to Game Pass on Xbox One- it also includes Frostpunk. Check out the full lineup through here.

pic.twitter.com/TJwJAWBNCI

— PC Game Pass (@XboxGamePassPC) January 7, 2020

Epic Games’ “12 Days of Free Games” initiative continues to roll on. Subset Games’ FTL: Faster Than Light is currently free on the Epic Games Store until 9 AM PST today. All you need to do is have an Epic Games account, login and claim it for free.

FTL: Faster Than Light is one of the more famous rogue-lite titles out there. It sees players controlling a ship with different crew members, each specializing in different roles. You can engage in different battles, experience random events and manage the various system failures that your ship endures.

Though it can be stressful, FTL: Faster Than Light can also be incredibly addictive. The free Advanced Edition expansion also adds new ships, events, weapons and much more on top of the base game. Pick it up today for free or hang around for after 9 AM PST – it seems that Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter will be the next free game offered on the store. Stay tuned if/when that happens.

Into the Breach, one of the best games to have been released on PC this year, has been confirmed for a Switch launch. Nintendo confirmed with a short trailer at the end of their recent Nindies Showcase that the turn based strategy title will be making its way to the Switch- in fact, it’s available right now.

In case you haven’t kept up with the game or what it’s about, Into the Breach is, as I mentioned, a turn based strategy game, similar to XCOM in many ways, with a story written by legendary writer Chris Avellone. Into the Breach received a lot of praise when it launched for PC earlier this year. In our own review, which you can read here, we called it “one of the best strategy games in years”.

Into the Breach, which is the second game developed by indie studio Subset Games (the developers of FTL: Faster Than Light) can be downloaded on the Nintendo Switch eShop right now for the price of $14.99. Will you be picking it up? I certainly will- it’s almost perfect for the Switch (I’m as tired of saying that as you are of hearing it, but it really is true in this case).

I’d like to tell you that they died gloriously, but there’s nothing glorious about molten lava raining down on your head because you moved to the wrong square. They died because I was careless. The next turn, more Vek spawned. Soon, my Prime mech, the toughest and most Gundamy in my arsenal, was overwhelmed. I had two choices: abandon this timeline and start over with my only remaining pilot, who would keep all of his experience and unlocked abilities, or stay here and watch the Vek methodically tear him apart. I beamed him up, and back in time, as his mech sunk lifelessly to the ground and the island was overrun by Vek. I promised myself that I would never lose to an environmental condition again.

Before I tell you what happened next, let me go back to the beginning. Into the Breach is the second game from Subset Games, the two-man studio that developed FTL: Faster Than Light, for my money the best indie game of the last generation. If you haven’t played it, FTL was a strategy-heavy Rogue-like that had you shepherd a Federation starship with priceless intel away from a pursuing Rebel starfleet. Think Star Wars if the Empire was the good guys.

"Into the Breach’s set-up is just as simple: you command of the Rift Walkers, a time-traveling group of mech pilots trying to defend what remains of a future Earth from an invasion of big bugs known as the Vek."

Into the Breach’s set-up is just as simple: you command of the Rift Walkers, a time-traveling group of mech pilots trying to defend what remains of a future Earth from an invasion of big bugs known as the Vek. To do that, you’ll need to liberate islands controlled by various factions and then launch an assault on the Vek’s Hive. Succeed and you successfully defend the human race. Fail and the timeline is wiped out. The twist is that, if you fail, you’ll get to take one of your surviving pilots, and all of their experience, back with you to try again.

The story’s pretty simple, but all it’s supposed to do is lay the groundwork for what you’re getting into. The real appeal of Into the Beach is its gameplay, which varies significantly based on the team of mechs you choose. Initially, you’ll only get one group, consisting of a Prime (think an actual mech) that punches things really hard, a Brute (secondary mech that isn’t quite as powerful as a Prime, but still holds its own) mech that’s essentially a big tank, and a Support mech (specializes in moving Vek or doing something like freezing them over damage) that serves as your long range artillery.

Each mech also starts with a pilot. One is the pilot of your choice, provided you have them unlocked, or the one you carried over from a previous timeline. These pilots come equipped with a unique ability: the first one you obtain gains experience more quickly than other pilots, while another adds armor to his mech, negating one damage from enemy attacks, and another allows him to deploy anywhere on the map and damage any enemies he is next to, and so on. You’ll also get a couple of generic pilots to help you out. They can level up, too, but they don’t any special abilities.

"Picking your battles is important. You won’t be able to defend each part of an island, so you’ll have to prioritize the missions you pick, and the path you travel, with the rewards each mission offers."

Protecting your pilots is key because while you mechs can’t “die” (losing all of their health just disables them for the remainder of the current mission), your pilots can. If a mech goes down, its pilot dies. Mechs can function without a pilot, but they won’t get any additional skills that those pilots provide, and you’ll probably need them if you want to finish a particular run.

You start at one of four islands, which are broken up into segments that represents a particular mission. Mission objectives vary pretty wildly. Some might task you with defending a cargo train or protecting certain buildings or additional units that you can control, and others might have you destroy certain parts of the terrain or kill a specific type of or number of Vek. Completing these objectives will reward you with reputation with that island’s faction which can be spent on buying upgrades for your mechs or power for your Power Grid (more on that later) once you complete that island. There’s also bonus objectives in the form of Time Pods, which are supplies sent from other timelines that can contain anything from mech upgrades to new pilots. Complete enough missions, and you’ll have to protect the island’s HQ from a boss Vek and his flunkies.

Picking your battles is important. You won’t be able to defend each part of an island, so you’ll have to prioritize the missions you pick, and the path you travel, with the rewards each mission offers. No matter what you do, you have to balance protecting your mechs and their pilots with completing mission objectives and protecting the Power Grid, which supplies the Eath’s buildings and loses power when one is destroyed. If the Grid goes down, it’s game over.

"Once a Vek selects a direction to attack in, it will attack whatever is in that space no matter what – mech, building, or yes, even other Vek. The thing with Into the Breach is that it’s not just about using your mechs to squash bugs; it’s really a game of positioning."

While your mechs are capable of moving and attacking in a single turn, the Vek aren’t. They can move, but they’ll have to wait till the next turn to attack. Once they select a direction to attack in, they will attack whatever is in that space no matter what – mech, building, or yes, even other Vek. The thing with Into the Breach is that it’s not just about using your mechs to squash bugs; it’s really a game of positioning.

Attacking a Vek doesn’t just do damage; most weapons will also push them in the direction you’re attacking them. Attack a Vek from the top, and it will be pushed down, while attacking one from the right will push it left, and so on. Not only can you push Vek off of the map, onto spaces with environmental dangers (which also let you know where they’ll be a turn before), or into water or lava, which kills most Vek instantly, you can also push them into mountains, buildings, your mechs, other Vek, or another Vek’s attack. You can also push a Vek out of the way of a vulnerable building or mech.

The best part is, many of these stack together. Got three Vek in a row? Attacking one from the right angle will ensure that they all take damage, and will kill the initial Vek outright if you hit it with the right attack. You can even push a Vek on top of where another Vek will spawn, ensuring that it takes damage and the new bug is trapped underground. You can also manipulate their AI. Want a Vek to stand on an environmental hazard that’ll go off next turn? Put a mech right next to it. Odds are, that Vek will stand there just to take a swing at you.

"Do you sacrifice a mission objective to send a mech after a Time Pod in the hopes of getting a new pilot? How will you manage this mission’s environmental hazards? All of these choices are available to you at any given time, and you’ll have to make some hard choices."

You’ll want to use the ability to combo as much as you can while protecting your mechs, Power Grid, and trying to accomplish the bonus objectives, which raises some interesting questions: do you throw your armored Prime unit in front of a building to absorb a long range Vek attack or use it to kill another Vek? Do you use your artillery unit to damage a Vek, or fire it at the space in front of it, so that it gets pushed into your own mech? Both will take damage, but you’ll kill the Vek instantly. Do you allow a Vek to destroy a building, or try to punch it into that building for the extra damage and hope the building holds because your Power Grid provides strong defense? Do you sacrifice a mission objective to send a mech after a Time Pod in the hopes of getting a new pilot? How will you manage this mission’s environmental hazards? All of these choices are available to you at any given time, and you’ll have to make some hard choices. Luckily, you get to reset an entire turn if you mess up, but only once per mission.

And I haven’t even gotten into the other mechs and weapons you can unlock. Into the Breach asks you to manage a lot, but it’s never oppressive or overwhelming. The game systems are pretty simple, and it’s easy to learn what everything does. But the sheer amount of strategy on display is impressive. Even the upgrade paths you choose for your mechs adhere to this philosophy. Do you want to spend the extra reactor power you unlock on damage, health, movement, or another weapon? How about a special ability for your pilot? And which pilot’s abilities work best with what mech? This is the kind of game you can play for years.

Yes, it can be unforgiving. There’s nothing worse than getting to the endgame and losing. But unlike FTL, you’re not starting from scratch. Assuming you kept a pilot alive, you’ve got someone with experience to lead the next charge, and you’d probably learned how to manipulate the Vek into standing where you want and what to prioritize. Each new timeline is a learning experience and an opportunity to try a new starting pilot or a new team of mechs, and to take another shot at those blasted bugs.

"Throw in some gorgeous sprite art, quality character writing that gives each character a personality, a wonderful soundtrack, and adaptable difficulty (you can advance to the endgame after doing just two of the four islands, and the game scales accordingly) and you’ve got a hell of a strategy game."

Throw in some gorgeous sprite art, quality character writing that gives each character a personality, a wonderful soundtrack, and adaptable difficulty (you can advance to the endgame after doing just two of the four islands, and the game scales accordingly) and you’ve got a hell of a strategy game that combines the simplicity of Advance Wars with the long-term complexity of Fire Emblem or X-Com.

Some may feel that the game lacks a long-term challenge since the only thing to do once you’ve finished it is try to finish it with a different group of mechs or a different starting pilot, but those criticisms could be leveled at FTL, too. The core of Into the Breach stands strong, and that should be enough. As for my next run after the volcano debacle? I cleared it pretty easily. And then I went back to the start, to do it all again.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

If you need a reason to pick up Subset Games’ Into The Breach, a new turn-based tactics game that combines rogue-like elements with strategy, then how about FTL: Faster Than Light for free? Pick up Into The Breach for $15 on GOG and you’ll receive FTL: Advanced Edition completely free.

FTL: Faster Than Light is a lot more rogue-lite in its gameplay approach. Players take control of a spaceship and must find ways to overcome different threats like space pirates, missile attacks and more. It’s not strange to divert your engine power to shields or board an enemy ship in order to survive. With several alien races, numerous decisions to make and permadeath, FTL offers a new experience on every single playthrough.

As for Into The Breach, it focuses on the battle between giant mechs and hostile aliens called the Vek. You’ll have to use superior tactics to beat the Vek but if you fail, it’s possible to send a pilot back into time for an advantage on the next playthrough.

Subset Games may have risen to fame with FTL: Faster Than Light, it’s spaceship management/roguelite experience that often bordered on the absurd, but it’s latest game Into The Breach may be even better. The turn-based, tactical strategy RPG is now available for PC with several reviews also having dropped.

The premise of the game is essentially Pacific Rim. Giant creates known as Vek are threatening the Earth and so humanity has constructed powerful mechs to fight them off. The gameplay, however, is focused on defending as many cities as possible with the Vek’s moves being clearly telegraphed.

Players can direct enemies into projectile flight paths, push Vek away or find other clever ways to win engagements. The other twist is that along with customizing one’s mech and acquiring new pilots, they can send a unit back in time to help in the next run should they fail.

Into The Breach has already received universal acclaim on Metacritic with a Metascore of 92 from six different publications. Sure, it’s not a huge median to go off of but publications like GameSpot and IGN have awarded it a 9 out of 10. If you’ve picked up the game, what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.