Recent reviews by Afromenace

GOOD JOB, DIVERS.

RETURN TO THE FRONT.


Note: Continuing to show concerns and vigilance beyond mandated Super Earth approved protest hours will have you reported to the nearest Democracy officer.

GOTY, easy. Feels like a new generation of Armored Core with some different controls and combat philosophy, but also, that isn't a new type of experience for Armored Core. It feels like the took the philosophy of Speed from AC4 and added back in a lot of the Frame versatility from the old games while also including elements from their newer games (Boss Fights and Stagger). Hell, even the story is one of the best of the series imo.

All in all, the series has gone full circle and evolved for a new generation. Play it, you'll love it, and you'll PAY THE SANZU TOLL

Play it, its very fun. Really good game play without any bugs I've seen at all. Every run has a whole bunch of choices, and there's possibilities for some really fun jank nonsense. ESPECIALLY on sale, its a steal.

DON'T CLICK THE BUTTON, MAN, DON'T ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DO IT

Very good game; make sure you check 100 times before progressing to objectives for collectibles, though, this game likes closing doors behind you at checkpoints

This game is absolutely incredible, and I highly recommend it.

Also, you can beat a boss with porn

11/10

When Into the Breach first launched, I played one run of it and let the game go. I felt a little underwhelmed by how the time travel mechanic worked, and I also thought the "four islands, one final island" felt a little bare-bones content wise in comparison to their previous game FTL. Years later, I'd come back after binging some FTL to give Subset's second game a shot again.

After 100%-ing all of the game's achievements and then doing a run with the secret crew, I can say that, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I really missed out.

First off, I'll start be reaffirming a few of my initial concerns: I still think the game lacks the atmosphere to the same level FTL. FTL excels at dragging the player into the runs with its text prompts, amazing soundtrack, and multiple differences that occur on both a combat and meta level depending on your choices of ship and load-out. Into the Breach didn't particularly hit this same level of connection with me; it felt like everything was more muted, but that might've been intentional. It does have some good aspects on its own! The entire game has a sorta grim fight for survival kind of vibe to it, and I do think it accomplishes portraying that feeling. Little text pop-ups from the cities you're defending along with occasional pilot banter really helps to bring out the personality of the game, and I feel like without these, the game would feel a lot more empty. The accompanying soundtrack also helps to set this sort of tired, drawn-out vibe to the conflict; the songs make you feel like you're an outsider to an intense conflict. The stakes don't entirely concern you, and failure simply means one more loop and a couple million dead souls in an irrelevant timeline.

Where the game REALLY shines for me is the combat, and this aspect was much, MUCH better than FTL in my opinion. FTL had multiple fun layouts that could change narrative events like I said earlier, but sometimes, I found that certain game-play options were just straight up bad or underwhelming. The amount of RNG required to make a good run in FTL happen for certain ships led to some fun, dire situations, but it could also mean some runs would have you on autopilot trying to fulfill a certain number of requirements before you reached the end boss.

Into the Breach has none of this. Barely anything feels left up to chance, and you're almost constantly making a number of important decisions throughout your entire run. The top down grid combat is all about positioning and set up, and it makes this incredible engaging puzzle that, more often than not, put itself in positions that are solvable (maybe with a few sacrifices sometimes...). Theres nothing more satisfying than seeing an incredible dangerous situation, and managing to work out some magnificent combo of moves that has you bumping, bombing, and blasting enemies away without taking a single casualty. And then more come, and you do it again. Playing on normal for most of my runs, I had multiple occasions PER RUN where I was making close calls to get perfect missions or saving the most lives I could without sacrificing my mechs or the mission objective. Balancing out your resources, learning when to upgrade what, and even just how you approach playing the missions all bleed into each other to make a really uniform, fantastic combat experience. The game also allows you to tackle the final island after only clearing two which opens up the option to take on the island when its weaker, but while your mechs are less upgraded themselves. Being able to take on the final island early adds an extra level of planning to each run (whether you tackle it at two islands, three islands, or four), and it also allows you to go ahead and do a shorter run if you find yourself either perfecting the early islands or getting very lucky with your RNG drops. I think Normal difficulty is the best way to experience this dynamic, but if you want to be pushed to make more hard choices and have to sacrifice and balance even more per run, Hard mode does a great job at making you feel the tension of balancing on one grid defense till annihilation.

While I can say pretty clearly that while FTL hooked me in a little bit more to start, I definitely enjoyed the time I spent with ItB more. I love both games, and they offer me different experiences that are both good in their own ways. Especially for the price, I don't think you can go wrong with picking this one up, sale or no sale.

P.S. Do three swap mechs for your Custom Flight Team achievement to obtain power beyond reckoning.

"Furi - One More Fight DLC"

(Unlocks a Second Fight)

Biggest plot twist since "it was aliens all along."

The trick is, you buy the game and play 41 hours over the course of a year.

Then, Long War 2 comes out and you bump that up to 135 hours in a month.

7/10 game that becomes 10/10 with the Long War 2 mod, would recommend.

After the new patch, this great game now has replayability with customizable skins and new difficulties.

Get it, make your friend get it, for that sweet, sweet Co-op stealth experience.