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Rob Zacny

Episode 426: Into the Breach

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Three Moves Ahead 426:

Three Moves Ahead 426


Into the Breach
Our cadre of mechs is at full capacity as Rob, Rowan, PC Gamer's Evan Lahti, and Troy "Tide pods, time pods, either way put me down for two" Goodfellow talk about Subset Games' Into the Breach. Following their massively successful space-faring game FTL, Subset has created a gem of a turn-based strategy game in which you pilot mechs across small battlefields and occasionally through time. Part battlefield tactics and part chess puzzle, Into the Breach manages to strike a fine balance between replayability, short play sessions, and engaging tactical play.

Into the Breach, FTL

 

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So, with all that 'lack of joy', is this Neon Genesis Evangelion - The Game?

 

Are you trying to impress your estranged father by fixating on optimal turn performance?

 

It is the hedgehog's dilemma - The closer you want to get to loving a game, the more you are afraid you might hurt eachother, and so you withdraw yourself from it. Other people become engrossed because they are seeking validation, and the rest are just lacking a soul.

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I find that the writing and the setting of the game reminds me of a line from Rob when describing Brian Reynold's writing for the setting of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - about being evocative without excess exposition. It's something I also appreciate in William Gibson's writing (the short story Hinterlands still gives me chills). In ITB, one thing that becomes increasingly obvious in the later islands is how much of humanity's predicament is self-inflected.

 

Archive's worship of the past hampers their research into new technology - the generic pilots will make comments about how archaic Archive's weapons are or how advanced the player's mechs are in comparison.

R.S.T.'s drive to deny the Vek any refuge has turned their island into a desert wasteland, and seems to be ultimately futile - new Vek burrow up from freshly terraformed sand dunes. In an ironic twist, Vek never burrow up from mountains, but some R.S.T. and Detritus objectives involve destroying mountains.

Pinnacle's AI weapons and weather control tech goes haywire and endangers their creators

Detritus Recycling's island is a toxic dump

 

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Evan mentions Chris Avellone - in case anybody doesn't know him he's the guy behind Planescape Torment writing and also participated in Obsidian RPGs like Neverwinter Nights 2 or Fallout New Vegas.

 

That episode had further convinced me I'll have to get into Into the Breach some time in the future. I've waited with FTL and was rewarded with Advanced edition.

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