DIARY PERSONAL ADVENTURES IN GAMES
TOYING WITH THE INSECT INVASION IN INTO THE BREACH: ADVANCED EDITION
Stop hitting yourself.
By Jon Bailes
THE RULES
1. No hitting enemies in a way that causes direct damage.
2. Use DLC units only – no relying on old favourites.
3. Complete all four islands before attempting the finale.
Nothing really matters all that much in Into the Breach.When you’re fending off invasions of building-sized insects over infinite timelines, it’s not the end of the world if you fail occasionally. Well, it’s the end of that world, but there’s always another dimension to hop across to and start things afresh, as if you hadn’t just doomed billions to terrifying oblivion. With that in mind, it’s only natural if your timetravelling pest controllers become desensitised to the consequences of their apocalyptic bug squishing and start to take it much less seriously.
On revisiting Into the Breach’s compact turn-based rumbles with its new Advanced Edition content, I began to feel a little like that too. Once I’d unlocked the five new squads available in this generous DLC serving, I wanted to muck about and toy with my six-legged adversaries a little. Straight-up shooting, bombing, or punching creep-crawly aliens in the face suddenly seemed rather tactless. So I set out to make headway using a squad built for less directly violent methods.
To be clear, though, this is no pacifist challenge. I still very much want the Vek swarms to come a cropper. But my mission is one of death by proxy, abusing the slow reactions and wits of these chitinous/gelatinous creatures so they unwittingly bumble into hazards or smash each other to bits. Honestly, it’s almost sadistic, yet equally dangerous, since I can’t call on the brute equivalent of a giant slipper to splat any bugs that escape my control.