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Imagine playing a game of chess against a professional player for the very first time. You’ve barely grasped the rules and yet there is 0,00001% of you hoping that you will win based on pure luck. That is how it feels playing Into The Breach for the first time.
You are thrust into the battlefield with little to no knowledge of how the game works, having three mechs in your disposal and trying to defeat the upcoming army of deadly alien insects (that should be a band’s name).
Good luck commander, the whole world depends on you.
Luckily, every time you lose the battle you can go back in time (think Edge of Tomorrow but with less Tom Cruise) and try your luck again on beating insectoid scum. The catch is you can bring back only one soldier that has survived up until that point, and each one has skills and abilities that can make the difference on the battlefield. If you lose a soldier the mech is still available (and there are quite a few to unlock, each bringing new skills and strategy to the table) but it will be without its pilot which can make it weaker in certain conditions.
It is that sense of loss that flows through the eternity of the game. Just like in chess you will have to make sacrifices for the greater good and eventual win. Will you put your pilot on the line of fire or will you move it to safety but doing so will endanger the buildings you are meant to protect? Lose too many of those buildings and it is game over, start from the very beginning.
There is, however, secret door number 3 where you can position yourself behind the villainous insect, punch it so it changes its position and make it attack the nearby mountain that has nothing better to do but to be destroyed without hindering your progress.
See, in Into The Breach strategy elements are mixed with the puzzle genre. Every battle is presented on an 8x8 grid and each one has optional goals (destroying the dam, securing the space pod, etc.) that are crucial if you want to make your progress through the game a bit easier. The ideal thing would be to get all the optional rewards, kill all the insects and have each member of your crew survive the battle. It is a lot to juggle and that is where the puzzle aspect comes into play - it is doable but it requires a lot of thought yet sometimes it is not about checking all the boxes but trying to minimize the damage.
Your main advantage is that you will know exactly what the enemy will do when their turn comes and based on that you develop your strategy, and there are endless ways to handle the dicey situations. You can make the insects kill each other, let them die by the flood, take a hit just so you can deal double the amount of damage on your turn, etc.
It is in the moments where things feel hopeless where the game truly shines, and these moments are constant throughout the game. You will get yourself in situations where you are way over your head and there is seemingly no way out. But then you will think, and think, and think and suddenly you will have that eureka moment where not only will you get yourself out of the situation but you will have a much better position on your next turn without sacrificing a single pilot or building.
Into The Breach requires a few playthroughs to make you realize how the game is supposed to be played and to get you in a specific mindset. It is can be brutal in its difficulty but it is some of the most satisfying experiences you will get out of winning in a video game.
Get in the Game ! 
