Sometimes there comes a game that is so critically acclaimed that you're compelled to seek it out and try it despite having zero affection for or interest in its genre, theme, or central conceit. After all, if it's a once-in-a-lifetime paragon of the particular type of game it represents, what else has a chance of finally winning you over? I try to keep an open mind about every video game out there; lord knows I have enough games in my comfort zones alone to last me a lifetime, but there's no telling if my favorites today will remain my favorites tomorrow, especially as I get older and ostensibly wiser. As such, even when I hear "challenging strategy game with roguelike run-based progression" and instinctively think "how do I get away far from this?", the amount of approbations heaped upon Subset Games's Into the Breach - Giant Bomb's fifth best game of 2018, and the GOTY of at least two staff members (Alex and Ben, for the record) - made it seem like it deserved the old college try if nothing else.

Well, I have some predictable ambivalence to report: I don't really like Into the Breach that much. However, even if the run-based structure did not win me over, there's no mistaking the game's high water mark of quality. The clever way the game proc-gens all its little challenges - bite-sized maps that rarely take more than a few minutes each, unless you're paralysed with indecision - in a specific way to have one ideal outcome, if you can only find it, turns the game into a very compelling thinker - though not one you can plan out in the long-term due to the way random enemies spawn on random turns. Suffering a setback is therefore made all that more irritating with the knowledge you could've prevented it, encouraging you to engage the grey matter a little more thoroughly next time. Like in Subset's previous game FTL, the variance with the player's squad and the weapons they might unexpectedly come across means there's multiple ways to take on the game, and the way these new additions land in your lap unprompted might have you moving through the tech trees in directions you never thought to explore. It is a perfect clockwork model of its particular brand of game, with every intricate part working exactly as intended, which is pretty much how all its reviews intimated it would be. It's just not my type of game and now I'm happily convinced that nothing else of the "roguelike strategy" genre will be. I can mentally file that handy piece of knowledge away in the same box as "don't play another tower defense or Assassin's Creed again, because you know you won't enjoy it".

Trouble is, as much as I would adore this game without the roguelike element, I'm not really sure it works without it. To use an in-game example, it's like having a turn where you defeat every enemy, procure the rare time pod drop, and save all the buildings, but lose one of your pilots - a permanent loss, and a devastating one if it's the time-travelling pilot you've been carrying from game-to-game. If you adjust the plan even slightly, though, you'll save the pilot but lose everything else. That's what it feels like to consider this game without the aspect I despise about it most, but might also be the most vitally crucial. Without that element, you'd never be convinced to try another squad or difficulty level or attempt to take on the final challenge at a different point of time, just slowly levelling up the guys you started with as you keep taking on dozens more maps with the same stale but tried-and-tested assortment of strategies in mind.

Perhaps, then, it's not really a roguelike at all: it's just a short game built for replays where you simply start anew each time, with a whole new team of mechs at your command and perhaps a few persistent upgrades (actually, as far as I can tell the only permanent thing is the other squads you've unlocked) and a familiar face as your protagonist. If I think of it that way instead of getting caught up with the idea that I'm constantly losing all my progress, it's far more palatable to think of Into the Breach as something I can dip back into for an hour or two every so often for a fresh new spin on its bug squashin' and mech brawlin'. Maybe. After beating it once with the basic difficulty and starting mechs, I may have had my fill already. Without that sense of progression games kind of lose their luster; fine for the occasional brief playthrough, but not something that sticks with me where I want to keep working towards the game's natural conclusion and part with it on satisfied terms. Sure the game has achievements to earn and more to unlock but... if the spark's not there, it's not there.

Even so, I didn't regret taking the plunge after hearing the commendations of so many, and I'm glad the FTL developers finally made a game where the final boss doesn't completely crap all over everything you've accomplished.

Rating: 3 out of 5. (But it's really a 5 out of 5. Don't listen to this idiot.)