Subset Games' latest title seems to have been crafted in attentive response to grievances levelled against its first- where FTL sprawls unpredictably, Into the Breach is neat and, perhaps, disarmingly precise. Where once we might have found ourselves blindly careening across capricious galaxies, we now helm a trio at the head of minute, controlled engagements- within which nearly nothing is left to chance.

At its heart, ITB is a series of tightly-balanced chess-evocative puzzles, which initially seems a bit of a genre mismatch when discussing skirmishes between towering mechs and malevolent insect kaiju. Nevertheless, bitter spines, concussive rockets, and acrid goo are simply features of the decorative cloak worn by the definite, considered gameplay beneath; what a joy it is- for once- to live and die not by the sluggish trigger finger or the fickle hands of fate, but your own astounding stupidity.