Into the Breach, Subset Games’ critically acclaimed indie tactics game, recently launched on… Netflix. In recent years, the streaming giant has made its way into the interactive space. In 2018, it released Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, an FMV-esque installment of its popular sci-fi anthology series, which allowed players to make decisions at various points. Since then, Netflix has continued to invest in games, for example through the interactive film Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and You vs. Wild, a series of playable short films starring Bear Grylls.
Netflix has also made its way into gaming in more traditional (read: not FMV) ways. Most notably, any Netflix subscriber with a smartphone can now access dozens of games through the app. Well, it’s actually a bit more complicated than that. You can find the games in the app and click on them, which will open the App Store where you can download the game. Once it’s downloaded, you’ll need to sign in to your Netflix account to play it. So there are two login screens between you and mobile Netflix gaming, but if you remember your password (or can easily find your mom’s text where she gave you hers), you can play games on the go. Some of which are great.
Which brings us back to Into the Breach. The mechs vs. Kaiju game of 2018 is now accessible through Netflix which means you can now play a very good tactics game for free without any microtransactions on your phone. I played quite a bit of Into the Breach when it launched. It was the subject of immense critical acclaim at the time, winning its fair share of game of the year awards, even against the stiff triple-A competition of Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, and Marvel’s Spider-Man. Despite enjoying it, and despite the avalanche of praise it received from my peers, it wasn’t a game I really bonded with. I played it to the end on easy mode, told myself I would play some more, and I never really did.
As it turned out, that was mostly because I played it on PC. It eventually ported to Switch, but when I tried to save the timeline it was with a keyboard and mouse, sitting in a hard-backed chair at my parents’ kitchen table. PC has never been my platform of choice, although I just got a new comfy gaming chair that makes the prospect of long laptop sessions a little less daunting. Still, at the time, Into the Breach was too complicated and time-consuming a game to want to play in an uncomfortable chair.
But now, miraculously, I can play Into the Breach while laying on my couch and watching Seinfeld. Things have changed. We’ve left the less comfortable timeline.
This comes at the perfect time. Downwell has been my favorite phone game for the past five years, and after playing it pretty heavily for most of the year, I’m headed for an off-again spell. But I wanted something with a similar vibe; something that requires intense focus but doesn’t require a lot of reading. I’ve been playing Triangle Strategy for the past few months, but I’ve only been playing for about five hours. The moments when I prefer a mobile game – like when my wife on the couch next to me is watching a sitcom – aren’t well suited to text-heavy games. So Into the Breach, which translates seamlessly to a touchscreen, has minimal dialogue, and never needs to be played with the sound on, is the perfect fit.
After hitting a wall with Downwell, I’m ready to put my heart and soul into a new roguelike. The genre – with its permadeath and fast runs – fits mobile like a teenage war criminal sliding into a mech cockpit: they were made for each other. Most excitingly, the version of Into the Breach available through Netflix includes the Advanced Edition update, which adds a ton of new content – new missions, squads, weapons, enemy types – for free.
My only real annoyance at the moment is that while Downwell allows me to listen to a podcast, the Into the Breach app shuts down all audio on your phone when you open it. That makes it a less-than-perfect successor, but like collapsing a tower full of civilians so I can save my best mech pilot from the Vek, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
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