Breachway, developed by Edgeflow Studio and published by Hooded Horse, is a unique strategy-based card game. The implementation of a card game into the game makes the gameplay feel refreshing for the genre and the thought process for how the game works is balanced well. Moreover, this refreshing take on the strategy genre is compounded with some previously known gameplay mechanics to heighten the experience. As for the overall ascetics of the game fits the space adventure theme from the character designs, ships, and weapon choices. In terms of story there is short instances of character interactions between the player and the occupied section in space controlled by certain factions as a whole. Breachway is doing something new the strategy genre and trying to combine several different elements from other genre of games to truly standout.
In terms of the gameplay, the majority of the time the player will be engaging in combat which is where the card game aspect takes place. With the game utilizing card game mechanics as a means of combat the player has to choose on how to build their deck essentially. Furthermore, this makes the player realize that they need to balance their deck with either offensive card, defensive cards, and utility cards to achieve victory. Unlike a popular card game like Yu-gi-oh there is an in-game mulligan mechanic to help the player change cards in their hand to something better. As for how to strategize for combat scenarios it depends on the ship chosen at the start of each playthrough being a deciding factor in how the run will turn out. One of the ships utilizes shields as a means of defense and allows for a safer approach to game due to the shields it can produce each turn, and utilizes precision-based damage to knock out the opponent’s equipment. This ships gameplay focus being skewed towards defense and precise attacks feels reminiscent of what players have done in the past with Dark Souls 1 relying on a shield and circle strafing the enemy to get back stabs. Aside from this information regarding one ship available at the start, the map flows into a singular point with no means of backtracking. This limits the player from freely exploring the map, as it stifles player freedom to roam around, but it is necessary as to show the importance of choice the player has. By making the game in that way really emphasizes the importance of strategy such as the player trying on how to safely complete an objective or reach a space station for maintenance. However, there are some caveats as to how the player can interact as some factions are either friendly, hostile, or neutral towards the player affecting the run through interacting with them. This depends solely on the player’s choice at the start when choosing a ship as they have some background with those said factions. This ties into the overall aesthetics of the game as these ships often have some resemblance to the factions, they are friendly towards.
The theme of space is nothing new the game industry, yet it has some of the most diverse designs out there from the number of games based on the subject matter. For Breachway they take a more unique perspective into the designs as they play it relatively safe with the ships overall shape and color schemes. In addition to the ships, the character designs while regulated to some portraits really paints them as traders who have seen some action in their line of work.
By portraying them in such a way demonstrates the art team’s work in the game and how they flaunt their skills. However, the cards used in game are full of wonderful art depicting the offensive, defensive, and support cards used in battle with them really demonstrating the power of the attacks the most. This ultimately leads to the designs of the weapons and ties back to some gameplay mechanics with some weapons capable of doing different types of damage and finding a way on how to utilize them effectively. With different weapon types available the player has some choice on the matter on whether or not they want a ship that specializes in precision damage or shred based damage. As stated earlier precision damage focuses on knocking down the enemy’s equipment in battle, while shred damage focuses on inflicting a status effect to increase the player’s damage.
Breachway is something new to the strategy genre and can be an unforgiving experience for those who are not used to its gameplay making this game share some aspects of the roguelike genre. The gameplay utilized melds different ideas from separate genres into a cohesive player experience that allows for a strong emphasis on player’s choice. Moreover, the ascetic designs on display are quite phenomenal especially in the character designs and cards with the ship designs really feeling lack luster with two prominent ones being near replicas of each other. While inherently the designs are fine it would be better to see some variation in the geometric shapes of ships. Edgeflow studios, and Hooded Horse have really made a decent game demo and in all due respect Breachway is fun at the end of the day with some minor issues holding it back such as ship designs.
You can download the Breachway demo for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Kyle Manila
I would describe myself when interacting with games as a strategist with a pension for stealth and loud explosions.
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