Breached Review

Breached is certainly an entrancing game with a series of beautiful visuals and areas to explore, but the gameplay is somewhat limited.

The idea of the game is as follows: the protagonist, Corus Valott, has awoken from a cryogenic sleep into a broken shelter in an unfamiliar area. You must rummage for supplies in order to survive, chiefly by collecting resources from the barren landscape. Breached plays in first person which makes you feel more engrossed in the visuals around you. The controls are fairly simple, as you can turn Corus’ head and move around the desk within your pod. These simple controls make the game very easy to pick up.

The design of the game is pretty cool, but the textures are rather basic. I liked the contrast between little things like the sand and sky, with the occasional scrap items appearing on the surface - but once you’ve seen an area, it becomes unspectacular pretty quickly. The levels weren’t that well thought-out, and although the graphics weren’t anything to write home about, they weren’t bad by the same token. Some of the maps were hard to navigate around, as sometimes I would be looking around for guidance on where to go to progress.

Now, while this game is not a survival horror, it has elements of that genre within it. Breached is a futuristic time warp that gives you an empowering feeling of having to survive all by yourself, but it captures that essence of horror as you do feel isolated - whether by design or not, it is still impressive. due to your isolation and the bleak landscape that engulfs you.

I found the story to be uninteresting as Breached is generic in its narrative. It was nothing unique or particularly noteworthy. I did like the survival aspect of the game, but the lack of depth in the story was disappointing.

Unfortunately, there were some drawbacks in Breached, namely the somewhat mundane series of tasks that feel like a rinse and repeat. You must pick up minerals on each day but it isn’t that exciting, with much of the game feeling more like trial and error than actual cognitive thinking or gaming skill. Drama Drifters have created an interesting game that has a lot of potential, but it flatters to deceive. Breached often feels too constrained in its design. I felt it was too limited in areas and in style.

The soundtrack was pretty limited, and Breached doesn’t feature voice acting either. Having said that, the sound in the game was very nuanced, which helped add to the sense of loneliness and desolation, but conversely it had a fascinating charm to it that was quite calming. It really complimented the style of the game, so that continuation between style and sound was apparent and impressive.

Breached is a game that very much lends itself to fans of survival games, and while not being a survival horror, it has enough going its way to interest casual gamers. Unfortunately, the game falls down when it comes to depth, and it never really made me want to come back to it. The controls are really slick, with the feeling of isolation very much apparent. But, the pace of the game accompanied with its limitations do weigh heavy on Breached.