Breach: The Archangel Job
By Michael Maxwell and Ben Luigi
“You prepare your light machine gun and point it at the door, then you pull the trigger until you’ve run out of ammo. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! CLICK…”
Ever want to be Jason Statham, or take his place in a movie? Here you go. Mix one part Transporter, one part Crank, two parts The Bank Job, a pinch of The Expendables and half-bake it for a while. And voila! A raw slab of interactive fiction with a whole lot of complexity, potential and entertainment. Oh, and business jeans. Bon appétit!
General Story:
You are an up-and-coming criminal, who might have a heart of gold and maybe a badge, recruited by The Archangels, a gang with a possibly noble purpose but a shadowy past. You are placed in charge of a ragtag group of misfits (that you actually get to choose) and sent on various heists. You get to plan them, buy equipment to help, execute them to… perfection? All the while, a loose mystery surrounds the ‘Big Three’, a small group who seem to be your direct bosses that never show their face. All this within the first entry of an expected series.
This story oozes with style, and feels like you are playing an extended heist movie throughout. All the twists and turns, even some of them perpetrated by your selected background.
The focus on the heist motif and action does make the plot feel breakneck at times, but that’s almost to its benefit. You’ve heard of a popcorn flick, this might be the interactive fiction equivalent.
Format and Typos:
For the most part, it’s always pretty easy to follow what is going on. Readability only takes a hit when things start getting complex, during certain stat checks or in instances like above where the game actually checks how many bullets you still have left when you choose to empty your drum. Though, I’m still not too sure if I like or dislike it. Definitely stuck with me.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Everything in this game is pretty much based on a system you’ll be familiar with if you are mildly familiar with tabletop. There is a random chance based on a D20 modified by your character’s skills and equipment that you will pass or fail a check. Difficulties modify this even further by adding or subtracting based on a ‘luck’ stat. It’s hard to completely fail, but there are some failstates that will have you reloading to the beginning of the chapter. Inventory is managed through a pretty clunky menu system based on having to handle accessories for optimization. Honestly, you can get by on some of the lower difficulties without messing with it at all. It’s never difficult to understand what stat you’ll be checking because the game labels options clearly.
Replayability:
I have played this game many times before this review, and could still probably go back through it another twenty or thirty times. There is a lot of replayability, between difficulties, romantic options (there are a lot), weapon customization and optimization, who is in your crew (which affects what side stories you experience), and on top of all that? A New Game+ feature that offers additional story content and a boosted start. I’m probably going to play it one more time after this review anyway.
Dislikes:
- Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments with characters that seem like they’ll be super important, but don’t feature in the story for long enough. This is the first in a series, so this might just be an issue with this title.
- For as complex as the inventory system is, it is still frustrating to have to buy a weapon, accessorize it, do a mission, and then find out you have access to a better weapon option now, and have to go through the super clunky shop systems again.
- Some romance options can be hidden or visibly locked behind either circumstance or chance.
Likes:
- Romances work, even if they aren’t the focus.
- I cannot choose a canon run. There are too many interesting options and paths. That’s a good problem to have.
- There are a good amount of minor interesting things that can make you grin. Taco trucks and kitties!
If I know there is a WIP for a sequel, I’ll include the link to the forum page here in the future. If you know there is a CoG forum link for a sequel and I don’t, let me know! I’ll add it.
Stay up to date with the WIP sequel: BREACH: Chicago War Zone (WIP) (UPDATED! 26-August-2023)