I poked around a bit and couldn't find any previous threads on this subject, so I figured that now was my chance to make MY VERY OWN THREAD about something! Yay!
Anyways, Breach & Clear is a special forces simultaneous-turn based tactics game, a la Frozen Synapse or Laser Squad. I wound up picking this up drunkenly last time it showed up in a Humble Bundle, and I just recently got around to trying it out.
After seeing a small sample of gameplay on YouTube and the game's official trailer, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the game itself. It is quite a bit like Frozen Synapse, of course, but is simpler and more accessible (and also doesn't need nearly as long to calculate each round's movements and actions). Another thing is the actually fairly wide range of customization you have access to when dealing with your squad(s).
Now, in regards to customization, the game has vague RPG elements in that you earn money ("silver") for completed missions, as well as XP for the soldiers who took part. Silver is used to purchase new weapons, weapon mods, vests, helmets and other accessories. The individual soldiers, meanwhile, gain levels and with them can allocate statpoints in one of the six stats (more on those later), as well as perks and abilities at 5-level intervals, capping off with the soldier's second activatable ability at level 30. There are six different classes of soldier, each with their own unique stat to put points into, abilities and passive skills.
What makes this system interesting, however, is that it isn't balanced worth a shit. Some things are just absolutely better than others, and I've been minmaxing and cheesing my way through the highest difficulty level for several levels now. And I'll be happy to share with you some of my findings.
First, the classes.
Special stat: Leadership. "Cohesive" stat boosts to all nearby teammates.
Level 1: "Draw Fire" ability, causes enemies to target the leader in preference of other targets on the round this is activated
Level 5: "Close Knit" passive, FT leader gains stat boosts of his own when near teammates
Level 10: "Assisting Fire" passive, FT leader gains 10% accuracy boost when attacking an enemy that another squadmate has targeted
Level 15: "Intimidation" passive, increases the time it takes enemies to react to and fire upon the FT leader
Level 25: "Draw Fire Pro" passive, FT leader gains damage reduction when using Draw Fire ability
Level 30: "Morale Boost" ability, grants a major stat boost for one turn to entire team, can be used once per mission.
I don't have much experience with FT leaders, but there's no actual limit to how many you can have on your team. All depending on how this is calculated, you may be able to have a team of dudes who are all providing stat boosts to each other, while also having their stat boosted by being around their teammates, resulting in a massively boosted team that eats bullets for breakfast and picks their teeth with terrorists.
Special stat: Proficiency, increases damage dealt by attacks
Level 1: "Suppressing Fire" ability, prevents enemy units in affected area from firing or leaving cover
Level 5: "Suppressing Damag(e)" passive, causes Suppressing Fire ability to deal damage to affected enemies
Level 10: "Stronghold" passive, Weapons Sgt. gets accuracy bonus when in cover
Level 15: "Suppression Exper(t)" passive, Suppressing Fire ability cooldown reduced to zero
Level 25: "Cover Buster" passive, can fire at enemies through cover
Level 30: "Surprise" ability, targets an enemy with highly effective fire, even through walls, can be used once per mission
The shootier guys. The damage increase is minor, but probably makes a bigger difference on slow-firing, high-damage guns. Suppression is an excellent ability when it works, but getting it to work is another matter entirely. Selecting the skill will cause the soldier to suppress one very narrow firing line directly in front of where he thinks he's facing, and it is impossible to move, turn, or do anything else with the soldier before putting him down for using Suppressing Fire. Indeed, so far as I can tell, there's no way of aiming it. So, yeah, when it does work it's fantastic for letting other squaddies move up and nuke the enemies, but it only works in a select few lucky occasions.
Special stat: Explosives, increases throwing range for grenades and flashbangs and increases their area of effect
Level 1: "Throw and Go" ability, allows soldier to throw a grenade and then move in the same turn
Level 5: "Frag Pro" passive, increases damage done by frag grenades
Level 10: "Flasher" passive, increases effectiveness of flashbangs
Level 15: "Hard Shelled" passive, reduces damage the Breacher takes from grenades
Level 25: "Cover Pro" passive, half cover acts as full cover
Level 30: "Catch" ability, lets Breacher throw two grenades in the same turn
Breachers are supposed to be explosives experts, obviously. However, any one soldier can only carry a maximum of two frags/flashbangs per mission, and if you use one its cost gets subtracted from your silver reward for completing the mission. Also, there is never any reason to use frags instead of flashbangs, as a stunned enemy is as good as dead, flashbangs cannot affect your team (while frags can and will damage them just as much as anyone else), and the AoEs for both are exactly the same. "Throw and Go" is a godlike ability and has made my life so, so much easier... Particularly on the higher difficulties. Just toss in a banger with the massive range and effect radius provided by the explosives skill, and then follow after it to mop up the dazed terrorists.
Special stat: Intimidation, increases time needed for enemies to react to and target the Direct Action soldier
Level 1: "Sprint" ability, DA can move faster with increased evasion, but cannot fire
Level 5: "Under Pressure" passive, DA gains an accuracy bonus for each enemy targeting him, can stack with multiple enemies
Level 10: "Killstreak" passive, gets an increase in all stats for every kill the DA makes, lasts until mission is over
Level 15: "Dodge This" passive, enemies targeted by the DA have reduced evasion
Level 25: "Lone Gunman" passive, DA gets an increase to reactions, evasion, intimidation and accuracy when acting alone
Level 30: "First Shot" ability, DA gets first shot on all enemies in a 360 degree radius for one turn, can be used once per mission
Again, I don't have much experience with these guys, but after playing for a bit these abilities look absolutely amazing. Sprinting helps for just getting around in general, but Under Pressure and Killstreak are exactly the kinds of passives you want for the higher difficulties, as there are a lot of enemies and you need to take them all out in record time before they slaughter you. Dodge This is also more useful than an accuracy bonus, as it degrades the enemy's stats rather than attempting to boost your own past whatever cap they may have. Just means fewer enemies Matrixing your shots, and I believe it also results in an overall evasion penalty, meaning anyone else targeting that enemy gets to benefit from their reduced dodge chance.
Special stat: First aid, increases amount of health healed by medkits
Level 1: "Stabilize" ability, allows Medic to revive a downed teammates by using a medkit
Level 5: "Medpack Plus" passive, when Medic uses a medkit, all nearby teammates are healed for the same amount, instead of just the Medic
Level 10: "Innocuous" passive, enemies will prefer to target soldiers other than the Medic
Level 15: "Survivor" passive, grants bonus to defense and evasion when Medic's health is critical
Level 25: "Stabilize Pro" passive, allows Medic to react to enemy fire when stabilizing a teammate
Level 30: "Regeneration" ability, Medic regains all health, can be used once per mission
Useless. No, really, Medics are worthless. The only time they've actually been of help has been for getting the max rating on levels where I got stupid and had a guy get shot down. Unless you're playing on hardcore mode, downed soldiers are revived at the end of the mission anyways, and only serve to lower your score for that runthrough. The Medic's stabilization ability is the one and only reason you would ever want or use one, as medkits don't get used. You're either not getting shot, or you're dead. But even then, the Stabilize Pro passive is effectively meaningless since revival is instantaneous once the Medic reaches the critical soldier, and stabilization in itself can be entirely replaced by purchasing defibrillator consumables. Defibs have the benefit of being activated by you rather than a soldier, takes no troop inventory space (unlike the revival medkits), and doesn't require any nearby soldiers in order to use. They are expensive though, but in general they should only be used in emergencies or on hardcore mode (especially useful here, since if you "accidentally" finish the objective before the Medic reaches a downed soldier, they're not counted as being revived)
Special stat: Intuition, gives Intelligence 360 degree vision in a short range
Level 1: "Wedge" ability, allows Intel. to shove a wedge under a door, preventing enemies from opening it
Level 5: "Lookout" passive, Intel. will reveal some enemies on the map while moving, within a limited radius
Level 10: "XP Boost" passive, Intel. provides bonus XP for completed missions if he survives
Level 15: "Peripheral Vison" passive, Intel. gains 20 degrees wider range of vision
Level 25: "Sneaky" passive, enemies take longer to notice this unit
Level 30: "Ghost" ability, Intel. may become invisible for one turn and move around, but may not shoot, can be used once per mission
More uselessness. Sometimes they can detect enemies on the other side of a wall, and this is quite handy, but the range is indeed quite short and you have no idea how large it actually IS, so you don't know if there isn't anybody in a room or if your dude's just one square too far to the left. Every other skill and ability is utterly worthless and is of no use at all. You will never, ever wedge a door unless you are expressly trying to be slow and do things wrong. Furthermore, the one singular useful ability (the passive enemy detection through walls and obstacles) can be entirely replaced by, again, buying a consumable. Spending the money for a UAV scan before deployment will reveal EVERY ENEMY IN THE LEVEL, making it infinitely superior to the Intel.'s puny detection range.
That's a bit about the classes, now a look at the stats they all have. Each stat ranges from 1 to 100, and will start off at 45 (except for special, which starts at 50) unless specified by the specific team type you selected (different special forces teams will start with 75 in one area, except for Spetsnaz who get 63 in both health and reactions). Every time a soldier gains a level, they get 5 more stat points to be invested at your discretion:
Health: Does what you think, increases the amount of punishment a dude can take. ...not by a whole lot, though. The difference is somewhat negligible, particulary in higher difficulties, and the largest health bonuses you can get are from equipment anyways. And, again, you're either not getting shot or you're dead. Put points elsewhere.
Reactions: Determines how long it takes for a soldier to react to, target, and fire an attack at a seen enemy. This is incredibly useful, and indeed necessary for getting off that critical first shot against someone. I'd suggest increasing this to be on the safe side, but this only happens once at the very beginning of a firefight, and I don't know how big of a difference each point makes. Still though, it's an offensive skill and as such should be invested in.
Accuracy: How accurate your shots are, and how often those shots are crits. Critical hits do 5x damage, and with maxed accuracy you get a
lot of them. Also, you're actually hitting the people you shoot, which is, y'know, a plus... Exceptionally important stat, but can be heavily augmented by weapon mods and the weapons themselves. Invest at least some in this, or start off as a JTF2 squad and just buy the extra accuracy mods you need.
Evasion: Your ability to deny the existence of spoons. It's basically just dodge chance. Rather than soaking up hits, it lets you ignore hits entirely, and is thus better. It also cannot be modified by equipment, so the soldier himself is the only indicator of how good he is at dodging bullets. I highly recommend investing in this, even if it is just a slight gain.
Speed: How many tiles a soldier can move per turn, and how quickly he moves around. This can be quite handy, primarily for quick response and for clearing out those larger levels in short enough time to get the max ranking. Movespeed is slightly affected by certain equipment types. By all means put some points into this, but not until you've gotten the other, more important stats at acceptable levels.
Special: This is one of the six class-specific skills listed above, and as such the importance of this stat varies wildly. For the Medic, it is completely useless, but for the Fireteam Leader, it's his main thing. Weapons Sergeants fall sort of in between, as extra damage is nice and of course useful, but the damage bonus is too small to prioritize over, say, accuracy. Naturally, no equipment modifies this stat.
That covers most of the basics, but there's one extra thing I'd like to point out... When looking at weapons and weapon mods, you'll notice the stat "ROF", and it does describe itself as Rate of Fire, saying it shows how many attacks you can make per second. Only problem is, it's written backwards. The
lower the ROF value is, the more attacks you'll be able to make. A value of 1.00 ROF means one attack per second, whereas 0.50 ROF means two attacks per second, as it's one second per attack. A bit confusing if you don't know that right off, but you learn to see it as just "how many seconds it takes to make an attack".
Which brings me to my next point, the P90... By completing levels in good time with no casualties, you earn a 4/4 star rating (other ratings exist for people who aren't completely anal about it like me). The more stars you get, the more new levels and new weapons you unlock. These include shotguns which are all worse than the shotgun that's available from the start of the game (protip: Don't use shotguns. I'm sorry, but they're horrible in this game. Yes, I'm as disappointed as you are). Once you hit (I think) 250 stars, you unlock the P90, which costs 2500 silver (expensive, but not cripplingly so). This is the gun to end all guns. It has an accuracy penalty and absolutely piddling damage, plus a moderately short range at 25m, but it also has a 0.15 ROF. That's pretty cool on its own, but you can then modify the P90 with a custom gas system that reduces ROf by 0.2, while increasing damage. Since ROF can't handle negative or null values, it just goes down to 0.01.
0.01. If it were firing one single bullet for each attack, that would be 6000 RPM, something achieved only by miniguns and other specialty devices. But since an "attack" in this game means one shell from a shotgun or one
burst from an automatic weapon, it's quite a bit more (not that this makes any difference other than what it looks and sounds like). Even with the mediocre accuracy and the absolutely piss-poor damage, this makes the P90 by
far the best gun in the game, as it will absolutely
saw through enemies in record time, and with 0.01 ROF you can not only respond to new threats in no time, but each accuracy vs. evasion calculation, not to mention critical hit calculation, takes one one-hundredth of a second. And it has infinite ammo, like all the guns in Breach & Clear. There are still a few guns I haven't unlocked yet, but from the looks of it they're just "solid gold" versions of normal, crappy guns with infinitesimally better stats and astronomically higher price tags. Really, once you get the P90 and can mod it, there's not much point using anything else. I've yet to come across an engagement that happened at greater than 25m range, but the paltry 10-12m range of the shotgun has proven a big problem on all the occasions I've attempted to use them.
I hope this was enlightening for those who were considering picking up this title, and interesting/helpful for those who already have it. There's still quite a bit more I need to learn about the depths of the game (clearly), but hopefully this has been a learning experience. If you have any thoughts, comments or corrections, by all means open the floodgates!
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Topic: Breach & Clear (Read 4786 times)