Breach & Clear

Elements from several of the most popular (and beloved) modern tactical franchises come together to create something no strategy fan should be without.

Replay value is very good, as there are plenty of unlockables and mixing up your loadouts can have an impact on how the battles play out. Additionally, enemy placement varies from one effort to the next, so that helps to keep things fresh.

Breach & Clear falls somewhat short of being all that it could be.

Breach & Clear isn’t the perfect game, but it packs quite a strategic punch for such a low price making it worth the price of admission.

Breach & Clear is a short-lived but smartly designed tactics game with impressive military authenticity.

This compelling and appealingly hard-edged strategy is a few tactical adjustments away from achieving its goals. Worth a look.

Breach & Clear's monetization scheme doesn't interfere with the gameplay, and although strategy plays less of a role than I would like, combat is still fun. However, the progression system and customization options fall flat, and the game needs more than one simple mode and 15 maps to remain entertaining.

It’s hard to recommend Breach & Clear in its current state for anyone but the most devoted of tactical players or military fanboys. Maybe the upcoming modes and maps will add some variety, but as it stands now, it’s a pretty empty and shallow experience.

Breach & Clear is still a serviceable strategy game, and has the potential to become much more if the upcoming DLC modes infuse the mission structure with some much-needed variety.

It may lack the roundness and heft of Frozen Synapse or X-Com: Enemy Unknown (both heavyweight strategy games that launched on iOS this year) but it also has an appeal that's distinct from these titles: the thrill of arranging a trap and then watching from the sidelines as its various components trigger.

Overall the game's a good time but has a couple issues, the least of which are those boring cubicles. Most importantly, we feel the touchscreen controls don't work as they should.

If I was more aware of the missing content this review may have been a bit easier to swallow. But expectations are everything, and if Breach & Clear expected what little it gave us to be OK for now… it expected wrongly. Sadly, though, some of us also expected the wrong thing.

Breach & Clear is a game that does a lot of little things right, but once the gameplay hits, almost all of that is thrown out the window. The customization alone may be more than enough to keep some players invested for a short while. On the other hand, the bare-bones gameplay will be a huge turn-off to both hardcore strategy fans and users looking for a new mobile game.