Breachers VS Kickers (VS Game Review)

“Peace is not my profession, it’s yours. War is my profession. Should you fail at my job, I will not fail at mine.”

There are now two games that are filling the same category of tactical strategy in similar yet very different ways. Breach & Clear and Door Kickers both offer deep tactical gameplay in a very decent package. While there are other games that also offer similar gameplay, these two I consider more viable candidates for a face-off due to their similarities yet completely different approaches. Keep in mind that although Door Kickers has left Early Access on Steam, it is still being actively updated by the developers while Breach & Clear has been fully released and its developers are focusing on their next game Deadline. As such, both are being judged as-is and there will be no hanky-panky nonsense! FIGHT!

Door Kickers brings us a SWAT style approach, with units being various classes of the local police force. Your platoon of ten units starts at the humble pistol wielding Pointman, an effective agent in close quarters. As your squad levels up, you’ll unlock the Assaulter, Breacher, Stealth and Shield classes. Your troops level up separately from your squad as you use them and as they perform actions in missions which increase their stats.  Each class provides tactical choice, as you can change each as you please. The various missions will provide different challenges and environments ranging from large open areas to tight hallways. Your squad choice and formation can have serious ramifications on the outcome. There is a large and dynamic array of equipment to unlock by earning stars on missions, with each class having different sets of weapons. You’ll also need to unlock the dynamic hammer and the bolt cutters to get through those pesky locked doors faster. Door Kickers gives you a significant amount of freedom and customisation, allowing you to adjust your squad mission to mission.

Breach & Clear: 3D goodness with a more reliable control interface.

Breach & Clear offers a more militaristic style, allowing you to design your four man hit-squad. You’ll designate the classes of your squad when you first create them, selecting from one of the six classes including medic, leader and breacher. Once you set these however, you can’t change them. I found this gave my squad much more personality, each member of your squad had their role and you gave them orders based on their role. Weapons must be bought with cash that you earn by completing missions. Unlike Door Kickers, every class can use every weapon, but you have to outfit each soldier individually. If you want them all to wear heavy armour, you need to buy four sets. You can also customise weapons right down to the parts by purchasing different triggers, gas chambers and attachments like scopes and stocks. Missions offer the same diversity, ranging from tight buildings to wide open fields. As you play, squad members will gain experience and level up. You’ll get points each time they level up to assign to stats as you please and when they reach milestones, new abilities unlock. Breach & Clear is a much more rigid system, but allows you to personalise your squad to your liking, because you’re in it for the long haul.

Breach & Clear goes for a three dimensional design, allowing you navigate the map by rotating, zooming or looking down into rooms. It works well, but I left it in overhead view all the time to be able to look down into rooms easier. Door Kickers opts for a more animated look, with the map locked in a top-down perspective and only allowing you to zoom and move. Visually, Door Kickers looks nicer, but the more realistic look in Breach & Clear has its appeal.

Both games offer fundamentally the same experience, but they operate in very different ways. Breach & Clear lets you give orders in a grid-like system, allowing you to order your squad to specific grid spaces. This system is useful as it allows you to see exactly where your men can and can’t go. You can set orders along the path as well, such as which direction they should face or throwing a grenade when they reach that grid square. Door Kickers has a more liberal approach, allowing you to freehand draw paths and actions. It also lets you adjust orders on paths, giving instructions just the same, but it also features a synchronisation system where units do not proceed until the order is given. This allows you to make a unit wait until the others catch up before moving together into the next area. Breach & Clear operates on five second intervals, where the game runs for five seconds before letting you adjust or issue new orders. When you're ready, the game runs for another five seconds and this continues until mission end. Door Kickers lets you play and pause at will, even allowing you to control and order units in real-time. My biggest complaint with Door Kicker’s system is that is gets messy very quickly. When several paths overlap, it gets difficult to adjust specific orders and you can’t change the position of the path without completely erasing the entire path following the move. Breach & Clear does allow you to do this, but its waypoint system can be a bit temperamental at times. Breach & Clear’s grid system, although much more restrictive in movement, allows units to more effectively employ the terrain. Door Kicker’s cover system is difficult to utilise and not everything provides cover. Breach & Clear allows units to sit next to a doorway and fire around it, something that is not available in Door Kickers. It also clearly shows what your units can see by highlighting grid positions that are both visible to your unit and within maximum firing range. Door Kickers does many things well, but in terms of functionality, Breach and Clear is much more robust in my opinion.

Door Kickers: Pleasing aesthetics in a simpler and better designed system.

Both games offer a large selection of missions and mission types, though Door Kickers does have the larger selection including the map editor and the random generator. Breach & Clear also has a difficulty setting for each level, allowing you to replay each one and earn more stars. Unfortunately, it also has some bad design choices for menu interaction and the odd glitch here and there. Likewise, Door Kickers suffers from the occasional case of units not following orders.

In the end it’s a difficult fight between the two. Door Kickers is more approachable, better looking and easier to use, while Breach & Clear is a more sophisticated game that requires a bit more tolerance to get used to. Personally, I love Breach & Clear a little more, but my recommendation goes to Door Kickers, providing a better, well-rounded experience. Still, there’s no reason you can’t have both right?

And the mobile version of Breach & Clear runs like a potato in mud. Just pointing that out.