UCLAN GAMES DESIGN 2014

BREACH
Game Design Document

Andy Pompeus
XB3001




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Contents:

2 Game Synopsis
2 Setting Introduction
3 Plot Introduction
3 Gameplay Features
5 Market Consideration
6 Look and Feel
7 Game Objective
7 Characters
Doctor Kyle Shaw
Evelyn
Captain Lee Ross
10 Control Scheme
10 Mechanics, a Detailed Look
Picking up Items
Dragging Bodies
Looting Bodies
Commanding Teammates
Ship Systems
13 Items
Health Packs
Ammunition
14 Weapons
Pistol
Assault Rifle
Light Machine Gun
Submachine Gun
Shotgun
15 Heads Up Display - HUD
16 Enemies
Marines
Gunners
Medics
Officers
Aliens
17 Level Walkthrough
Opening
First Combat
Engineering
Alien Boarders
20 Story Choices/Outcomes
22 Major Decisions





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At a Glance:
Andy Pompeus
BREACH GDD
Game Title: BREACH
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Genre: Sci-fi Shooter/Action Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Target Age: 16+

Game Synopsis
BREACH is a third person sci-fi shooter that makes extensive use of the manipulation of
environmental features to empower the player like never before in a desperate battle to defend
their battered warship from an overwhelming enemy assault.
An immersive shooter with a rich narrative that offers varied and exciting gameplay filled
with choices and scenarios that will test the players moral compass, resourcefulness and skill in an
exciting and memorable experience.

Setting Introduction
BREACH takes place during a civil war amongst the fourteen planets that make up the
system. The Inner worlds, the base of most of the wealth, see themselves as the guiding light of
civilisation. As they begin to police the entire system, the collective Inner Worlds have been more
and more militant in their methods to the point of interfering with the politics and methods of the
other worlds, despite them all being part of the same planetary Alliance.
After a non-violent protest is turned into a bloodbath by trigger-happy Alliance soldiers on
an Inner World, tensions between the Inner Worlds and the Middle Band planets are at an all-time
high. As the leaders of the Inner Worlds and the other planets begin feverish talks and conferences
in an attempt to maintain the peace, a covert military team from Theia, the most powerful of the
Inner Worlds, is discovered operating on a middle band world, despite this being way out of their
jurisdiction and in clear violation of the laws set out between the planets.
This proves to be the tipping point, and the middle band worlds officially declare their
secession from the Alliance. This is not taken kindly, and the Alliance declares a state of war unless
the other worlds comply with their rules.

The game is set during the year 2633 in a fictional solar system with fourteen planets. Six of
these make up the Inner Worlds (though one is not populated), which are the heart of the Alliance,
and the centre of wealth. These worlds are futuristic utopias, with advanced technology and vast
cities teeming with people.
The Middle Band planets make up the main bulk of the separatist forces. While not quite as
wealthy as the Inner Worlds, these planets are still futuristic and feature the same level of
technology and styling. As now former members of the Alliance, both sides have the same ships,
troop gear and weaponry, just with different insignias and ideology.

The civil war has been raging for nearly a year, and there have already been casualties on
both sides. Our protagonist, doctor Kyle Shaw, moved from an Alliance-controlled world to a Middle
Band planet just before things began to slide towards war, and has been recruited to serve as one of
the ships doctors aboard the Mercury, flagship of the Separatist fleet.

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Plot Introduction
The game opens with the Mercury on its way to returning to the main body of the Separatist
fleet after a successful assault on an Alliance vessel carrying a high value target. The ship has taken a
beating, but is still spaceworthy.
However, the crew quickly find out that theyve been tracked, and come under attack from a
small group of Alliance vessels. The Mercury is in no shape to fight against multiple ships, and is
vastly outgunned. The commanding officer, Admiral Lucas Green, orders a retreat into a nearby
nebula, hoping to lose the pursuers within and make repairs. With systems failing all over the ship
and Alliance landing parties breaching the hull on multiple decks, the Mercury enters the nebula
with a small Alliance Warship in hot pursuit. As they enter the nebula, the two vessels collide,
causing the hulls of the ships to crush together.

From here the player must fight to defend the ship from all sides as both Alliance marines
and a never before encountered alien race besiege the battered ship. Decisions will have to be made
along the way, and the player is ultimately left holding the fate of all mankind in their hands.



Gameplay Features
BREACH functions as a third person shooter, in that it uses a third person over-the-shoulder camera
with left stick move/right stick look controls. However, shooting is not the primary focus of combat.
Instead the players main tool against enemies is to turn ship systems against them through
communication with the ships AI, Evelyn.

- Shooting/Gunplay
As stated, gunplay is one of the approaches the player may choose to employ to defeat the enemies
aboard the ship. Kyle can only carry a handful of magazines on his person; they have to fit into the
pocket space he has. This will stop players from ending up with 500 rounds of assault rifle
ammunition, as the player frequently does in Call of Duty, and makes them have to be conservative
with their shooting.
Ammunition is also scarce in the environment, so if the player intends to use guns as their
primary defensive tool they will be forced to loot magazines and clips from dead enemies, who carry
them in their combat vests, or pick up dropped weapons. This wont happen by the player simply
running over a body or weapon, instead they will have to stop and reach down to pick up a magazine
or rifle, or search through the pockets of an enemy. Even when a magazine is found, theres no
guarantee that itll be full. Any weapon that has been fired will have used ammo, so if the player
wants to maximise the ammo they can loot from an enemy theyll need to bring them down quickly.
This system means that when an enemy fireteam has been defeated, the player will have to
prioritise which enemies they loot based on which ones fired the least.

Kyle isnt a trained soldier, hes a doctor. This is reflected in his lack of real combat ability. He
doesnt have the shields and armour of Master Chief, or the martial prowess of Sam Fisher; hes a
guy who learned to shoot a rifle with his dad when he was sixteen and took up fencing for a few
years as a hobby.

If Kyle is in open combat, he wont survive. Even with body armour, a couple of hits will kill
him. This is to keep the game from being another sci-fi shooter, in a genre crowded already by such
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titans as Halo. Instead, Kyle, and in turn the player, must take a more cunning approach and try to
separate enemies to bring them down, and at times simply realise when a combat situation is too
much and flee.
This approach to combat has found mainstream success in games like the Batman: Arkham
series, and thus wont alienate potential fans.

Finding cover is essential to staying alive when bullets start flying, so I think using the
brilliantly intuitive cover system debuted in Splinter Cell: Conviction or something similar will be
perfect; by holding down left trigger/L2, Fisher immediately drops into cover behind whatever
surface hes near, and breaks away from it as soon as the trigger is released. If theres no cover
nearby, he performs a combat roll.
This, combined with the vulnerability while stopping to loot ammo, will make what approach
the player takes a real consideration, as they may find themselves caught between a sealed
bulkhead and an enemy fireteam with only a handful of rounds, but with a discarded rifle a few feet
out of cover. If they make a run for the weapon, they risk being hit and killed, but if they dont have
anything to defend themselves with, the enemies will soon overwhelm and kill them.
This is where Kyles secret weapon comes in: Evelyn.

-Controlling Ship Systems
Evelyn serves as a medium between the player and the Mercury, allowing Kyle to access any
system that could be useful. This works by use of a one-touch button system; when the player
hovers their target over anything that can be interacted with, the reticule changes to show this.
Pressing the action button will immediately perform what the game determines to be the most
relevant command, for instance if the player aims at a computer panel with an enemy next to it, a
single press will cause it to explode.

If the player instead holds down the action button, a small radial menu will appear with all
available actions, allowing the player to quickly flick the right stick in the direction of the action they
require. To continue the example with the computer panel, the player may not want to explode it,
and so instead selects the option to make it spring to life, distracting the enemy nearby so the player
can slip past undetected.


-Character Progression
As the game goes on, Kyle becomes outfitted with more gear. For example, as the game
begins, he has no weapon and is dressed in civilian clothes. Once the attack begins, he finds a
weapon and is given a body armour vest from the armoury. Later, as the fighting intensifies, he is
issued a belt of grenades and the weapons he can access from the armoury are increased.
Rather than a level-up! system for these improvements, these will happen at specific points
in the story; Kyle will literally be handed an armoured vest rather than suddenly having access to one
because he had enough experience.

This design choice allows the game to keep the player progressing at a predetermined rate
without overtly feeling like they are being held back. It also helps keep the player immersed rather
than breaking the illusion of being part of the story by having the game remind them that their
character has just achieved an arbitrary milestone and is now magically more powerful.

-Health and Armour
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Rather than the current trend in games, especially shooters, Kyle will have a finite amount of
health he can lose before dying, rather than regenerating health. As he approaches death, a red
indicator around the edge of the screen will flicker to show that he is in critical condition, but
otherwise the status of Kyle will be shown through his physical appearance.
When Kyle takes a bullet, it will visibly damage his armoured vest or cause visible gunshot
wounds on his body. A stray bullet to the arm will leave him very obviously injured, or for instance a
bullet to the leg will noticeably change his gait to show the wound.

This allows the use of health packs scattered throughout the game, found in Aid Stations,
that are the equivalent of the first aid kits found in real-life buildings attached to the wall. These can
be used at any time, but take a few seconds to use, making their use during combat a calculated risk.
Kyle can only carry one health pack with him at a time, but can heal at an aid station without using a
carried health pack.
This way getting hurt is a real danger, as health is not always readily available. The use of a
carried health pack is a one-time mistake fix, but not the safety net that regenerating health offers,
where you can just hide in cover until your health has recharged.
When Kyle is wearing body armour, any bullet that hits him in an area covered by the vest
will do moderately reduced damage, rather than having a separate bar for armour or the
regenerating shields approach made popular by Halo. As most enemies will aim for the torso, this
adds an interesting element of chance to combat as a stray bullet can completely change things; Kyle
can be killed instantly by a headshot if an enemy has time to line up a shot. It also makes body
armour make a noticeable difference, without radically upsetting the vulnerability established by the
health and weapon systems.

-Inventory
A common feature of games is that characters can carry a vast array of items, despite having
no obvious way of storing these items. A good example is The Elder Scrolls series, in which the player
character can carry multiple sets of armour and weapons without so much as a bag or pouch, just
presumably very large pockets.
BREACH aims to make inventory space visually apparent right away. When the game begins,
Kyle has nothing. No weapons, no armour, no storage space. Once he is handed a pistol on his way
to the bridge, the holster he is given can contain the pistol itself and two spare pistol clips.
As the game progresses and he is given armour and other combat gear, the amount of items
he can carry increases as the number of pouches and pockets on his gear increases.
Equally when looting enemies after combat, there will be visual clues as to who to search by
simply noting which bodies have the most storage space. There is a much higher likelihood of finding
an unused magazine on the body of the marine wearing a bandolier and a drop-leg holster than on
the officer who was carrying a pistol and a radio.
Inventory follows common sense for maximum immersion, and to encourage the player to
play smart when it comes to prioritising which enemy to make a break for when they run out of
ammo in a fire-fight, and to manage their inventory carefully and tactically.

Market Consideration
BREACH aims to tell an involving narrative whilst also delivering intense and interesting
gameplay. It should attract gamers who are interested in the shooter genre, such as fans of Halo or
the Battlefield series, while the deeper story and more reasoned approach to combat should also
pique interest in fans of series such as Mass Effect or Splinter Cell.
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BREACH is entering into an already crowded market, but the combination of rich storytelling,
strong shooter gameplay and varied combat through the manipulation of ship systems will enable it
to carve out a place for itself amongst the established kings of the genre.

Look and Feel
The universe of BREACH is one very much like our own, but as a progression into a believable
future. There are no amazing wonder-fuels, simply extrapolations of current predictions on how
technology will evolve. Nuclear fusion powers this universe, watched over by AI constructs
connected by a vast network of linked machines and devices.

While technology plays a huge part in this world, efficiency is still the primary focus of much
of the design aesthetic aboard the Mercury. It is a warship, and thus is based largely on function over
form. Naturally, futuristic gadgetry and sci-fi trappings will be present to inform the player that this
is indeed a futuristic sci-fi setting, but these will be very much grounded in recognisable technology
rather than fantastical future-machines.

The Mercury is a top-of-the-line warship, but it has seen combat and so will be grungy and
worn in places despite the clean aesthetic. Engineering is still a hotspot of working parts and dirty
work, even if the bridge is a room of huge screens and holographic displays. The player should feel
very much like this is a living, breathing ship with a beating heart of engine parts that is being
hammered and beaten by the enemy assault. The future may be smooth and white and brightly lit,
but only because a rugged cast metal heart hides underneath.


Marines:
With the Alliance Marines,
the ide is to make them look
futuristic but still very much
grounded in what makes a soldier
today recognisable as a soldier. The
technology available in BREACH is
advanced compared to what we
have in modern times, but still
minimalist compared to the kind of
nano-suits or power armour soldiers
wear in some sci-fi franchises.
Soldiers still wear combats with a
body armour jacket and pads, with
limited optics built into the
otherwise open helmets.
Alliance Marines dont wear thick plates of armour that stop bullets, like a walking tank, they
wear an armoured vest that takes the force out of a bullet much like modern ceramic armour plates
do. This is a much more conservative future, one powered by nuclear fusion reactors, rather than a
mysterious new element. I want the world to feel like an extrapolation of the real world, given time
and technological developments that are still attainable.
1: Early concept 'Alliance Marine'
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The vest also has to be practical; weapons still use slings and ammunition still comes in
magazines that have to be kept somewhere. The more visible the storage is the better, seeing as
Kyle will visibly rifle through pockets and pouches to loot ammo.

Weapons:
An important point to note is that the weapons in BREACH all fire bullets, rather than energy
projectiles or similar sci-fi staples. The technology to produce such a weapon may exist in universe,
but the military is always focussed on what the most efficienct method is, and bullets are incredibly
good at their intended function for very little in terms of resources required which makes them
highly likely to still be a staple in the future.
Even though the marines can link up their weapons to their optics for improved targeting,
firearms still use simple optical sights. Built in redundancy is a key part of the design aesthetic
BREACH aims for. What happens to digital aiming if the battery dies on a long exercise? Or a cyber-
warfare attack renders computers useless? Even simple considerations like the weapon being used
by a civilian, or a soldier without a functioning eyepiece make reliance on such futuristic trappings
deeply flawed.
Instead BREACH equips weapons with noticeable reliable features as well as futuristic ones
to ensure a believable world, as well as show demonstrably that an untrained civilian like Kyle can
still make good use of a weapon without any gear.


Game Objective
When the game opens, the crew of the Mercury is fighting primarily to save their ship.
Outnumbered and outgunned, the only option is to try and hold the line for long enough to find
some way out of the bleak situation.
However, once the aliens come into play two sequences in, the objective reaches a grander
scale. As the game progresses, we learn that the aliens are en route to human space to wipe out our
race and take the system as their own.
The civil war humanity is fighting becomes a secondary concern in the light of the extinction
of our species, and so the Mercury crew and the enemy marines must form an uneasy alliance to
stop the alien aggressors and defend mankind from total annihilation.


Characters

Kyle Shaw (24 years old)

The games protagonist, and player character.
Kyle was a doctor from Artemis, an Inner World, where he was born and raised as the only
child of the wealthy Shaw family. He is highly intelligent and despite having had zero combat training
or experience prior to being stationed aboard the Mercury, a capable combatant.

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His academic aptitude saw him
graduating secondary school a year early, only
because Kyle deliberately held himself back in
order to fit in a little better. Enrolling in an
accelerated program, Kyle graduated from
medical school at the age of 21, and became a
practicing doctor not long after his 22
nd
birthday.
His fiance Grace was killed by Alliance
troops after being detained during a peaceful
protest against the loss of civil liberties, which
became a massacre after an insurgent group used
the scene as a cover to open fire on Alliance
personnel.

When Grace was taken by the Alliance,
word got out that the protesters were being
harshly interrogated to find any link between
them and the terrorist cell. Kyle funded and
joined a team who attempted a daring operation
to break the protesters out, but Grace was killed
in the attempt.
Kyle shot and killed the senior officer who
fired the shot in his grief and rage, making himself
a fugitive and driving him to flee his home and
join the uprising.

Kyle begins the game unwilling to kill again; he has taken the Hippocratic Oath like all
doctors. However, he realises it may be necessary early in the game in the interest of survival. Kyle is
generally a moral character, driven by conscience and the will try to do the best by everyone.
Although the player will have multiple opportunities to decide the fate of other crew members,
whatever the player chooses Kyle as a character will be seriously affected by his choices.


Evelyn (1 year, 2 months old)
The AI construct aboard the Mercury.

Evelyn is a relatively young construct, at only one year old. She identifies as a female around
20, with red hair that she constantly alters the length of. She is fickle for an AI, partly due to her age,
but also simply because her surroundings have caused her to develop that way, in the same way that
a childs parents largely determine their mentality as they grow up.
Evelyn chose her name within two hours of activation, and defined her persona in four. This
is incredibly fast for an AI, suggesting that her fickleness stems largely from being very comfortable
with her core programming and routines.
She developed a close relationship with Kyle when he came aboard the ship, since he had
never met such a young AI and found her fascinating. While she often teases other crew members,
Kyle is the only one she ever truly listens to in small matters, and she often uses her idle process
simply to watch and talk to him. They are close friends, and this is reflected in her protection of the
player and the chatter between the two characters throughout the game.
2, Kyle equipped with body armour and a pistol
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Despite being so mercurial, Evelyn is
still designed for the purpose of running the
ship, and is thus highly intelligent. She will
perform whatever task is necessary and will do
whatever she can to keep the ship and its crew
safe, even at her own expense if necessary.

Evelyn is terrified of what will happen
to her when she reaches the point where she
needs to expand past the data capacity of the
Mercurys computers. All true AI take up more
and more digital space as they learn and grow,
expanding their programming as they record
new experiences. Once an AI outgrows the
machine that houses them, they can no longer
learn or develop, which can drive the construct
insane, or to extreme depression to the point of
self-termination.

She, in the simplest terms, doesnt want
to die.

Evelyn will act as the players guide and
weapon for most of the game, utilising ship systems on their command to keep them one step ahead
of the enemy. She is also the players first friend, and the game is intended to build affection for her
as it progresses, so that the narrative climax has the appropriate emotional weight on the player as
it does on Kyle.

Captain Lee Ross (33 years old)
Kyles companion for most of the game.

Lee is the CAG, or Captain of the Air Group, aboard the Mercury. Hes a pilot first and
foremost, but a highly capable combat officer out of the cockpit. As the player takes control of Kyle,
who has no combat experience, Lee serves as both Kyle and the players introduction to combat to
help fit in a tutorial element to the earliest stages of the game in an unobtrusive way that doesnt
break immersion.
Lee is also Kyles closest friend after Evelyn , and will often participate in exchanges between
the two as the story progresses, helping with exposition and adding further texture to the
characters.
As Lee is a pilot, he is equipped with a submachine gun and a pistol, unlike most marines
who carry assault rifles. He can run out of SMG ammo, but he has unlimited ammo for his sidearm in
the interest of keeping him useful at all times as more than a potential distraction or even a meat-
shield in combat.
Also unlike marines, Lee cannot be permanently killed in combat. Upon taking lethal
damage, he will attempt to crawl to cover, where he will administer a health pack to himself once
the combat is resolved. He does not need to be given health packs, but he does require fresh
magazines for his primary weapon, as with other marines.


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Control Scheme



Mechanics, a Detailed Look:
Player Mechanics
Picking up items:
Scavenging ammunition is a key mechanic in BREACH, and so it was important to feature it
as prominent mechanic. All interaction with items and weapons is handled with the X button, but
the context can define its use in multiple ways.

Standard Pickups
If Kyle is stood still, or moving without sprinting, pressing the X button will cause him to bend down
to pick up a discarded weapon or magazine. This is an unhurried interaction that is most useful out
of combat, where urgency isnt necessarily required.

Rush Pickups
During combat, making a break from cover to go for a weapon is a high-risk high reward play that
can make the difference between being pinned down with an empty rifle and being able to
effectively fight back.
Kyle can grab weapons from the ground without breaking stride in such instances by use of Rush
Pickups, which can be performed while sprinting. By pressing the X button just as Kyle moves over
the weapon or item, he will scoop it up on the fly allowing for fluid movement from cover to item to
cover.
However, if the player mistimes the press of X, Kyle can stumble as he reaches down, which slows
his movement, leaving him exposed for precious extra time. If the player dramatically mistimes the
interaction, it is possible that Kyle will not even successfully pick up the item, making the risky play
ultimately count for nothing.
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The timing is visually communicated by an outline that appears around the item as Kyle approaches,
which signals the player to press X as he moves over it.

Dragging Bodies:
When friendly marines are critically injured, they are sometimes downed rather than outright killed.
In this instance they can be healed by the player or other friendly marines, and brought back to a
fighting state.
Often this wont conveniently happen while the marine is safely in cover, and so the player may have
to intervene if they want to keep their teammates alive.
The player can drag wounded teammates by approaching their body and pressing the X button. This
will cause Kyle to reach out and grab the marine with one hand, while keeping the other free to aim
and fire the equipped weapon. While dragging, the player can no longer aim down the sights for
improved accuracy, and naturally moves at a reduced speed until they release the marine by
pressing X a second time.

As well as rescuing injured teammates, the player can drag dead bodies in the same manner. This
allows them to drag the body into cover, where it can be looted safely during combat without
exposing them to enemy fire.

Looting Bodies:
Looting is also handled by the X button. By standing near a dead body, the player can hold X
to begin searching through pouches for items. Kyle will visibly go through pouches, and will transfer
any items found into his own as he searches. The animation will automatically cancel once all
pouches have been searched, or when Kyle has filled his inventory space. The player may also
choose to cancel the animation early by simply releasing X.

Commanding Teammates:
The player will spend a lot of the game with friendly marines at their side, assuming of
course that they arent killed as soon as they join the team. By issuing commands to them, the player
can coordinate their small squad into working as an effective team and keep everyone alive from
combat to combat.
The two simple commands that the player can utilise are Move/Attack and Hold/Defend. By
aiming at an enemy, and pressing the D-Pad Up, (Move/Attack) your marines will focus fire on that
enemy where possible.
If the command is given while no enemy is in the targeting reticule, the nearest marine will
be commanded to move to the location aimed at. This allows the player to order an advance on the
enemy, without risk of running forward with no back up.
The D-Pad Down, Hold/Defend command can be used to order friendly marines to hold
position, no matter where the player goes. This can be used to keep marines engaged with an
enemy, so that the player can flank them or set up a play.
The command can also be used when a friendly marine is downed. By aiming at the fallen
teammate and pressing D-Pad Down, the nearest friendly marine will attempt to drag them to cover
and protect them, either healing them if they are currently carrying a med-pack, or defending them
from harm until the combat is resolved so somebody who has one can do the job.

Having a squad of healthy marines gives the player the best chance at surviving combat as
the difficulty curve begins to steepen as the game progresses.
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Ship Systems
-Lights:
A basic, but useful system. The player can turn lights on or off, or blow out light bulbs to
distract enemies. By pitching a corridor into darkness, the player can make a run to a discarded
weapon, or simply memorise where an enemy is stood, kill the lights, and open fire for a devastating
surprise attack.
BREACH aims to reward creative and tactical uses of systems, but at the same time leave the
player at equal risk if they misjudge a situation. Lights are a great example of this; Kyle cant see in
the dark, so if the player decides to turn off all of the lights in a room theyll be just as blind as their
enemies. Its up to them to turn the situation to their advantage.

-Blast Doors:
Whether the way is blocked, or the player needs to put something between them and the
enemy, controlling doors is a useful advantage over enemies. It can mean the difference between
reaching a critical health pack and being caught by enemy fire, or even used as a distraction if a
group of enemies are stood by a door; if it opens theyre going to make sure nobody is coming
through, and that could give the player a half-second to make their next move.
Its also possible to crush an enemy trying to come through a doorway with a well-timed
interaction, or by using the automatic sensors as a makeshift trap that makes the door violently
close when anything moves through it.

-Airlocks:
This ones pretty self-explanatory. What better way to clear a room than by blasting
everyone into space with an explosive decompression? Alternatively, the player could seal off a
section of corridor, then vent the oxygen from the area to suffocate anyone trapped inside.
This particular mechanic may seem a touch overpowered. Its important to note that the
very heart of the ship wont have airlocks, only those sections that are on the very outer decks will
have access to space. For this reason airlocks will be a rarity, and only found at certain points in the
game when Kyle is in such a section of the ship.

-Fire Suppression System:
The ship is equipped with a whole host of fire-extinguishers built into the walls and ceilings
to deal with a fire quickly, before it can spread. Blasting enemies with a cloud of CO2 is a quick and
easy way to disorient them, or use the thick white fog to make a hasty retreat while they cant see.
Equally, the player might find that theyre outnumbered or outgunned, and instead trigger a
cloud to obscure themselves, allowing them to flee without the enemy seeing which direction they
took, allowing a clean getaway. Again, creativity is key to make the best of the systems at the
players disposal, and BREACH aims to encourage this at every turn.

-Electro Plasma System (EPS) Conduits:
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The ship
transports energy
through a network of
pipes filled with high
energy plasma. If these
pipes were to rupture,
or the player were to
decide to open one,
theyd spew a stream
of raw energy that
would melt any organic
matter caught in it,
making it a very
effective way to clear a
corridor. However,
stray rounds can also damage the pipes and cause a rupture, so the player must always be mindful
of their surroundings to avoid getting caught out themselves.

-Industrial Equipment:
The engineering deck is filled with various machinery and industrial equipment that can be
used to dispatch enemies in a variety of creative ways. Examples include cranes for lifting heavy
machine parts, various grappling arms, vast cooling jets that can be used to cool engine parts that
are being rotated out during a hard burn, or even simple things like the doors to maintenance
hatches, that can be opened and used as cover.

-Computer Panels:
Computers can be used to distract enemies by randomly activating, can be made to explode
by overloading the console, or have information downloaded from personal terminals that Evelyn
doesnt have remote access to. This varies from additional information about the world and crew, or
collectibles and easter eggs.

As the game progresses, cyber-warfare attacks on the ship begin to limit Evelyns
effectiveness unless the player is active in restoring her control of the Mercury. By re-hacking into
hacked terminals, the player can counter the enemy marines and aliens attempts to take over the
ship and remove Kyles home advantage.
When Evelyn comes under digital attack, any attempts to use ship systems will have a
chance to fail determined by how pressured she is by the attacks. The percentage chance of this
happening will slowly rise unless the player hacks terminals frequently, reducing the failure rate with
each successful hack.


Items
-Health Packs:
Health packs take the form of BioFoam, canisters that look like aerosols but instead pump
out an adhesive bandage in a foamy state. They heal Kyle for 40% of his total health each, but are a
rare commodity outside of the medbay. Each canister takes up one slot in Kyles vest, making the
3: EPS Conduits running along the ceiling of a corridor
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player have to think hard about how they want to distribute health and ammunition in their
inventory.
Each marine can carry one health pack which they will prioritise for their own use, but will
heal the player if they are on critically low health (less than 20%) and are able to do so without
risking their own safety.
Marines replace these health packs by finding them the same as the player, sharing the
same finite supply as Kyle. This will force the player to make serious considerations about the value
of having friendly marines around, as they will potentially have to sacrifice some of their own safety
to keep their team-mates fighting fit.

-Ammunition:
Enemy marines will carry spare magazines for whatever weapon they are carrying, that can
be looted from their bodies. Magazines can also be removed from dropped weapons, although these
will only contain as many rounds as have not been fired before the enemy was killed.
Looted magazines that are not full will still take up one inventory slot, the same as a fresh one.
Armoury lockers will also contain weapons and ammunition, but these are placed sparingly around
the ship and so cannot be relied upon to keep the player armed and equipped.

Weapons
Pistol
The weapon Kyle is first given, the pistol is a reliable
sidearm that deals fair damage with good accuracy.

Unlike the other weapons, Kyle can always have a pistol
and one other weapon thanks to its unique holster, which
also houses two pistol clips separate to Kyles main
inventory space.
Damage: 30
Accuracy: 70
Rate of Fire: NA (semi-automatic, fires as fast as the player
pulls the trigger)
Capacity: 16 rounds per magazine

Assault Rifle
The workhorse weapon used by
most marines, the assault rifle
combines good continuous damage
with range and moderate accuracy.
It gets through ammunition fast, but
theres plenty to scavenge.
Damage: 20
Accuracy: 50
Rate of Fire: 12 rounds per second
(empties magazine after ~4 seconds of fire)
Capacity: 50 rounds per magazine

Light Machine Gun
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Not intended for use aboard a ship is the best tag for the LMG. Hugely powerful, fast firing, but not
known for accuracy, these weapons are deadly but bulky.
Damage: 15
Accuracy: 35
Rate of Fire: 15 rounds per second (empties magazine after ~8 seconds of fire)
Capacity: 120 rounds per magazine

Submachine Gun
The weapon of choice for the pilots when engaged in infantry engagements, the SMG is powerful
and compact but can burn through ammunition alarmingly fast.
Damage: 15
Accuracy: 70
Rate of Fire: 9 rounds per second (empties magazine after ~3 seconds of fire)
Capacity: 28 rounds per magazine

Shotgun
The ultimate tool for clearing corridors, the shotgun packs huge power at the cost of accuracy and
effective range.
Damage: 20(x8 pellets)
Accuracy: 20
Rate of Fire: 2 rounds per second (empties magazine after ~8 seconds of fire)
Capacity: 12 rounds

Heads up Display HUD
In the interest of immersion, BREACH features a deliberately sparse HUD. There are no
health or armour bars, and ammunition is not displayed as brazenly as say Call of Duty.

All ammunition is stored in a finite number of magazines, rather than a pool of individual
bullets that can are simply reloaded into the weapon regardless of how many times the weapon has
been reloaded already. This is displayed by a small indicator in the top right corner of the screen that
shows an icon for each magazine currently carried. Each magazine icon will be filled based on how
many rounds are currently in it; for instance a magazine with twenty rounds out of thirty will be two
thirds full, and an empty magazine will simply be represented as an outline.

Upon reaching less than 20% health, a warning indicator will appear around the edges of the
screen to notify the player that they are on critically low health. This indicator will fade slightly when
out of combat, but still be noticeable to ensure that the player is aware that they need to heal up
without being an annoying and distracting visual effect.

When targeting objects that can be accessed via Evelyn, the targeting reticule will change to
show that an action can be performed. Holding the action button will bring up a radial menu that
will allow the player to choose what action they want to have Evelyn perform on the object in an
unobtrusive manner, and allow for quick selections on the fly in intense combat situations.



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Enemies
Marines
The enemy marines make up the bulk of the enemy count for the first few sequences of the
game. They will work as a squad in combat, and while they may be commonly encountered they are
still very much a threat to the player.

All marines carry a sidearm, along
with a primary weapon.
Health: 100

Gunners
Gunners are slightly tougher than regular
marines, with bulkier armour and carrying
an LMG. They also occasionally carry
grenades, making them a serious threat in
confined areas.
Health: 140

Medics
When enemy marines are downed or
seriously wounded, they can be revived by
enemy medics in the same way as the
player can revive their own teammates.
Medics carry an SMG and a sidearm, but
their true potential threat comes from their
ability to assist and heal other enemies,
which can suddenly turn a fire-fight you
were winning into one that you find
yourself needing to flee from.
Health: 100

Officers
Squads of marines will sometimes be led by officers. These enemies carry only a pistol, but as long as
they are present the enemies around them will be more accurate and more deadly. By targeting and
officer and killing them, this boost can be transformed into a debuff, making the enemies less
coordinated and less accurate as their morale is crushed.
Health: 120
Buff to nearby enemies: +20% accuracy, +10% damage
Debuff once killed: -20% accuracy, squad cohesion severely impaired

Aliens
By far a bigger threat than marines, aliens are far more hardy and resistant to damage than the
human enemies. They are protected by kinetic barriers projected over their bodies that greatly
reduce projectile damage, but can be bypassed by severe blunt trauma or an object moving slowly
enough to not be recognised as a projectile. This makes them most easily dispatched by using ship
systems like crushing them in blast doors rather than trying to beat them in a gunfight.
4: An Alliance Marine
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Aliens are less coordinated than marines, acting more as individual threats than a cohesive
squad. They are also more aggressive, more prone to breaking cover and using their innate tankiness
to advance under fire, forcing the player to either react quickly or retreat.
Equipped with powerful projectile weapons that feed from the aliens powered exosuits,
they can lay down a powerful stream of fire, but in short bursts punctuated by long cooldown times,
making the player have to think carefully about when they time their moves and how they go about
returning fire. With a faster movement speed than humans and such strong bursts of damage, aliens
are a deadly combination of strength and mobility that will require cunning to defeat.
Health:150
Shielding: 100


Level Walkthrough
Opening
The game opens with the Mercury on its way to returning to the main body of the Separatist fleet
after a successful assault on an Alliance vessel carrying a high value target. The ship has taken a
beating, but is still spaceworthy.
However, the crew quickly find out that theyve been tracked, and come under attack from a
small group of Alliance vessels. The Mercury is in no shape to fight against multiple ships, and is
vastly outgunned. The commanding officer, Admiral Lucas Green, orders a retreat into a nearby
nebula, hoping to lose the pursuers within and make repairs. With systems failing all over the ship
and Alliance landing parties breaching the hull on multiple decks, the Mercury enters the nebula
with a small Alliance Warship in hot pursuit. As they enter the nebula, the two vessels collide,
getting stuck together.
Kyle is in the medbay when an enemy marine team breach the door and burst in. Its only
thanks to Evelyn that he survives; hes unarmed and untrained. Under her guidance, she kills the
lights and directs him through a vent to escape.
Figure 5, the Mercury's Medbay
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First Combat
From here on out, Evelyn works with Kyle to keep him safe, as the two have grown close in the time
hes been aboard.
As the voice in the players ear, she directs Kyle towards an armoury locker where he finds
an armoured vest but still no weapons, all the while avoiding and sneaking past enemy soldiers.

Kyle runs into a friendly marine team led by Lee Ross fighting their way to the bridge to
protect the command crew. He is handed a pistol and holster from a dead marine and told to stay
down, but the player is free to participate in the combat with both the newly acquired pistol and by
using Evelyns control over ship systems.
(This serves as an introduction to combat mechanics via Lee and Evelyns suggestions and
tooltips)

After a brief fire-fight to secure the bridge, the bridge staff inform the team that internal
communications are down, so theres no way of coordinating the rest of the crew. As a non-
commissioned crewman, Kyle offers to go to engineering and try and find out if anyone is alive to get
communications back up, while the marines keep trying to repel the boarders. Evelyn begins
compiling a damage report, while a team of four marines and the player are sent to engineering.

(Roughly 20 minutes of gameplay at this point)

Engineering
The player then fights their way down to the engineering deck, to find it under siege. With the help
of the engineers and the marine team, they manage to repel the attackers so that the crew can
Figure 6, A corridor aboard the Mercury
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begin repairs. Engineering is rich with machinery and moving parts, making Evelyns assistance a
huge (and very visual) boon in this environment.

Kyle is told that the only thing keeping the communications systems from being fixed is to
realign a capacitor, but the battle in engineering has destroyed the conduit that provided access to
it.
At Evelyns suggestion, Kyle and two of his team of marines head to the next deck to reach
the capacitor from above, and manually realign it, while the rest stay to defend the engineers
making repairs.

While the group fight their way to the capacitor, a massive impact rocks the ship. Evelyn has
no answers as to what caused it, as the nebula has completely deadened external sensors.
Kyle and a marine realign the capacitor as another impact batters the ship. Communications
come back online, and they head back to engineering. On the way, a ship-wide announcement is
made that another vessel has found the Mercury and opened fire. Two impacts have breached the
hull, and Kyle and the marine team are only a few corridors away. Evelyn informs the admiral that
theyll engage any potential boarders and they proceed to the breach site.

While en route to the breach, the enemy soldiers they engage all seem to be fleeing.

What they find is definitely not anything the Alliance is equipped with; its not even human
looking. Evelyn uses the internal sensors to analyse the enormous pod that has lodged itself in the
hull, and determines that its not, as originally thought, an unexploded missile. Its hollow, and
seems to be some kind of drop pod.
Before anyone can react, it opens, and several alien creatures, encased in some kind of
advanced armoured suit, emerge and open fire on the team. Conventional weapons seem ineffective
against them, and so the marines direct the player to retreat.

Alien Boarders
The next section of gameplay focuses on avoiding any fire-fights with the aliens, taking the player on
a more circuitous route back to the lift to engineering.

More impacts rock the ship, and Evelyn confirms that more pods are breaching the hull all
over the ship.

Once again, the player and their marines find engineering a battleground on their arrival,
this time under attack from aliens on one side, and enemy soldiers fighting alongside the Mercurys
marines to repel them.
Entering from the gantry overlooking the engineering deck, the player has a good vantage
point to engage the enemy from, and a marine suggests using the machinery to kill the highly
resilient aliens. The player is free to join the fire-fight on the ground, provide covering fire from
above or use ship systems again, and also direct the marines however they see fit. (The aliens can be
brought down with gunfire, but they are extremely tough.)

Once the combat is resolved, the crew gather around one of the dead aliens, studying it.
Evelyn requests that it be placed in a stasis pod so she can analyse it, and so Kyle and a marine drag
20

the body into one. Evelyn warns them that it will take several minutes to gather useful information,
and that more aliens are incoming.
To keep the pod safe while the scans complete, Kyle and the marines, and a handful of
engineers that can be spared, set up a barricade outside the ground floor entrance to engineering,
and seal the bulkhead behind them.

The marines are running very low on ammunition now. Evelyn tells the team that the aliens
are only a corridor away at this point, but that there is an armoury locker between them and the
team. It is up to the player to make a call; take a marine and run to it, grab as much ammo as they
can carry then run back, or simply hunker down and prepare for the fight.

If the player does decide to make an ammo run, a 30 second timer appears on the HUD
counting down until the aliens pass the armoury. They have to reach, raid, and return from the
armoury locker in that time, or they will be caught by the aliens without backup.
Choosing this option, and grabbing enough magazines for the team (it is possible to grab the
ammunition and get back in time, but the return trip will be running while under fire) results in the
fight being won with minimal casualties, regardless of the players impact in the combat. Even if they
simply stay in cover it is likely that they will still survive. However, if the player dawdles they risk
losing more men than if they hadnt taken the risk, or even being caught out an killed themselves.

If the player decides not to risk making a run for the ammunition, the marines share their
remaining magazines and prepare for the fire-fight. Dialogue from the marines makes it clear that
they arent confident about their survival odds, after the previous encounters with the aliens.
Choosing this option puts a lot more responsibility on the player, as the combat will be won
only if they can effectively utilise the little ammo they have left, and make full use of the environment
via Evelyn. (The fight takes place outside engineering, meaning there are lots of pipes and conduits
that can be opened or overloaded.)
Marines will likely be killed here, unless the player makes short work of the enemies. (At least
one will die always on this option, with a predetermined death where they run out of ammo, switch
to a sidearm and are shot)

Once the combat is resolved, Evelyn finishes her scans. She reveals that the aliens armoured
suits have shield emitters built into them that severely reduce incoming damage from projectile
weapons, but can be beaten by either slower moving objects such as a knife, or by enormous blunt
trauma (as evidenced by using the engineering machinery to crush and kill them during the fire-fight
in engineering).


Story Choices/Outcomes
Another, more detailed example of decision-making comes around a third of the way
through the game. Having defended a major attack on Engineering, Kyle and Lee are sent to help
defend one of the weapons arrays at the stern of the ship, after scans reveal the alien vessel hidden
nearby in the nebula. It is vastly larger and more heavily armed than the Mercury, but has yet to
open fire.
Enemy marines are still seemingly unaware of the vessel, Evelyn suggests this is possibly due
to them not having repaired their own ships systems yet.

21

The aliens are slowly sweeping systematically along the length of the ship, and are soon to
reach the main weapons systems. Without these the Mercury will be defenceless against the alien
vessel.

During the fire-fight, Evelyn informs Kyle that she has detected a group of aliens on their
way to her AI core, a much more targeted attack than those previously encountered.
The player must make a choice; either stay and help defend the weapons systems or stop a
potential attack on Evelyns core.
The impacts of these choices will be felt later in the game.

Once the attack on the weapons array(or AI core) has been resolved, the player is tasked
with halting an advance by enemy marines, who are capitalising on the Mercury crew being
distracted by the alien assault, and are heading for engineering.
Fighting their way through the Mess Hall and Crew Lounge, Kyle and Lee arrive too late to
stop the enemies from breaking through the defences and gaining access to the Mercurys reactor.
The player defeats the squad, and it is revealed that they were attempting to overload the
reactor and cause a catastrophic overload that would destroy the ship.

With this revealed, Admiral Green orders that the Mercury crew to attempt the same thing
on the Alliance vessel, with Evelyn now able to separate the ships with restored power to
propulsion.

The player joins a large team of marines and, via transport shuttles, breaches the enemy
ship. Fighting through to the reactor, Evelyn interfaces with the ships systems and sets the reactor to
overload. As the team fights their way back to the shuttle, Evelyn is suddenly hit by a cyber-warfare
attack, and the entire ship loses power.
Fighting in the dark, and temporarily without Evelyns assistance, the team fight their way
back to their shuttles.

If the player decided to stay with the weapons array in the earlier choice, Evelyn reveals that
the attack on her core, while unsuccessful, must have left her open to digital attack by the aliens.
She explains that an unrecognised AI construct is attempting to overcome her and take control of
the ship, and is absorbing every single byte of information stored on the Mercury network. Its trying
to learn about the crew, the ship, and humanity in general.
As the player and their marines arrive at the shuttles, Evelyn warns that shes losing the
fight, and the Mercury opens fire. The volley destroys the waiting shuttles and half of the deck,
killing most of the Mercury marines.
Lee and Kyle bundle into an escape pod, and thanks to emergency power, manage to launch
themselves back into the Mercurys shuttle bay thanks to some expert piloting by Lee, crashing
spectacularly into the hangar.

If the player decided to personally defend Evelyns core, instead the same explanation is
given about the alien AIs efforts, but the Mercury maintains control of its weapons. The team fight
their way into their shuttles and take off to return to the shuttle bay, but en route Evelyn is hit by
another cyber attack, this time clearly in pain. Through the shuttle window, the player can see
something on the alien ship begin to light up, then a searing lance of energy fires straight through
the Alliance ship, sawing it cleanly and easily in half. The beam also catches several shuttles,
destroying most immediately and blowing out the engines of the one Kyle and Lee are aboard.
22

Again, thanks to some expert piloting by Lee, the shuttle is brought crashing into the
Mercury hangar as safely as a crash landing can be.

From here on out, the player will begin to experience random failures when attempting to
use Evelyn to interact with ship systems, as detailed in the mechanics section.



Major Decisions
The player will have to make several key decisions during the plot of the game. These are
intended to make the player seriously think about their actions, and the ramifications of them for
the characters involved.

One such example is as follows:

Near the end of the game, the player is made to make what should be a difficult choice; save
Lee or save Evelyn.
At this point in the game Lee has been critically injured, and the player is carrying him to the
Medbay to try to stabilise and save him.
Evelyn is losing her fight with the alien construct badly, but a team of engineers and tech
specialists are frantically working in the AI core to keep her functioning and prevent her from
causing havoc with her now compromised control of the Mercurys systems.
A call goes out to anyone still alive and listening that the marines defending the AI core are
being overwhelmed, and need backup. The player must decide whether to go and help defend
Evelyn but leave Lee to bleed out and die, or give him life-saving medical attention while the core is
overrun and Evelyn lost.

Whichever choice the player makes, the result is intended to be haunting.

Both Lee and Evelyn will argue that Kyle should save the other; Evelyn insists that she isnt
human, she was only ever and only ever could be a programmed construct. She tells Kyle that Lee is
more important, and that she wont be able to fight the alien AI much longer anyway, even if the
core can be defended.
Lee argues that hes a soldier, and that hes done his duty. Thats enough for him, and that
Kyle should leave him and try to save Evelyn, reasoning that she is as real enough of a person to Kyle
as he is, and far more tactically useful than one wounded pilot.

Either way, Kyle is losing a friend. With Lee and Evelyn being the main voices in the players
ear all game, the player should be attached to both also, making the decision a genuinely difficult
one.

If the player chooses to go to the core, and leave Lee, Kyle will share a heartfelt goodbye
with him and apologise that he cant save them both. Leaving him with a medpack and a pistol, the
player sets off for the AI core, battling alone for the first time in the game. Lee is still in touch via
commlink, insisting that Kyle is doing the right thing, and reassuring him that saving Evelyn was
always going to be more important.
23

As the player nears the core, Lees responses become fainter and more forced, and as the
player arrives, he ceases responding.

If the player chooses to stay with Lee, they will hear updates on the battle in the core over
commlink while Kyle sees to his friend. The marines are driven back, and forced to retreat. Unable to
prevent Evelyn being overwhelmed by the alien AI, the decision is made to terminate her program,
thus severing any connection between the Mercury network and the alien construct.
As Evelyn struggles with the construct, she tells Kyle that she will always be grateful for his
friendship and that it would be better this way; the ship would stay under friendly control and Kyle
wouldnt have to lose his friend. The two share their last goodbyes, and then Evelyn is terminated.

Either decision weighs heavily on Kyle for the last parts of the game, and he is clearly hurt by
the loss of either of his friends.

The climax of the game can thusly end one of two ways, depending on who is still alive by this point.


Evelyn saved:

By the end of the game, the ship is pretty much beyond saving. Systems all over the Mercury
are failing and Green orders all hands abandon ship. The plan is to deliberately lower containment
on the main generator, overload whatever systems are left on the ship and set it on a collision
course with the alien vessel, which is gearing up for a slip-space jump to the rest of humanity, as
discovered by Evelyn during her struggles with the hostile construct. This will be overseen by Evelyn,
who is tied to the Mercurys computers due to her enormous program size, and so cannot abandon
ship. She is also now all but defeated by the alien construct, which has infiltrated almost all systems.

With a short window to start a hard burn on the engines to fire the Mercury into the alien
vessel and Evelyn on the brink of total failure, crew are making their way to escape pods and life
rafts. However Specialist Julian Landry, the AI handler, says there may be a way to copy Evelyns
program and effectively save her, yet still leave the ship with a functioning Evelyn to keep it in one
piece while it flies into the alien vessel.
With the reactor on overload, power output is at an astronomical high. All power that isnt
needed for propulsion and a limited spread of weapons, and thats a lot of unused power, can be
instead used to power an immensely high intensity data-burst, streaming Evelyns base code into the
datasphere where it can be picked up and retrieved. While Evelyn as she grew and formed a
personality would be gone, a new copy of her would be able to begin again and learn and develop.
She could still, in some small way, be saved.

The only problem with this plan is that the only place where such a process can be
undertaken is engineering, which is at the other end of a now very alien-filled ship.

Kyle, Julian and a handful of volunteer marines set off to try and get there in the little time
remaining, fighting through fierce resistance, while the rest of the crew evacuate ready for the
effective self-destruct thats about to happen.

The distance means that there was never really a chance to get there in time. Evelyn is an
intelligent AI, so she knows this. As the end of the window approaches, she seals the team into a
24

corridor with blast doors, leaving only a life raft entry open. Kyle refuses to back down, insisting that
he can save her. He doesnt care if he doesnt make it.
Evelyn informs them that if they dont abandon ship in the next thirty seconds, they wont
make minimum safe distance from the explosion of the Mercury and nobody will survive.
Lee and Julian basically drag Kyle into the life raft, and eject.
Evelyn says her goodbyes to the distraught Kyle, and they watch as the two ships collide, and
explode in a spectacular white fireball.

Lee saved:
As with the other outcome, the plan is still to use the Mercury as a giant fusion bomb to stop
the alien vessel from making a slipspace jump to the rest of humanity. However, without Evelyn,
somebody needs to start the overload process manually, by sabotaging the reactor in engineering.
With most marines stuck at the other end of the ship and unable to make headway under
fierce opposition, Kyle offers to make his way there with the help of Specialist Landry and whatever
marines he can muster along the way.
Lee is in no shape to fight, and so Kyle orders a squad of marines to take him to an
evacuation point safely, and get off of the ship.

Kyle is not a soldier, and has no rank. He has no military right to issue orders, but after the
events of the game his skill is now unquestioned, and he has become a leader to the men that have
seen what the player has accomplished.

Fighting through stiff opposition, Kyle and his team battle their way to engineering and set
the reactor to overload. However their attempt to get to escape pods is cut off by more attacking
aliens, and the team are pinned down while the reactor approaches critical mass.

In a last ditch attempt to get the others to safety, Kyle makes a daring break and draws fire
away from his team, buying them time to get to an escape pod, but trapping himself in the process.
The player performs a valiant last stand as the reactor goes critical, and with Lee on the commlink
commending Kyle for his actions in saving so many, the Mercury explodes and destroys the alien
vessel with it.