TOWhile Tactical Breach Wizards relies heavily on glimpses into the future, the best place to start is by getting a little ahead of ourselves. So let’s start with the fact that this mystery- and magic-filled spec ops tour de force is the most substantial turn-based tactics game since the venerable XCOM 2. Its combination of cleverly flexible puzzles and deliriously fun writing would be enough to make it fit for active duty on any gaming device. But what qualifies it for Special Arcane Service is how bravely it confronts the murky morality of military-themed games.
Tactical Breach Wizards puts you in charge of a ragtag team of witch detectives, necromancers, time-manipulating wizards, and a druid hitman. It challenges you to use your squad’s eclectic powers to overcome increasingly complex tactical siege scenarios. A typical level will require you to enter a room, disable a half-dozen enemies, barricade doors to prevent reinforcements from entering, and reach the computer that unlocks the path to the next room.
It’s a simplified example of the form, with no base management or top-level strategic layer to worry about. Instead, the focus is on creatively using your magic powers to resolve the scenario as cleanly as possible. Jen, your freelance storm witch, casts lightning spells that don’t deal damage but cause people to move around, allowing you to knock enemies out by pushing them into objects or shoving them through windows. Your Navy Seer, Zan, can foresee events a second in advance, allowing you to generally predict how enemies are going to attack, but also allowing her to set up ambushes and dole out extra actions to teammates. Combining powers to maximize your efficiency is a key tactic, such as using Zan’s time-boosting ability to allow Jen to use her lightning powers twice.
Nearly every room you enter introduces a new ability, opponent, or idea that enhances the challenge and your ability to meet it. Recruiting Dessa, the necromancer, allows you to heal people by killing and resurrecting them, and place interdimensional portals in walls that you can push enemies through for quick dispatch.
Tactical Breach Wizards wants to make the most of the puzzle potential offered by moving a group of tiny characters around a room. Unlike XCOM, however, it doesn’t forcefully demand your lateral thinking. Most scenarios can be solved relatively simply, especially since you can undo any decision you make in a given turn. But there are also additional objectives for each stage, such as completing it without causing any damage. Rather than punishing your mistakes by killing your crew, Tactical Breach Wizards gently encourages you to strive for excellence.
This more easygoing attitude is reflected in the game’s themes. Tactical Breach Wizards is by no means a serious game, as evidenced by objectives like “Defenestrate the Pyromancer” and the fact that Zan’s “assault rifle” is a machine gun with a wizard staff instead of a cannon. But it does take its characters and the problems they face seriously. One of my favorite details is how your team has heart-to-heart exchanges every time they stack up to open another door. Not only is it great banter, but the conversations that follow are also extremely witty and provide great insights into each wizard’s inner life.
The most impressive trick this game pulls off, though, is how it weaves a genuinely intriguing spy thriller out of its absurd concept while also refusing to conform to the unsettling ethos of modern military games. Your team is made up of rebels and outcasts rather than government-sanctioned wizards, while your enemies are the enforcers of religious dictatorships or employees of private military companies (plus a Traffic Warlock named Steve). Even when facing these enemies, your team is committed to exclusively non-lethal rules of engagement. If you’re wondering how they can do this while constantly throwing people out of windows, the answer is simple: they’re wizards.
It’s a game with almost perfect balance, simple and clearly… No An ode to turn-based tactics that embraces the genre’s creative puzzles while repudiating its worst excesses, Tactical Breach Wizards lets you see the future, raise the dead, and crash through windows on a witch’s broom. Yet amidst all that, its most powerful spell is empathy.