Titles don’t get much more self-explanatory than that of the latest from Suspicious Developments, whose modus operandi can be traced to those Call of Duty sequences where you stack up outside a door with your AI squadmates and then blow it open. The slow-motion gunfight that typically follows is reimagined here as a perpetual state of turn-based tactics, albeit with wizards using non-lethal spells rather than firearms and jingoism.
Tactical Breach Wizards doesn’t lack for doors to breach and rooms to clear, which may sound like a recipe for strategies that swiftly go stale. But the game is a wonder of mechanical pacing, unafraid to constantly and dramatically alter the playing field. Straight through to the final level, it introduces new abilities and obstacles in quick-hit scenarios meant to be “solved” with a single-digit turn count. And some can be finished in just one turn.
Your characters are limited to one action and one movement per turn, but much of Tactical Breach Wizards is built to let you circumvent, if not outright ignore, such restrictions. Many spells will pinball the characters around the map rather than doing direct harm, as targets only take damage when they collide with something solid. Jen the storm witch can throw a lightning bolt that jumps between targets, which is useful for nudging allies after they’ve moved and can even be upgraded to refund the action cost if an ally is part of the chain. Further, only direct attacks constitute an “action,” so your team is free to fulfill an objective like accessing a laptop or sealing a door as long as you can maneuver them onto the appropriate space on the tactical grid.
Other abilities can be used as often as you have consumable mana, which is replenished through the aforementioned objectives or through mana-infused items lying around a map. Zan can use one spell to send out a mirror image of himself, which can be upgraded to interact with the environment and essentially pay for its own mana cost, allowing you to summon multiple copies. When combined with another upgrade that lets Zan and his images open fire on an enemy that’s struck by an ally, you can more or less create a multi-Zan firing squad.
Like certain roguelikes, Tactical Breach Wizards is all about landing on combinations that make you feel as though you’ve broken the game wide open, albeit for 20-plus hours’ worth of bespoke scenarios rather than endless randomization. That the game hardly falters, and through to the bonus levels on top of the main campaign, is a testament to the ingenuity on display.
From beginning to end, each map is tuned to the strengths of the characters and their varied skill sets.One spell can turn a wall tile into an eldritch portal that wholly removes a single enemy from the encounter, while another can instantly swap the user with any character in sight—and, with one particularly devious upgrade, cause enemies to panic and fire at whoever takes their place. Some opponents even circumvent the turn order, with one that moves after every single action and another that will fire at whoever attacks its teammates.
Tactical Breach Wizards proceeds with tongue very much in cheek: Zan the “Navy Seer” gravely notes in one of the copious between-mission dialogue scenes that the enemy is out to start World War Five. The characters are intentionally goofy, and the game is so saturated with jokes, many of them quiet funny, that they even appear in the objective list. But that jokiness can clash tonally with conflicts that we’re eventually meant to take with some degree of seriousness. The relentless witticisms become suffocating, culminating in characters who extol their fears and anxieties while sounding like people who psychoanalyze themselves on the internet.
Luckily, though, you’ll spend much of Tactical Breach Wizards in the heat of battle, and that’s where it functions best. Few of the scenarios are difficult, and intentionally so; the game is less about raw challenge than having you experiment in pursuit of efficiency and style. Many of the optional, more difficult objectives encourage you to squeeze 15 actions into a single turn or complete a map without letting the enemy ever fire a shot, which means constantly refreshing your actions and movements several times per turn. Even when the characters are patiently waiting their turn, there’s always a remarkable sense of speed to Tactical Breach Wizards.
This game was reviewed with code provided by Vicarious PR.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
