Tactical Breach Wizards was a game I remember seeing an article on here or there but didn’t really know anything about it until I played the demo during Next Fest. I was immediately taken with the game’s charm, and, with its cheap price, I decided it would be a game I’d buy at release.
The art style of TBW is going for that simplistic isometric style, similar to something like Hitman Go. The world pops with color, but things aren’t overly detailed, making the map easy to read as you plan moves. You get to fight through a variety of locations, like moving trains, militarized cathedrals, and Italian manors. There’s a decent selection of costumes for your wizards. Each one has two styles of outfits that come in 3 different colors, so 6 total to choose from. They add fun flair to the heroes and would be great cosplay potential. They also help distinguish your squad from the enemies, which was an issue for me when it came to my tank. The music is not a standout here, mostly the modern techno beats you’d expect from a military tactical style game. There is a noir theme for one of the characters that I did quite enjoy though.
So, a lot of articles refer to TBW as a tactical X-COM-like, but if you are going in expecting tactical combat, you’re going to be disappointed. I’d say it’s more a tactical puzzle game. While you position your team across the field and line up shots, TBW isn’t interested in types of cover or shot hit percentages. If you can see an enemy, you can hit them with your attack. Winning fights isn’t about laying down the most firepower, it’s about using clever maneuvering of your squad. Even more than X-COM-likes, teamwork is a major factor here. Each team member has skills that complement each other. Knocking enemies around the floor or out windows is often the effective way to dispatch them. You are encouraged to puzzle out the best solution as you can rewind time as much as you want during your turn. If the idea you had doesn’t play out, restart and try a different approach. It took a few levels for me to get out of XCOM mode, but once I embraced the puzzle gameplay, I really enjoyed each challenge presented, trying to do the most damage in the fewest turns. I felt confident in my skills, using my team’s powers effectively, but I could see this game spawning videos of people beating puzzles using 4D chess level logic.
As you progress through the game, you encounter deadlier enemies, like heavy gunners, stationary turrets, super soldiers that can move during your turn. You also gain new squad mates & unlock new upgrades for your wizards’ skills, giving their attacks new abilities or more effective at supporting other teammates’ abilities. You start off with Zan, who’s a Navy Seer (I love that wordplay). He’s built around setting traps and decoys. Next is Jen, the Storm Witch, she doesn’t have any directly damaging attacks but is instead built around using her powers to push around enemies, usually out windows, and being the most mobile. After them, you add in the team medic, Banks. She supports the other characters by using drugs to poison enemies and make them susceptible to knockback. Dall is the tank of the group. Her charge attack and swap ability are deadly if she has the run-up to build momentum. And the final wizard is Rion, a druid who chips away at armor and can berserk enemies.
The writing is full of charm that endeared me to these characters. Jen is your typical millennial who’s not real sure about her place in the world. Banks is a surgeon turned necromancer whose dead inside and abandoned her dreams. Rion is the cold, detached hitman who has a twist at the end I won’t spoil. Zan felt a bit under characterized. He’s an ex-spec ops guy whose memory is failing, he does have some regret from a botched job he’s processing through. Dall also suffers from bland characterization. She’s a rebel leader who is dedicated to the cause first after her lover was killed. Towards the start of the game, with just Zan & Jen, the focus on humor is evident. Jen is the sarcastic wisecracker, while Zan is the straight man. There were a lot of lines that got a good chuckle out of me. It goes for that sarcastic, Marvel style humor, but unlike those films, this game knows when to dial back the humor for the serious moments. I was expecting this story to be a Guardians of the Galaxy’s romp of a ragtag team, but the game becomes about joining a rebellion and overthrowing an evil PMC (is there any other kind?). As more wizards join your squad, Jen falls into the comic relief role while the others play it pretty straight, save for the occasional sardonic reply from Banks. The initial switch from two wizards taking the subway to get to their mission to joining a rebellion was a bit of a tonal shake, but once it settled out, the story stayed enjoyable.
The game does a good job dabbing in little bits of world building in the cutscenes and pre-breach conversations that help flesh out this world without overdetailing the world. I’ve always lobbied for taking fantasy out of the typical high medieval time period. Having spec-op wizards was a fun, novel idea. Early on you get a fun line of “There’s a Druid shrublord with an M4.” They could’ve capitalized on the setting I feel. After a while, the ‘spec-ops wizard’ thing does fade off and the magic feels a bit more sci-fi than fantasy. You learn about the state of the different countries you visit. There’s the authoritarian theocracy state and Scillian-esque country in the midst of a coupe. Very much realistic political struggles we’ve seen in media before juxtaposed against the fantasy of wizard magic.
The story, so spoilers, has you tracking down a rogue operative, Liv, who used to be Zan’s partner in his Navy Seer days. Where Zan can see the future, Liv can move faster than time. It’s a nice dichotomy. You chase Liv and her team of wizards, including Steve Clark, the Traffic Warlock, which is another fun modern wizard idea, as they seek to create an army of supersoldiers for the PMC she works for. During your chase, each teammate has an “anxiety dream” which serves as their character-building moment, giving your puzzle pieces more depth. This is where we learn about Jen lacking self-worth or Zan’s fear of decisive action. They break up the story with character work and unique puzzles. As mentioned, the story gets a bit heavy during the rebellion against the authoritarian theocracy, but the second rebellion you help involves a fun bank heist. The final battle with Liv is a fun fight that requires a lot of puzzling.
All in all, I really enjoyed Tactical Breach Wizards. While the charm of the first chapter isn’t consistent all the way through, the game never gets dull and the laughs never go away completely. Each puzzle fight is short enough to be engaging, but not feel like a slog. I can highly recommend this game, especially if you’re a puzzle fan, like the idea of spec ops wizards, or want a quick game with some good humor.
