Suspicious Developments’ latest title is a witty, brilliant, and generous adventure built around a core of clever, rewarding, and endlessly imaginative turn-based tactics.
Tactical Breach Wizards starts out with a bang – literally. Each mission, and even the game itself, begins with a flash of magic and the sound of wood splintering and doors blowing off, along with an endlessly satisfying sense of urgency. ProsperityIt’s a stylish opening that never loses its air-punch thrill, a really cool moment in a game full of excitement – and just one of the things that makes Suspicious Developments’ turn-based tactics game so witty, dynamic and charming.
We should probably start with the wizards, though. Welcome to a world where magic-users, if uncommon, are far from secret. It’s a world where freelance storm witches moonlight as private detectives, necromancers can heal anyone as long as they kill them first, the military employs naval prophets for their astonishing ability to foresee a second, the church has its own oppressive anti-magic police force, and traffic warlocks are known as Steve. There’s some excellent worldbuilding in Tactical Breach Wizards, which blends urban fantasy with tense espionage thrills and military intrigue, and it’s made all the richer by its lovable magical misfits, warm, witty dialogue, and a surprisingly gripping central story.
Suspicious Developments weaves its magic (both literally and otherwise) around a core that, at least fundamentally, doesn’t differ from the countless post-XCOM turn-based, grid-based tactics games we’ve seen before. Over the course of its 20-hour or so runtime, you’ll guide your gradually expanding squad through a series of globe-trotting infiltration missions, each of which requires you to complete a series of self-contained, single-room challenges. Sometimes you’ll raid a police station to rescue prisoners, other times you’ll move from car to car as you attempt to commandeer a speeding train – but what remains constant is the tight spaces you’re working in, the strategic environmental hazards you can exploit, and the enemies you need to deal with along the way.
On the surface, Tactical Breach Wizards leads a familiar dance, following the genre’s time-honored rhythm of reconnaissance and execution, where you first soak up your surroundings and then start figuring out how to get around deliberately imposed limitations like movement radius, magic reserves, and action points, making sure every decision counts toward your goal. You might be asked to block a doorway to prevent reinforcements from pouring in, clear a room and open a security door, or take down the leader of a ghost convoy before escaping. The thrill of a perfectly executed plan – as in all games of its kind – is the driving force of Tactical Breach Wizards. But Suspicious Development has some magical secrets of its own, too.
A lot of Tactical Breach Wizards’ action revolves around indirect violence, with an emphasis less on aiming for headshots and more on scattering enemies around a grid. The aforementioned Storm Witch Jen is perhaps the best example of this, with her arsenal consisting almost entirely of knockback magic – used to slam opponents into walls, environmental hazards, or (given that Tactical Breach Wizards is absolutely obsessed Getting hit by objects (be they furniture or other opponents) will cause damage, but considering that most of the other link-up abilities in the game are location-specific, simply pushing enemies around the level can also gain a significant tactical advantage.
So not only can the necromancer Desa Banks heal her allies by killing them first, she can also unleash a flying skeleton (hi, Gary) that damages anything he hits as he moves in a straight line. Or, she can summon a wall-mounted portal that permanently devours anyone pushed into it. Even Marine Prophet Zan, the most traditional member of the squad with his three-shot wand gun, fits neatly into this tightly knit framework, with his powerful attacks only triggering if an enemy (either lured or pushed in) strays into his beam.
Perhaps it does take Tactical Breakout Wizards a little too long to expand its initial abilities to the point where truly interesting synergies between characters start to emerge. While its first few hours are enjoyable enough—thanks to its ample wit and imagination—its limited early ability set and tightly controlled combat arenas make the experience feel more like a puzzle than a tactical sandbox. Eventually, though, as new abilities are unlocked and powerful skills become available, the tactical possibilities increase significantly. Soon enough, Jen is able to push past the limits of each map by hopping on a broomstick and flying out of a window to appear somewhere else, while Zan gains a doppelganger that ensnares enemies. Later characters fill in the remaining gaps in an already rich arsenal by introducing the ability to swap places with enemies, such as dragging a character across the battlefield.
If the measure of a good tactics game is the fluidity of its choreography, then Tactical Breach Wizards is a gem, giving players a set of moves that are powerful enough and complementary enough to put on a show that’s just plain awesome. In one memorable mission, I managed to wipe out a roomful of enemies in a single turn by throwing Gary into a wall, having him bounce off a group of enemies around him, and then opening a portal behind a normally nearly invulnerable Heavy Soldier. From there, it only took Jen a well-timed chain bolt to push the Heavy Soldier off the field, and then—which I admit I hadn’t planned at all—shove everyone else out the window with a single move. Perfect execution!
Happily, however, Tactical Breakout Wizards doesn’t care about perfection, and doesn’t really care about winning either. With an incredibly generous spirit, Suspicious Developments has crafted an infinitely approachable game where the pain of failure is always reframed as a temporary setback – an opportunity to rekindle tactical experimentation – rather than a punishment to be endured. This is largely due to its three-stage deployment process, which, in a similar vein to last year’s amazing stealth tactics game Shadow Tactics, effectively reimagines the genre’s quicksave/reload trend as a fundamental mechanic, though it’s more thoroughly integrated here.
At any time during your turn, you can trigger Foresight and observe the results of your actions, and if you don’t like what you see (if your plan didn’t go as expected), you are free to step back in stages. Only when you are ready to implement your plan and give the enemy a turn, you will have to face the consequences of your actions. If you are still struggling, the Tactical Breakthrough Wizard will happily let you skip a stage entirely.
Of course, this means you’ll rarely find yourself in a position where you can’t achieve victory, but Tactical Breakout Wizards is clever and cute, and constantly finds new ways to build tension without a perpetual state of imminent defeat. Much of this comes from its relentless spirit of innovation, with each level introducing new design changes that make it impossible to rely on the same tactical beats for too long. When you’re suddenly facing an enemy that prevents you from casting magic when it looks at you, or you can’t hurt your opponent when you’re protected by an enemy elsewhere in the level, it’s exciting enough to learn to adapt to this new unknown.
But if masochism is what you want, Tactical Breach Wizards also offers customizable difficulty settings and optional character-specific challenges for each mission, forcing you to apply your growing toolkit in specific or unusual ways (and unlock some snazzy costumes when you do). It’s incredibly generous not only because it accommodates different play styles and ability levels, but also because of its rich thingIts core campaign and impressively refined tactical action are good enough that it won’t need There are a large number of optional side quests in the game – survival maps, or dream quests that unfold in the character’s mind. need For those who want to learn more about the characters between key story events, there are dialogue scenes, or a level editor, or post-mission interludes where you can pin new clues to the map and form new connections with red string. It doesn’t need such rich worldbuilding, or such a thrillingly complex plot, it doesn’t really need need Every mission starts with such a funny show-off Prosperity.
But Tactical Breach Wizards does it all, because it can, because they’re cool, and because every new layer, every extra texture, makes the experience more special. It’s a real treat. It’s a meticulously simplified, well-crafted, and deeply rewarding tactical exploration game that’s warm, witty, welcoming, and smart. Even if you’ve shied away from games of this type in the past, check out Tactical Breach Wizards – it features a bouncing skeleton named Gary, a less-lethal pyromancer with only mildly trashy fire, and an old window quirk that might change your mind.
A copy of Tactical Breakthrough Wizards was provided to Suspicious Developments for review.
