Tactical Breach Wizards Review

Tactical Breach Wizards offers a unique twist on high-stakes military games by swapping guns and gear for flying brooms and magic. The game stands out with its imaginative setting and witty script. While the tactical challenges aren’t the toughest, the humor and fast-paced action keep it engaging.

You control a group of magical mercenaries, battling enemies one door at a time in a strange yet believable universe that blends fiction and reality, like wizards with day jobs. The creative events and witty dialogue add to the game’s charm, making it an enjoyable and memorable experience.

Story follows Zan & Jen as they pursue a dangerous enemy who can move faster than sound. While plot is solid, it becomes a bit unclear in latter half. Nevertheless, dialogue is sharp and engaging, reminiscent of TV shows like Firefly & Buffy Vampire Slayer. Despite lack of voice acting, lively & humorous interactions keep reading enjoyable & far from tedious.

Stellar Dialogue Throughout

Tactical Breach Wizards shines with its stellar dialogue, keeping the story engaging throughout. Most of the narrative unfolds through cutscenes surrounding each mission. These missions involve turn-based skirmishes that feel more like Chimera Squad than XCOM 2. Your characters have specific abilities and the maps are smaller but packed with environmental factors to consider.

The battles begin with the eponymous breach where you deploy your units at different infiltration points and plan your first moves. A strong opening turn can set the stage for a successful mission, but even if you make mistakes, the game allows you to recover.

Thanks to ability to rewind actions, you can correct a bad turn, ensuring that you always know where your enemies are targeting and can react accordingly. However, since the enemy’s movements are unpredictable, you need to stay proactive, positioning your squad effectively to force the enemy to react to you.

Your squad eventually grows to five members, each with unique and powerful abilities that can be creatively combined for significant impact. Unlike traditional archetypes, these characters don’t fit into generic roles like mages or fighters. Jen, for example: is a disrupter who can push multiple enemies across the map while Zan can deal massive damage by using clones or overwatch-style abilities in combination with his regular actions. Later on, you gain access to a tank character who can switch places with any ally on the map and charge into enemies from long distances. Even after 13 hours of gameplay, the game continues to offer new and clever ways to outsmart your foes.

A significant part of the action involves using your surroundings to your advantage. Bouncing enemies off walls and objects isn’t just satisfying—it’s essential for dealing with well-armored opponents. Like the other games in developer Tom Francis’ “Defenestration Trilogy,” Tactical Breach Wizards has a fun obsession with throwing enemies out of windows. One character even has ability to create windows if none are nearby. Objectives often involve more than just defeating enemies; you’ll need to interact with various points on the map such as hacking laptops, locking down doors to prevent reinforcements or disabling turrets.

Combination of witty dialogue, creative combat mechanics and interactive environments makes Tactical Breach Wizards a fresh and enjoyable experience in tactical strategy genre.

Tactical Breach Wizards is a game that doesn’t overwhelm you with its objectives, but it also doesn’t constantly impress. Most missions involve similar tasks in different setups, which can feel a bit repetitive. However, there are optional, tougher goals that do test your skills. For example: trying to knock out all enemies in a single turn or using specific abilities in creative ways adds a layer of challenge. While these optional challenges didn’t stress me out during my first playthrough, they are definitely on my list to tackle in the endgame when I have stronger characters and better loadouts. The game doesn’t push you hard to complete these, allowing you to enjoy the main story at your own pace.

Game also introduces special challenges to mix things up. These come in three forms: Anxiety Dreams, Dream Training and Proving Grounds. Anxiety Dreams are personal missions for each character that focus on their unique abilities and how to use them in creative ways. While these aren’t toughest missions, they are inventive and allow you to earn special upgrades for your characters’ abilities. Dream Training and Proving Grounds are where the real tactical difficulty lies offering unique maps and challenges themed around specific mechanics or units. However, there are only a few of these which is a bit disappointing if you’re looking for more variety.

One interesting feature of Tactical Breach Wizards is the flexibility it gives you in how you play. You can skip any mission to progress the story if you want, and you can even replay missions from the mission select screen at any time, regardless of whether you’ve completed them before. Unlike more restrictive games, this method allows you to play the game at your own speed which is a welcome difference. Nevertheless, since this function lets you completely avoid challenges, it might not be suitable for everyone.

As you complete missions, you earn XP that can be converted into perk points, which are used to upgrade your characters’ abilities. Not all upgrades are equally useful, so experimenting with different perks is key to finding the best combinations. For example: turning Zan’s clone hologram which normally just distracts enemies, into a platform that can also shoot, was a game-changing upgrade I discovered through trial and error. Progression system is fairly linear but scarcity of perk points at any given time forces you to make thoughtful choices about which upgrades to prioritize.

• Visions of Mana Review
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Review – A Descent into Madness
• Black Myth: Wukong Review

Conclusion: Tactical Breach Wizards

Tactical Breach Wizards is not a difficult game, but that doesn’t take away from the fun. Missions are filled with interesting elements to interact with and the tight spaces make for engaging gameplay. Real charm lies in the creative abilities of each character and how well they can be combined. Add in a vibrant, quirky world with fantastic writing and it’s easy to get caught up in its magical appeal.