Tactical Breach Wizards

''Tactical Breach Wizards'' is a 2024 turn-based tactics video game by Suspicious Developments. Players control a team of wizards who fight to stop an international conspiracy. The missions are humorous and involve espionage thriller elements. It is available for Windows and became a best-seller on Steam on release.

Gameplay

Players control a group of outcast wizards who are fighting against a theocracy and private military companies in an urban fantasy setting. Up to five wizards can be on the team. Each wizard has a unique set of skills. For example, a weather witch can summon lightning bolts that can push opponents around, and a necromedic can heal people if they are already dead. Further skills can be unlocked as they complete missions and become more experienced.

Before breaching a door, the team engages in banter. Breaching results in turn-based, tactical combat. During combat, the team's seer can briefly glimpse the future, resulting in players seeing how their choices will play out. If players dislike the result, they can undo their action and try a different tactic. This is possible up until players end their turn. Each level has both required and optional objectives. The optional objectives, such as knocking someone out of a window or defeating all enemies within two turns, raise team members' confidence. This unlocks specialty outfits.

Missions can be replayed, but they do not give additional experience points. After completing a mission, there are cutscenes, further conversations, and anxiety dreams, all of which can advance the plot. The anxiety dreams, which are optional, feature special challenges that, when completed, unlock new special abilities. After winning the game, players can continue through post-game challenges. There is also a harder difficulty mode, and ''Tactical Breach Wizards'' includes a level editor.

Plot

Two wizard soldiers, Navy Seer Zan Vesker and powerful chronomancer Liv Kennedy, perform a raid on a ship in the Jodasa Strait controlled by members of the Druid Mafia, with the objective of capturing a hostage. They arrive at the cabin containing a hostage, but Liv is suddenly captured by a mysterious enemy. Zan foresees that he cannot save both Liv and the hostage, and is forced to extract with the hostage while Liv is teleported away.

Years later, Jen Kellen, a storm witch and private investigator, discusses a case involving a mob doctor, Dessa Banks, with the chief of police at a police station. Suddenly, the station is attacked by a team of mercenaries owned by the private military company Reactor and headed by Kennedy, and Jen encounters Zan, who was dishonorably discharged after the Jodasa operation. They join forces and pursue Liv, but she escapes, taking Banks with her. The two pursue Liv across the nation and find that her team has been destroying stockpiles of mana crystals, but they flee to the neighboring country of Liboli.

In Liboli, they are able to free Banks from Reactor captivity, and she reveals that she is a necromancer who can only heal those who are already dead. She describes that Kennedy would often come back from missions suffering from a mysterious illness, and Banks was conscripted to kill and revive her. With Banks, the team follows Reactor to the nation of Kalan, which is controlled by an oppressive theocratic government known as Chapel. They are accosted by Chapel military police upon their arrival, but saved by the intervention of Dall Sabin, the leader of the civil resistance against Chapel. Dall convinces the team to help her secure a recording which supposedly incriminates Chapel and reveals their motives for an imminent invasion of the neighboring island of Medil. Thinking Reactor could be involved, Jen agrees.

The resistance secures the recording, in which Chapel's high priest says that the invasion is to secure Medil's natural mana reserves and admits to fabricating the counsel of the ancestors around which Chapel's religion is based. The team infiltrates Chapel's media bureau to broadcast it across the country, but find that the resistance hired Kennedy's team for the same purpose. The broadcast is successful, but Kennedy kills a member of her own team, the druid hitman Rion, and Reactor forces immediately mobilize toward Medil. When Banks revives Rion, he says that Reactor was planning to invade Medil, which was why they stopped Chapel from doing so, and joins their forces to get revenge. Afterward, Kennedy invites Zan to parlay.

Kennedy reveals that Reactor has developed a process to use mana crystals to artificially awaken magical talent in people without it, although the process has side effects, which was the illness she suffered in Liboli. Reactor are invading Medil to access their mana and create a new world superpower. She also explains that she was not harmed in the Jodasa operation, but quit the military and joined Reactor of her own volition afterward, and that the hostage on the ship was the first test subject for the awakening process. When Zan expresses confusion, she informs him that his memory of the operation was wrong, and he panicked, leading to the death of the hostage and her capture. Finally, she tells him that she killed the rest of his team an hour before the meeting, and leaves. However, unbeknownst to her, Banks survived by throwing herself into a portal, and revives the others.

The team follows Reactor to Medil, where Dall is able to connect with Moss, a leader of Medil's civil militia. They identify that Reactor's objective is in the nation's central mana mine and fight their way through the country before arriving at the mine. Jen and Dall create an explosion which collapses the nation's mana reserve into the mine below, then Banks and Rion trick a Reactor pyromancer into destroying the flammable mana, while Zan holds Kennedy off on the roof. Finally, they rendezvous on the roof and defeat Kennedy. Banks shoots her in the head, and the player can choose to leave her dead or revive her to stand trial in Medil. Multiple endings are possible for each character, describing their actions after the conclusion.

Development

Developer Tom Francis was previously a game journalist. The idea of making a turn-based tactical game came from issues he had with '' XCOM 2''. Although one of his favorite games, Francis felt it had "big, serious problems" that could improved upon, such as reducing frustration by making the level design simpler. His issues became the design document for a new game. The concept of ''Call of Duty''-style militarized wizards came from a joke among the writers at ''PC Gamer''. '' Rainbow Six: Vegas 2'' inspired the SWAT tactics, and Douglas Adams influenced the writing.

The ability to test out tactics and see the results came from Francis' frustration with losing team members in ''XCOM'' for what seemed like arbitrary reasons. Francis discussed this with the developers of ''Into the Breach'', which relies on its user interface to inform players how actions will play out. Francis initially thought it would be better to forgo using UI elements, but players did not like repeatedly testing tactics without UI feedback.

One of the protagonists, Jen, was originally designed to be an ex-cop. The George Floyd protests in 2020 caused Francis to consider whether it was a good idea to have an ex-cop leading SWAT-style raids. He tried rewriting Jen's background to incorporate commentary on police violence, but feedback from friends convinced him it was a bad idea. The topic was too big to tackle in a character's background, and his efforts were tonally off from the dry, comedic take on everything else there. Instead, Francis made Jen a private investigator.

Suspicious Developments released ''Tactical Breach Wizards'' for Windows on August 22, 2024. The special edition includes developer commentary, which itself can be used as weapon in-game and thrown at opponents.

Reception

''Tactical Breach Wizards'' received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator website Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 100% of critics recommend the game. ''PC Gamer'' said it avoids being "''XCOM'' in a robe and wizard hat" by focusing on many short combats that have many tactical options without focusing on having a single puzzle game-like solution. ''GameSpot'' and ''Eurogamer'' likewise praised the freedom granted by the ability to take back moves, allowing players to experiment and find their own solutions. ''Rock Paper Shotgun'', ''GameSpot'', ''Eurogamer'' and ''Edge'' all praised its ability to appeal to both hardcore and casual fans of tactics games.

''PC Gamer'' enjoyed completing the optional objectives, many of which encouraged them to figure out fun combos. ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' compared the challenges to the stylistic stunts in ''John Wick'' and praised ''Tactical Breach Wizards'' ability to challenge players without ever becoming frustratingly difficult. Near the end of the game, ''PC Gamer'' said the characters become enjoyably overpowered, and ''IGN'' said it remains fun despite being somewhat easy. ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' said one skill was so overpowered, they used it almost exclusively. ''GameSpot'', however, found there to be occasional difficulty spikes.

Commenting on the story, ''PC Gamer'' said it is both "very funny" and "unfailingly sincere", which they felt elevated it beyond being a good tactical game into "something memorable". ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' said they found even the menus to have profundity and said it has "brilliant, laugh-out-loud funny writing". ''GameSpot'' said the deconstruction of Tom Clancy-style thrillers made the campaign "a joy", and ''The Guardian'' praised its ability to turn its silly premise into "a genuinely intriguing espionage thriller" while avoiding that genre's questionable ethics. ''GameSpot'' felt the game as a whole was "both funny and endearing", featuring a self-awareness that they said was earned. ''IGN'' felt the story was "solid enough" but said the dialogue is "absolutely stellar throughout".

After release, ''Tactical Breach Wizards'' became the third-bestselling item on Steam behind '' Black Myth: Wukong'' and the Steam Deck, and the user reviews were 98% positive as of August 2024. ''GameSpot'' included it in its list of the best games of 2024, and ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' labeled it a "bestest best".

Awards

See also

*'' Wizard with a Gun''

References

{{reflist

2024 video games
Fiction about wizards
Independent Games Festival winners
Indie games
Single-player video games
Suspicious Developments games
Turn-based tactics video games
Urban fantasy video games
Windows-only games