Tactical Breach Wizards is a near-perfect mix of wit and witchcraft
Tactical Breakthrough Wizards proves that there is no substitute for the dopamine rush you get from throwing three guys out a window at once. Defenestrations aside, Tactical Breakthrough Wizards is a surprisingly deep turn-based strategy game with some of the best scripting I’ve seen in a game this year.
The world of Tactical Breakthrough Wizards is very surreal — similar to our own, with similar problems, but distinct in its collection of nations, politics, and traditions. Also, magic is real. You control a group of warlocks, wizards, witches, clerics, and druids whose talents and skills make them uniquely qualified to work in various branches of special forces. Instead of Navy SEALs, you have Navy Seers, and instead of boring regular medics, you have necro-medics who can raise the dead. I’d like to read an encyclopedia or sourcebook for Tactical Breakthrough Wizards; it’s so good.
The larger plot seems like something out of a Tom Clancy novel, if he also had a copy of The Silmarillion. There are plenty of coups, paramilitary groups, and conspiracies that go all the way to the top. The stakes are high, but the story refuses to take itself too seriously, always knowing when to inject some levity into the situation and step on the gas.
The plot for Tactical Breakthrough Wizards is good, but the professional banter between your teammates is truly a work of art. Before bursting into a room, your team will assess the tactical situation, make smart observations, and generally ease the tension with subtle jabs at each other.
The rapport between your team members isn’t just based on jokes made at each other’s expense, though. Between missions, you’ll have the opportunity to engage in optional conversations that add an extra dimension to each character. Even without these extra bits of dialogue, the design of each team member tells you a lot about who they are. Zan, the retired Navy Seer, carries himself with a stern professionalism, while Jen, your resident witch, always flashes her private investigator badge while toting a folding broom on her back.
In addition to the character development and world building, the wit of Tactical Breakthrough Wizards also applies to the gameplay elements: my necro-medic can’t heal injuries, but he can bring people back from the dead. That means he has to put a bullet through the skull of anyone he tries to help.
The moment-to-moment gameplay of Tactical Breakthrough Wizards is clearly inspired by other classics of the turn-based strategy genre, most notably Into the breach. The action usually takes place in a single room, allowing you to take in the environment and dangers at a glance, which can contain various elements that offer unique tactical opportunities. Before you enter a room, you have a clear idea of what your enemies will do and the order in which events will occur. By eliminating RNG, the gameplay becomes a tactical puzzle with knots that you unravel through clever placement and execution rather than luck.
Other than Into the breachthe missions in Tactical Breakthrough Wizards are presented in a linear fashion, with a few optional challenge missions that become accessible as you progress through the story. Each mission must be completed with a specific squad, and there are no branching paths to speak of. While part of me wishes the story missions gave me the freedom to select my own squad, I was ultimately grateful that the decision was made for me. I’m not sure I could look a member of my squad in the eye and tell them to warm the couch while I sent their friends into danger.
The array of skills associated with each team member can be daunting at times, but their versatility gives you the freedom to produce unexpected results when applied correctly. You also get the option to see how events will play out before committing your actions. If you’re unhappy with how something turned out, you can undo any action up until the start of your turn and try something else.
If this all sounds extremely forgiving, that’s because it is. By default, Tactical Breakthrough Wizards has almost no consequences for your actions, but a series of difficulty sliders allow you to fine-tune your experience to be more challenging. However, the game always allows you to skip a given mission without penalty or missing out on story points.
This level of flexibility encourages experimentation and can lead to authentic big-brain, aha moments. For example, the resurrection ability not only allows you to return energy to your teammates, but can also revive unconscious enemies and force them to target their former allies.
While there are always multiple paths to your goals, the margin for error can sometimes be extremely small, especially when you’re trying to complete a mission’s optional objectives. However, completing these objectives does grant certain characters an extra boost of confidence, which, much like in real life, is the currency required to wear increasingly austere outfits. The outfits provide no tactical bonuses and are purely cosmetic, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t go the extra mile so my necro-medic could wear a pink skeleton hoodie.
Each new mission will slowly dish out new abilities and eventually introduce new teammates into the mix, giving you a larger catalog of tactical options. However, you’ll also be forced to contend with a wider variety of enemies that not only soak up more damage, but also introduce new wrinkles to the tactical puzzle. One bad guy in particular – we’ll call him Greg – will automatically fire back at your team whenever they hurt one of his buddies. I know Greg is only doing his job, but Greg has caused more frustration in my playthrough than just about anyone else. Greg can go to hell.
Between missions, your participating members gain experience that they can use to upgrade their skills, which can drastically change the usefulness of certain team members. For example, Jen can gain an ability that allows her to move after using her magically infused stun baton. Combined with her ability to use a broom (flying through an adjacent window and kicking in another window anywhere on the map), Jen quickly became the MVP of my team.
The expansive single-player experience tells a cohesive, tight-knit story, and there are plenty of optional challenge maps to test your mettle after the credits roll. Tactical Breakthrough Wizards also launched with a fairly intuitive map editor that allows players to create their own missions. The amount of content available at launch is plentiful, but if I had to request one addition, it would be some sort of non-linear campaign.
Games like XCOM and Into the breach offer plenty of emerging narrative moments, with clutch plays and the chance to claim victory against impossible odds. However, the intentional narrative defeats in Tactical Breakthrough Wizardscombined with an excellent sense of humor and satisfying gameplay, make it an enchanting experience for any fan of the genre.
Tactical Breakthrough Wizards was released on August 22 on Windows. The game was reviewed on Windows using a pre-release download code provided by Suspicious Developments Inc. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.