Games about high stakes, globetrotting military operations with the balance of global power at stake are a dime a dozen. But take their automatic weapons and tactical gear and replace them with flying brooms and pointy hats, and now we\u2019re firmly in \u201cthings you don\u2019t see everyday\u201d territory. Tactical Breach Wizards\u2019 imaginative setting pairs well with its snappy and witty script. The actual tactics in its main campaign didn\u2019t challenge my brain as often as its jokes tickled my funny bone, but the small encounters kept a brisk and engaging pace that put hours of my time under a magical handkerchief and made it disappear in a blink of an eye.<\/p>\n
Tactical Breach Wizards is a pretty literal name, all told. Your party, a rag tag group of magic using mercs from all walks of life, take their fight to the enemy one splintered door at a time. While this fits directly into the wheelhouse of Zan, a former black ops agent turned wizard of fortune, there\u2019s no great explanation as to why his old friend Jen, a pretty mid private detective, takes to the explosive breaking and entering so well. But a few missions in, it didn\u2019t seem out of place anymore. A lot of this world feels like pieces of real life and bits of witchy ideas kinda dropped together, with powerful spellcasters who have day jobs as traffic cops. But everything is treated so matter of factly that it all made sense eventually. Of course there\u2019s a powerful mafia of druids featuring a guy who turns into a dog like Snoop in that one music video. Why wouldn\u2019t there be?<\/p>\n
The story is solid enough, following Zan and Jen as they chase a powerful and dangerous operative who can move faster than sound across the planet, but that tale isn\u2019t all that enchanting in and of itself \u2013 especially in the back half where things escalate and get pretty convoluted. The dialogue is absolutely stellar throughout, though. It\u2019s fun and plucky in a way that reminds me of TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. Characters can be funny and vulnerable and sincere all in the same conversation without undermining any of it. There\u2019s a lot of reading to do since there\u2019s no voice acting, but the conversations are so energetic that it doesn\u2019t feel like a drain.<\/p>\n
The dialogue is absolutely stellar throughout.<\/p>\n
Most of the story happens in cutscenes that surround each mission. These turn-based skirmishes are more Chimera Squad than XCOM 2, with characters that have specific ability sets operating on more limited maps with lots of environmental factors to consider. Each encounter starts with the eponymous breach, where you deploy your units across one or many possible infiltration points and figure out your first moves. Having a really good first turn can set the pace for a good mission, but I rarely felt the opposite was true. I could almost always recover from a bad turn thanks to the ability to rewind any actions during it. You always know where your enemy is targeting, so you can always be reactive about mitigating their damage by any means necessary. That said, since you don\u2019t always know where they are going to move the following turn, you still have to be more proactive to get good positioning on the map so that enemies have to react to you.<\/p>\n
As far as your squad of (eventually) five goes, it\u2019s all hits, no misses when it comes to powerful abilities and the creative ways in which you can combo them with each other for big results. Most of your characters don\u2019t fit neatly into well worn archetypes of the genre \u2013 there are no generic mages and fighters here \u2013 but their roles are distinct. Jen is a disrupter who can push several enemies around the level at once. Zan can put down overwhelming damage when mixing in a clone or overwatch-style abilities into his regular actions. Later, you get access to a tank who can switch places with anyone on the map, and can charge into people from long distances. Even through to the end of my 13 hour run, I was finding clever new ways to stunt on my foes.<\/p>\n