Tactical Breach Wizards review

Suspicious Developments sure like it when you throw people through windows. In fact, Tactical Breach Wizards is considered the third entry in their “Defenestration Trilogy”, which previously included two fairly fiendish action-puzzle games, Gunpoint and Heat Signature. Now they’ve taken their strategic expertise to the world of turn-based tactics in a game that’s decidedly more MiMiMi than Firaxis.

See, the world of Tactical Breach Wizards is a lot like our world, only there’s magic. And wizards. And warlocks. And some of them direct traffic. In this world, magic is just a fact of life. This is no secret society story like The Dresden Files; people just do magic, alongside mundane, normal things like you and I.

It focuses on two protagonists, Zan and Jen. The former is an ex-Black Ops specialist who can predict the future and use this skill to lay down overwatch-like traps, while the latter is a hard-bitten private eye who can use shockwaves to throw people around rooms and, yes, out of windows. In fact, windows are so integral to most of your tactics that there’s a character later who can literally conjure one if you need it.

Perhaps Tactical Breach Wizard’s biggest departure from its predecessors is its overall lack of difficulty. This is not brain-breaking stuff for the most part, and nor does it need to be. Whereas something like XCOM works by limiting your abilities and making it very possible to bring the wrong team along, anyone who’s played games like Shadow Gambit or even Chimera Squad will know that it’s more fun to be pretty overpowered, so they only way to really fail is miss an opportunity. But even then, TBW lets you rewind for free as often as you like, cutting out the arse-ache of save-scumming.

Most missions involve clearing out a series of rooms with an increasing number of enemies which act like puzzles rather than action sequences. You shout “Breach!” and burst through the doors in a shower of magic sparks and splinters, and then get to taking out whatever’s in there. Sometimes there are doors that need sealing before reinforcements can come through, occasionally there are boss fights. Quite often, you’ll have secondary objectives to complete that grant extra XP for unlocking the perks of your five recruitable characters.

If the world of Tactical Breach Wizards is a strength, though, then it’s fair to say the story is one of its few weaknesses. It’s not badly told, and in fact the dialogue manages to be witty and touching despite none of it being spoken aloud, but it fails to maintain momentum. What begins with a hostage rescue gone wrong soon becomes a trip around the world, taking on the “Druid Mafia”, but the odd-pairing of a special forces soldier and a grumpy gumshoe never feels like it quite makes sense.

Simple, sharp graphics, responsive controls and intelligent level design work in its favour though. You probably won’t really feel challenged until you start working on the individual story missions, called Anxiety Dreams, that strongly resemble the training missions from Shadow Gambit in that they focus purely on that character’s kit and require you to use it to its fullest capability. You’ll eventually unlock Proving Grounds missions, too, which offer the only real challenge.

It’s not to say Tactical Breach Wizards is a walk in the park, of course, but anyone who was raised on XCOM and has a perverse fondness for whiffing a 95% chance-to-hit from three feet away might feel like they’re being baby-sat. Weirdly, if you do struggle with a mission, you can just skip it and come back later, or not all. You run the risk of being underpowered later, though, so that’s a choice you’ll have to make.

My ultimate takeaway from Tactical Breach Wizards is that I simply didn’t expect it be so refreshing. Having a game like this not deliberately pound my nuts flat for a laugh is a breath of fresh shrapnel as it is, but the confident writing (which does veer a little too close to a Joss Whedon quip-a-thon now and then) and the laidback approach to challenge and structure make it feel like a game designed to be fun first and foremost. If any of the Defenestration games to get a sequel, it seems more likely that it will be this one. The world is cool and has a lot more to give, while the breadth of special moves and abilities really is only limited by imagination.