Tactical Breach Wizards

Knew it was going to be good based on the name and aesthetic. Was shocked to find it was even better based on the writing and mechanics. This game tells a war espionage story using conventional magic classes as factions at war, and includes concepts like "The Druid Mafia" who have poison-slinging hitmen and "Riot Priests" who carry massive shields and censer flails. It all sounds ridiculous but it's all played almost entirely straight, leading to some of the most fascinating worldbuilding I've seen in ages. All of the setdressing is done through spoken dialogue, which is also a highlight- the characters are extremely well fleshed out, and while a lot of the conversations have a jokey edge to them, it sticks the landing and is still all pretty funny. The best way I can describe it is "someone pretty online clearly wrote this, but you know for a fact they're really good at posting." The levels play out more like a puzzle than a war game, and while a lot of them have a "right" solution, you can go ham in a dozen different ways and still find success. Placement is infinitely more important than raw damage output, and most of your abilities revolve around moving yourself or the enemy where you need them to go. It's extremely easy to undo a move and try some other approaches, and you're probably going to have to. Also, you're gonna throw a LOT of dudes out of a LOT of windows, and it's never not gonna be satisfying. I only played through the story and had a great deal of fun with it, but there's a host of extra challenge missions to check out as well. Absolutely fantastic.

A sincerely funny, smart, and heartfelt game that I enjoyed every moment of. One of the few games where I finished every mission and challenge to earn every star. And I loved every moment of it!

This game is all about the clever tactical puzzles. There are multiple ways around most scenarios, but you'll typically spot what you're meant to do. Abilities for characters unlock over time, but it's fairly snappy, meaning you get to play with most things for most of the game. After a handful of missions your initial two characters are pretty much full power beyond XP used to give very meaningful improvements to stuff; for example, the tactical Gandalf dude Zan is a chronomancer who quickly unlocks the ability to summon a clone of himself for enemies to target. You can power this up in a few ways, but I chose to have it interact with stuff on my first upgrade, meaning it closes most reinforcement doors, then refunds its cost so you can do it again. In practice this means if you can position him near a few reinforcement doors, you can close all of them at once. And then you can upgrade so it shoots at something nearby. And then you can upgrade Zan to fire supporting shots if someone uses their basic attack... and his clones also have that ability. Despite being able to find cool wombo combos, scenarios are pretty tight and don't just become a cakewalk. Challenge missions are available, but only provide points to let you buy outfits. It makes you think, but never feels so crazy it's frustrating. Every turn you can see what's going to happen and can rewind your entire turn if you want at no cost. You're incentivized to do it. If no enemies are going to attack you, it'll say no one is doing anything else (except some movement). Blast areas are specified on the ground. Did an effect not play out like you wanted? Rewind it and try from a different angle. That's Zan's whole thing, see. It's an actual in-game reason why these ops are so tightly performed. You can tunnel through all possibilities of the turn until you find the one you want. You can't skip back in time more than current turn because his ability is one second at a time, and each turn is thus implied to be one second in scale. Characters are varied. There aren't really any mega fireballs or anything here. Enemies are knocked into walls or thrown out windows, PG movie rating "death" style that's actually hinted to automatically have a feather fall attached. The necrosurgeon shoots people with a magical revolver than brings em back, acting as a weird healer and necromancer all in one. I wouldn't call it family friendly, but it's skirting that edge.

I don't think I've ever laughed so much playing a game. A+++ dialog.

Fun twist on the classic turn-based tactics genre that's challenging but not punishing. Well-written characters and funny dialogue in the vein of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. Characters' internal conflicts sometimes lean a little too heavily into trauma dumping and therapy speak but the writer at least had the decency to make it amusing to watch. Gameplay is engaging and well-balanced, and there's more than enough to justify the $20 price tag.

I haven't even finished this game but it might just be the best game ever made. It absolutely slaps. The gameplay feels like Into The Breach meets XCOM, without the ball-crushing sensation those games sometimes provide. Every mission and confidence goal feels like a (very solveable) puzzle. And the story? It's great! I never thought I'd get into it more than "haha wizards with guns funny" but the plot throws some genuine curveballs and has some emotional beats that really resonated with me. The characters feel very human, which isn't something I'd expect from wizards that wisecrack every two minutes. As I said, it might be the best game ever made, and I stand by that. Edit - Finished the game, its brilliant

Neat story with fun characters and tricky tactical gameplay.

great world building and really fun tactical gameplay, glad i tried it.