Tactical Breach Wizards

Every market we collect.

Hours played at review time, across 945 reviews with recorded playtime.

positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up

Here is a game that has everything I want: An exceptionally well-written script with delightfully droll and witty characters all of whom are hiding much more depth than it might seem at first glance. (And all of whom I was entirely in love with by the end, especially Dessa Banks, I hope she has a good life.) Truly, excellently balanced combat puzzles that rewards just futzing around with abilities until you crack the exact perfect way to solve a room AND get all the bonus objectives all at once (a delicious dopamine hit, I must say). An uncomplicated story with enough heft to it that it's not just set-dressing, but it's not so over-bearing that the incredible world-building gets over-shadowed by it. And the world-building IS incredible. There is something to be said for a game that starts with a genuinely simple premise: clear rooms with magic; and then expands on that in some incredibly fun directions. Not everyone has magic, but there are some kinds of magic it seems anyone can learn (the breach seals), people unlock their magic only in truly desperate situations and then their magic is one hyper-specific thing. But you can share it with others. Kind of. Also animals have magic too. And it leans so fully into the political and economic ramifications of that. When world-building ties into the plot and that ties into the characters and their motivations and goals and the issues they're wrestling with and none of it can be extracted from the rest without the whole thing falling apart? That's the good ♥♥♥♥. That's aspirational, is what that is. It's a game with very simple mechanics and rules: here are your characters, here's what they can do. Here are the enemy types and what they can do. Solve it. Low bar of entry, high ceiling for mastery. And it keeps adding new enemies all the way through until the end just to keep things spicy. (Some enemy types are way more infuriating than others, but none of them are beyond what your team is capable of. It's like the game is handing you something and saying "this is the challenge, it looks tough, but you have everything you need already" and it's TRUE. And the feeling of rising to that challenge, of meeting the game where it is, that's spectacular. I have never felt smarter, never felt dumber, never been more pleased as when getting through a roomful of twelve guys in one turn and a truly sinful amount of movement coaxed from Jen. I love Jen.) The achievements were a riot of fun also. This game did something I really enjoy from achievements: they had fun with it. Sure, the usual story progression ones, yeah. But the others were such a delight. How much bodily trauma can you inflict on a single enemy with Dall's charge? Let's find out. How much of an insult is it to just straight up ignore Steve Clark Traffic Warlock in the final confrontation? Yeah, he's never recovering. What happens if you target yourself with Jen's chain lightning skill? Exactly that, yes, and now you have an achievement for it, congrats. And there's one for throwing yourself out a window also. Good job, wizard! This game is such a spectacular creation; I'm obsessed, I'm sorry it took me so long to get to it, I miss the characters already. Go play it right now.