Suspicious Developments’ latest builds a witty, wonderfully generous adventure around a smart, rewarding, and endlessly imaginative turn-based tactics core.
Tactical Breach Wizards starts with a bang – literally. Each mission, and even the game itself, begins with a flash of magic and the splintering of wood as doors are blown off their hinges with an endlessly satisfying . It’s a stylish opener that never loses its air-punch thrill, a wonderfully cool moment in a game brimming with them – and just one of the things that makes Suspicious Developments’ turn-based tactics game positively crackle with wit, energy, and charm.
Tactical Breach Wizards reviewDeveloper: Suspicious DevelopmentsPublisher: Suspicious DevelopmentsPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam)
We should probably start with the wizards though. Welcome to a world where magic-wielders are, if not exactly commonplace, far from clandestine. It’s a world where Freelance Storm Witches moonlight as private investigators, where Necromedics can cure anyone of anything as long as they kill them first, where the military employs Navy Seers for their surprisingly useful one-second foresight, where the church has its own oppressive anti-magic police force, and where Traffic Warlocks are called Steve. There’s some stellar world-building in Tactical Breach Wizards, as it blends urban fantasy with taut espionage thrills and military conspiracy, and it’s further enriched by its lovable cast of magical misfits, its warm, witty dialogue, and a surprisingly gripping central yarn.
Suspicious Developments weaves its magic (both the literal kind and otherwise) around a core that, fundamentally at least, isn’t all that different from the myriad post-XCOM turn-based, grid-based tactics games we’ve seen before. Throughout its 20-hour or so runtime, you’ll guide your slowly expanding squad through a globe-hopping series of infiltration missions, each requiring you to complete a string of self-contained, single-room challenges. Sometimes you’ll be storming a police station to rescue a prisoner, other times you’ll move from carriage to carriage as you attempt to commandeer a speeding train – but the constants are the tightly constrained spaces you’re working within, the strategically placed environmental hazards you’re able to exploit, and the enemies you’ll need to deal with along the way.