Tom Francis' strategy spell-slinger Tactical Breach Wizards has entered limited beta testing on Steam—and the developer has released a new gameplay trailer to show off more of its arcane tactics puzzles.
The brief mission shows off the magical synergies of your supernatural enforcers. We're introduced to the Navy Seer, who can use his foresight to see where foes will move and shoot, setting up traps that can be activated by the Storm Witch's knockback spells. He can even give his teammates a handy little mana boost, making him a valuable tool for controlling the field.
There's a lot to juggle, between perfect placement, mana management, abilities, and objectives—never minding the disgruntled cops pointing guns your way. Fortunately, Breach Wizards lets you rewind moves freely before ending your turn. Handy for balancing all the moves at your disposal, though I can easily imagine spending far, far too long agonising over whether I'm making the perfect play.
Francis has also slightly changed the design of certain characters—specifically, the "Witch Cop" Jen, who is now a private investigator with no ties to the police. While the game never had you actually playing as cops, her design conflicted with that framing and drew uncomfortable comparisons to real-world policing.
"The cop version of her story had other problems: if her issues with her department had no bearing on real world ones, it felt evasive and uncritical," Francis explains. "If they relate to real world issues, it became an unpleasantly real reminder of traumatic stuff that felt out of place with the lighter elements of the game."
Tactical Breach Wizards is using Steam's new Playtest feature for its beta. To jump in, you'll want to hit "Request Access" over on the game's Steam page. Francis will be bringing in a "small batch" at first, before opening up testing to roughly a thousand people before the beta ends in three weeks.
