u/Blurzerker

RELEASE: 2024

TIME PLAYED: 12 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★★★

The Breakdown

+Absolutely masterful writing, with distinct characters, a compelling plot, and gut-busting humor

+Entertainingly tactical but accessible blend of XCOM tactics and puzzle gameplay

+Immaculate pacing that doesn't outstay its welcome with optional challenges for those wanting more difficulty

-Can't think of a single negative on this one, to be quite honest

Tactical Breach Wizards is everything I love about indie gaming: A clever concept immaculately executed that doesn't outstay its welcome or dilute its own charms with feature bloat. In an era of bloated budgets, creeping scope and extraneous features, this turn-based tactics/puzzle hybrid used humor and charm to strike a chord with me and made for one of my favorite games of all time.

As insane as the name 'Tactical Breach Wizards' sounds, it's about as accurate a title as you can get. The story follows Zan, a retired special ops wizard in a mystical modern world where automatic assault staves and traffic control warlocks are very real things; while the ability to use magic is rare, it has shaped the culture and nations of this setting considerably. With the ability to see exactly one second into the future, Zan is a capable specialist - but not as capable as his former partner, Liv, whose mastery over time makes her possibly the strongest woman alive, unstoppable even by entire teams of other sorcerers.

Yeah, she goes rogue. Of course she does.

Desperate to find out what went wrong in the two years since she disappeared but woefully outmatched, Zan recruits luckless storm witch Jen, necro-medic Dessa, and other allies to track Liv down and stop her from committing increasingly alarming and confusing acts of terror. It's a solid plot, but where it really shines is as a vehicle to deliver the characters from setpiece to setpiece both for elaborate tactical puzzles and to display their dazzling chemistry.

Zan is a bit of a sad sack, but beneath that is a well of experience, dry humor, self-awareness, and a desperate need to fix problems. This makes him a perfect mesh with Jen and her happy-go-lucky nature, knack for sniffing out mysteries, and occasional startling observations towards everyone else's inner workings while remaining almost willfully oblivious of her own. Their personalities, and those of the other eventual three playable pary members, not only make for incredible banter - seriously, this game rivals Disco Elysium in having my favorite dialogue ever - but summarize their playstyles as well. Honestly, I could write an entire second review just about the game's character dynamics and writing - they're that good, and despite the cutting throughline of humor, each feels distinct and complex, avoiding the flattening of their depth that often accompanies such a tone.

Each level of Tactical Breach Wizards is effectively a series of rooms full of enemies with either one or multiple breaching points. On first glance, it might seem similar to XCOM: Chimera Squad, the spinoff notable for removing the strategic layer from the long-running franchise and focusing entirely on SWAT Team-style encounters. But while Chimera Squad was still a tactics game at its core, Tactical Breach Wizards hews closer to solving puzzles than anything. You CAN play it like XCOM, and you'll probably get through it fine, but it somewhat begs for taking more liberties than the safest and low-risk shots possible.

For one thing, there's no hit percentages or ambiguity; thanks to Zan's power, you can see exactly how each turn will go before you do it, and even rewind repeatedly to experiment without any risk. Enemy actions are similarly foreshadowed; if a foe is going to target Jen for moving into cover near them, it's made immediately and abundantly clear. As a result, the challenge comes not from beating levels - doing so is honestly pretty easy - but from finding the most efficient and fun ways to do so. Sure, you COULD just take that guy out with a basic attack, but wouldn't it be hilarious to knock him into a generator to weaken him, line him up with his ally, and knock them off the wall until they're unconscious like a pair of bowling pins? Optional challenges direct the player to experiment along these lines, but only reward cosmetics to ensure those not interested don't feel left out, and respeccing each character is free and easy.

If you're familiar with the window-busting love of defenestration that developer Suspicious Developments has a long-standing obsession with in previous titles Gunpoint and Heat Signature, it's likely little surprise that the emphasis is ultimately on physics and how to exploit it not just offensively but defensively. Even the writing gets in on this, with the characters having spirited discussions about the safest and most non-lethal way to ward the windows to slowfall anyone they chuck out of them. This feedback loop of charming prose, encouraging creativity, and engaging the player is what makes it all click despite the lack of forced challenge, and some later levels throw curveballs that have as much narrative weight as gameplay impact. I can't even playfully accuse Tactical Breach Wizards of leaving me wanting more; the optional content is exactly the right epilogue, letting the player engage with its mechanics even after the well-told story ends.

It's extremely rare that I call a game perfect, but Tactical Breach Wizards is lean and focused in all the right ways to be exactly that, at least for me. Some people might crave a bit more mandatory difficulty in the core path, but it's so fun to replay levels and spice things up with different playstyles that I couldn't complain, and the writing is pitch-perfect. While the gameplay kept me interested, what really won my heart was how much I wound up invested in every single character and how emotional I found certain moments despite the otherwise frequently comedic tone. For these reasons, I put Tactical Breach Wizards very high on my must-play list.

RELEASE: 2018

TIME PLAYED: 5.5 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★★☆

Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It | Loved It | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

THE BREAKDOWN

+Unique co-op gameplay that pushes variety to the limits

+Surprisingly strong story despite generic appearances

+Well-paced, with few minigames ever outstaying their welcome

-Artstyle is pretty dull

-Some of the slower scenes don't land due to occasionally awkward writing

-Shooting sequences handle pretty badly

Hazelight Studios has made it pretty big these days thanks to the blockbuster success of It Takes Two and Split Fiction, and creative lead Josef Fares has been making some waves with his co-op oriented games since Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. My own brother and I were looking for something to co-op and decided to dive into A Way Out, Hazelight's first game and Fares' sophomore effort, with mild curiosity - and came away pleasantly surprised, if convinced that what we'd played wouldn't have been half as fun alone.

The setup is simple, and suitably compelling: Leo and Vincent are a pair of imprisoned convicts in 1972 who each have a grudge against Harvey, Leo's former partner and a notable crime boss. Vincent, a new arrival, winds up assisting Leo with his escape plan so that they can both get their revenge on the man who wronged them. The motivations aren't complex and Leo and Vincent's early arguments can occasionally be difficult to take seriously as the protagonists' EXTREMELY Swedish voice actors struggle a bit to sound like hardened American criminals, but we found ourselves wrapped up quickly nonetheless in the plot, if only because it was so well-integrated into the gameplay.

As far as what that gameplay entails, well, that's difficult to summarize succintly. In the most basic sense, A Way Out is made up of a series of minigames, each respresenting the duo's efforts to escape prison and get their revenge. One player might need to sneak through the prison hospital to steal a screwdriver while the other distracts the nurse; later, Vincent has to cover Leo's back in a vicious fight in the cafeteria, the two exchanging blows with a group of fellow convicts trying to run them through with shivs. Much later, they chase an informant through a construction site, alternating paths to box him in and keep him in sight. For the most part, the variety on display is impressive, and the execution is uniquely entertaining to watch. Cinematic camera angles, alternating between split-screen simultaneous play and rapid back-and-forth with the focus on one player at a time, always kept my brother and I guessing, and optional minigames - like comically stopping in the middle of breaking-and-entering a house to hold a spontaneous concert with the person we're robbing's musical instruments - are an opportunity for both co-operation and competition.

That said, there's still a few misses. Inevitably, fistfights and car chases eventually escalated to gunfights, and those handled absolutely terribly. There were also a couple of plot twists that weren't necessarily bad, but more like irrelevant; a betrayal that had no payoff, for example. Still, the game's storyline ends on a high note and an interesting encounter, so it's hard to knock these occasional stumbles too hard.

All in all, A Way Out is such a unique co-op game that it's difficult not to recommend - if you're co-oping it. (Small note, only one copy has to be bought for this! Buying the game gave me a 'friend pass' that let my brother play with me for free). Unless you want to use two controllers or risk unstable mods, it doesn't work as a solo game - but as an experience with a partner, it's unique, matched only by Hazelight's own future games. It's exciting to see what can be done in the medium, especially for more storytelling-oriented games, with an experience built from the ground up for two players.

RELEASE: 2024

TIME PLAYED: 18 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★☆☆

THE BREAKDOWN

+Well-paced and doesn't outstay its welcome, with nice variety in gameplay for its runtime

+Compelling aesthetics, with a good number of unique environments and NPC designs

+A good mix of weapons enabling multiple playstyles

+Interesting and varied boss designs that feel like major battles

+Extremely fun traversal and shortcut mechanics while exploring

-Missing a lot of polish, doesn't look good enough to run this poorly

-Animations are stiff enough that reading enemy attacks can be sometimes awkward

-Characters are fine but mostly uninteresting

I'm in a weird space between really liking Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn and mourning its missed potential. There's nothing particularly wrong with the game - in fact, it's rock-solid in most respects - but while I admire the ambition on display on a middling budget, the magic that really might have elevated it into a special experience isn't quite there, as enjoyable as it was in the moment.

Inspired by the likes of Soulsbornes and the newer God of War games, Flintlock's a 'cinematic third-person action game' that tries to blend the two to uneven effect. There's a lot to like, not least of which is the setting, which I found immediately compelling. In an endless war against the undead, protagonist Nor Vanek serves the human Coalition as a Sapper - a trench warfare expert with skill in black powder firearms, a new technology in the fantastical setting. When her squad's actions inadvertently release ancient gods from the realm beyond, Nor teams up with a fox-like deity named Enki to recapture them and restore balance to the world.

It doesn't take long for these released gods to start seizing power, so Nor has plenty of opposition along her way to stop them. Though enemies are primarily of the undead variety, there are loyalists to this new order that also need to be dealt with. It's fighting these foes that makes up most of the game's runtime, and all in all, the combat system works pretty well. As a Sapper, Nor is skilled in both melee and ranged battle. Landing hits with her melee weapon recharges her pistol (don't ask why), and Enki serves as a helpful companion who can strip defenses, stun, and deal damage with a single button press. As I mentioned before, there's a Souls-lite system here; there's no stamina to limit Nor's offense, but enemies hit hard and viciously punish mistakes, necessitating ample amounts of dodge-rolling on the player's part. Luckily, Nor also gains access to heavy weaponry that can even the odds in tougher fights, like a grenade launcher and flamethrower.

When not battling the armies of the dead and clashing with brainwashed zealots, Nor travels from zone to zone across a handful of semi-open world maps, assisting the oppressed townsfolk by -- well, battling the armies of the dead and clashing with brainwashed zealots, mostly. But while there isn't a ton of variety, I still found a lot to appreciate. Defeating roaming bosses can restore districts, which unlocks the local coffee shop that serves as a side quest hub. As simple as it was, I got some enjoyment out of catching up on the local gossip while being served brew by a gargantuan, inhuman barista (their designs are REALLY cool). In true Soulsborne fashion, exploration is expedited through the use of unlocking shortcuts to make backtracking easier, but in Flintlock's case, they went above and beyond. Instead of unbarring doors or activating elevators, Nor borrows Enki's power to leap through miniature gates of pure energy; while not displaying the impressive map design chops of the genre's titans, I loved hurtling across the map at breakneck speed, enjoying an aerial view of the region below.

There are a couple of other highlights - boss battles are infrequent but enjoyable, with unique designs, and I liked seeing how my build crystallize throughout the game, turning me into a pyromaniac bruiser who dealt exponentially more damage the longer I set my enemies on fire and chopped them with an axe - but all in all, Flintlock is consistently decent, and I say that recognizing how faint its praise is. There are no elements I would say are fundamentally bad, but there's also very little that brushes up against greatness. Nor and Enki are fine protagonists, but not exceptionally memorable; the combat is functional and usually fun but not great; the worldbuilding and lore are interesting, but the story's a little too sparse to really do much with it. Flintlock frequently entertained me and occasionally delighted me, but I was rarely impressed, and Souls-inspired ARPGs are a pretty crowded market. I do still think it's worth playing, especially on a sale - I just hope developer A4's next game is a little bit more inspired.

LIKE A DRAGON: THE MAN WHO ERASED HIS NAME REVIEW

RELEASE: 2023

TIME PLAYED: 28 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★★☆

THE BREAKDOWN:

+The most meaningful character development Kiryu's gotten in years

+Responsive and polished combat even compared to other recent Yakuza games

+An interesting cast that's small enough for everyone to get screentime and focus

+Plotline is mostly one of Yakuza's stronger ones

-The Daidoji can be difficult to take seriously as more than a convenient plot device

-The 'agent gadgets' are extremely inconsistent in their usefulness

-Kiryu's English voice actor can be monotone and doesn't nail his performance

---

It's been a long, strange, tragic journey for Kazuma Kiryu. After being forced to abandon everyone he's ever known to protect them from the fallout of his Yakuza lifestyle in 2016's Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, Kiryu has gone into hiding with the help of the Daidoji, a powerful Japanese syndicate that controls many government agencies and criminal organizations from the shadows. In return for completely disappearing and faking his death, Kiryu's given protection by the Daidoji, but this comes with strings attached: namely, that he has to perform jobs for them while in disguise. Sunglasses and insisting on being called 'Joryu' count as a disguise, right?

It's a bit of a convoluted setup, but for anyone used to the ups and downs of your average Yakuza game storyline, that's standard fare - and one should probably be used to them before touching Man Who Erased His Name. While there's room to argue about how well many games in the long-running series work as jumping on points, it's hard to think of one that'd be worse than this; much of the plot's gravitas and best moments are dependent on knowing Kiryu's history and having experienced his story up until this point. It's a spinoff in name only - it's best to treat it as a critical chapter in the tale of its protagonist.

For those players, however, it's a top-class experience. When a simple guard job goes wrong - surprise surprise, there's a powerful Yakuza faction who's very much aware Kiryu's still alive and has business with him - the legendary Dragon of Dojima has to step back into the ring while simultaneously minimizing how much of an impact he makes. With the help of his Daidoji handler, Hanawa, and a local fixer named Akame, Kiryu begins investigating the seedy underbelly of Sotenbori. It's difficult to speak much more on the storyline without getting buried in proper nouns related to the prolific franchise, but what I can say is it's one of the series' better tales, carried in large part by its main cast and some twists that feel believable while still having capacity to surprise. Akame is a particular standout; I've long wanted more women to have big roles in the series, and she's both funny and helpful, adding levity while serving a necessary purpose. My only real qualm narratively was with the Daidoji as a whole's role in the plot at times; they conveniently swap between laughably incompetent and ominously omnipresent at the drop of a hat, and didn't feel like they had the same weight as the core characters.

When he's not being embroiled in Yakuza conspiracies - and often while he is - Kiryu spends most of his time, in franchise tradition, beating the hell out of street goons and taking part in frequently absurd side stories. His infamous Dragon of Dojima combat style feels better than ever, and is accompanied by the new Agent style, a technical and finesse-oriented form that implements James Bond-esque gadgets. The gadgets themselves are a bit finicky - while I found the rocket boots and deployable wire invaluable, the summoned drones and cigarette bombs just sucked compared to beating the hell out of people -- but the rest of the style rips, and it's extremely cool to see Kiryu, after decades of brawling, mixing in some skillful martial arts.

Ultimately, Man Who Erased His Name doesn't break any new ground for the franchise, but it's well-executed, consistent, and outside of a few minor quibbles, narratively compelling. While it's extremely dependent on being familiar with at least the events of Yakuza 6 if not the entire series to really shine, it's an exceptional action game and a tale of sacrifice that, in true Yakuza spirit, is a often hilarious as it is heart-rending.