5 – Invisible Inc.
Invisible Inc. is one of the original Early Access success stories that proved Steam’s new program (released just the year prior) could work when the team behind it was as talented and passionate as it was. Invisible Inc. reverses the logic of turn-based combat and turns it into a turn-based avoid-combat genre where the main goal of your team of spies is to remain undetected and deal with the biggest amount of damage possible without the enemy ever finding out until you’re long gone. Every move ticks the clock forward, and with each passing turn, the corporations you’re hacking and stealing your way through become more and more aware that something is going on, and start to increase their security. Will you remain to fulfill all side objectives and get the biggest reward possible? Or do the bare essentials and remain hidden? It’s a tense experience that subverts expectations in the best possible way. Oh, and the game has a beautiful hand-drawn art style that’s a joy to look at.
4 – Gears Tactics
I think that Gears Tactics is yet another TBS that joined the cast of The Lamplighters League, Chimera Squad, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns as a game that’s legitimately amazing in every way, but was constantly shouted at for not being XCOM. Having played it quite extensively, I think that Gears Tactics is one of the best games in the genre, and the Gears franchise lends itself perfectly to turn-based. You know, with the high-waist cover and third-person perspective, nothing looks out of place. Gears frees the player from the dictatorship of squares and hexes, and gives them full freedom of movement, amps up the pace by adding a third action point, and downed enemy units are vulnerable to melee kills, an action that refunds another action point. Enemies are a thing that Gears Tactics has in abundance, so kill-chaining several enemies won’t be a rare occurrence, but perfectly reflects the explosive action and power fantasy that made Gears into the successful franchise it is today.
3 – Tactical Breach Wizards
I can only imagine the first meeting of the Suspicious Developments team when setting up the story for Tactical Breach Wizards: “Hey! What if XCOM, but with wizards?!” Brilliant. Just brilliant. Whoever thought of that, I just want you to know that you’re a beautiful human being, and we all love you.
Jokes aside, Tactical Breach Wizards is one of the most tasteful strategy games of the last decade, and one of the all-time greats when it comes to turn-based strategy, given its lovely (but semi-serious) setting of special operation wizards paired with a charming story and characters, and incredibly designed main missions as well as side-challenges. You know when the main mechanic of a game is to defenestrate people, that you’re jumping into something special.
2 – Cyber Knights: Flashpoint
I’m currently playing Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, and if there’s a word to describe this one, it’s definitely complex. And not complex in a way that’s thrown around often to describe a new mechanic, or a new stat that changes things just slightly enough. No no. We’re talking about extreme unit customization, dozens of abilities, stats, classes, and weapons. Combat has everything you expect to find in a cyberpunk in the neon-soaked dystopia of 23rd-century New Boston. It distinguishes itself from genre giants like XCOM by focusing on high-stakes heists where stealth, hacking, and environmental manipulation are just as vital as firepower. On the tutorial alone, you’ll learn more combinations and mechanics that most other games in this list will give you, making it, quite possibly, the hardest game to learn, but it’s by far the one that will give you the most freedom and allow for the greatest level of replayability.
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