Gem Wizards Tactics came out back in 2021 for Steam and 2022 for Switch, but frankly, not enough people are talking about it. This delightful turn-based strategy game has five factions to choose from, including Potatoes, and The Business Demons, each of which has its own unique take on how to take out enemy units and eventually win the battle.
Your job is to figure out not only what your faction is good at, but also what each individual unit can do, and then manage the action points needed to actually do things. You can flank enemies to give you a huge advantage, push them off of the map, take advantage of terrain for defensive advantages, or burn the very ground itself to cause damage over time.
It’s an incredibly clever game that not only has you trying to think outside of the box, but basically dismantles the box, puts it into recycling, gives you the idea of a box, and then destroys that too. You can absolutely win your way through the campaigns and missions by just using basic tactics, but if you’re clever, you can do it with the kind of style that many other tactics games can only dream of.
Alongside the five campaigns, there’s a story mode to take on in Gem Wizards Tactics and you can create your own missions as you please as well. It’s just a blast to play, and finding new ways to use old units never gets old. It feels like a mix of Into the Breach and Advance Wars, and that should have just about every tactics fan ready to jump on it. The visual style is great, and this is a perfect game for jumping in for a quick 10-minute battle, or to spend an entire afternoon smashing through one of the campaigns.
