No Plan B is a fiendishly clever breach-and-clear puzzle game

polygon.com:

No Plan B is a game that frontloads all of its tactical thinking into a stretch at the start before the action actually begins. I take control of a squad of attackers who have to breach and clear an area, which is filled with traps, defenders, and obstacles. The good news is that I have tons of tactics and tools at my disposal. The bad news is that I only get one shot to get things right — hence the name.

Franchises like Rainbow Six have built huge fan bases on the strategy and tension inherent to a special operations team breaching and clearing a structure. The indie game No Plan B, which entered early access at the end of 2021, seeks to capture this thrill. Developer GFX47 Games goes about this carefully; instead of being tempted to round the game out and add more features and variety, No Plan B instead focuses on the marquee feature: the pre-mission timeline.

In this window, I have an unlimited amount of time to mess with my options and determine my plan. These sequencesare complex, nuanced, and demand careful plotting. There’s a timeline that shows how things should proceed; if my teams split up, I want to make sure they can meet again safely. Every bit of data is at my fingertips: field of view, weapons and gear, and a 3D map of the location I’m clearing. I have to plan every stage of the mission; after my SWAT team (or team of FBI agents, or gang of criminals… ) knocks down the door, I have to make sure they pivot correctly, sweep the room and eliminate threats, and react to whatever else might be lying in wait.

But here’s the catch: After I plan everything and hit go, my guys go, and there’s not a lot I can do if things go to hell. A typical No Plan B puzzle has me trying a few different tactics and sending my