Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Shadow Gambit: the Cursed Crew is a masterpiece — it’s just so good. The story is great, the characters are great, I love the choice and new approach to design, I love the incorporation of the meta elements of the saving into the storyline, your ship the Red Marley… I love everything about this.

If you’re a fan of stealth or strategy games, you really should consider Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew a must-play. This is Mimimi Games at its finest, building on the mechanics it finely tuned in Shadow Tactics and Desperados III while also adding more elements, more freedom and more fun. You’ll quickly come to love this band of unusual pirates, and what each of them offers when out in the field. So much so that you might even be tempted to replay missions just to approach things from a different angle.

Honestly, it feels churlish to chide Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew for being too similar to Mimimi Games previous output, not least because this enormously talented studio has a track record of kicking out superb stealth strategy offerings and has once again fashioned a relentlessly engaging tactical stealth effort that is absolutely at the apex of the genre. With Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew however, I'm not sure the concept has ever been executed with this degree of charm and that's something Mimimi Games should be roundly congratulated for.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is one of the best games of the year. From its clever gameplay concoction to its gorgeous presentation, excellent sense of humour, and rewarding character abilities; this is one outstanding seafaring adventure.

Shadow Gambit offers a lot to be happy about. Elaborate levels with lots of possibilities to sculpt your own solution, and wildly different characters to do it with. The game has many quality of life improvements missing from earlier real-time tactical sneak-em up games. This, combined with a very decent price point makes this one of the best starters of a very busy autumn season.

The definitive example of the stealth strategy game and a worthy swansong for developer Mimimi Games, as they deliver a charming and surprisingly accessible pirate swashbuckler.

With a wonderful understanding of player choice, and packed full of things you’ll want to explore, Shadow Gambit is a treasure indeed. Just don’t forget to save! [Issue#31, p.78]

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a challenging tactical game with a fun story and characterful crew. The varied missions do a good job of giving you plenty of options for how to tackle them, leaning into different crew abilities. There's a few rough edges, but Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew’s treasure hunt is well worth partaking in.

The coolest mechanic is the ability to pause the game and give each crew member instructions that they'll all perform in tandem with a tap of the triangle button. Planning a co-ordinated attack and then watching it unfold like clockwork is a pleasure that never gets old, and if you mess the whole thing up you can always just rewind time and tinker with your strategy until you get it right. These moments are Shadow Gambit at its best, and the game in a nutshell; it leaves you feeling like a tactical genius, even if it took you seven tries to get there.