Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is the third stealth tactics game from Mimimi Games, the accomplished team behind Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (and its standalone expansion, Aiko's Choice) and Desperados III. On a basic level, this is a very similar game to those ones, and if you've played those already (and you should, they are excellent), you can jump into this one without too many problems.
To recap, these games are played from an isometric perspective with you controlling a group of characters with different abilities. Your objective is usually to pass through an area patrolled by guards using a mixture of stealth and violence. You can sneak up behind people and knock them out or kill them, but you have to be careful to stay out of the view of other guards (guards have "view cones" so you can see if you're in view, out of view but if you cause a big enough commotion you'll become visible, or out of view altogether). You can hide bodies in water or undergrowth. You can also queue up actions for characters which they can execute simultaneously, to take down multiple opponents, or cause a distraction to allow your other characters to sneak past.
Each character has different abilities, and in Shadow Gambit the supernatural setting means these abilities are whackier and more creative than in the other games. One character can dip in and out of another dimension, snatching enemies away into another universe, or hiding in plain sight. Another character can put enemies and allies into a massive cannon on her back and shoot them to otherwise inaccessible locations. Another character has a flute he can use to lure opponents off their patrol routes to isolated areas where they can be dealt with quietly. A ghostly character can possess enemy guards and wander around in plain view before triggering mayhem. And so on.
The biggest shift in this game is that it adopts a more of flexible approach. Both Shadow Tactics and Desperados III had a linear succession of missions, with you moving from mission to mission. Shadow Gambit instead has a world map showing the Lost Caribbean, with several islands available to visit (and later in the game, all the islands). You have multiple missions available at any time and can choose between the next main story mission, a character-based side-mission, or a challenge or treasure-hunting mission. Each of the eight characters (nine including the DLC, ten including the character you unlock right at the end of the game) has their own multi-part, optional mission which explores more of their backstory and motivation.
In addition, between each mission your crew regroups on your ship, the spooky Red Marley. There are activities that can be undertaken between each mission, including various character-based quests on the ship. The result is that there's a lot to do in the game, with a greater variety of activities.
This doesn't come at the expense of focus though. Shadow Gambit more or less matches Desperado III in game length (about 35 hours) if you focus on doing the main storyline and character side-missions, but with the optional stuff it significantly exceeds it, giving you a solid amount of value for money.
As with the prior games, the games have solid, characterful graphics, great music and nicely reactive controls. The story is quite entertaining, and the way it interfaces with the game mechanics (never before has "Quicksave" been referenced so much as an actual in-game concept) is very clever. There are some issues, particularly with the game still sometimes getting confused over whether you are trying to move to or target an area on the same level or above or below you (occasionally resulting in your character jumping into the midst of a group of enemies for no discernible reason), something I'd hoped they would have fixed after eight years. But in most cases this can be avoided by rotating the camera to a more favourable angle.
A more interesting limitation is that the game doesn't feel quite as tightly-designed as the previous incarnations. Because the previous games were more linear, they knew exactly what characters would be available for which mission, and could design fiendish puzzles for the specific make-up of the crew you knew would be going on that quest. Here, because any combination of characters (up to 3 out of the eventual pool of 10) can go on any quest, the missions by necessity have to be more flexible, to allow for a wide variety of approaches. This makes most missions feel a bit easier than in the prior games. Conversely that makes Shadow Gambit more forgiving for newcomers, who may find this game more accessible than Desperados III or Shadow Tactics.
More unfortunate is the news that, after completing this game, Mimimi decided to call it a day on game development and shut down the company (although they did deliver several updates and two new DLC episodes for the game beforehand). They will very much be missed; Shadow Gambit completes a very fine triptych of enjoyable, intelligent and satisfying stealth 'em ups.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew (****½) lacks the tight and fiendish mission design of their previous two games, but is still a compelling combination of stealth and semi-justified light murder and body-hiding. The game is available now on PC, Xbox X/S and PlayStation 5.
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