Back in June, I got to preview Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew ahead of Steam Next Fest and the game immediately shot up in my most anticipated games of the year list. Coming from Desperados III developer MiMiMi Games, Shadow Gambit marks the first time the developer is publishing their own project, giving them control over how they market and present their latest tactical RPG. I won’t beat around the bush here, after over 30 hours with the game, Shadow Gambit is easily one of my favorites of the year and, in many ways, has lived up to expectations. However, two notable points hold it back from being a truly flawless experience.
Let’s take it from the top. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew follows Afia Manicato, an undead cursed pirate who frees the sentient ship, the Red Marley, and takes on the role of Navigator. Their goal is the same as any ambitious pirate and their trusty time-manipulating ship: find treasure. Along with a crew of undead, they set out to solve Black-Eye Mordacei’s riddle and find his famed loot. Afia and the Marley will sail around the Lost Caribbean and revive the Captain’s old crewmates in the process. Before long, the empty and quiet ghost ship slowly gets more lively as colorful and talkative undead walk the deck. The ending is pretty expected but the twists along the way are clever and the conclusion to the grand adventure is, much like the overall gameplay, satisfying.
One thing that Shadow Gambit nails right off the bat is the presentation. The numerous islands of the Lost Caribbean are well developed and the intro videos that play when you first see each island further drive that point home. The Timeless Shores have a history and the teases we get of that while Afia firmly cements herself in it are enticing. Each island manages to have a distinct look and feel while also feeling cohesive. The diorama-like maps are nicely crafted and crawling (literally) with small details like crabs and snakes for when you zoom in all the way. There are only a handful of maps but they don’t get repetitive thanks to their sizeable layout (you can do two missions on the same island and see contrasting sides each time) and the difference in the map based on time of day is… well… night and day.
Of course, my praise for the presentation continues to the sound department as well. The theatrical vocal performances match the unique flair each character has in their design. A nice touch to this is having character interaction dialogue change based on who you picked for your mission. As you play the game, you’ll sometimes hear one character comment on another’s abilities. The writing is good and the voice acting is fittingly impressive. The swashbuckling tone is accentuated by the music. MiMiMi has teamed up with Desperados III composer, Filippo Beck Peccoz, once more and the tracks are amazing. The music of Shadow Gambit feels adventurous and light-hearted, mimicking the tone of tracks from the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Before I state my first critique of the game, I want to admit that it is a bit subjective and though I feel one way about it, someone else might not mind it at all. I think Shadow Gambit has some pacing issues. I rolled credits on the game at the 31-hour mark and I went in knowing it would be that long based on Desperados III 26-hour time to beat, but Shadow Gambit slows the narrative pace in the second act to extend gameplay length. This isn’t all bad news because that gameplay loop is solid, but that lul shifts the focus away from the story and it doesn’t earn it back until the end of the third act which, for some, might be too late.
Now let’s get to the actual gameplay. MiMiMi’s last few games are notable tactical RPGs, which, even I’ll admit, is an intimidating genre to approach. The official Steam page for Shadow Gambit may still tag it as such but MiMiMi prefers to classify it as a stealth strategy title. This niche rebranding perfectly describes the gameplay loop of Shadow Gambit and looking at MiMiMi’s stealth-focused work on Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Desperados III it is clear that this is what they have been perfecting.
Your time in Shadow Gambit will be split between the deck of the Marley and one of the various islands of the Lost Caribbean. While on the ship, you will be completing smaller tasks and objectives like speaking to different characters and interacting with specific items. From the ship, you use Afia’s role as Navigator to pick what mission, what island, what landing spot, and what crew you want to embark on. Once on the map, you will be in charge of controlling each character and using their unique abilities to finish the task at hand.
Whatever difficulty you pick, the general gist of the gameplay loop is the same; don’t get spotted. You have to monitor enemy movement patterns, analyze view cones (including head rotation), and use the environment (bushes, carts, etc.) to decide how best to approach each encounter. You can move each character individually, pair them up, or command them all at once. Shadow Gambit is at its best when you execute a plan. By pressing up on the d-pad you can pause the game world and take your time to scheme a plot. Give each character one action and execute that plan to watch it all fall apart or come together. There’s an inherent rush in the testing of an idea that makes Shadow Gambit‘s gameplay loop so satisfying and despite what I might have said in moments of frustration, I can say with confidence that the often puzzle-like nature of approaching an objective makes it so enjoyable upon completion.
Like I said earlier, each supernatural character has their own supernatural abilities and who you choose will impact how you’ll play. Some characters are focused on distracting enemies and making them wander off their normal path (like Toya) while others are about stealth kills (like John Mercury). They all have a good balance with enough of a drawback for each that no one character feels too overpowered. While you will undoubtedly have your favorites to play, Shadow Gambit incentivizes you to mix things up with the promise of faster level progression to unlock better abilities. Unlike other stealth games, Shadow Gambit doesn’t punish you for experimenting. I won’t name names, though I’m sure we all know of a few, but trying something cool and blowing your cover usually means game over. And there’s the added sting of loading the last save and realizing you have to replay a bunch of the level. By encouraging you to play around with character abilities and game mechanics, Shadow Gambit removes the stink around save-scumming in favor of rewarding stealth gameplay.
The great thing about that gameplay is that a lot of it is baked into the narrative. The Inquisition controls most of the islands in the Lost Caribbean and since they are on the hunt for undead pirates, it makes perfect sense that you have to be stealthy while you’re completing missions. The game encourages experimentation and instead of just suggesting it in a tutorial box, the capturing and unleashing of memories is a narrative plot point and the special power of the Red Marley. And then there’s the Crew Tales and [Redacted for Spoilers], which are sort of side missions that work to better develop the crewmates as characters at your side rather than accessories to your mission. It has been a long time since I have seen gameplay and worldbuilding so beautifully mixed.
While my previous gripe about pacing was subjective, this next point is not. I don’t usually talk about the score in my reviews but I can say that this one issue brought the score down for me and your mileage may vary based on when you play the game and your general luck. As I’ve said, frequently saving is a key part of the game and so it’s quite hard to ignore save issues when playing. This happened to me right from the first memory you capture, which forced me to restart the game. Every time I walked up to the point where the game would save, it gave me the saving animation for a minute and then a pop-up saying there was a problem with saving. You can keep playing despite the error but the problem occurs when, just a few seconds later, you get your first scripted death and have to respawn. When I did, the game spawned me on a green fog-filled map where I couldn’t move.
Restarting wasn’t a huge deal for me because it was fifteen minutes into the game and, thinking it might be a memory issue on my end, I deleted 100GB worth of games off my Xbox SSD. Unfortunately, this issue reared its ugly head multiple times throughout my playthrough. The issues ranged from hiccups that let me save after a few errors (I just kept playing and retried saving every few minutes until the error went away) to ones that forced me to abandon the mission altogether and retry it. Considering the fact that the missions in Shadow Gambit can range anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, that was a risk I didn’t like looming over me as I played and it, to some degree, tainted my overall experience with the game.
I have a few quick things to touch on before I wrap up this review. Firstly, the build I played back in June was on PC so I didn’t quite know how the game would translate to controller and thankfully it’s pretty smooth. There is still a learning curve and certain actions (like juggling crewmates in some of the later missions) can make you feel like you’re Scarlet Witch, but for a tactical RPG, the game is pretty intuitive. As a whole, Shadow Gambit is very beginner-friendly and if you ever feel overwhelmed by it or find it too difficult, you can tweak settings to your liking. To put it simply, Shadow Gambit places all of its finely tuned tools at your disposal and gives you a stealth sandbox for you to get lost in.
Despite the turbulent experiences, I still really like Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. It is the culmination of the stealth-focused tactical RPG that MiMiMi has been working towards and the result is an immensely satisfying gameplay loop elevated by strong presentation and great characters. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it has set a gold standard for games in the genre for years to come. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A code was provided by MiMiMi for review. For more on the game, check out my guides. Click here to see the game’s mission list and read about all the crewmates here. If you have any questions about Shadow Gambit, leave them in the comments and if you already picked up the game, let us know what you think down below.
