Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is published and developed by Mimimi Games. If you've played Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, then you’re very familiar with this game style. It’s an overhead strategic stealth game. The difference is this title comes bearing a Tropical Pirate theme. I played the demo during Steam Next Fest, let’s see how it did.

Gameplay

The gameplay for this game is so fun. It’s a very unique way to implement stealth and strategy. You control a Pirate Crew of your choosing, each Cursed Pirate with their own capabilities and unique abilities. Your ultimate goal changes with each mission, but by simplifying it, you start at one part of the map and you need to make it to the other side. You need to get there by any means necessary, whether that means being a stealth master and not being spotted, or being a tactical mastermind and taking out the enemies one by one.

You will take control of an array of pirates and each one will have their own unique abilities. For instance, the Cursed Pirate you start as is Afia, her abilities are a teleport or a dashing strike to quickly take out the enemies and a time stop ability. Then you get your choice between two pirates to revive and I chose the ship doctor and her abilities are bush seeds to add more cover and wander dust that will make the enemy wander away in a straight line. You will use different pirates in different combinations to solve each puzzle in your own way!

During the mission if you feel that you’ve made it through a huge stressful part and you’re afraid to die and have to start all over. Don’t worry you can create your own checkpoints throughout the missions. You will capture a memory and by doing so you have a place to return to if you fail.

Expectations

All the expectations I have for this game are positive, I had a blast playing this demo. The things I think the game could improve on before the release are very minute. It has slight performance issues that I’m sure will be fixed by the release. I hope there are also more pirates available with more abilities to make each level playable in whatever your playstyle may be. I also hope that there is some way they create replayability, whether it be a PvP multiplayer or a challenge mode it would be disappointing to not have some sort of replayability aspect.

Verdict

I think this game will be a hit and I am excited about it, I have been since I saw it initially. The game already feels filled out and I’m sure I haven’t even played a fraction of it. But once the game is released I’m sure that I will be quick to pick it up.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew will be released on August 17th! The release will be for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.