Steam review code provided by Mimimi Games
After playing Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun hearing that developer and publisher Mimimi Games was going to be releasing another title in the same style but with pirates, I knew I had to get my hands on it. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a stealth-oriented real time strategy game themed around pirates, let’s so how the new theme added to the game!
Story
You play as a cursed pirate, Afia Manicato! When you start your playthrough, you start on an island where you are meeting with someone too gain some useful information on where to find the Red Marley, a sentient ship captained by Captain Mordicai. In search for Captain Mordicai’s stash of treasure, you find the Red Marley over run by bad guys and in true pirate fashion you rid the Red Marley of it’s pests in trade for a share of the Captain’s stash.
You hop from island to island uncovering more of the truth about Captain Mordicai’s treasure all while leaving your mark on the Inquisition’s territory. You will learn riddles and hints getting you closer to the treasure you seek, but at the same time you’re learning how truly evil the Inquisition is. They want nothing more than to rid the world of cursed pirates. But Afia Manicato won’t have any of that!
While recovering magical relics you will gain power and reassemble the crew of the Red Marley, cementing your role as Navigator. You’re the reason these pirates are alive, I think they’ll be pretty keen on that. Assemble the crew of your choosing an embark on a perilous journey of uncovering as many clues you can find to uncover Captain Mordicai’s stash while fighitng off the wrath of the zealotous Inquisition.
Gameplay
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew very closely resembles it’s soul cousin, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. It’s a very stealth forward real time strategy game. Assemble your crew for each mission choosing up to three pirates, bringing a different blend of abilities to each playthrough. While you could go in guns blazing, the main focus is not being seen and strategically picking off enemies one by one.
Each cursed pirate comes with two to three abilities that each bring their own unique advantages to the mission. For example, Afia Manicato, has a blink ability where she can quickly dash to kill an enemy that is a short distance away, and she also has a time stop ability where she can stop time for one enemy so she can pass by unseen. Suleidy the ship doctor comes with wander dust to make enemies wander off in the opposite direction if you need to make a quick kill or pass by unseen, and she also comes with bushes for a quick on the fly hiding spot or if you need to dispose of a body. Each pirate also has a normal take down ability as well as their unique abilities. Giving each pirate their own advantages to bring them on a mission.
You can either focus on stealth and attempt to make it to the goal as quietly as possible or you can plan out a group attack and silence groups of enemies simultaneously so you can move freely in an area. When you enter shadow mode you can plan out an attack where you can either execute all at the same time or you can go one at a time while you wait for each enemy to come around perfectly timed.
You can click on enemies and you see their field of vision that is represented in a cone. Green means they can see but haven’t seen you, green with lines through it means that as long as you’re crouched they won’t see you but they can see. If their cone turns yellow that means they’ve spotted you but haven’t reacted, but as soon as the yellow meter reaches you they become suspicious and it will turn red and they will alert any nearby guards to your position. So it’s best to avoid the cones at all costs.
Audio and Visual
The character design for this game is my favorite part. The cursed pirates look so cool, the main character, Afia Manicato, has a sort of spectral aspect to her and she stores her sword in her chest. Small little details when making characters like that matter. Each character, including the Inquisitors, have very unique designs. Even when talking to the skeleton crew on the Red Marley you’ll notice that each of the skeleton’s has unique tattoos blasted onto their bones.
The game is mostly played in an overhead point of view so the graphics are simple, but even then they’re not simple in a bad way. There are really cool islands, like the one covered in Dreadvine, the skull in the center of the island looks very good surrounded in a thick fog.
Voice acting is something I’m very fond of and usually pay a lot of attention to. The cast on this game did an excellent job as well. They sound like pirates, in the best way. I can’t help but love when the main character introduces herself, Afia Manicato!
Replayability
If you like RTS games, and you like to challenge yourself there is plenty of replayability options here. After each mission they show you a timelapse of the mission showing each of your kills and abilities you used, also showing you the time it took you to finish. If you’re a perfectionist and you think you could do better, why not try again?
On top of replaying missions, there is also the crew tales. For each crew member they have a specific story of their own for you to follow. For example, the ship doctor is running check ups on the skeleton crew curing them of whatever ails them. In her daily routine she finds one of the skeletons acting weird and you try to get to the bottom of it.
What It Could Have Done Better
I would have liked to have seen more missions, while I would love to play the game over again, I really enjoyed the story and I wanted it to keep going. The game play is very fun, so while I could go back and challenge myself I would also like to see some new levels, maybe a procedurally generated challenge mode?
Yes I know microtransactions are bad so we can leave those out, but there were in game challenges you could complete. It would have been nice if these challenges came out with some skins for pirates as a reward. Their designs are already really good and I don’t want to complain about that, but I just always like when there are customization options.
Verdict
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a really cool take on pirates. Pirates are usually loud and rowdy and rush in with guns blazing. This game is the opposite, the stealth is really fun and it’s challenging in the right ways, not to the point where it’s frustrating but it makes you think. I like the theme of the game and the gameplay only adds to it, so especially if you liked Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, I think without a doubt you will enjoy this game.
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.
