Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Reviews
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is dead-on stealth tactics-filled with character and vigor – a peak for the genre.
On par with its (excellent) predecessors, Shadow Gambit trades some focused design for deeply compelling piratical freedom.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a cerebral but hugely characterful stealth tactics game filled with creativity and depth. And fun pirate stuff.
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.
Being a real-time stealth strategy game, I know the crewmates I choose can make or break a mission.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a bountiful blend of stealth, strategy, and swashbuckling.
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.
I really like this niche that Mimimi has taken on in their games, and they seem to do it better with each go. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew takes the character-driven stealth tactics I loved in Desperados and applies a ghost pirate theme to it in ways that are nearly always fun to play and beautiful to look at. It’s tough as nails and I wish I could experiment more before big choices, but I also think the concept allowed Mimimi to do some silly and spectacular things with its gameplay. Shadow Gambit sets a new standard for this studio, and I’ll be playing it until we get to see how they top themselves next.
Mimimi Games doesn't disappoint and yet again the German studio is able to deliver a very satisfying stealth-tactical experience. A must play for any fan of the genre.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is simply the best example of the genre MiMiMi helped create.
A crowning achievement of open world stealth puzzling, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is fiendishly good fun. Easily Mimimi's best stealth strategy game yet.
With innumerable improvements to the formula, Mimimi has delivered another hit. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a wonderful tactical title with an even better story than its predecessors. This is the formula perfected.
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.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a challenging and extremely entertaining stealth action and tactics game. It has a charming setting and story, with characters and mechanics that encourage creative and varied approaches to combat. There aren’t nearly enough great pirate games, so I’m glad Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew sailed into port.
The fantasy setting of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew plays a decisive role in breathing new life into the Commandos-like genre, providing a series of new skills that will surprise newbies and fascinate veterans. The complete freedom of approach to the missions and the possibility to decide almost immediately with which character to face them makes this game unique, certainly the best of its kind and among the most interesting real-time strategy video games appeared lately. Charismatic protagonists and a superb level design complete the offer making it unmissable for those who want to be quick of mouse and quick of mind.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Undead Pirates XXX is an excellent game; the only downside is the reuse of maps. That downside is a little self-inflicted because if you're like me, you want to kill the named guards (named after the developers) and do whatever else gets you a badge (additional side-quest things), so you do it all. Still, this is an outstanding real-time tactics game and one I would recommend to anybody and everybody. Fans of the genre, and those new, you're in for a treat.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew can't offer anything new to the classic gameplay style of Commandos/Desperados, but thanks to a nice setting the game still feels quite fresh, which is more than enough.
Review in Russian | Read full review
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.
It's beautiful, it's clever, it's captivating : we want more. 30 hours of pure delight.
Review in French | Read full review