Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is Mimimi’s farewell. review

played on personal computer

Since the release of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Mimimi has shown that they not only love stealth tactics, but also understand how they should work. All three of the company’s previous projects in this genre: the aforementioned Blades of the Shogun and the small addon Aiko’s Choice, as well as Desperados III are beautiful and intelligent games that encourage thought, analysis and planning. What they have in common, however, is the fact that Mimimi seemed afraid to add more of her ideas to the established formula of isometric hide-and-seek and break something. I was looking forward to Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, not least because I wanted to see if the Germans dared to experiment.

Which patrol? There will be no patrol here

A ghost ship with a charismatic crew

Over the past decade, the focus of the stealth genre has shifted from controlled environments to open-ended sandboxes. Both Metal Gear Solid V and the current Hitman trilogy presented players with a large number of options and did not indicate a specific way to solve the problem, but opened up a huge scope for experimentation. Shadow Gambit follows the same path – the style of passage changes significantly depending on the choice of heroes, time of day, landing point and the task itself. There is no single right way.

In addition, in a new project, Mimimi dispensed with unique locations for each order. Now we have several islands of different sizes, each of which needs to be visited 4-5 times. But unlike the same MGS V, where a village or checkpoint had to be cleared over and over again (and over and over again, ah-ah-ah-ah), the Germans took a smarter approach. The goals of the vast majority of missions are distributed over the level, so that you can see when you run through whether it is a third one. Let’s say now you need to steal something from the fortress on the west side of the island, in the next raid you need to help a friend on the east side. As a result, despite the fact that the place appears to be one, new websites are being worked on almost all the time.

I just wanted to flip a coin, what are you doing!

Of course, the studio’s traditional love of tactical puzzles and thoughtful map design also plays a part. There are many guards, most of the time they are within sight of each other – each mission requires you to think, rotate the camera, find weak points in defenses and try to use them. And this is where Mimimi was finally able to let go, offering many extraterrestrial abilities to help complete the tasks. Was it for nothing that they gave us control of a team of damn pirates?

One of them literally falls into the ground and out of the blue becomes invisible. The second teleports in a small radius, also up, onto walls or towers. The third creates protective bushes at the push of a button. Another character generally knows how to put enemies in a cannon on his back and shoot the enemy’s carcass at his comrades – or shoot his partners into areas they can’t reach themselves. The skills seem too strong at first glance, especially in the first tasks, but the game intelligently adapts to them. First, the fact that you can’t take more than three heroes with you on most missions. Second, the number of locations patrolled by multiple guards is so large that simply flying in and dispersing everyone won’t work. And the further, the harder it gets.

Where exactly you land – you decide

Steam from the ears from tension, as in Shadow Tactics, should hardly work in Shadow Gambit (except for the last task). The developers had to ensure that every combination of heroes could complete the mission – and of course the more open design approach is inferior here and there to the controlled scenarios of the studio’s previous games. However, I can’t call that a downside, as the game’s emphasis has shifted towards a more dynamic passing style – less sitting in the bushes waiting for the right moment and much more about acting quickly and changing plans with lightning speed and experimentation. Especially when there are many skills that allow you to pull pranks both in the front and in the background at the same time, biting off the guard here and there to pave a safe path to the goal. Like any great stealth game, Shadow Gambit will quickly put you in a flow state and make you lose track of time – again, Mimimi hasn’t let you down.

However, the studio’s biggest breakthrough didn’t come in terms of gameplay, which was near-perfect in Blades of the Shogun. The company has always had a problem with storyline content – brief screensavers between missions and small talks only gave the bare minimum and revealed the characters, but that’s it. Shadow Gambit has become an immersive story adventure with a lot of dialogue. The team of bloody pirates has come together motley and motley, and then there’s the ship itself, the Red Marley, which has its own very talkative soul.

Do Pisces dream of becoming a ninja? This particular is like

When you return to your floating base after a mission, you can start little mini-stories that will help you learn more about your wards. The skeleton ninja, for example, transfers all the wisdom of his difficult profession… to the fish. Cannoneer teaches poetry to skeletons. And others and others. And although conversational quests vary greatly in quality, they are quite short and can at least amuse the absurdity of situations.

The scriptwriters didn’t stop there though, explaining not only why we see heroes in isometrics during missions, but also the save mechanics. They are there – the memories that our pirate ship preserves. That alone would suffice, but The Cursed Crew goes further and uses them as an important narrative element. And if you find out that you’re not the only one who can click the download button… However, it’s better to stop here to avoid throwing spoilers. Still, it’s better to try the game yourself – it will surprise you both in terms of gameplay and plot.

Don’t miss Shadow Gambit if you like smart and addictive stealth games. This is the best and most polished project by Mimimi Games. And sadly the last one – just a few weeks after the release, the studio announced that it would be closing soon. The genre lost one of its strongest creators, but they went with their heads held high.

Advantages:

• elaborate map design;
• a variety of fun skills that can be combined at will;
• The plot does not differ in its great depth, but it can surprise you a few times;
• Even after the end of the main story campaign, there is still something to do in the game – all these medals do not come by themselves!

defects:

• Little things like the fact that the characters sometimes forget how to jump off ledges on their own.

Rating: 9.5/10

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