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Perfection is something that is unattainable but that doesn't mean we should stop striving for it. After all, that is how we better ourselves and everything around us and this appears to be the mantra of Mimimi Games who just keep releasing fantastic games one after another, with Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew being the crowning achievement of their portfolio.
So far at least, because if this trend keeps up, their next game might end up even better but let's focus on the brilliant present for now, defined by a fantastic new entry in the stealth tactics genre.
Story and voice acting
Right off the bat, Shadow Gambit goes all in on selling you the pirates hunting for treasure adventure with a beautiful intro cinematic and a tutorial that showcases all the charm the game has to offer.
This is done through clever writing which is whimsical in a few spots but doesn't overdo it, resulting in a storyline of a game that takes itself seriously but knows when to poke fun. With a great balance between the two opposite sides of the writing spectrum, the game kept me interested both in the main and side stories through the entire playthrough. After all, who doesn't want to see a legendary assassin training a highly enthusiastic fish in the way of the ninja?
Beautiful storytelling would be hard to be seen as such if the voice acting was sub-par but Mimimi knocked it out of the park with the talent on this one. The only way to describe the voices of the characters is sublime. No matter which one of them spoke, I was instantly immersed in this tale of the cursed ship and its crew, and that feeling persisted to the end of the game.
Even though all the voices were spot on, I am still partial to Red Marley's as it's a rare occasion that something just fits so well as her voice does the role of a cursed ship. It is also something you absolutely need to experience yourself as mere words can't express just how an object you don't even control starts feeling like a central character and it still works great.
On the topic of the Marley, the devs deserve praise for making quicksaving such a lore-friendly mechanic in the game, with the ship often reminding you to use her powers and it all happens in a symphony of beautiful visual and audio effects that never get boring. It is all subjective though and if you don't end up liking the effects, Mimimi thought of everything and allow the players to tone them down or even completely turn them off. Thinking of everything translates to gameplay as well, with the crazy roster possibilities for each new mission.
Gameplay
With the devs hitting the nail on the head when it comes to storytelling, one has to wonder if they cut corners elsewhere. Simply put, they didn't. Ever since their success with Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Mimimi Games just kept iterating on their process and expanding the possibilities within the stealth tactics genre. Shadow Gambit continues that legacy as it offers more playable characters than any of the team's previous games and they pulled the impossible feat of making them all work in all situations without making the missions homogenous.
When we had the opportunity to talk with Mimimi, they noted that one of the biggest challenges the team faced was balancing so many playable characters to make all team combinations work without making them overpowered and after my time with Shadow Gambit, I can confirm they passed the test with flying colours.
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Without delving into spoiler territory, you will mostly get to choose between eight cursed pirates, with smaller groups being available for each mission. You pick a team and then go through the map to complete the objectives. With eight available characters, this means there are 56 available team compositions for each mission and the devs made it possible for players to go through each mission, no matter which combination you picked.
On the topic whether some pirates are overpowered, it really depends on how well you work out synergies in your teams. A team with Afia, Toya and Teresa is basically a team of killers with minimal utility but it still works and can clear maps quickly if you play to their strengths. Similarly, you can pick a highly utilitarian team and keep pulling the rug from under the enemies' feet without using any of the aforementioned killers. Mimimi made Todd Howard's dream materialise because it just works.
As such, overcoming the new missions and enemy types the game throws at you is not repetitive, which is a problem that many games can easily rush into if their loop is going to a hub and then launching missions from there. This was not achieved through character variation alone as the map design played a major role by not only providing eye candy but also different functionality that kept things fresh. Who knows when the island's mischievous spirits might drop a boulder on an enemy, right?
Graphics, music and performance
The aforementioned eye candy is every-present in Shadow Gambit. It doesn't matter which island you are on or if you are on Marley herself, the game looks breathtaking from start to finish. It doesn't go for hyper-realistic visuals but it embraces the fact that art style beats graphics and the choice of the art style couldn't have been better.
Islands you visit are so vibrant that they spark joy the moment you land on them, with each one featuring some unique aspect that causes them to be definitively unique. Is it a giant skull made of bark that dominates the landscape? Perhaps it is two islands that look like twins? Each and every one of them ended up having unique personalities, often in a literal sense.
Even the music in the game was taken special care of as it was basically an audio painting of the beautiful things I was seeing on the screen. It even left me suspecting but unsure as it seemed that music would sometimes shift, based on which characters I had on my team.
With the sensory delicacies at every turn, one would expect the game's performance to suffer, which could also negatively impact the gameplay portion. Thankfully, this is not the case as the game ran buttery smooth with the one exception being frequent crashing to the desktop I experience in waves. Sometimes the game would go on for hours without issues but other times it would crash on multiple occasions in the span of 30 minutes.
Conclusion
Minus the periodic CTD issues, Shadow Gambit was one hell of a treasure hunt that took the cursed pirate fantasy and made the most of it. While perfection is unattainable, this game came really close to it and the good times are a promise to anyone willing to join the Marley and her crew.
The Good
Eye candy for the ages- Rich variety in roster options
- Sublime voice acting
- Sense of difficulty and tactics retained even with the massive roster
- Maps with a lot of character
The Bad
Seemingly random periods of frequent crashes
