Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew (2023)

Steam presented me with the following message when initially booting this up (slight paraphrasing):

You may want to plug your controller in. This developer has indicated that the game only supports the DualSense controller when connected to USB. If you connect it wirelessly Steam will translate the input to appear as an Xbox controller. If you wish to use PlayStation glyphs, connect your controller via USB.

Since I can’t be arsed to plug my controller in, I clicked ok and the game indeed recognized it as an Xbox controller (which is to be expected when using Steam input). On a whim I decided to disable the steam controller input, to see if the game recognizes my controller. Lo-and-behold, it did. And not only that, it recognized it as a DualSense, and displayed all the correct glyphs.

So word to anyone who wants to use a DualSense with this game on PC, it works out of the box despite Steam’s warning.

Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3 are both games that easily go in my top 5 all time best games ever. I was so excited to play Shadow Gambit and so sad to hear that its Mimimi’s last game. When I first started playing The Cursed Crew, however, I didn’t like it as much as its predecessors. Maybe I’m an old curmudgeon yelling that things were better in my day but I just didn’t vibe with the UI at first. And I don’t really enjoy the undead pirate theme, as popular as it is.

The more I played, however, the more I grew to love this game. It has a lot that is different from the previous games. You select characters rather than having specific ones chosen for you. The undead thing allows for magic which added a lot more variety to the powers the characters can use. No longer are you limited to throwing shuriken or knives or setting traps and dressing in disguise. Now you can teleport, possess your enemies, disappear into an alternate dimension until its time to reappear, or make bushes to hide in grow anywhere you want. I still don’t care much for undead pirates but I enjoyed the way it opened up gameplay.

It does result in some imbalance. Some characters, like Gaelle and Zagan, were helpful but almost always just along for the ride. Others, like Afia, John and most of all Suleidy could almost take out an entire island by themselves. Suleidy routinely accounted for 60-80% of kills and a plurality of play time in a mission.

The final mission in this game isn’t as difficult as Desperados though it’s unique within the game in the same way. The difficulty I experienced in it was mostly just in understanding what I needed to do to overcome the main boss. Once I knew that, it was over pretty quickly.

Overall, a 5 star game and a definite recommend. Due to the theme, I probably wouldn’t put it on the medal stand with ST and D3 but it’s a very good game and a great swan song from favorite developer.

I almost never used the sniper characters in Mimimi's previous games, but Shadow Gambit's blind markswoman Teresa has some nifty tweaks that make her a much better fit for my playstyle.

Most importantly, her ability to KO guards instead of outright killing them means she's way more viable for nonlethal play. Switching her ammunition from a limited resource to something that's infinitely replenishable (with proper positioning) eliminates choice paralysis over misspending her shots. And her secondary ability to blind guards from afar really helps her break out of the sniper's solo role and join in on the meticulous team plays that make the game sing. She's easily my favorite version of the archetype across all Mimimi's efforts!

Picked the cannoneer as my third crewmate, and it turns out she's fantastic. Being able to shoot allies and enemies alike almost anywhere on the map opens up a bunch of new strategies, and helps the game feel like more than just a fun level pack for Desperados 3.

Also really digging the level design's commitment to making objectives approachable from all angles!

Still only a couple levels in, but this seems really promising so far! The protagonist's warp-stab attack is something I've been specifically wanting since Desperados 3, and the plant-lady's ability to generate cover anywhere is goofy but delightfully overpowered.

Having trouble deciding between the two different camera setups since they both have unique drawbacks, and my attempt to gin up a better alternative in Steam Input was only a mixed success.

Shadow Gambit comes out tomorrow and I'm super excited! All of the developer's previous stealth strategy games have been excellent, and the ghost pirate theme of this one should allow them to push the characters' abilities in fun new directions.

Plus I've heard Acts 2 and 3 of Baldur's Gate are extremely buggy, so this should be a nice way to tide me over until that gets fixed up.

Whoa, I had no idea that the folks behind Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3 were already so far along on a new project! They've got some of the best level designers working today, the ghost pirate theme is rad, and calling it a "stealth strategy game" is probably an easier sell than the "real time tactics" label they used to use.

Taking a page from modern Fire Emblem and making quicksave/quickload a diegetic part of your toolkit is a great move as well, and should probably be the norm for any genre so heavily built around experimentation and repeated failure.

Super excited for this one!