Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Shadow Gambit is a near-perfect game for stealth strategy fans. The new sandbox approach means that levels feel a little less curated than Mimimi’s previous titles — but who cares when you’re having this much fun?

If you’re a fan of stealth or strategy games, you really should consider Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew a must-play. This is Mimimi Games at its finest, building on the mechanics it finely tuned in Shadow Tactics and Desperados III while also adding more elements, more freedom and more fun. You’ll quickly come to love this band of unusual pirates, and what each of them offers when out in the field. So much so that you might even be tempted to replay missions just to approach things from a different angle.

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.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is an excellent game. With its wonderfully realized fantasy pirate setting, it instantly pulls you into its world, and with a combination of tight and perfectly implemented mechanics, excellently designed stealth sandboxes, and a colourful cast of characters that's an absolute blast to play as, it delivers a consistently fun and inventive adventure where the stealth, tactics, and experimentation never lose any of their charm, right up until the credits roll.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a deeply rewarding and mind-busting stealth tactics game from Mimimi Games. Featuring unique and memorable characters, Shadow Gambit will unleash your inner tactician as you take your undead pirate crew across the Lost Caribbean. Find out how rewarding the whole experience is in this review of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew.

On both PC and Console, I ran into zero bugs, which is refreshing.  I had no graphical issues, no crashes, no lag, nothing.  The only hitch was the occasional one when doing an auto-save that would last for roughly a second.  As an entirely single-player game, there is no need/ability to have crossplay, and sadly there is no cross-progression.  That meant I spent the majority of my 30 hours in the game on PC, but I put in as many as I could on Xbox to make sure the port was solid, and it is.

If you love stealth and strategy games, here's a must-play adventure so allow me to introduce Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew.

Superb squad-based stealth strategy that embraces the magic of save-scumming.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a cerebral but hugely characterful stealth tactics game filled with creativity and depth. And fun pirate stuff.

The Dishonored games are some of my absolute favorite games of all time, and the same could be said for the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy for movies. I don’t know if Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew has effectively communicated that its world is a perfect meeting of these two things in the marketing, but to me, that’s the seller. While it is slow to get started and doesn’t offer the variety of options that Dishonored or Hitman does, Shadow Gambit is a smart meeting of tactical strategy and stealth with a dose of immersive sim and an outstanding aesthetic. And you get to be an undead magical p...

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.

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.