Commandos/Shadows Tactics formula executed to modern perfection | Full Review - Shadow Gambit

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Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a stealth strategy game that transports players to an alternate history of the Golden Age of Piracy. Players assume the role of Afia, a cursed pirate with a daring mission – to gather the legendary Black Pearls and bring her cursed crew back to life.

🟩Pros +Unique setting and story +Innovative stealth gameplay mechanics +Challenging missions and situations that require timing and proper execution +Open-ended character and mission progression +Fully supports controller with its own UI

🟥Cons -minor performance drops during zoomed out view -cutscene dialogues cannot be skipped per line, only as a whole

Old gamers would likely recognize the gameplay of Shadow Gambit as being very similar to the Commandos series, while younger gamers might see the resemblance with Shadow Tactics instead. This is due to the fact that it serves as its spiritual successor, if the ‘Shadow’ in the title and same developers are not yet a dead giveaway.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew features an art style characterized by stylized 3D graphics that evoke the feeling of Pirates of the Caribbean that just got even more Disney-fied in captivating 3D animation. The characters, ships, and environments are rendered with a colorful palette that immerses players in the fantastical world of pirates and curses.

At its core, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a stealth strategy game that draws inspiration from the aforementioned classic titles like the Commandos series and the newer Shadow Tactics. The gameplay revolves around Afia and her cursed crew aboard a Ghost Ship, each possessing unique supernatural abilities. Players must navigate treacherous scenarios, overcoming the challenges presented by the Inquisition and the Curse of Lost Souls.

The main gameplay revolves around utilizing the special abilities of each character to navigate through complex levels filled with enemies and obstacles. It plays out in a point-and-click manner with an isometric camera to see all the action. Characters can perform various actions such as sneaking, running, climbing walls, and interacting with the environment or enemy units. The coordination required to execute strategies involving all these characters is both challenging and rewarding. 

There are gameplay mechanics and challenges that will demand precise timing and execution with your crewmates, such as enemy pairs that must be killed simultaneously, or powerful units that will take two of your units to take down. Thankfully, we do have the paused “Shadow Mode'' which allows us to queue one command per crew mate, and time their execution the way we see fit, usually simultaneously. I would have loved a queuing system that allows for more than one command, but I understand that this may have complicated things.

Players start with Aifa, and then proceed to unlock more crew members as the game progresses. The game features intriguing powers for each pirate — some can possess enemy units, some can snipe people from afar, and some can climb in vines, or perhaps swim. Characters which can be unlocked in any order and are applicable to every mission, providing an open-ended element. Batches of missions can also be done in any order as the players see fit.

The progression is well-paced, with each mission and character unlock introducing new challenges and mechanics that keep the gameplay fresh. The game's difficulty increases gradually, pushing players to refine their strategies and adapt to more complex scenarios.. Moreover, the game provides well-crafted tooltips and a comprehensive tutorial for each character, aiding players of all skill levels in quickly getting up to speed.

Along with the ‘Shadow Mode’, the ghost ship’s powers introduce an innovative (or familiar?) time-manipulation mechanic. Players can quicksave and quickload "memories" seamlessly, a feature that's integrated into the lore of the game. This mechanic empowers players to adapt their tactics on the fly, promoting ‘save-scumming’ experimentation and creative problem-solving. It's a gameplay element that sets Shadow Gambit apart from traditional stealth strategy games where saving is frowned upon, and offers an unprecedented level of freedom.

Shadow Gambit caters to players' preferences by offering dual control schemes. Mouse and keyboard controls emulate the point-and-click style of classic stealth games, while gamepad support allows for direct control of characters. Both control schemes are viable and offer distinct gameplay experiences, enhancing accessibility for a wider audience, although you might want to pick only a single scheme for your playthrough or rerun the tutorials twice, as the controls vary between each other drastically and feel like different games entirely.

What’s also cool is the extra flavor this game has, even after the mission ends, players are treated to performance scores, and there is even a quick overhead time lapse view, tracking all your activities during the mission like an auto-recording history ledger. However, one minor gripe lies in the inability to skip almost all dialogues on a per-line basis, which can occasionally disrupt the pacing, either go through them at a normal pace or skip them completely.

While Shadow Gambit generally maintains smooth performance when it matters, I’ve experienced severe FPS drops when zooming out to view expansive maps. The game is definitely CPU limited, and my i7-8700k is already showing signs of aging with this title. This hiccup in performance doesn't overshadow the overall positive experience but does warrant attention for potential improvements.

Conclusion:

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew masterfully fuses fluid gameplay, fun game mechanics, and an open-ended approach to missions and characters into a cohesive and enjoyable gaming experience. It takes that Commandos/Shadows Tactics formula, and just executes it to modern perfection, all the clunkiness or quirkiness that comes from these classic style point and click stealth games are basically gone, keeping the genre alive even with just one game at a time. It's really just sad that a game of this caliber got sandwiched between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield, as this deserves more attention.