Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Review

Thanks to the folks at Mimimi Games, today we’re bringing you our review for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. This is a mythical-pirate stealth strategy and a hot contender for our game of the year. As ever you can find our full video and written review for Shadow Gambit below, with common-sense parent’s guide and accessibility analysis.

Watch just here for the full run down or keep reading to find out if Shadow Gambit might be one for you. You can also check out our TikTok review in under a minute by heading over here.

The Basics – What is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew About?

Available on: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
Price:£34.99 (PC, Xbox)
Type: Real-time Stealth Strategy
Download: 21.7GB (PC)

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is set within the mythical shores of the Lost Caribbean. This island paradise has been covered with a terrible curse, allowing the undead to walk in the land of the living. Of course, if you happen to be a member of the undead, the curse probably isn’t that terrible.

These once idyllic shores have been overrun by an organisation known as The Inquisition. With a hatred of all things supernatural, The Inquisition will stop at nothing to rid the Lost Caribbean of cursed pirates. You’ll assemble a crew of unique characters, and sail your ship – The Red Marley – to hit them where it hurts.

If you’ve played Desperados, Commandos or Shadow Tactics you will be very familiar with Shadow Gambit already. This one will see you undertake daring heists and raids, striking at the heart of The Inquisition’s power to bring them down.

It will take an incredible amount of planning and careful movement, to make your way around the islands unseen. In addition, you’ll need to leverage each unique skill from your pirate crew to do it, working as a team to strike from the shadows. Contrary to other titles, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew allows players to unlock and utilise characters in the order which you see fit. This means that you can adapt the title to your playstyle, even before unlocking every available pirate.

Each character really does feel unique, and Shadow Mode will let you use their skills together. Here, you’ll plan out actions in paused gameplay, before returning to real time to execute and take down multiple enemies at once.

Is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Safe for Children?

Rating: Notable Concern.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is rated by PEGI at 16 and above, and by the ESRB at T for Teen. This is based on violence and (in the ESRB rating, at least) also bad language. While these warnings shouldn’t be completely ignored, we’ve found there to be a few caveats which are worth considering.

The title is based upon violent and stealthy deaths, and on each level you’ll need to incapacitate a huge number of guards and targets. There are non-lethal options to do this, but most will likely pulp for the default “deadly” option. There is, however, a distinct lack of blood within death animations, meaning relatively little gore within the title.

Playing here in the UK, we’ve also not really noticed any of the bad language mentioned in the US’ rating and, overall, it could be worth dipping a little under our 16 age rating. Shadow Gambit could be suitable for those at 14 to 15, but we wouldn’t want to go under the ESRB Teen rating, simply due to the inherent violence within the title.

Is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Accessible?

Rating: Low Barrier.

Shadow Gambit comes with some good difficulty options which allow players to tailor the experience to their play style. There are some tough elements to this title, and as with the rest of the genre, if you don’t feel overwhelmed when first looking at the map, you’re doing it wrong.

Shadow Gambit comes with a brilliant quicksave and quickload mechanism, with overt reminders if you haven’t saved your game within the last couple of minutes, and this can be customised to player preference. There are also functions to highlight interactable objects and while it can be challenging, the team at Mimimi have worked to try and make it as accessible as possible.

The Run Down – Our Five-Point Rating for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Gameplay – 5: I’m a big fan of this genre and Shadow Gambit has absolutely knocked gameplay out of the park. Being able to unlock characters in your own order is brilliant, and pulling these pirates together really gives a great sense of satisfaction.

Visuals – 5: there’s not much to improve for visuals either, with bonus points for some incredible animations. Even up close things look pretty great, and the transition between isometric tight views up to the wider map is lovely.

Audio – 5:the effects are brilliant here, and the soundtrack is also outstanding. Somehow, the voice acting manages to be even better and while not 100% serious all the time, they’ve really brought life to both playable and non-playable characters.

Narrative – 4:It can get a little fanciful at times but to be fair we’re talking about a story of cursed pirates sailing in an alternate caribbean. It’s somehow taken a backseat to impressively tight gameplay but the narrative is decent as well.

Replay – 5: Shadow Gambit has a lot of areas for you to head into, and a variety of characters which can really change up your play style. In addition, you can grab various commendations which you’ll need to replay levels to achieve, and there’s always an opportunity to replay a mission and beat your previous attempts, which is very welcome.

The Verdict – Is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Worth It?

Pixel Bandits I’ve got a Jar of Dirt Level for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is an outstanding 9 / 10. As a fan of stealth strategy since the original Commandos title, it’s been amazing to see Mimimi Games really run with the genre in recent years. I enjoyed Shadow Tactics but Shadow Gambit really brings not only unique characters and an all new story, it also delivers some brilliant new mechanics and options.

The cursed alternative caribbean is a brilliant setting, and Shadow Gambit is an incredibly well put together package which I’ve no hesitation in recommending to any stealth strategy fan.

As ever, to provide this review and common-sense parent’s guide, we received a free copy of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew from the folks at Mimimi Games.