Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Mimimi's swan song is also a perfect autopsy of why this genre is slowly bleeding out. They went all-in on supercharging every character—now everyone can blink across the map, puppet enemies from the shadows, and even spawn grass to hide. It sounds cool on paper, but in practice, it's unbalanced and fundamentally at odds with what makes this genre tick. Rather than empowering players, it accelerates the burnout, turning tense tactical puzzles into trivial power trips. The ability kits are essentially a hand-me-down from previous entries, and tracing further back, a direct lineage from Commandos. But the underlying formula has always been the same three pillars: manipulate enemy vision, reposition hostile units, and chain abilities across your squad. That's it. That's the whole playbook. And here's the kicker—it can't evolve, because the moment you try to add something new, you break the delicate clockwork these games are built on. At its core, this genre is less about strategy and more about solving spatial puzzles with those three tools. And puzzles have a shelf life. Without a constant influx of clever, hand-crafted maps that keep throwing fresh curveballs, the experience curdles fast. Unfortunately, this final outing is painfully light on map count—and that's a death sentence for a game that lives or dies by its level design. I've been in the trenches since the original Commandos dropped—three decades now—and it hurts to say, but this genre has well and truly painted itself into a corner. Mimimi gave it one last glorious hurrah, but in doing so, they also proved there's nowhere left to go. So this is it—the RTT genre's farewell letter.

I have some constructive criticism. But first, let me say that the gameplay is great. A large number of companions, each with unique abilities, makes for some fun setups. The atmosphere, visual style, art direction, and music are all great. And I recommend this game. [b]Here are some things that could have been done much better:[/b] -The story is lackluster at best, but the biggest issue is the writing. -The banter is abysmal, sadly. Between each mission, you have activities to do on the ship that involve companion missions. While that part of the game is meant to be a fresh change of pace with comic relief, it ends up being quite the opposite. -The tasks are all busywork and totally uninteresting. The dialogue is so cringe that I cannot begin to describe it. I was fast-forwarding through most of them. The side missions are also very weak. They try so hard to be funny that it becomes irritating and bad (yes, I know the dev is German, but still). Which is a shame, considering the companions are all begging for personality, looking and acting so unique, but they are all totally destroyed by the writing. -This is made significantly worse by the voice acting, which for the most part is also terrible. Pinkus is fantastic and fits his appearance and demeanor perfectly. The same goes for John, but the rest... dear lord. Suleidy sounds like she's an NPC in GTA: San Andreas, trying so hard to put on a happy personality. It's all so fake that it totally breaks the immersion. It seems like they went out of their way to be inclusive when it had no real match or place in their game. An 80 year old non-binary undead pirate? Really? Not a soul in the world would complain if they all had Scottish accents and went ARRGH all the time. -I also think the game would have benefited from more environmental kills, as there are very few of them. -There are still quite a few bugs and QoL issues. Nothing game-breaking or major, but they can be annoying. Camera control is very janky, and this particularly affects John when he's in the below. He's almost impossible to select, it bugs out. -A lot of actions are linked to the same button, which means you'll often do something unintended, like jumping down a cliff when you meant to carry a body and so on, leading to a failed mission. -I also took issue with the way they designed the DLC. The game has a progression system linked to Badges, which are basically in-game achievements. And even though the DLCs integrate into the game seamlessly, which is great, for some reason their Badges do not count towards overall progression. This turns them into friction rather than a boost. I don't understand the logic behind these decisions. Making the Badges pool together would have made the DLCs a pivotal must-own, as they would help you unlock Virgilio, the secret companion. And seeing as only 3% have unlocked him, it seems like it would have been a natural way to go. So, all in all, a great game that falls short of being amazing, mostly due to the terrible writing. I hope Mimimi can invest some resources in better writing for their next game and elevate the experience to where it should be. PS: I just heard the studio closed, shame that. They made great games.

I seriously love this game and other games from Mimimi Games. Runs well. Very fast saving and loading makes experimenting with mechanics easy. So sad Mimimi don't make games anymore.