HomeFeaturesShadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
The RPS Advent Calendar 2023, December 18thIs a ghost ship a ship full of ghosts, or is the ship itself a ghost?
Is a ghost ship a ship full of ghosts, or is the ship itself a ghost?
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
We’ve reached another day on our Advent Calendar, shipmates! Yo ho ho and a bottle of stealth!
Arrr, me hearties, it’sShadow Gambit:The Cursed Crew!
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Mimimi Games
Katharine:It’s almost criminal that Shadow Gambit is to be Mimimi Games’last outing, but hey, what a corker to go out on, eh? In this stealth strategy game about a motley crew of undead pirates fighting for their freedom against the tyrannical Inquisition, you still stalk, stab and very possibly shoot your way to victory, undoing the dastardly plots of your foes one unsuspecting corpse at a time.
It helps that you’ve got such a fun bunch of (literally) rotten ne’er-do-wells to help you with your quest, too, from the teleporting Afia whose cutlass resides handily in her chest, to blind sharpshooter Teresa, the cannon-wielding Gaelle, skeleton sushi chef Toya, ghostly body-snatcher Pinkus and many more. The exact order in which you enjoy their lethal exploits depends on who you choose to revive first, however, giving you unprecedented freedom in a Mimimi game in how you approach your quarry.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Mimimi Games
Really, though, it’s the way Shadow Gambit incorporates and plays with its own mechanical systems on a narrative level that makes this the undisputed pinnacle of Mimimi’s short-lived catalogue of games. Quick-saving and quick-loading have long been part of a Mimimi game’s DNA, but Shadow Gambit is the first to really go to town with that concept and make it a key (and brilliantly conceived) plot device. I was prevented from telling you exactly what that was when I wrote myreviewback in August, but even now, I feel this is something you should experience with as little foreknowledge as possible. Just go and play it - honestly, you won’t be disappointed, and be sure to pick up its two just-released expansions while you’re there as well. They’re proper good, they are, and a fitting swan song to this tactical, stealthy masterpiece.
