The long puzzles about Project Sweet Potato are finally over: the developers of Mimimi Games have unveiled their new work Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. As already announced, the game remains true to its Commandos roots, so you can expect challenging real-time tactics as you already know them from Shadow Tactics or Desperados 3. The stealth adventure is scheduled for release later this year for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. (Note on my own behalf: All media in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are subject to an embargo and may not officially report on the game until tomorrow. However, since the product pages are already live and international sites are reporting in detail about the game, all information and screenshots are freely accessible and are not subject to any embargo. That’s why we can already provide you with the most important key data of the game today.)
Commandos meets Monkey Island
At its core, Shadow Gambit should be a very similar game to the last projects by Mimimi Games, but two innovations immediately catch the eye of connoisseurs. Above all, the fresh setting: In Shadow Gambit you are no longer in the Wild West or in old Japan. This time it’s a colorful Caribbean full of magic, where you command an eight-strong, very undead pirate crew. (No, unfortunately LeChuck isn’t there!) The heroine Afia seems to be at the center of the story.
As a fully posable Tier 5 haze, you set out in search of magical black pearls that you can use to bring new spirits to life and expand your crew. You’ll deal with the evil Inquisition, which wants to clean up everything supernatural in the cursed Caribbean – and of course your bony troops are expressly one of them.
The second major innovation is likely to be the more open game concept. As you can read on Steam, among other things, Shadow Gambit will offer significantly more freedom than previous games from Mimimi Games. So this time you should be able to put together your team before each mission, and you can even choose the entrance and escape route on the various islands.
As a reminder: this was not possible in Desperados 3, here you had to play each mission more or less as the developers intended. In the detailed gameplay trailer is also confirmed that you can do missions play in any order can. This is where Mimimi differs significantly from the previous games.
Since each ghost pirate has different abilities and magical special powers, this should result in a lot of interesting strategies.
The high proportion of fantasy seems to give the developers a lot of freedom.
In the first gameplay trailer, for example, the pirate Gaëlle is presented, who quickly shoots her comrades through the levels with a cannon. And Afia carries a saber in her chest, which she can throw at enemies with lightning speed and thus teleport herself directly to her victim – such tricks were not even to be thought of in a Shadow Tactics.
If you are spotted, you can of course quickly load an earlier savegame using Quickload. And the ability to plan actions for multiple characters and then trigger them at the same time is back on board. Between missions, you’ll also return to the Red Marley, your pirate ship and home, which Steam says has a living soul. There you will also gradually get to know your crew members better. In addition, there will also be separate story missions for all eight team members.
Sources: SteamEpic Store, PSN, Xbox Store, PC gamers, Mimimi Games
