Commandos-Like Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew - ghost pirates stealth strategy from Mimimi Games

[ferratilis]

Damn, they really hate white male characters, it seems. Sad, I liked both Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3, but this studio seems to be going full retard.

 

[Rahdulan]

I'm not big on the magical nature of the setting or characters themselves. Maybe I'm biased, but it seems like giving them such supernatural abilities will simply pigeon-hole them into very specific situations where using those is the only way to advance. Which seems at odds with "choose your own characters" approach to level design.

 

[Ivan]

wonderful.

 

[Morgoth]

"Play the game you want".... or more like the game plays the same however you want.

 

[fork]

Hard pass.

Same here, eventhough I loved Shadow Tactics and liked Desperados 3.
This looks like further decline in every way.
Another promising studio down the drain.

 

[zool]

Pirates setting would have been fine. Magical pirate setting, no thank you.

Well at least, we had two good games from them.

PS: it it me or does each new game by Mimimi seem to get closer and closer to the fugly WoW artstyle? Isabelle was already trending towards that in Desperados III.

 

[JarlFrank]

I hate this trend of adding generic magic bullshit to everything.

Pirates are cool. You don't need to add dumb magic effects to them. They're already cool on their own.

Sid Meier's Pirates! was cool. Assassins' Creed: Black Flag was cool. Those Russian Sea Dogs games also have a small but dedicated fanbase. Monkey Island is one of the most well-loved adventure games of all time.
People love pirates.

Adding magic beyond a dose of mystical voodoo just ruins it.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I actually like the setting--the magical pirate setting, but don't really enjoy puzzle stealth strategy games like desperado etc, so would never buy it for that reason, but the games visuals look nice to me...IMO the genre is sort of like glorified sudoku or minesweeper; I understand why people like playing them, its just not something I enjoy. In some respects it reminds me of those 'Euro' board games some people really enjoy for their 'elegance' of design. Some people in my family always want to play Euro games when we are on vacation and I can't get into them.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Why the hate? It's the same gameplay. Yeah it's woke as shit so no buy but we play games for fun. fun comes from gameplay. Pirate this stuff and have fun. And no, magic makes everything better.

 

[Zombra]

Maybe I'm biased, but it seems like giving them such supernatural abilities will simply pigeon-hole them into very specific situations where using those is the only way to advance.

I don't get it. What about a magic fish or a teleporting anchor makes it more limited and situational than a sneezing potion or a bear trap? Previous Mimimi games were very, very well designed to allow all kinds of creative ways to overcome obstacles. I think this is indeed your well-documented bias against magical pirates clouding your judgement.

Pirates are cool. You don't need to add dumb magic effects to them. They're already cool on their own.

Would I play a gritty realistic pirates game in the Commandos style? You know I would .... but the reason for making this game about magical ghost pirates instead is blindingly obvious.

Bear in mind that looking "cool" is not Mimimi's primary goal here. With Desperados 3 they proved that they mainly want to build good gameplay. When designing D3's last character, they first asked, what fun abilities can we add that aren't duplicated by other characters, and how can we frame them? The abilities they came up were indeed fun and unique, but didn't make sense without magic so fine, they made it magic, and it was the right decision. Clearly, this time they said okay, new IP ... how about we just get rid of the stupid "because realism" restrictions and build the gameplay we want as top priority? How do we frame this? Just make it magic like we did with Isabella, except with ALL the characters this time, so we don't have to sacrifice ANY mechanics.

"Play the game you want".... or more like the game plays the same however you want.

What the fuck are you talking about? Same as always, they're giving you a bunch of tools to navigate the game however you want. In fact they're giving players more choice than ever before by allowing team selection and entry point selection. EDIT: I just watched the full gameplay trailer and the guy is very explicit that gameplay is completely systemic and unscripted, just like their previous games.

Finally you can choose your team members before a mission. About time. As well as points of entry and exit. Pretty cool.

I liked how previous games forced me to use suboptimal teams sometimes, but okay, I can live with having choices instead.

 

[DemonKing]

I liked how previous games forced me to use suboptimal teams sometimes, but okay, I can live with having choices instead.

Agreed - it also probably makes life easier for the designers as they can make sure there's no easy way to break the levels and weave their storyline around the characters present.

Desperados 3 was probably my 2020 GOTY and Shadow Tactics was also really good, so looking forward to this.

 

[Zombra]

Speaking of team building and choice, that preview video shows that there are eight characters to choose from. Frickin rad.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

reminds me of hard west 2 in that it's overly fantastical for no good reason

also the art is very off putting

 

[Victor1234]

I don't get it. These guys ported an established game style to ancient Japan, which I didn't play. Then they milked that into remaking one of my most beloved games, which I did play but felt they butchered (seriously, one of the few games set in the old West that actually has some mechanisms around horses and in the remake they cut out...horses). Then they milked their original Japan Commandos clone into almost the same game again. Now they talk like they're gods gift to this genre and have gone full retard in a game that is literally ripping off the Pirates of the Caribbean movie from 2003. Will these guys ever have an original idea?

Everyone knows you should never go full retard.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And no, magic makes everything better.

Of course not.

 

[Morgoth]

I'm not even put off by the setting so much, but rather by the whole streamlined Commandos-style gameplay. I was never a fan of the whole "strip down a complex model until only the skeleton remains" kind of approach of game design, but always prefered the "work with limitations and punch above your weight" approach. This one definitely reeks of the former.

 

[spectre]

While I was a bit disappointed by the reveal, as in: totally not the thing I've expected. it sorta grows on me,
even though properly diverse undead pirates going arr isn't exactly the peak of novelty, this could be goofy in an entertaining way.

Still a bit funny seeing a character with a fucking cannon strapped to the back advertising a stealth game.
What is more concerning is the style which seems to be taking a bad turn towards warcraft.

As far as I am concerned, the most important thing is to avoid the feeling of sameness.
This is the reason I didn't play much Desperados, cause I couldn't shake the feeling that it's just ST in cowboy trappings,
with enemies being nearly the same and characters essentially ticking the same boxes skill-wise.

 

[Zombra]

Although I am angrily defending this game on most points, I do agree with zool and spectre about the chonky waxy Colorformy Warcrafty art style.

 

[fork]

It will be shit.
Period.

Desperados 3 was worse than Shadow Tactics, and Aiko's Choice was worse than Desperados 3, I just liked it better because of the Characters.
This looks like shit all the way through so far.

 

[Victor1234]

I wonder if they've licensed with Disney like Akella did for Sea Dogs II (aka Pirates of the Caribbean) or whether they're just going to hope Disney doesn't notice and sue them? I'm not a lawyer of course but I'm fairly certain you can't just straight up steal a Disneyland attraction and get away with it...

Overall, you play as the eight main characters of the cursed fleet and help them find the fabled Black Pearl, whose soul power will allow you to unlock further crew members.

 

[Zombra]

I wonder if they've licensed with Disney like Akella did for Sea Dogs II (aka Pirates of the Caribbean) or whether they're just going to hope Disney doesn't notice and sue them? I'm not a lawyer of course but I'm fairly certain you can't just straight up steal a Disneyland attraction and get away with it...

Overall, you play as the eight main characters of the cursed fleet and help them find the fabled Black Pearl, whose soul power will allow you to unlock further crew members.

The Black Pearl from the films was the name of the ship, not a magic actual pearl. Disney didn't copyright all black pearls, even all black pearls in pirate stories.

 

[Victor1234]

I wonder if they've licensed with Disney like Akella did for Sea Dogs II (aka Pirates of the Caribbean) or whether they're just going to hope Disney doesn't notice and sue them? I'm not a lawyer of course but I'm fairly certain you can't just straight up steal a Disneyland attraction and get away with it...

Overall, you play as the eight main characters of the cursed fleet and help them find the fabled Black Pearl, whose soul power will allow you to unlock further crew members.

The Black Pearl from the films was the name of the ship, not a magic actual pearl. Disney didn't copyright all black pearls, even all black pearls in pirate stories.

Ah I watched the cinematic trailer again and saw the actual black pearl at the end. I thought they were going to call their ship in game that. They'll probably be OK then but I still wouldn't rule a legal case out. I was once involved in a lawsuit where a company in a completely unrelated industry sued the company I worked for, over a product name that was partly based on a commonly used social media hashtag, that they didn't even create. I imagine Disney has the resources for even more frivolous lawsuits.

 

[Zombra]

Yeah. Mimimi could have called it the Astral Pearl or the Hell Diamond or the Spooky Stone. As is I'm sure there's at least one lawyer at Disney who will try to impress their boss by saying "Hey maybe we can screw this little game company"

 

[Cyberarmy]

Dunno what to think about this TBH. I like their games and style and I like a serious pirate setting but this is kinda too much and over the top. It felt like I was watching "Monkey Island Tactics: LeChuck's Angels" without any charm.
I'd prefer a more grounded approach for this setting, with many belching, ugly crew members and "curses". Maybe kinda AC Black Flag or Risen 2.

Also is it me or their graphic style is becoming more goofy, cartoonish after each game?

 

[zapotec]

Shadow Tranny, the SJW Curse