Shadow Tactics: Aiko's Choice
Shadow Tactics: Aiko's Choice
Game
Game2023
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
Developer Mimimi Games
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a real-time tactics video game developed and published by Mimimi Games. The game was released for the PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X and Series S in August 2023. The developer Mimimi shut down shortly after the release of the game. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
365 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 31, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
88
LovedLoved
211 positive · 29 negative
95% range 83–91%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 211 | 29 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 46 | 1 | 48 |
| Lemmy * | 5 | 0 | 15 |
| Mastodon * | 7 | 0 | 3 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
2,310 of 2,570 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
89% recommend · 197 yes, 25 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 222 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (6,022 of 6,615 positive).
Many players praise the game's satisfying tactical stealth gameplay and unique pirate fantasy setting. [1][2][3] Some reviewers consider it the weakest of Mimimi's games due to repetitive missions and weaker story. [4][5][6] Several players note technical issues like crashes and softlocks that hinder the experience. [7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
I genuinely hated this game. If you’re even slightly a completionist, I can’t stress enough to stay far away from this one. Throughout my playthrough, I experienced multiple crashes and softlocks that forced me to restart entire levels. The game severely lacks variety. There are only a handful of islands, which you revisit several times to complete different objectives. However, every time you go back to an island, …
- [1]
Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 658: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (10/10) All right, am I crazy if I say Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew might actually be my favorite Mimimi game? Like, yes. I know that's probably a controversial thing to say because, sure, I understand the criticism. Compared to Shadow Tactics and Desperados III, this is a much looser game. The missions aren't quite as tightly …
- [2]
A real-time top-down/isometric stealth infiltration pirate game. In this, savescumming is not only a feature but it happens to be the actual main plot of the game. You are encouraged and rewarded to abuse the quicksave feature. This is really well executed and honestly a very refreshing and fun idea ! I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy this game as much as I did. Being presented with a difficult situation and …
- [14]
Fantastic game, in my opinion the best of the Mimimi trilogy- not a statement to be taken lightly considering all of them are spectacular. This one has so much variety and ways to mix missions up with the different crew members, a quality the other games never quite possessed. All of the crew members are balanced enough where it's both hard to pinpoint a most/least useful crew member (Except for probably Yuki the …
- [3]
An exciting and fantastical pirate adventure in the form of an incredibly solid tactical game. What a wonderful gem this is. It's a highly polished product across all facets: game design, narrative, sound and art direction, etc. The pirate theme lends itself very well to the strategic and tactical gameplay, and the story supports everything beautifully. Hats off to all the developers!
Summarised from 34 of the 331 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
89% of the 222 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. The complaint that keeps coming up: missions feel repetitive due to reused islands and enemy placements. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 365 · most liked firstPlayed an hour or two of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew last night and I'm hooked. Dripping with personality and a very strong atmosphere of "have fun and fuck around" that I really appreciate (the game openly encourages you to save scum and has a diogenic story element to explain it). Good stuff.
positive · AI labelView post →And if you want to do crime, might I suggest checking out Shadow Gambit? A real-time stealth strategy game where you command a crew of undead pirates taking on an inquisition. Each of the crew mates have mechanically interesting and unique skills to murder-puzzle your way through intricate missions.
neutral · AI labelView post →2. Shadow Gambit Speaking of my favourite games from last year, I still can't recommend Shadow Gambit highly enough and deserved so much better, a stealthy strategy murder-puzzle in the vein of the old Commandos/Desperados games with an undead pirate crew. store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/...
positive · AI labelView post →3. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Real-time stealth tactics that plays like an elaborate murder-puzzle, which was sadly Mimimi's final game. It's currently on the deepest discount yet, a phenomenal game that didn't get near as much love as it deserved. store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/...
positive · AI labelView post →Is there a name for the dark-fantasy/pirate genre?. I couldn't decide if I should post this to the gaming community or movies community so I decided to split the difference and just post it here since I'm open to games, movies, or book suggestions. I have an itch I seem to have trouble scratching. I want more pirate stories that involve dark fantasy elements (skeletons, krakens, ghosts, voodoo, etc.) yet there seem to be very few of these. The best example of what I'm looking for is of…
neutral · AI labelView post →15. Desperados 3 During their tenure with reviving the Stealth Tactics genre, Mimimi put out three incredible bangers. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, and Desperados 3, where they got to make an incredible sequel to one of the games that started the genre.
neutral · AI labelView post →Shadow Gambit is on sale. There's a demo. You should play it.
positive · AI labelView post →I genuinely hated this game. If you’re even slightly a completionist, I can’t stress enough to stay far away from this one. Throughout my playthrough, I experienced multiple crashes and softlocks that forced me to restart entire levels. The game severely lacks variety. There are only a handful of islands, which you revisit several times to complete different objectives. However, every time you go back to an island, the enemies are in the exact same spots, no matter the mission. After a while,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will sing the praises of Shadow Gambit until my last days. It's such a fun game! Unique concept (undead pirates fighting the Inquisition), the rewind mechanic is built into the lore, the characters are a ton of fun, & it's just a good time overall. 🏴☠️
positive · AI labelView post →* The Thaumaturge Deluxe Edition – Steam Deck Verified * Amnesia The Bunker – Steam Deck Verified * Evil West – Steam Deck Playable * Shadow Gambit The Cursed Crew – Steam Deck Verified * Star Wars Bounty Hunter – Steam Deck Verified * Ultros – Steam Deck Verified * Corpse Keeper – Steam Deck Playable * Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes – Steam Deck Playable
neutral · AI labelView post →Started playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew recently! Quite great so far.
positive · AI labelView post →There's the best deal yet on Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew + DLC. Probably the best stealth-tactics game (Commandos, Desperados, etc) of its kind. There may not be another like it, as the studio disbanded immediately after release. Really fun Ghost Pirates versus Magic-Hating Inquisitors setting.
positive · AI labelView post →Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 658: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (10/10) All right, am I crazy if I say Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew might actually be my favorite Mimimi game? Like, yes. I know that's probably a controversial thing to say because, sure, I understand the criticism. Compared to Shadow Tactics and Desperados III, this is a much looser game. The missions aren't quite as tightly constructed, the islands are reused, and having the freedom to bring whichever…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I added Shadow Gambit to my curator page This game is phenomenal, and it's such a shame it seemed to get lost, sandwiched between BG3 and Starfield, it deserved better. store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/...
positive · AI labelView post →ALT pitch: What if a prolific game composer had a dream about a game where you're an audio forensics engineer uncovering a mystery hidden in old audio tapes 👀 I had a great time working with Filippo on Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. This game he's creative directing is looking super cool!
neutral · AI labelView post →Speaking of curses... Shadow Gambit is 50% off right now and is a top tier stealth-tactics game, can't recommend it highly enough. And there's a demo! store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/...
positive · AI labelView post →12. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Real-time stealth tactics game, neat characters with some extremely fun skills to play with, PIRATES! It's a crying shame more people haven't played this, because it's top tier. And for 10 bucks?
positive · AI labelView post →This is fun, but it's not as good as Mimimi's other two games, for a number of reasons. The core gameplay remains the same; however, there's one big change: when going on a mission, we can select from any of the game's 8 characters (plus 2 DLC characters for a total of 10). While it theoretically provides the player more freedom in how they approach each mission, in practice it means that the enemy setups in each mission are created in a way that allows them to be resolved by a wide variety of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3, but this takes the same concept and gets it wrong. The story is boring and I couldn't care about any of the characters. Voice acting is cringy - and you can't just turn it down; even saving the game triggers an unnecessary voice line and distracting special effects. After a couple of missions I realized I was replaying the same maps over and over, just from different drop-off points or at different times of day. That repetition killed my interest. To…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →3. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Any other year, this would've been a clear #1. The sheer intricacy with which the levels are designed, the incredibly fun and varied characters each with unique tools and abilities, gorgeous visuals and music, it's a truly magnificent game.
positive · AI labelView post →Weird bundle but a good one. All those games are cool and that's a great spread of genres and styles. Shadow Gambit is still the best stealth tactics game out there. Looks like it doesn't come with the (surprisingly beefy) DLC though.
positive · AI labelView post →the weakest of mimimi's games. Gameplay its just like the others, if not a bit easier due to the large character pool. Boring dialogue and really ugly character designs, and truly there's way too much of the dialogue for me to not start to skip after a bit. But I'd be doing it a disservice to say its bad, just buy mimimi's other games before this and keep this one in the back pocket for when you're in a situation like I'm in and just craving the gameplay style of the real-time-tactic stealth…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked the game, liked the story, characters, game mechanics (except the camera controls) voice acting, good tone, but. After 36 hours of gameplay and way too many crashes, I can't play it anymore. I have to restart my system every time it crashes and it does so too often now so, I won't risk it and can't recommend it. Sorry devs. First time I can't finish a game because of this.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In short, this one is a delightful good-bye from MIMIMI studio, the one that raise the quality of Stealth RTT genre into a new level, and yet not enough to keep the flame going. Though the game still has some flaws, but the overall product is absolute worth your time. The GOODS: - A good chunk of colorful character, 8 and possibly more, which can guarantee you a plenty good amount of replays. With the grant achievement that’s bigger than both Shadow Tactic and Desperados combined, you’re…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Davy X Jones - play as the headless body of Davy Jones while his floating skull talks to you (demo on Steam Next Fest). I know there's a pinned post about what demos we found in Steam Next Fest but I wanted to make separate post about this one because I don't think anyone would've noticed it otherwise. This game has a pirate fantasy setting kinda like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It's such a fun aesthetic, I wish there was more in this genre. Anyway, you play as Davy Jones and you're…
neutral · AI labelView post →Devastating to hear the developers of Shadow Gambit, Mimimi, are shutting up shop. It's truly one of the best games this year, and that's saying something. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/Shadow_Gambit_The_Cursed_Crew/
positive · AI labelView post →You might want to check out Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3 and/or Shadow Gambit by Mimimi. Absolutely excellent adaptaions of the stealth tactic gameplay of commandos. Work great with controllers too.
neutral · AI labelView post →While the Desperados series pulled me in from the very first mission to the very last, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew feels like a completely different story and not in a good way. You can clearly feel the budget cuts that likely contributed to the studio shutting down. I genuinely do not understand who thought it was a good idea to force players to revisit the same maps not just twice, but many times, with identical enemy placements. Sometimes the only difference is the time of day, and even…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A real-time top-down/isometric stealth infiltration pirate game. In this, savescumming is not only a feature but it happens to be the actual main plot of the game. You are encouraged and rewarded to abuse the quicksave feature. This is really well executed and honestly a very refreshing and fun idea ! I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy this game as much as I did. Being presented with a difficult situation and getting to peel away at the enemy's defences layer after layer until you finally…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →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…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is awesome. If you like RTT games, you'll probably enjoy this. I came from Shadow Tactics and then Desperados 3, and had so much fun playing this. It certainly is way less "serious" our grounded in reality than the other 2 games (goofy story, 100% fantasy and magic). I thought I wouldn't enjoy it after reading other reviews saying this, but I did. A lot! Give it a try, it'll be worth it!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Happy Halloween! My kids actually did help make their costumes this year, and mine too! One kid is King Tut’s sarcophagus mixed with his mummy, and the other is Quentin from Shadow Gambit (video game). I’m an enemy from that video game.
neutral · AI labelView post →Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is getting two major expansions https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/11/shadow-gambit-the-cursed-crew-is-getting-two-major-expansions/ #ShadowGambit #SteamDeck #PCGaming
neutral · AI labelView post →Mimimi really had no business making *another* banger. 😭 My take after finishing the game: * 🎨 The art direction and overall design? Absolute peak. * 🎭 Character interactions and voice acting? Also peak. Everyone has so much personality that I ended up talking to everyone after every mission. * ⏳ The story is solid. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but the way it plays with time is genuinely fun. Don't worry, no spoilers. Now for my only real complaint... The gameplay loop gets a little…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Steam Summer Sale 2025 - 15 Hidden Indie Gems. The 15 games mentioned in the video, each with a short description/review segment: - Unbox: Newbie's Adventeure - Utopia Must Fall - Chroma Squad - Shadow Gambit - En Garde! - Tinykin - Our Adventurer Guild - Timespinner - Renowned Explorers - The Brutale - Wintermoor Tactics Club - Unsighted - Wayhaven Chronicles - Demon Turf - Roadwarden
neutral · AI labelView post →I don't really understand this game. It is enjoyable, like other games from this studio (Desperado III, Shadow Tactics). But I don't understand the tone of the game. My best guess is that they tried to go for something like One Piece, but without the absurdity/strangeness, so it comes off as gloomy and depressing. Think about Pirates of the Caribbean, if the main characters were the crew of the cursed ship, rather than the human characters. It makes it hard to get engaged, and to care about the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At first, I didn't like the game as the start is a little slowish. But then I began to really enjoy it. With each progressive stage and new characters with new abilities (which some pretty much do the same thing, but still fun), I had a lot of fun. At this point I just beat the base game and the levels were actually pretty challenging and forced me to think outside of the box at times. If a level was frustrating, it was just because I didn't use the right characters for the job. As far as the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man, was I excited when Mimimi Productions revived and polished up the real-time tactics genre with Shadow Tactics in 2016. We had to wait too long after classics like Commandos and Desperados. And then Mimimi went and gave us Desperados 3. I was hoping we'd get a lot more, and in 2023 they finally approached one of my favourite genres: pirates. With Shadow Gambit, they tried to revamp the gameplay even further, building a pirate and treasure adventure around recurring islands and a large…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this game. I waited until it was 75% off and bout it for $9.99, thinking that this would be another mimimi game like shadow tactics or desperados 3 (which is amazing), but it is a watered down version in my eyes. I am playing on the 2nd hardest difficulty (so maybe i'll up it to the most difficult version for the next island), but it is way too easy compared to those other 2 games. There is no entanglement of the guards that you have to figure out, save a few here or there,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nothing, I got more than enough games left to play: * Xenoblade Chronicles 3 DLC * Shadow Gambit DLC * Tactical Breach Wizards * AI2 Nirvana Initiative * Unicorn Overlord * Mario&Luigi Brothership * Against The Storm ... and actually a bunch more I can't even recall right now...
neutral · AI labelView post →I'm playing Shadow Gambit, come join me: https://www.twitch.tv/caseyexplosion
neutral · AI labelView post →Hey! Extra special Friday stream, 'cos I need to play more Shadow Gambit! https://www.twitch.tv/caseyexplosion
neutral · AI labelView post →Heya! Started Shadow Gambit, stealth tactics game about cursed pirates vs Eldritch Spanish Inquisition, from the Shadow Tactics dev (rip). I'm loving it! Interesting world and characters and the gameplay is addictive! More Against the Storm and some REmake4. Got a couple quick poinks the other day.
positive · AI labelView post →I mean, it's not bad, but definietely much worse than previous mimimi games. Best thing here are characters' skill sets, pretty creative, some mechanics refreshment from previous games. And that's pretty much why potential was wasted so much. Game is fairly easy, not much hard moments and definietely it's lacking of progressive difficulty over the course of the game. Especially with high variety of champions it's beggin to make game increasingly difficult. Plot is totally skippable, maps are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Save Your Game 64 in which we discuss cookies, pumpkin spice, Naked Gun, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, and of course, the classic Roger Rabbit-inspired Christopher Lloyd game TOONSTRUCK. youtu.be/boiQ_NfiW5A?...
neutral · AI labelView post →Not as good as their other games. I really enjoyed Shadow tactics and Desperados III. This one started out okay but it got kind of repetitive after awhile and you have to play the same maps a couple times.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is WAY too good to be as obscure as it is. 11/10, needs more crew interactions.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Shadow Gambit is unfortunately the last game from the great studio Mimimi Games, but honestly, in my opinion, it is also one of their least great games. It still features the fantastic mechanics we know from Desperados 3 or Shadow Tactics. Be it the tons of gadgets that make the stealth more in-depth and creative, or the planning phase that lets you clear an area easily through character teamwork. Because you are now able to choose which characters to take on a mission (and finally none of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Anyone here played **Shadow Gambit The Cursed Crew**? It looks lively, but I'm not quite sure how the game plays, specifically on a gamepad. The tags say it's real time strategy, but doesn't look like any real time strategy I've played. I'd be interested regardless, but if it's not a great on a gamepad I'll wait until I have some time to game on my desktop.
neutral · AI labelView post →Fredo's Game-Os: I'm going to make another post evangelizing the sadly now defunct developer Mimimi. I'm currently playing Aiko's Choice, the stand alone expansion to Shadow Tactics, and it fucking rules - much like the original game. Apparently their next game, Shadow Gambit - is even better
positive · AI labelView post →i have no idea how mimimi messed this up so badly. the writing is atrocious. the characters are unlikeable. the voice-acting makes me want to just turn the game off. luckily you can turn off the voice audio and skip past the dialogue and lose nothing of value. the core gameplay that made Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3 fun is still here. it's a shame about characters and writing though because that was some of the best parts of the other games and the absolute worst parts of this game.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is extremely buggy including a major bug that prevents me from progressing further on the Red Marley after playing for 40+ hours.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Shadow Gambit, the last game of the legendary Mimimi studio is 50% off, its one of my favorite games ever, a stealth tactical masterpiece, I will always recommend it.
positive · AI labelView post →Fantastic game, in my opinion the best of the Mimimi trilogy- not a statement to be taken lightly considering all of them are spectacular. This one has so much variety and ways to mix missions up with the different crew members, a quality the other games never quite possessed. All of the crew members are balanced enough where it's both hard to pinpoint a most/least useful crew member (Except for probably Yuki the DLC character)- all of them are insanely powerful if played to their strengths.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1000000000/10 ridiculously well crafted, made me love the entire genre. like i genuinely started looking into other games because of this. story was good, music was great, voice actors Absolutely blew it through the roof and made the game 10x better. i need everyone to play Now so they can hear it for themselves. edited to add that i locked in so hard i spent 18 straight hours playing on a weekend. it's so peak.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →HELLS YEAH! More folks coming around to the awesomeness that is Shadow Gambit! Seriously, y'all, go check out this game! It's fun, it's got great characters, it's got a ton of personality, & you get to shank the Inquisition! What's not to love? 💀🏴☠️ #ShadowGambitTheCursedCrew #indiegame #pirates
positive · AI labelView post →I picked up Shadow Gambit back when it came out, but didn't have time to play it because crunch. My kid just finished it and kept talking about it, so I finally dove in. And yeah, it is 100% my jam. (RIP Mimimi Games, they made cool things.) store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/...
positive · AI labelView post →Commandos to me is the start of a different lineage of real-time tactical stealth games, which goes on to include Desperados, Shadow Tactics, and Shadow Gambit (yes, most of those were made by the same team). Outside of the OGRE-alikes (FO Tactics, FF Tactics, Disgea, and so on) some other options for tactical games that are a little different: - Nexus: The Jupiter Incident - sort of a 4X game mixed with tactics, or like Homeworld with a lot fewer units - Myth: The Fallen Lords (and sequels)…
neutral · AI labelView post →I’ve been playing a lot of Shadow Gambit - The Cursed Crew the last few days. If you enjoy real-time stealth games where you command multiple units, each with different abilities, then check it out! The art is phenomenal, fully voice-acted, and an adventure fit for a crew of cursed pirates. 🏴☠️☠️🗡️
positive · AI labelView post →Disclosure: Game provided by developer Hey folks, playing SHADOW GAMBIT, get in here! https://www.twitch.tv/caseyexplosion
neutral · AI labelView post →
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