After 7 hours, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew might be Mimimi's most joyful stealth strategy game yet

Ahead of the launch of its Steam Next Fest demo next week, I've been playing a substantial early build of Mimimi Games' latest stealth strategy game, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. After delighting us with Edo-period Japan in Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun and the rootin' tootin' tales of the Wild West in Desperados 3, Mimimi have taken a firm step outside their comfort zone with the high seas island-hopping of Shadow Gambit, offering up an altogether different approach to their tried and tested stealth antics.

As you might have guessed from the name, its eponymous crew aren't bound by the laws of reality in this latest tactical outing, and their extensive suite of magic abilities really open up the playing field for some creative takedowns. But the canvas on which you're painting these elaborate murders has morphed since the days of Desperados 3, with its handful of islands now offering multiple points of entry, a myriad of different missions and objectives and - for the first time ever - repeat visits to the same locations. It's quite the sea change from Mimimi's previous work, but rest assured: the crown jewels of the Mimimi stealth strategy experience certainly haven't been lost to Davey Jones' locker in the process. If nothing else, this is the most fun I've had with a Mimimi game, period - and I cannot wait to dive back in properly when it launches on August 17th.

The build I played is a slightly more expansive version of what you'll play during the Next Fest demo, but the core of it - the game's opening gambit, so to speak - is effectively the same. You'll begin as lone pirate Afia Manicato, the lass with the cutlass sticking out her chest, as she rocks up in Angler's Grave. She's looking to heist a certain ghost ship by the name of the Red Marley out from beneath the very unlikeable noses of the Inquisition, a deadly force in this corner of the Lost Caribbean who don't take kindly to ladies with cutlasses through their hearts - or any undead, magical beings for that matter.

As you may have seen from yesterday's new trailer at the PC Gaming Show, Afia's arch nemesis is an Inquisitor called Ignacia, and you'll be dispatching her goons all across the archipelago as you attempt to liberate your home from their puritanical yoke. Afia has history with the Red Marley, you see, and she's determined to solve the riddle of its former owner, the legendary pirate Moredechai. To do this, she'll need to rebuild Moredechai's old crew, resurrecting them with mysterious Black Pearls (which are, of course, in the possession of the Inquisition), and finding a wealth of magical artefacts (also in the hands of the Inquisition) in order to help decipher it.

Accumulating these two things will form the backdrop of Shadow Gambit's first act, and you'll be visiting its clutch of islands multiple times to stock up on them. At first glance, these objectives may come as something of a disappointment. They certainly aren't as playful as, say, rounding up your gang of exceedingly drunk cowboys after a heavy night out to defend a ranch in Desperados 3, for example, but the freedom both your crew and your point of entry on these islands goes a surprisingly long way in helping to restore any perceived lack of fun and creativity.

Afia herself feels like the distant cousin of Corvo and Emily Kaldwin from Dishonored, her ability to stab foes with her dagger and blink dash across spaces unseen making her the perfect introduction to this world of nefarious swashbuckling. She can also freeze time for short periods, forcing guards to stop in their tracks so her crewmates can either run through their sight cones without them raising the alarm, or take down one of their pals right in front of them - if they're quick, that is.

She was a key member of my early missions in Shadow Gambit, but I quickly came to favour skeleton chef pirate Toya and sharpshooter Teresa as well. Toya can plant Japanese katashiro markers on guards or points on the ground, allowing him to instantly teleport to (and attack) those locations from anywhere on the map. He also has a handy (and wide-ranging) flute whistle to distract guards to tempt them off their patrol routes, and his cookery-flavoured voice quips make him an exceedingly good hang while you're filleting your latest acolyte and dumping them in a bush.

Teresa, meanwhile, is your classic sniper of the gang, able to pick off guards from afar as long as she has a clear line of sight. She'll need to retrieve that deadly crossbow dart before she can strike again, however, so you'll need to deploy her talents carefully in order to make the most of her. She can fire crossbow darts that blind enemies as well, decimating their sight cones while the rest of your gang slip through the cracks in their vision. Not bad considering she herself doesn't actually have any eyes.

Witch doctor Suleidy has plenty to recommend her as well, especially her ability to conjure up cover bushes on the fly to keep your crew hidden from view. The spirited Pinkus Von Presswald, meanwhile, is the spy of the group. He's able to possess low-level guards and use their soulless husks to chat and distract their colleagues, and he also has a very Cooper-style coin toss (being a rich, pompous sod), albeit with a shorter range of effect than Toya's whistle.

Alas, the preview build stopped short of letting me try the anchor-wielding John Mercury and canonist Gaelle Le Bris from the reveal trailer, and there's also skelly fisherman Quentin Aalbers waiting in the wings as well. But even with only five of its eventual eight characters to sample here, I found each and every combo I tried worked an absolute treat, offering up plenty of ways to solve its deviously designed puzzle box locations, and all without feeling like I was repeating the same strategies or just going through the motions with different crew mates.

I'd be loathe to spoil any of each island's secrets - those are best discovered for yourself - but I will say that even doing two missions on the same island managed to feel substantially different from one another. First, one took place during the day, while the other was set during the night, offering up a whole new range of sightlines, pockets of light and patrol routes to get to grips with. And second, even approaching the same area from a different angle felt like I was scratching a different part of my brain than I had just hours earlier. You see, each mission doesn't just end when you complete your objective. This is fundamentally a heist game at its core, so getting out is just as important as making your way in. To escape, you'll need to find a 'Tear Into The Below', a magical doorway that opens up a portal back to the Red Marley, and due to the unholy nature of them, they are, of course, guarded and sealed by special Custodes priests.

You'll find a handful of these Tears dotted around each island, and I ended up going for the same one twice on a couple of missions, just by virtue of it being the one closest to me. But Mimimi, being the clever and tricksy folks they are, have designed these spaces to continually test your knowledge of them - and yes, even something as simple as approaching a courtyard from a different doorway felt fresh and exhilarating on the second attempt. Of course, it's entirely possible that these feelings may start to become rather more ragged after a third, fourth and possibly even fifth visit through these spaces - it's hard to tell right now exactly how often we'll be return journeys to each of Shadow Gambit's islands - but for now I remain impressed by each space's versatility and sense of challenge.

There's a lot more I could say about Shadow Gambit. There's an open air library on one island that's a particular delight for team aerial takedowns, as is the prison fortress that hugs the crater of a magical volcano. Carefully placed rocks and cranes also make the mind wander, and while not all members of your crew are able to swim in the shallows, the ones that can are able to pop up like sharks to snuff out wayward guards on lonely docks and spits of sand. Each island is a veritable playground of possibility in Shadow Gambit, and the thought of having only sampled a couple of them with just over half of its final crew to hand just makes me even more eager to see what other treasures are lying in wait in the final game.

So if you were at all worried that Mimimi might have bitten off more than they could chew with Shadow Gambit, you can set your mind at ease. The Cursed Crew is looking pretty ship shape right now, and you should absolutely try out the Next Fest demo for yourself when it launches on Steam next week, on June 19th. You should also mark your calendars for its full release while you're at it, too. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store on August 17th.

NotE3 and Summer Game Fest 2023 is over for another year. You can find out all the latest news by visiting our E3 2023 hub, or you can catch up with our round-up posts of everything that was announced at Summer Game Fest, the Xbox Games Showcase, the PC Gaming Show, Day Of The Devs, and our top highlights from the Wholesome Direct.