Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl is one of my favourite movies. I’ve watched it countless times, and a big part of the reason why is the mixture of pirates and the supernatural. The adventure, the piracy and the magic all click with me, which is why Shadow’s Gambit: The Cursed Crew from Mimimi is an incredibly exciting prospect for me. The developers know how to make excellent strategy games, and now they are combining those talents with a gorgeous pirate aesthetic that immediately makes me think of an amped-up Pirates of the Caribbean adventure.

I was lucky enough to get early access to the same demo that will be made available to everyone when the Steam Next Fest kicks off on June 19th. It offers a few levels and a chance to mess around with three characters from the game’s roster of supernaturally charged pirates ahead of the game’s launch on August 17th for Xbox Series S/X, Playstation 5 and PC.

Thankfully, the demo doesn’t just dump me mid-way through the game without a clue as to what’s going on. It picks up right at the beginning with Afia, a cursed pirate with some serious swagger and a sabre rammed through her chest. It’s a fairly noticeable handicap but one that also offers some powerful benefits, but I’ll come back to that later. For now, Afia is looking for someone called the Jester who is hanging out at an inn across town. It’s a pleasant stroll through the streets, Afia noting that the citizens are quite used to seeing Cursed, the game’s term for anyone that has somehow wound up on the wrong side of magic. It’s also a hint that like their previous game, the excellent Desperados 3, Mimimi may let us amble around certain areas freely.

For now, it’s a good opportunity to check out the town and see the graphics. Shadow’s Gambit is rocking a colourful, chunky style that really clicks with me. In fact, the game as a whole clicks with me: a stealth strategy game with supernatural forces, pirates and living ships? Count me the fuck in. There’s a lot of detail in the environments to admire, and Afia’s character model gives her plenty of personality, especially the sword sticking through her ribcage. Don’t panic, I’m getting to it, I swear. The rest of the world and lore feel very fleshed out from what I get to experience. Weird words and chunks of exposition are thrown around, but it’s handled with skill so that it never felt like I was just being buried under a mountain of meaningless names and proper nouns. Before long, I have a grip on how this world works, how it talks and how it feels much bigger than just the small piece I’m exploring.

I finally arrive at the Inn and head upstairs to meet Jester, who turns out to be a skeleton with magical powers and a touch of sass. It turns out that Afia is after a ship called the Red Marley because its captain allegedly got his grubby mitts on a butt-load of treasure. Jester helpfully knows where it is, but also reveals it’s currently being held by the Inquisition who are busy performing some crazy rites of purification on it. Jester is nothing if not helpful, though, so with a click of his fingers I find myself landing on a beach on some island somewhere. On the other side of the island sits the Red Marley. A few Inquisition guards are in the way, so it’s time to get to grips with how Shadow’s Gambit: The Cursed Crew plays.

I’m playing on PC, so ordering Afia around is as easy as clicking somewhere to make her walk, or double-clicking for a run. From the bar at the bottom of the screen, I select her knives, although I could use A, S, D and F to pick skills, and order her to take out the first guard. A few stabs later, I hide his corpse in a bush, because while I may be a pirate I’m not a litterer. From there the game educates me on how guards have specific cones of vision which can be shown by right-clicking on an enemy. Hatched lines in the cone mean I won’t be spotted if crouching, so I use that information to creep my way past the next foe.

Now it is time to bust out Afia’s sword. I said we’d get there. A patrolling guard is up on a ledge that can’t be reached, but it’s the only way forward, so by tapping the S key and then clicking on the guard, Afia rips the blade from her sternum and suddenly teleports up to the guard, cleanly ending his grasp on life before ramming the blade back into her body. It’s awesome. It looks great and has such a fun concept for a power. Vitally, it leaves me wanting to know more about what actually happened to Afia to curse her with something so crazy.

I should mention at this point that a female voice has been speaking to Afia directly through her mind for a little while, and it’s about to become important. Up ahead is a chunky Inquisition member who I confidently go to murder, only to wind up being grabbed and destroyed. Time immediately rewinds and I’m reintroduced to Mimimi’s love of giving players freedom by letting them save the game and quickly reload it whenever they like. In this case, the voice in Afia’s head is the Red Marley itself, and it has the power to rewind time. So, with a second chance at killing the Inquisitor ahead, I go with dropping a rock on his head. Didn’t see that one coming, pal.

Let’s skip forward a bit because the game comes alive when other crew members enter the fray. With the red Marley freed from the clutches of the Inquisition, Afia joins the crew to help find out what happened to the ship’s captain and his legendary treasure. First, though, that means reviving the other Cursed using Black Pearls ( and Soul Energy. The first one is free and there are two choices to resurrect. On my first playthrough, I opt for Suleidy, the ship’s doctor who also happens to be partially made of plants. Her whole schtick is that can she quickly grow a bush (get your mind out of the gutter) which makes an excellent hiding spot and that can disappear bodies. Her other trick is a special powder that makes guards walk away in the opposite direction for a few seconds, perfect for getting them out of the way or into an ambush.

Toya, a Japanese assassin turned ship’s cook, is the other crew member. He might just have one arm but he’s deadly, and he loves to compare killing to cooking. His signature skill is his Katishiro which he can throw down anywhere or even attach to a guard. By activating his Shadow Step skill, Toya will instantly teleport to the Katishiro and kill whoever is in range. It’s a versatile skill, especially combined with his flute that lures guards toward him.

The Red Marley itself looks like it will act as a home base between missions. Aside from the Cursed pirates that call it home, it’s crewed by a host of skeletons that wander the deck, and there’s even an undead monkey that will take characters below deck to a special training area.

The next mission is to rescue the rest of the crew so that we can revive them one by one later on. Their corpses are currently being held by the Inquisition, though, so a little more stabbing is in order. It’s here I get a better taste of what the game is with two crew members working together, combining their abilities to move through the level. The full game will let players take three crew members at a time, though.

Like Mimimi’s prior games, the moment-to-moment gameplay of Shadow’s Gambit is like a puzzle: I have a quick look at the layout of the guards, check their cones of vision and start figuring out what combination of skills and movements are needed. The AI is rigid in its routines but for this kind of game it works perfectly – once a guard turns around and marches off, I know exactly how long I have to stab his pal and drag the body away. I also learn that each character has their own speed when it comes to stabbing, with some being much quicker it it than others. More challenging situations where guards are covering each other require the use of another special trick: stopping time. A tap of the shift key pauses the action and lets me queue up one action per character, absolutely perfect for eliminating two guards that happen to be watching each other.

Shadow’s Gambit pushes the clever use of this extraordinary power in its second mission. Two enemies are linked together by a powerful bond which will resurrect them so long as their partner lives. So I patiently send my two pirates scurrying up both sides of a cliff, carefully dispatching enemies until they are positioned for an immensely satisfying tandem takedown. I can’t wait to see what having three characters with hugely varying abilities will let me do.

The demo ends with a tantalising tease. With the bodies of the rest of the crew retrieved, I get to resurrect one more soul but never get to take the full complement of three pirates out on a mission. Still, I get to peruse the other members of the Red Marley’s little Cursed family I spot some fascinating character designs with tantalising abilities.

From the four or five hours I played of the demo, I already feel confident in Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. Mimimi has consistently created excellent strategy games, and this one is no different. The only criticism I have thus far is that it’s a relatively safe game from them. The gameplay is very familiar, but it’s executed wonderfully and lifted up by the engaging world, unique characters and awesome pirate vibe. Roll on August.

The demo for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew will be available on Steam from June 19 to June 26.