So I've been playing games like Shadow Gambit ever since Commandos hit the scene in the last 90s and I really love this genre. I also liked Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3 (also by Mimimi Games) a lot. But with Shadow Gambit was relieved when the credits rolled so that I would not have to play it anymore. They made some changes in comparison to their previous games that - at least in my opinion - made the game worse. For example in order to complete the story every map has to be played at least three times. Now there are different objectives every time and you can start from another location on the map but the guards are positioned the same so it's very similar overall. The maps themselves are not as diverse as I wish - everything's basically a tropical island. Then there are eight different characters which is just too much, especially since a few characters are overpowered and the others are just sidekicks. The sidekick characters are interchangeable and dull. On almost all missions the characters that are used can be selected by the player and so it feels the missions are a bit too generic - after all they need to be playable with pretty much any character combination. Usually this time of game defines which characters can be used and the puzzles and enemies are adjusted to that. The story is boring: Pirates are looking for a pirate treasure. I started to skip every story related cutscene really early on. Also the crew missions (mini missions that can be completed between main missions) are nothing short of plain annoying. Overall, I'm disappointed. Not just in comparison to the former games by Mimimi, but in general by the game. I bought it on sale so I didn't waste too much money but if someone would ask me, I'd say buy Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3 or Sumerian Six (which I also reviewed and it's so much better) instead.
I really like this genre and I played the original Commandos when it first came out back in the day. I also played all the games by Mimimi and by chance I stumbled upon Sumerian Six. I'm so glad I bought it! The game took me about 20 hours to finish and I had a blast playing it. The missions are diverse, well designed and I felt there are always multiple ways to solve situations. The special abilities of the characters are really cool and they were a joy to use. The supernatural WW2 vibe and enemies were something different and allowed the devs to implement some over the top stuff like turning one character into a bear. How cool is that! Oh, and clearing a room was always satisfying. The only thing that I missed a little was footprints in the sand/snow to lure enemies.. but it's actually no big deal. The game itself ran very stable, I had no crashes. Quickload and Quicksave are instant and it's super helpful that the quicksave list shows screenshots of the moment the quicksave was taken! These are little QOL things that show how much effort went into the game. Since I'm well used to these games the regular difficulty was sometimes a bit too easy, but overall it allowed me to get into a flow. Maybe it's just the overall trend these days to make games more accessible. It's not a bad thing though.. Commandos was very punishing e.g. and if you want a challenge, you can always ramp up the difficulty. So anyway.. if you're into this niche genre, I can fully recommend this game. It's not expensive and really delivers!
