Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew Outsmart the Inquisition, undead style

Eight undead pirates wait to be revived, each with their own supernatural ability and a personality to match. Gaëlle fires friends and foes out of a magical cannon. Mr. Mercury travels under the ground and pops up where guards least expect him. Von Presswald simply possesses an enemy, strolls over, unlocks the gate, and lets the rest of the crew walk in.

Missions limit how many crewmates you can bring, so the trio you pick shapes everything: which routes are open, which tricks are available, how the whole plan comes together. You can send a crewmate's soul out to scout ahead, then pull everyone into position and trigger several abilities at once for one coordinated strike. Finding a combination that fits your style is half the fun, and there are far more of them than any single campaign will use.

The Inquisition outnumbers you badly in a fair fight, so you never fight fair. You watch patrol routes and lines of sight, move between light and shadow, and make sure nobody is watching when the blow lands. Different enemy types demand different answers: snipers watch from above, and magically linked guards must be dealt with at the same moment or not at all.

Your crew's magic works with the terrain. If there is nowhere to hide, Suledin conjures cover out of thin air and you slip past right under a guard's nose. If attentive sentries hold the high ground, Gaëlle's cannon drops a friend (or an enemy) right on top of them. Peeling a heavily defended position apart layer by layer, until the whole thing finally unravels, is the quiet pleasure at the heart of the game.

There is no set path here. You choose which crewmates to revive and in what order, which islands to unlock, and which missions to tackle first. Every island holds several missions with different rewards, so you can grab an easier one to earn upgrades that open new routes through a harder one later.

Even a single mission starts with a decision: where to come ashore and where to leave. Land far from the patrols for a safer approach, or beach right under the guns to stay close to your objective. The same island plays differently depending on where you enter and which crew you brought, so returning to familiar ground rarely feels like a repeat errand. When a plan falls apart, the Red Marley can rewind time to your last saved moment and you try the approach again.