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Shadow Gambit comes out today. I'm gonna make a thread and talk about it (in between Baldur's Gate 3). If you've played Desperados 3 and Shadow Tactics, this is more but it's ghost pirates this time rather than cowboys and ninjas. If you haven't, they are tactical stealth 'puzzle' games where you attempt to assassinate, hide, and ambush your way across maps hopefully avoiding outright confrontation. Shadow Tactics is routinely on sale for a few bucks (and I think has been given away free a few times on Epic) and Desperados 3 isn't much more expensive. Or the latest, greatest game Shadow Gambit has a demo you can try.    IGN Review (9/10) Gamespot Review (9/10) PC Gamer Review (87/100) ACG Video
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Aug 17, 2023 17:32
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 00:18 |
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it is Crucial to note once again that the memory reminder can be switched off in the gameplay options, or set to an unobtrusive little timer like in Shadow Tactics/Desperados III
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Aug 17, 2023 22:43
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Also note that the reminder is just that, a reminder. It is not actually saving anything for you.
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Aug 18, 2023 12:56
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Seems pretty great so far, I've done a few missions, got 4 crew members and finished act 1 (which is like a couple hours in so not a huge amount). Only concern is it seems like there are 10 islands, I've seen 6 of them and none of them are as complicated as the very best maps from Desperados 3 but of course, the 4 ones I haven't seen yet could all be at that level because you unlock access to them later and there could be some sort of thing halfway through the game that remixes all the maps or whatever so that is a minor concern ultimately right now. I'd assume some of them will also let you bring in more than 3 crew members as well, those were always the craziest missions near the end of the last 2 games. I like that they are labelled as medium/long (not seen a "short" one yet and a medium one took me about 30 minutes) so I can sorta pick one with a length to suit the time I have right now as well, I upped the guard numbers in the custom difficulty settings and then left everything else at default since that seemed like it'd be pretty fun. The crew members all feel nicely varied, I used Toya in the demo and so chose to unlock some of the others first just for some variety. It feels like it's gonna be one of those games where you feel like the initial way you did a level was clearly the best way and then if you replay it with a different crew it'll force you to see it completely differently.
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Aug 18, 2023 13:30
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I've only just unlocked Gaëlle and not taken her on any missions yet, but I am preemptively declaring her to be top tier gonna put everyone in the kanol, and then shoot them out of the kanol warning: the following game is kanol Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Aug 18, 2023 |
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Aug 18, 2023 15:37
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It looks like maybe the Doctor and the Cook are the only characters that have the fast kill animation and fast corpse drag animation. Other than uh, Cannoness Gaelle's... alternative animation. Saint Freak fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Aug 18, 2023 |
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Aug 18, 2023 23:27
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Hwurmp posted:I've only just unlocked Gaëlle and not taken her on any missions yet, but I am preemptively declaring her to be top tier there are an unfortunate number of downsides to raining men. most importantly, you really need someone to watch her back and get rid of the second body. she's not bad, certainly, but every other character i've gotten has been so amazingly strong that the one with any downsides at all stands out.
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Aug 19, 2023 00:31
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fire the first body into a shrubbery or fire a buddy instead of a body Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 00:41
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:there are an unfortunate number of downsides to raining men. most importantly, you really need someone to watch her back and get rid of the second body. she's not bad, certainly, but every other character i've gotten has been so amazingly strong that the one with any downsides at all stands out. she's incredible at propelling your less mobile characters into suddenly useful locations though. god bless cannonness + sniper combo
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Aug 19, 2023 00:56
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Hwurmp posted:fire the first body into a shrubbery that doesn't solve anything. the problem is when you use your karol dating service to introduce a new couple. you can quickly pick up the dude you knocked out. but gaelle can't pick up more than one body at a time, which means there is still a body left at the site. this is very easy to solve with suleidy or quentin, but if you didn't bring either of them along the man cannon just isn't a very good ranged takedown. of course, it isn't really a big deal if a body is found in this game. but that's boring, so i act as though there's always a guardhouse full of reinforcements like in their previous games.
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Aug 19, 2023 01:08
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speaking of quentin, i highly recommend him for night missions. being able to turn off light sources at range is an incredible tool. also, his skull lure lights up!
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Aug 19, 2023 01:10
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I don't use the kanol as a ranged takedown except for sentries in high watchtowers and other dudes that won't be discovered. For dudes at ground level, I use it like a powerful and slightly inconvenient variant of Blink. Kanol somebody, relocate nearer to their position, kanol everyone who comes sniffing. If nobody comes then we can go a-kanoling somewhere else. I haven't had a chance to try Quentin on a night mission yet, but his powers of necrophagy are already incredibly good Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 01:25
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One of the reviews that was the most glowing said you only get the last crew member "just before the post game" which seems odd at the rate I'm getting them, the only ones I don't have are the treasurer and the quartermaster. I'm guessing the Jester is also a crew member later since he's on the title screen and keeps appearing being all mysterious but please don't respond to this with an answer either way, I don't want it confirmed or deconfirmed, just speculating idly really. I could see unlocking all the regular ones relatively soon and then getting him much later I guess.
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Aug 19, 2023 01:38
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Gaëlle's real weakness is that sometimes she will pick up the dude who is fully unconscious, and leave the dude who will wake up in a few seconds I don't know how to precisely distinguish between dudes yet
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Aug 19, 2023 13:30
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i've been putting pinkus through his paces and dang, this guy really needs his upgrade asap. i was hoping that maybe he could possess stunned enemies, such as when gaelle fires him at one. alas, no such luck. it's standing, conscious enemies only. unless there are some strategies or synergies i'm missing, he's very situational.
gimme the GOD DAMN candy fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 14:52
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Pinkus is good on Angler's Grave, since it's such a crowded vertical mess that lots of the other stealth abilities are fiddly to use.
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Aug 19, 2023 23:20
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Saint Freak posted:It looks like maybe the Doctor and the Cook are the only characters that have the fast kill animation and fast corpse drag animation. What's funny though is that the 'fast' corpse dragging actually kind of sucks because you are standing up doing it, which is a huge issue in many situations. Jack is probably my favorite character, with Suleidy close behind. He's just fun as hell to play with, he can get places easily which others can't, hides bodies automatically, and is just kinda fun to tool around with. His secondary ability p much sucks but that's okay.
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Aug 19, 2023 23:37
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The sniper is INCREDIBLE once you get her upgrade. Also the treasure hunter can pick up the cook's teleport token with his fishing line, which can lead to very funny things.
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Aug 20, 2023 06:09
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thebardyspoon posted:One of the reviews that was the most glowing said you only get the last crew member "just before the post game" which seems odd at the rate I'm getting them, the only ones I don't have are the treasurer and the quartermaster. I'm guessing the Jester is also a crew member later since he's on the title screen and keeps appearing being all mysterious but please don't respond to this with an answer either way, I don't want it confirmed or deconfirmed, just speculating idly really. I could see unlocking all the regular ones relatively soon and then getting him much later I guess. The review is kinda right and kinda wrong I think
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Aug 20, 2023 06:09
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Goddamn this game is good. Fuckit I'm triple posting to say this game owns. Incredible ups to mimimi
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Aug 20, 2023 06:11
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Yeah it's real good, it's pulled me away from Baldurs Gate 3 because I don't have to think as hard about like, "oh is this thing that seems wrong actively broken or just the game isn't quite as reactive as the claims said" and I can just play it for an hour or two and make some progress. I've had one bug where it crashed a couple times when I was taking out a specific guard in a specific way and they weren't required for the mission anything so I just went around them. I was saying a few days ago that it seemed like it wouldn't have levels as complicated as Desperados, I still haven't unlocked the last island yet and there's clearly still some amount of game to go so maybe that will be but there's certainly been sections of the islands that are in that are fiendishly difficult. So far there's just no levels where I've had more than 3 characters just yet which does limit the complexity somewhat. Either way it's pretty smart how they've sectioned out the levels and the sections feel completely different and you'll end up crisscrossing into and out of bits sometimes on the way in and out of a mission. Curious what they'd do next, I'm perfectly happy for them to keep making a game like this every 3 years or so with a different theme/setting personally. thebardyspoon fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Aug 20, 2023 |
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Aug 20, 2023 23:39
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thebardyspoon posted:Curious what they'd do next, I'm perfectly happy for them to keep making a game like this every 3 years or so with a different theme/setting personally. Well they did ninjas, cowboys, zombie pirates. Could do fantasy/medieval or 
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Aug 21, 2023 13:29
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Bodies can be really useful if you're careful with them. They're the one thing that will make a Commissarius or Prognosticar leave their position.
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Aug 21, 2023 16:38
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if you mind wipe one kindred, that disables the resurrection of the other one. the link is still there, but it's an action the surviving one has to perform.
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Aug 21, 2023 18:40
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What's mind wipe?
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Aug 21, 2023 18:42
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when you open a tear
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Aug 21, 2023 18:58
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the characters so far are a little... saturday morning cartoon-y but i have genuinely liked the sniper's character development in the third act.
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Aug 21, 2023 19:26
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none of the character side stories have really grabbed me much. the best was definitely gaelle's, but even the poetry slam seemed a bit dull. as for the tests, i'll reserve judgment until i finish the rest.
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Aug 21, 2023 19:32
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finished the game today, it's amazing. fun pirate story, good pirate characters, fun voice lines as you click on things. had lots of fun finding creative ways around the maps. my favourite combo is probably suleidy+teresa+john, they just rip right through any formation easily, but all the other characters are amazing too and just as effective now to spend a month doing all the optional/badge bullshit also, the warning at the start saying you shouldn't play on cursed as your first game is weird because i didn't have any issues and the last game like this i played was literally desperados 1 
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Aug 21, 2023 21:44
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limiting missions to 3 characters was a great choice. you can't have every tool at once, and not every tool is useful without the right party. for example, teresa's dust shot. it has half duration on higher tier units including iudex, which means it doesn't last long enough for most kills. but it works with the fast melee kills, or in combination with a second distraction, or by extending the duration with stopwatch. so without the right support, teresa can't do poo poo about two iudex watching each other. i've also come around on gaelle. not only does she have firecrackers which are by far the best lure in the game, she can also use launched bodies to lure commisarius or however it is spelled. this works better on day missions, obviously. seeing kills causes alerts, but seeing bodies from a distance makes enemies come investigate, first. the problem is therefore that you have to either make them look at a body or send it into their view. gaelle can do either, with utmost ease. there are obviously other ways to mess with body lures, but gaelle seems to specialize in this role. then there's john, who has the worst distraction in the game because it is also heavily vertically limited. it's a worse version of coin, which is already not a power i use a lot. but john is an invincible living(?) god so who cares.
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Aug 21, 2023 22:15
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:then there's john, who has the worst distraction in the game because it is also heavily vertically limited. it's a worse version of coin, which is already not a power i use a lot. but john is an invincible living(?) god so who cares. Sir Reginald is the brains of the outfit Some of these badges are hard as gently caress. The first mission isn't too bad, but then on the second there's a badge for only taking down 4 guards, and never triggering an alarm. That includes the Custodes and Kindred you're required to take out lmao And then on New Krucbury there are badges for never touching--not even using, but merely touching--any hiding spots and killing every guard in three minutes.
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Aug 21, 2023 22:42
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Love this game. I'm kinda worried because it seems to have dropped out of the "top sellers" list almost immediately, let's hope it's still a success in the long run. Some random thoughts after 15 hours: - Toya + Gaelle is great fun and in fact trivializes some specific objectives every once in a while. - So far I've found only one character that can take out 2 commisarius that are watching each other without alarm or using the pistol. If Gaelle canols one of them and she's somewhat close then she'll have enough time to kill the other one before he raises the alarm. - I thought it quite funny that I got the "don't use any distractions ever" badge by accident on the "steal the head" map when playing with John+Toya+Gaelle, when in fact I had been shooting dead bodies as distractions the whole time. - The only time I needed to clear the same location in two different missions I was quite surprised that what I thought was a trivially simple job ended up being actually somewhat challenging with a different composition. - Some upgrades seem super impactful. I picked Toya's and Pinkus' upgrade so far. Not sure if all of them are this strong but they definitely make a big difference. - In the previous games I didn't like the disguise characters that much*, but Pinkus is really fun to play. Probably not the best, but together with John the most enjoyable. *) they were too weak before their disguise and too strong afterwards.
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Aug 22, 2023 00:10
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Walh Hara posted:- Some upgrades seem super impactful. I picked Toya's and Pinkus' upgrade so far. Not sure if all of them are this strong but they definitely make a big difference. Teresa and Gaëlle's upgrades are the biggest
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Aug 22, 2023 00:51
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top tier upgrades: gaelle, pinkus, teresa. mid grade: toya, suleidy, john, quentin lol grade: afia
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Aug 22, 2023 02:32
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there are some real bastard badges that i probably won't bother with. still, i should be able to reach 85% completion easily enough. there's a secret if you do.
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Aug 22, 2023 19:02
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Quentin makes for one hell of a combo with Teresa.
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Aug 22, 2023 19:17
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if you complete Quentin's crew tale he gets a very dapper ghost mustache & ghostee
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Aug 22, 2023 19:33
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Hwurmp posted:if you complete Quentin's crew tale he gets a very dapper ghost mustache & ghostee Oh, I have been ignoring the crew tales completely. They actually have (cosmetic) rewards?
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Aug 22, 2023 19:37
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only that one
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Aug 22, 2023 20:29
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Shadow Step has eight cuts and not seven what is this bullshit
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Aug 24, 2023 04:18
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