Desperados III

A love letter to the fairly niche genre of real-time strategy stealth games, and one that is properly and unashamedly old-school in nature. Patience, planning and precision are required to slowly chip away at the gigantic levels, and it never gets any less satisfying or thrilling when you pull off a complex string of commands to clear your way through a group of enemies or carry out one of your objectives. The story is pretty thin, but this is balanced by a surprisingly well-defined cast of characters which will keep you determined to play on and find out how their paths all converge by the game's end.

Mimimi Games has shown their niche expertise with the masterpiece that is Shadow Tactics, and this game cements it.

While it is definitely a very polished and rewarding experience, it does borrow a lot from Shadow Tactics. By a lot, I mean A LOT. Most of the skills and enemies are the exact same from ST, just named different things to fit the Western style.

Do not get this game if you do not like save-loading, as it is crucial in this and ST. It's an issue that I had with ST, and, sadly, it is the same in this game. This can make the game a drag when stuck in positions of RNG, such as when guards roam around while confused.

Regardless, the game does stand up on its own, and you could easily play this without having played ST. I was just expecting more new content aside from the obvious (Isabelle, who is the most fun character in the "franchise").

The music is great, the art style is amazing, and the gameplay is just like Shadow Tactics (great). The story is cliché, but that also fits the Western style.