Desperados III

words are not enough to describe how good this gameplay and story is.
RIP mimimi games. Retire as a hero rather than live long as a micro-transaction milkers.

8.5/10 for newcomer 9/10 for fan
I got all achievement so i think i can review this game, TLDR at bottom. So far there have been only around 17 games since this genre appeared in 1998 started with commandos and not all of them good like this one, that alone i really recommend you play this it's just that rare and different, long ago i thought games were supposed to be hard turns out this genre is one of the hardest before souls-like is a thing LOL. I maybe don't care if FPS, Survival, RPG, or many others studio stopped producing because there is a lot on the market, but for rare genres like this only mimimi can do it for quite some time and they closed on 29 August 2023, which really sad for gaming industry.
Played this game on Steam deck docked 1080p with max settings from beginning till end. I only got 45-50 fps without vsync or full refresh rate. I got 70 fps when choosing half refresh rate on game setting, my monitor refresh rate is 100HZ which i should be only got 50 fps but for some reason it lot smoother than that it's stutter at first but i fix it by turning off and off monitor.
Story and Characters:
Desperados III story alone not only great it also respects source material, despite being the third title this game is the prequel of first one called Desperados Wanted Dead or Alive (D: WDA for short later) a game from 2001, few nods to the game here and there for someone that played D: WDA. You are fine playing just base game as main story done there, but i recommend the 3 DLCs that brings another maps and after story for complete closure of the game.
Commandos games are bunch of historical places the dev made missions based on that, while the character is great there is no feeling of 'continuity' on every next level. Desperados have that continuity and more character development all of them is memorable. Honestly, this genre doesn't need it, but I love why they still do it anyway, the conversation of our character and enemy on every level changes, i love how the party got a distinct personality but roasted someone together It creates a semi-living world even though it is not open world or RPG.
The new voice actor are amazing they sounds like the original characters, 3 of 5 characters appeared on D: WDA. Though it is a shame dev not using cinematic CGs movies like D: WDA and always stay on in-game isometric views to tell the story maybe it's out of devs budget but at least use first person and third person perspective sometimes, that makes more immersive and more invested emotionally because we can see the characters expression.
There is controversy about black magic voodoo characters Isabelle and Doc McCoy not using eyepatches before the game releases because it's not lore accurate to D: WDA but people are not angry anymore because the game THAT GOOD.
Gameplay:
I think the biggest turn-off of this genre for someone new is trial and error also save scumming but it is a matter of perspective, pretend you play roguelike like hades or dead cells instead go for another run after you died, on this game you load your save to overcome the challenge this is how this genre it plays like a puzzle. The enemy type not much like D: WDA but it still creates a solid gameplay loop.
For difficulty, it is well tuned, with each difficulty not only made enemy stonger but having a well-placed enemy put together depends on difficulty of your choice unlike on D: WDA the dev without realizing it more like made a game for themself instead for the consumer which is why that game is unreasonable hard (source 20th Desperados anniversary videos).
This genre is niche but the production value needs to be high because one of the recipe is replayability, almost every stage has a different approach to choosing the left or right lane, so even though you playing on the same map it can feels different each playthrough, the variety is good truly a sandbox experience.
Player got many information at disposal, at the start we can see anything on the map, can see how enemy see with a viewcone, all characters got distraction/bait and stealth kill yet can still keep up being hard for me this genre is peak level design. Every character got skills that not too strong and weak on some part that make game mechanics work extremely well and complement each other with asymmetrical balance.
There are some unexpected bugs like instant reaction and sometimes the enemy still shot you even in safe area for the game that needs high precision it is a bummer but at the same time save & load is the game design so it is not much of problem even though maybe it should be a game-breaking for another genre.
Graphics and OST:
One of reason this genre is not more popular after the brief popularity of Commandos 1,2, and D: WDA because 3D didn't work for this genre in mid-2000 and people still prefer the painting graphics that old game have even it's still 2D but that is what makes this genre is timeless because this style on isometric view. Desperados III have that itch maintaining original style of the genre with 3D graphics of recent games. It is also big plus this game setting is wild west, never had enough of wild west games.
The game also step up on User Interface, animations, visual feedback, sound design etc from Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. OST feels wild west theme like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Call of Juarez. I love many variations of the main theme of this game.
TLDR:
Good story and memorable characters, almost all maps got right or left lane that feels different so it's contribute to replayability, balanced and well-thought-level design despite the player having many information at disposal, great and different experiences on each difficulty, modern graphics while still gives itch & maintaining the original style of the genre, since it's prequel you can start playing this without played the first title, and it most likely different genre than games you usually play because how rare game developer made this genre so it creates new experience.

I'm seriously out of words. This game has everything it takes: Stunning visuals, magnificent audio and soundtrack, and the story - that delivers.... man! What a game! I consider it being THE BEST one I have ever played. Hearing MIMIMI closing, left me heartbroken. I trust them with my Life, I'm sure they'd make an excellent Commandos game!

Overall a fun game, only problem is that it demands perfectionism by making the level snowball in difficulty if you get caught by spawning in more guards that don't disappear after you escape. The built-in save/load system that the devs heavily encourage you to abuse coupled with that cheapens the experience a bit when you don't get any satisfaction from salvaging a mistake.

Another thing to note is that if you've played a Mimimi stealth-RTT game before then you've basically already played this game. The engine is the same, graphics are the same, gameplay is the same, even the skills are the same with Desperados 3 having ~80% reused skills from Shadow Tactics. It's effectively just reskinned with a western theme/story, with the gameplay receiving almost no innovation. It still felt worth playing through but would have liked to see some new ideas.

Let's start with the following facts:
-I haven't played the previous games in the series.
-I know what games the developer has released (Shadow tactics)
-I played the DLC missions.
-I didn't play the Challenges (it will become clear when you played the game)
The game is AWSOME. Want more. It has many options for how you will move in the game. The ammo is not much but are what you need to make your life easy and finish the game without ringing the Bells. it's hard to get all the achievements from the beggining as are showed after you complete every mission/level (Classic Mimimi developer standard). If you want you can play again and use diferrent scenarion each time, as already told you game have many paths you can follow.
Gameplay: fantastic. Music: Extraordinary. Characters: Like in our life. Thinking: Multiple scenarios in same time.... like it
The only, let say negative (?) was some few glitches in the DLC missions.
If you like those kind of games you should buy and finished as soon as possible - do not do like me that started after 4 years of existence. For me 9.5/10 is little.
Next step for me the last game of Mimimi

Excellent game, like was Shadow Tactics.
So sad Mimimi has closed ! T_T

I decided to buy this game after playing Mimimi's newest, Shadow Gambit, as I liked the mechanics of sneaking and using different character's skills to get the job done while having the option of "showdown mode" which lets you line up a sequence if you have to take out more than one enemy at a time. The top down asymmetric view works extremely well, I've played 100% on controller, it works fine on steam deck, its a western version of Shadow Gambit (and I'm told their first game like this, too, name I can't remember right now) and if anything its a little harder than Shadow Gambit - the enemies seem more keen to see you, the guard dogs can sniff you out, so be careful and plan or indeed just try out different ideas to get to the next stage - the instant save/reload mechanic works well here although if you've picked this up after Shadow Gambit be warned there are not as many active save slots (3x total in Desperados III)
Its the kind of game you'll be thinking about when not playing - an idea will come to you about how to get past some enemies and you'll be keen to try it out as soon as you can.
Overall a good game, not overly repetitive, the character voices are not too annoying (I found some in Shadow Gambit a bit grating) and for me a pretty much perfect sneak-em-up with just the right balance of sneak vs. kill. Its a shame Mimimi studio are closing as I loved both Shadow Gambit and Desperados III so would have bought whatever they came up with next in the same sneak-em-up genre.