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Even if you prefer to be sneaky and creative, it's reassuring to have the option to shoot your way out of trouble in your back pocket. The combination of firearms, lots of ammo crates and the ability to pause the action means you can drop the pretense of stealth and go in guns blazing, welcoming the alarms and turning it into more of a tactical shooter. You can use it at any time, and you'll probably use it a lot. The problem with setting up these elaborate attacks is waiting for the right moment, but that's less of a chore with the fast-forward feature. It's an incredibly powerful planning tool, giving you the ability to set up complex sequences that you have complete control over without supernatural micromanagement skills. Showdown mode makes these synchronised assaults possible, letting you pause the game so you can issue each character an order, which you can then fire off individually or all at once. Right up till the end, I was finding new ways to take advantage of their myriad talents, and watching them clear a room in tandem, a plan finally going off without a hitch, is one of life's great joys. None of the gang have wormed their way into my heart, but I've got no complaints about their performance on the job. He's proof that not all gunslingers are cool, and tragic backgrounds are played out.

Instead, it's a straightforward tale of revenge mixed in with an origin story about the group, but more specifically its most boring member, Cooper. Unfortunately, it's not one that the story explores. Mechanically, Isabelle's magic fits perfectly in a game that's all about lateral thinking, but voodoo and cowboys is an unusual mix. Her lack of a proper ranged weapon is possibly the only reason you wouldn't use her exclusively that, and the fact that she's in significantly fewer missions than anyone else. A character who can take complete control over almost every human and animal on the map, then, is a massive boon. Every mission tasks you with manipulating enemies to get them into positions where you can kill them or pass by undetected, but normally it's done indirectly. Possessing animals, making guards kill each other, connecting people so they both suffer the same fate-Corvo would be proud. About a third of the way through the game, you'll meet Isabelle, and suddenly you'll be doing all sorts of dishonorable stuff.

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Eventually, through trial and error, you'll create the perfect plan and rack up a high body count. That leaves a conspicuous corpse on the ground, though, and the alarm is raised once again, but next time you'll remember to have someone waiting in the bushes to dart out, grab the cadaver and hide it. Another enemy might see through their disguise, however, but not if you've made this mistake before and wisely remembered to plonk down a trap right in their path. Maybe your very clever attempt to drop an entire wall on someone was foiled because a guard turned around and spotted you at the last moment, so you try again but this time send someone in a disguise to distract them.

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A split-second or an inch can mean the difference between an effortless display of teamwork and a team full of corpses, but with quicksave in one holster and quickload in the other, you'll get there eventually. Desperados 3 is all about a team of specialists working in sync, using preternatural precision and timing to overcome impossible odds, but the journey to perfection is full of slapstick escapades and catastrophes. Every one of its stealthy encounters is a puzzle, and every puzzle is a chance to experiment and, more often than not, fail.

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