While the recent Xbox Partner Preview showed off new looks at games from some heavy hitters such as Capcom, Bandai Namco and 11 bit Studios, among others, it may have been RiffRaff Games who had the biggest surprise with the debut of their new game, Sleight of Hand. Despite only having a single cinematic trailer at the moment, it ended up turning quite a few heads. Then again, when your game is officially described as a “third-person card-slinging occult noir stealth sim,” it would be hard not to grab anyone’s attention, and that’s before you even get to the part where the player character is Lady Luck.
Smoke and Aces
As seen in the trailer here, the main reason for our player character being known as “Lady Luck” is that she can use powerful card-based magic in order to manipulate things in their favor, be it via non-lethal methods like freezing enemies in place, more deadly methods such as being able to summon guns, or abilities more beneficial to stealth like being able to see through walls. And just like a card game, they can set up killer combos by hexing enemies and marking them in order to give them a further advantage. Fitting the noir theme, there’s also an emphasis on smoke-based magic as well, such as being able to turn into smoke and sneak around enemies, or smoke bombs like “Mist Step” shown. Outside of stealth, expect detective work is you interrogate folks and hunt for intel, gaining even more new cards and powers along the way.
Set in Steeple City, the story sees Lady Luck as a former occult private eye, pulled into one final job. Of course, said job involves a big task, that being to take down their former Coven. It’s unknown why Lady Luck left and what the Coven is up to now, but considering that Lady’s departure cost them her left hand, it might just turn out to be a big deal. If the clip is anything to go by, it might involve bootleg nostalgia, among other things, which suggests interesting plot elements. Game Director and CEO Joshua Boggs was heavily inspired by his love of the Metal Gear Solid games. Appropriately, Joshua’s previous work, the acclaimed mobile gameFramed(and its sequel), was Hideo Kojima’s GOTY pick back then. Considering that game was a narrative puzzler, though, it should be interesting to see how this shift in genres goes.
FRAMED Currently Free to Commemorate Australia Day
Sleight of Hand isn’t due out until 2025, but the uniqueness of the world and premise, along with promising mechanics, suggest that this is one to keep your eye on. The game is currently heading for Xbox Series X|S and PC, with no other platforms announced at the moment, and will be a Day One Game Pass game. Here’s hoping this particular mix of genres ends up making for one winning hand.
