During the Xbox Partner Showcase, New Zealand-based developer RiffRaff Games (led by Joshua Boggs, known for the puzzle game FRAME) announced Sleight of Hand, a neo-noir stealth sim game.
Joshua Boggs, CEO and Game Director at RiffRaff Games, said in a statement:
Making this game has been a long-time dream of mine. It combines my love of Kojima’s brilliant pioneering work in Tactical Espionage Action with Metal Gear Solid and my obsessive desire to push the envelope in making new gameplay experiences. In typical ‘me fashion’ (as the team here would say), I’ve sought to turn the genre on its head with a healthy dose of innovative card play. It’s been a hard road, honestly the hardest project I’ve worked on, but I am so honoured to walk side by side with this team as we push the stealth action genre in a brand new direction.
Sleight of Hand features a witch protagonist called Lady Luck. Voiced by Debi Mae West, who played Meryl Silverburgh in the Metal Gear Solid series, she is a revered former occult detective who was betrayed by her former Coven (causing her to lose the left hand) and has now sworn to take them down in Steeple City.
Here, knowledge of ritual magic and possession of cursed artifacts determine power. Lady Luck’s cursed cards cast a smoke-based menagerie of magic. You could, for instance, evaporate into smoke, thus avoiding detection. When facing a group of foes, you can link their fates with the Chain Smoker card so that any cards cast affect them all at once. There are also afflictions, lethal cards, hex cards, and state combos.
Players will be encouraged to upgrade their deck and assemble the perfect hand. Each level is said to be highly replayable and built to encourage experimentation. The gameplay of Sleight of Hand also involves discovering hidden passwords to access secret pathways and interrogating former friends of Lady Luck’s ex-coven to settle “old debts.”
RiffRaff Games, which features veterans who previously worked on games like Dishonored, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, God of War, God of War: Ragnarok, Call of Duty, Ashen, and Flintlock, aims to release Sleight of Hand next year on PC (also via Steam) and Xbox Series S|X. The game will be available on Game Pass from day one.
