Sleight of Hand: Everything We Know

RiffRaff Games used the 2024 Xbox Partners Preview as an opportunity to announce the creation of a new game in the stealth action genre: Sleight of Hand. The game is still under development and is not expected to launch until 2025. However, it sounds exciting and promises to push the genre in a new direction, leaving fans curious and excited.

Developers haven’t revealed much information about Sleight of Hand. However, we know enough to give you a good idea of what to expect. This guide covers everything we currently know about the game.

What is Sleight of Hand?

Sleight of Hand is a third-person stealth action game with an exciting and innovative gameplay design. It is primarily a stealth game but also involves some exciting action on the side. Playing the game mostly involves sneaking around the city, solving a few puzzles, interrogating witches, and using magical cards to fight your enemies as you advance your grand objective.

Story

Set in Steeple City, Sleight of Hand follows the story of Lady Luck, a former occult detective and witch. Lady Luck is on a mission to destroy her former coven and employers for betraying her, causing her to lose her left hand in the process. She has scores to settle and bills to pay, and nothing can keep her from her objective.

Lady Luck uses her investigative skills and magical powers to achieve her objective. Moreover, she has a deck of cursed cards with magical powers. The cards give her special abilities that enable her to hide from her enemies or fight them.

Gameplay  

Being a stealth action game, most of the gameplay in Sleight of Hand involves sneaking around and fighting off goons and witches using special abilities drawn from magical cards. Stealth is a core concept in the game, meaning that you have to find ways to get around your enemies without getting seen. This mostly involves using objects to hide as you move around. Interestingly, a bit of the gameplay also involves solving puzzles to access secret passageways that you can use to move around the city more freely and safely.

Stealth doesn’t always work, and some situations in the game necessitate loud and non-discrete approaches guaranteed to trigger attacks. This is where building your deck of cards comes into play. The cards give Lady Luck special abilities that give her an advantage in fights against her enemies. You also need to restrain and interrogate coven members to get clues essential to achieving your objectives. Notably, the cards are crucial to her success, considering she only has one hand to work with.

Each card in the deck has a unique ability. For example, the Hex card latches onto a hidden enemy, enabling you to get past them without conflict. Additionally, the Peekaboo card reveals the positions of hidden enemies, enabling you to avoid nasty surprises and plan ahead. Overall, one of the most powerful cards is the Chain Smoker card, which intertwines the fates of multiple enemies, enabling you to use one card on all of them.

There are more cards with more awesome abilities, such as teleporting, setting traps, and distracting or even blinding enemies. However, RiffRaff Games is holding most of the cards close to its chest for now.

Development

Sleight of Hand is the brainchild of Joshua Boggs, the developer of the popular mobile noir game Framed. Boggs is developing the game through his new studio, RiffRaff Games, which is based in Wellington, New Zealand.

Boggs is very excited about the game, as evident in his comments at the Xbox Partner Preview event held on March 6, 2024. “Making the game has been a long-time dream of mine. It combines my love for 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,” he said.

He further continued, “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 honored to work side by side with this team as we push the stealth action genre in a brand-new direction.” Based on Boggs’ sentiments and past success, fans have high expectations for this game.

Trailer

RiffRaff Games released an official trailer for Sleight of Hand when making the announcement. The trailer is quite short but informative. It features the game’s main character, Lady Luck, investigating a smuggling operation at a shipping yard, highlighting Sleight of Hand’s investigative theme.

Lady Luck sneaks around the yard to avoid getting seen by goons in the vicinity, highlighting the game’s stealth concept. However, the goons eventually see her and come charging, armed with crude weapons. Lady Luck has to fight back and deploy some of her cursed cards, highlighting the game’s action concept.

The trailer reveals how the integration of RiffRaff Game’s card play design works, which is exciting. For example, Lady Luck deploys a card that freezes one of the goons as he is about to smack her with a wrench. She then deploys another card called Mist Step as other goons close in, making her disappear in a cloud of smoke.

The Sleight of Hand trailer is smooth and helps build excitement for the game. However, it is also worth mentioning that it doesn’t showcase any gameplay whatsoever, which is disappointing. However, the developers may release more trailers over time as they continue advancing the gameplay design.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

RiffRaff Games has not announced a precise release date for Sleight of Hand. However, the game is expected to launch sometime in 2025. Players will be able to enjoy the game on Xbox Series X|S and on PC via the Xbox Game Pass or Steam.

So, what’s your take on our overview of the Sleight of Hand stealth action game? Do you have other exclusive insights about the game? Let us know over on our socials here or down in the comments below.