FA+
Shop
Game Review: "Renowned Explorers" and "Curious Expedition"
8 years ago
General
The expedition was going poorly due to bad luck. The crew were dispirited and exhausted. Then we reached a village, where the locals attacked us not with spears but with encouraging words and smiles. My crew got cheered up so much they decided to stay for an "indefinite vacation".
On the second attempt, we had much better luck, but I committed a cultural faux pas that I really should've seen coming. (Not a bad random roll, but a bad decision.) At least I got extra supplies out of it. We'd traveled around enough to have multiple encounters with the natives, which gave everybody a boost to their conversation skills. Yvonne had misgivings, though, because I'd stolen a mask and she felt bad about it. When we reached the overly friendly village, this time we dazzled and praised them until the grumpy chieftain gave us a treasure to go away. Winning in a friendly way had different effects than devious or violent approaches would've had. At no point in either attempt had we hit another person, although we severely hurt the feelings of some scorpions.
I have fought hundreds, maybe thousands of fantasy battles where the assumption is that slaughtering all in my path is the only victory. I'd like to go back and try "Fallout 4" again to remind myself that 90% of that world consists of people with names like "RAIDER SCUM" who exist to have their heads blown off. Why haven't games like "Renowned Explorers" (and of course "Undertale") been around for decades?
About "The Curious Expedition": I bought this as a bundle with RE. It's on the same exploration theme, to the point of having you do around 5 expeditions and competing with other explorers. (Though RE beats you over the head with the competition part; the villain is a Frenchman named Rivaleux.) "Curious Expedition" uses a hex map where most tiles are empty and the main mechanic is spending time and sanity (!) on movement. Combat is purely dice-based, and I don't think I've ever done more than one point of damage out of 8 or so needed to kill a bear. The goal of every expedition, to anywhere, is to find a golden pyramid. Along the way there's always a temple where taking the treasure sets off a trap that starts destroying nearby tiles. The character skills and interaction seem very basic, eg. I had a guy leave because he's an alcoholic and we ran out of booze. The exploration mostly consists of moving across the empty map, so it doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing much, and the characters don't have specific skills beyond a rare dice-roll mechanic. So, I can't recommend this one as much even though it's superficially very similar.
On the second attempt, we had much better luck, but I committed a cultural faux pas that I really should've seen coming. (Not a bad random roll, but a bad decision.) At least I got extra supplies out of it. We'd traveled around enough to have multiple encounters with the natives, which gave everybody a boost to their conversation skills. Yvonne had misgivings, though, because I'd stolen a mask and she felt bad about it. When we reached the overly friendly village, this time we dazzled and praised them until the grumpy chieftain gave us a treasure to go away. Winning in a friendly way had different effects than devious or violent approaches would've had. At no point in either attempt had we hit another person, although we severely hurt the feelings of some scorpions.
I have fought hundreds, maybe thousands of fantasy battles where the assumption is that slaughtering all in my path is the only victory. I'd like to go back and try "Fallout 4" again to remind myself that 90% of that world consists of people with names like "RAIDER SCUM" who exist to have their heads blown off. Why haven't games like "Renowned Explorers" (and of course "Undertale") been around for decades?
About "The Curious Expedition": I bought this as a bundle with RE. It's on the same exploration theme, to the point of having you do around 5 expeditions and competing with other explorers. (Though RE beats you over the head with the competition part; the villain is a Frenchman named Rivaleux.) "Curious Expedition" uses a hex map where most tiles are empty and the main mechanic is spending time and sanity (!) on movement. Combat is purely dice-based, and I don't think I've ever done more than one point of damage out of 8 or so needed to kill a bear. The goal of every expedition, to anywhere, is to find a golden pyramid. Along the way there's always a temple where taking the treasure sets off a trap that starts destroying nearby tiles. The character skills and interaction seem very basic, eg. I had a guy leave because he's an alcoholic and we ran out of booze. The exploration mostly consists of moving across the empty map, so it doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing much, and the characters don't have specific skills beyond a rare dice-roll mechanic. So, I can't recommend this one as much even though it's superficially very similar.
