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The Curious Expedition

The Curious Expedition

What oddities might a famous 19th century explorer discover out in the wild? We went on a curious expedition in order to find out.

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If you're trying to make a game that delivers randomised adventures and unexpected twists and turns, then building it around the core principles of the roguelike genre certainly makes sense. The procedural generation in The Curious Expedition means that no two adventures are ever the same, and you can never fully rely on past experiences to get you out of a bind. Then there's the threat of permanent death, which hangs over every decision, cranking up the tension and making each move and every conflict an important step in the journey. Throw in a cast of characters with different perks and a selection of scenarios that have you traversing different environments and you've got a game that puts the delight of exploration up front and centre. The question is then: does The Curious Expedition manage to weave these various strands together to make a cohesive whole? The answer: yes, mostly.

Considering our time spent with the game so far, we'd say that the cracks are only really visible when its various systems clash together. For example, we've had dogs treated like human characters in terms of effects suffered, and people falling out in our party one minute and being best friends the next, or we've recruited someone for our expedition only for them to leave us the same night. The two different scenarios played out back-to-back with the same character, however, and their unfortunate proximity jarred the experience. There have been numerous instances during our various adventures where we've seen the narrative flow disrupted. It's a testament to Maschinen-Mensch that they've managed to create a procedurally-powered story generator of sufficient quality that we find ourselves criticising it when things don't quite align.

When it works, it works well. You must pick a famous character before your journey begins in earnest. Each one offers a different advantage to your party, whether that be additional luggage space or more starting perks. There's three unlocked from the start (Charles Darwin, Richard Bacon, Marie Curie), but you can get more over time. You're competing for fame against five other explorers who each set off on their own journey.

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Once you arrive at your destination you're treated to a mostly hidden hexagonal map. The visuals are pixelated, and although it looks a little crude at times, the graphics are charming enough. Your little party moves from tile to tile, the type of terrain and the equipment you're carrying dictating how long it takes you to make your way. Hilly terrain or thick jungle will take you a lot longer to cross than grasslands, although if you've got, say, a machete equipped you can make much better time through thick undergrowth. A well-stocked explorer is therefore a more efficient one.

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The Curious Expedition

As you venture forth you'll discover question marks dotted around the map. Once you get close enough to them they're true nature is revealed. You can rest in villages, recruit new party members or trade unwanted gear. You can also explore ruins and ancient temples, respecting these sacred areas or looting them for items to be turned into either fame or money come the end of the expedition (and grabbing these precious items often results in not-quite-natural disasters that have your party running for safety). Wild animals (some of them quite fantastic, like a giant crab) roam the countryside, slavers capture the locals and hold them in cages, and there's interesting characters living in seclusion. Before each mission starts you're also offered an optional task to complete, although these are non-essential.

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The outcome of many of your encounters are dictated by a roll of a virtual dice. Combat in particular is built around this mechanic, with you and your opponents taking it in turns to roll different types of die and combining their effects to create attacks with which to whittle down health bars. It's not made abundantly clear how this part of the game works at the beginning (and we had a really frustrating time with the tutorial, it should be said), but it doesn't take long to get to grips with the system. The combat isn't the strongest feature by any means, but it's functional.

There's three ways of finishing an expedition which are complete and abject failure with the whole party dead, running home with your tail tucked firmly between your legs by boarding your ship and setting sail, or searching a golden temple hidden away that, once searched, automatically concludes the level and sends you back home to London to tally up your accrued fame and fortune (and pick an additional perk to augment your skillset ahead of the next adventure).

There's a fair amount of variation, but after a few hours we started to see a bit of repetition, which takes the edge off the experience a little. We found ourselves wanting a more diverse range of scenarios, with too many similar events popping up. Even if they weren't exactly the same, after a while it felt like we weren't discovering much new. However, we say that with the caveat of not having played the game for dozens of hours, and who knows what events we have yet to stumble upon.

It's the perceived lack of variation and the occasional clash between systems that holds The Curious Expedition back from a higher score. We'd certainly recommend it to fans of Faster Than Light and the like who are looking for another procedurally generated game to take them into the unknown, but unlike FTL which worked so well due to the compartmentalised nature of the adventure, here they've aimed for a more narratively cohesive experience, and as such it comes with a few rough edges that are impossible to ignore.

Still, The Curious Expedition is a decent roguelike-like adventure that does plenty of interesting things with some of the more established genre mechanics. If it gets continued support (more events and extra spit and polish) there's no reason why this won't get better and more interesting with time. While it falls short of being an essential purchase, fans of the genre should still consider grabbing a ticket for the particular adventure.

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Randomised events keep things fresh, Quirky pixel visuals, Sense of narrative.
-
Repetition creeps in after a while, Player-generated narratives can be ruined when certain systems clash, Tutorial was overly finicky.
overall score
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The Curious ExpeditionScore

The Curious Expedition

REVIEW. Written by Mike Holmes

"It's a decent roguelike-like adventure that does plenty of interesting things with some of the more established genre mechanics."



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