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The Curious Expedition 2

The Curious Expedition 2

A narrative roguelike-adventure with a delightful summery feel.

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One of my favourite hobbies in my teenage summers was reading old adventure books the family accumulated at home. Novels such as Sandokan, Treasure Island, Conan or Tarzan of the Apes filled hours of exhausting heat on a terrace facing the sea. I have been able to fondly remember those moments thanks to The Curious Expedition 2, Maschinen-Mensch's narrative roguelike-adventure, and sequel to the 2015 title. Whilst on that first instalment the German studio tried a pixel art design, on this sequel they have opted for a more comic-inspired art style - especially Hergé's work and the style of his character Tintin.

In an alternative version of the late 19th century, we follow an intrepid adventurer whose goal is to explore and discover the secrets of some mysterious islands that began to appear in the ocean. Recruiting a team of characters with special abilities and a large repertoire of equipment and weapons, we go all out. Although the main story is the core of the game, between acts we will have to carry out explorations or side quests in search of supplies and treasures, which allow us to make progress. Combining narrative adventure with turn-based combat, these expeditions generate an island with a unique biome and geography. In addition, each exploration generates different and completely unpredictable events and places, which can mark the course of our entire game. We find a little bit of everything, from mosquitoes to elephants defending their territory, even a lizardmen tribe.

The Curious Expedition 2
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The exploration system is kind of simple to learn but really complex to master - due to the randomness of the events. We always have a sanity meter on the screen that acts as energy for safe movement. Consuming supplies such as chocolate, beans or whiskey from our inventory can keep it at a correct level, however, if it reaches zero, all kinds of terrible situations will begin to happen and will take control of your expedition, including illnesses, hallucinations, and bad luck in combat... Good inventory and trade management before and during the expeditions is crucial if we want to return in a healthy mental state (and safe) from the trip.

In order to make the procedural generation of the islands even more evident, we can count on a huge cast of characters who can accompany us on our adventures. And it can be anything: from a sailor or a hunter to a missionary, through dogs, mules and even dinosaurs. Each of them can get equipped and promoted to raise its level and statistics of exploration and combat. This crazy succession of events is reminiscent of those pulp-magazine narrations where writers such as H.P. Lovecraft or even Robert E. Howard developed their work. An element of luck was also introduced, which can affect the story through a system of rolling dice - so we can both be successful or make a mistake on our actions. We use it especially in combat, although there are certain moments in the exploration where we will also make a "luck" roll that can provide us with advantages or extra loot.

In terms of combat, the system is pretty straightforward. Our cast can get equipped with weapons and items that boost their health or damage - which in turn has an effect on the number of faces that our dices will have. After rolling the dices, we choose the actions of each of them and we can roll again the dices that we haven't spent already, which gives us extra options. The truth is The Curious Expedition 2 is not too difficult, and the system is there to add more excitement to the exploration than to be a real risk, these are our thoughts after our first run.

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Of course, you have to keep in mind that although everything is quite random, good karma can help out. If we have good relationships with the local tribes, we can have discounts when trading, gifts and even a guide to our goal. Bad reputation (for example, if we plunder their sacred places or hunt animals in their territory) will make them hostile and we will have to pay more if we want some object, or even fight against them. We should always estimate the risk and reward of each action.

This "Choose your own adventure" feeling is well done, and it really feels like we are discovering new places and having a genuine personal experience. Sometimes, minor details in side explorations can be significant for the entire campaign. To illustrate this with an example, in one of our first expeditions on an island with jungle, we found a hidden temple and an egg that we carried for several weeks within the game. When hatching, a small turtle came out that simply took up space in the inventory and we were about to sell it. But just before reaching the merchant, it grew into a giant armoured turtle. We could add it to our expedition group and it was always a part of it from that moment.

If we have to make a complaint, it would be the limited localisation. The Spanish-speaker players for example, would really appreciate this, although the text is not particularly complex, it is a read-a-lot game. And not having it in your language can discourage some people. However, it stands out with good narrative, design and sound which is still makes for a very pleasant title to be the cherry on the cake as this summer winds down.

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08 Gamereactor UK
8 / 10
+
Spectacular artistic design. Very well written. Great sense of humour. High replayability.
-
Poor localisation.
overall score
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