The Curious Expedition

When going on an expedition, you'd normally expect the story to start off with hardened adventurers off to explore new lands. You probably don't expect someone like Marie Curie, Harriett Tubman or Nikola Tesla going on these expeditions, but this isn't any expedition; it's an expedition in the game The Curious Expedition. Published and developed by Maschinen-Mensch, The Curious Expedition is a pixel art-styled exploration game with dice rolling combat and RPG elements, and it's now on Steam Early Access. It's an odd little game that can't be recommended to everyone, but for those who enjoy quirky little strategy games, this game is for you.

It starts out with you picking your explorer; each one has a different set of gear and a different crew of people, ranging from priests to artists, that are willing to go with them on these dangerous expeditions. Each crew member has their own talent, like priests allowing you to stay in missions for free, artists painting random scenery so you can sell the paintings later, and other things like that. The story goes that you're trying to become the best explorer you can be in early 19^th century because you want fame, fortune and adulation from your peers. Once you've chosen your characters, the game sets off the explorations around the world in 80 days style, which tells you how your enemies are progressing along with your own progress. When you get to the area you're exploring, the camera zooms out and it shows you a bunch of hexagons. You can only move a certain amount of hexagons each turn before things like environmental hazards and mobs move around the area. You can be pitted against anything from a tiger, a crocodile or even an eldritch abomination if the random number generator hates you that day. If one of these things runs into you you're forced into a dice-based battle against them. It's surprisingly easy to lose these, so it's best to try to avoid combat altogether until you have someone with a gun in your party, or you know that there's a high chance of you winning. This isn't a flawless system since it renders characters without guns useless in combat, but this is a game in early access and it gives you a way out of many encounters, so it isn't like you'd be dead immediately if you don't pick the guy with the gun. Every single character has their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, so it's very important to read all of their descriptions as well as well as the descriptions of the items and your encounters with various elements in the game, whether it be slavers, traders or otherwise.

The object of each board is to reach the golden temple all while collecting as many things as you possibly can, and keeping the sanity of all of your party up. If this sounds like an arduous task then you'd be right on that: The Curious Expedition is not a game that is easy by any means, it's complex and has a lot of layers to it. There's a variety of ways you can play, giving it plenty of versatility for multiple kinds of players. If you're the sort who likes to get things done and just blast through everything without a second thought though, don't even try to play this game. It's not for you. Even in Early Access, The Curious Expedition makes it clear that this isn't a game for those who don't want to take a second and think about their actions, or for those who don't like occasional random number generation madness when it comes to the sort of encounters you'll find. Since the maps are always different, you're almost always guaranteed to find something new, which means more dangers await. You need to be careful about what you do, know both your party leader's and his follower's strengths and weaknesses, or you will die very quickly in this game, no questions asked.

A curious thing about The Curious Expedition is the fact that there is no real “good guys” or “bad guys” like you'd see in something like, say, Tomb Raider or The Uncharted series. Yes, you do need to beat your competition, but they aren't necessarily bad people, they're just people you're competing against to make the most money. The game is rather amoral, which is a delightful change of pace considering how black and white a game like this could potentially be if given in the hands of the wrong developer. However, The Curious Expedition takes it to a different level and makes your actions affect your party members in different ways, making their general rapport with you, however basic a few lines of dialogue can be, completely different. There are scenarios where if one party member doesn't like your actions, they'll eat another party member when everyone goes insane, or they'll be the first to try to betray you in some random event like pushing you in a lake or leaving you to die in a temple you decided to explore.

There are details being added constantly to the game and soon it'll bear great similarity to table top games that change every time you play. More improvements can be made to the formula, such as making things not as random and giving more options of play to those players who'd rather talk than steal or fight. But as it stands now, The Curious Expedition is a nice game to keep an eye on if you enjoy slower, more contemplative games with a little history thrown in.

Angelina Bonilla, NoobFeed (@Twitter)