Version tested: PC (Steam / press) in early access.
More than four years later, Curious Expedition 2 arrives on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Microsoft Windows. Second chapter of the saga dedicated to fearless explorers (that our Curious Expedition review).
At the moment it was only possible to try it in early access on Steam, but the official release of the game on multi-platform is marked for January 28th. (that our in-depth news about it).
The independent developer Machine man, has been careful in recent years to receive feedback from the community regarding the first chapter, in order to make the second, the definitive roguelike narrative experience.
"Creating this game was a real journey in itself, to all of you adventurers out there, we wish you the best of luck on your travels."
Johannes Kristmann, co-founder of Maschinen-Mensch.What game is it?
Curious Expedition 2 is a roguelike-type adventure and exploration game with turn-based combat.
Starting with a Paris in the XNUMXth century, we will play the role of a fearless adventurer leading a group of explorers, through a series of procedurally generated islands, each with incredibly different creatures, settings and opportunities to face. We will be able to recruit a number of different characters including soldiers, treasure-seeking explorers or even donkeys to join us on our excursions, with the ultimate goal of finding treasure and glory during numerous adventures.
Compared to the first chapter, the graphics have been completely renewed: from pixel art to a cartoon style, to tell the truth, very elegant and original, even if some fans of the first may be disoriented.
Why play it?
Well, the first pleasantly striking aspect is to be faced with a game based on adventure and exploration, with a strong artistic appeal to literary and cinematographic works; the characters that we will be able to recruit, stylistically very varied, seem to have come out of the pages of Robinson Crusoe rather than from the film of Indiana Jones.
Compared to its predecessor, the level of difficulty has been decidedly leveled down (perhaps a little too much), making it much less frustrating and punishing, favoring a more "relaxed" approach. This brings benefits to the exploration of the various islands, not having to face a very demanding AI and thus being able to enjoy more that sense of freedom and spirit of adventure to which the game strongly refers.
We will also be able to choose a sponsor for each of our expeditions, who, depending on its nature, will provide us with always different weapons and equipment, which will then be useful to us during our explorations to overcome the various difficulties.
From what has been said, the result is a game with a fresh and captivating look, aesthetically varied characters, a fun gameplay that is easy to approach, several environments to visit and mysterious treasures to discover.
Why not?
In reality, the biggest problem in our opinion is that what has been said positively then stops rather on the surface. The procedurality of creating environments and assigning missions, after a certain number of hours, different between player and player, eventually gets boring.
The management of sanity - found for another original - which forces us to keep an eye on the psychological component of our character during his adventures, in the long run it becomes more of a frustrating tinsel and not very useful to the dynamics of the game.
The characters that we will meet during our drinks in the elegant Parisian bistros, which we can then recruit for our adventures, despite an apparent clear difference between them, both in terms of culture and skills referring to the gameplay, are unable to empathically attach us to make us prefer one over the other for the contribution they will give during the turn-based combat.
After all, such a game should most of all stimulate the desire to explore, to the point of not letting us detach until after visiting yet another island. Unfortunately this feeling, present in the first hours of the game, ends up fading and flattening out over time.
Final comment
Curious Expedition 2 certainly suffers the comparison with the first chapter, undoubtedly more original and also rich in content. However, the artistic renewal is spot on, replacing the recently inflated pixel art. The game is still pleasant, well optimized, despite flaws and defects, which however do not decisively undermine the gaming experience. At the right price, we advise you to make your own this indie, with a retro taste and out of the ordinary canons.
