Curious Expedition 2

This review is based on Curious Expedition 2 with the first two DLC packs available, and not having played Curious Expedition 1. A full run in the standard campaign mode consists of 12+ expeditions depending on how much your main protagonist gets killed, usually by overreach while attempting to take on a sidequest from a particular goal. The random events can be wildly different in their consequences, ranging from someone getting into a huff to eating another member of the party, and far, far stranger incidents which can be frustrating if you spent a lot of time training and building up a character, but which, in the process of exploration is just what happens and you need to take into consideration the possibility you'd lose your investment in a party member The overall art is wonderful for the theme and style of the game and the soundtrack is functional. There's only a certain number of types of missions/adventures that you'll get sent out on (How many golden pyramids and rare orchids do we need, for example) but hopefully the range will get expanded even more in the future. The procedurally generated islands can offer good replay value without being too irritating In my first run, I found myself pitted against Sacagawea, which was an odd scenario, but I was able to roll with it. The combat model seemed adequate with most instances being fights you picked rather than randomly getting caught by the villagers or wild animals in the zone. A little surprised I didn't run into more competing explorers on missions, but perhaps I need to play at some different settings. All in all, a playable game without being punishing unless you want it to be. However, having acquired this from GOG it's not integrated well with achievements or leader boards. The other big thing I frowned upon was the anticlimatic conclusion that ends with a final tally of your points but then you have to do a hard quit to start up a new campaign. You don't get multiple save game slots apparently

Disclamer: I played Curious Expedition 1 a lot; but only the singleplayer version. This game is CE1 at its core, but it's fleshed out a lot more, mainly when it comes to story, items, battle and abilities of crew members (especially the last one). If you loved CE1 you will love this game. Some things have changed though. For example, you can no longer choose which items to keep, donate or sell at the end of an expedition. Instead you give it to the secret society you chose to support at the beginning of your expedition. You automatically donate/sell/give all items you collected, to your chosen society, in return for credit of that society, which allows certain advantages, depening on the society. TLDR: IMO the game stayed true to the 1st one but with improvements.

I have the game and the three DLCs. I've finished the Campaign and the Director Mode Campaign. It took about 25 hours total. I think the Robots of Lux DLC is a must-have, because of the quality of life improvements it adds to the game. This is a solid roguelite. The core gameplay loop is great. The art is beautiful, and the writing is interesting and sometimes funny and cute. However, there's no way to share your progress with a new character, so experimenting with different playstyles is a pain. Even moreannoying, max level comes too early, and yet you can't level up a new character without losing all your unlocks. The game is missing simple features like that, which would keep me motivated to play. I'm probably done until another DLC comes out. I hope the devs make the endgame more friendly.

i can respect that they tried something new to expand on the concept of the previous game, but not everything new works well or is good. this is one that doeesn't work well. Stuffing the game full of stuff that is not doing expeditions just slows down the pace and over complicates the setup part where you just get to the expedition. 5/10 would not recommend.