Expeditions: Conquistador

As captivated as I was by the concept, story, and gameworld, the weak combat design in this game made me quit before ever getting to the mainland. Not only is the combat simplistic, but it also feels strangely detached from the events on the main map, and breaks the awesome immersion that I felt while playing on the main map. The basic problem is that you can only use 6 of your characters in any battle. Even though your entire team of 10-15 or so is right there with you, only 6 fight, while the others apparently stand around 20 feet away and watch. Combat maps are also tiny, as they are built for a battle where you always have 6 or less characters vs 6-12 opponents (yes you are often outnumbered too, but STILL your other characters and leader never get involved in the fight). In the game, you are venturing through a semi-unexplored wilderness with a tiny squad-sized company, badly outnumbered and surrounded by potential enemies. Obviously, in any realistic, life and death, small-scale situation like this, the ENTIRE TEAM would be fighting, INCLUDING the leader. And the turn-based system, which is overall solid yet very simple, badly needs more combatants involved to give it some more tactical options. It would be incredibly easy to control 10-15-20 characters in this simple system with no time pressure, and involving the entire expedition in most fights would have made the game more fun AND the scenarios more believable. As it is, I feel like I'm directing an expedition of conquistadors to the new world when I'm playing on the main map. When combat starts I feel like I am playing a poorly designed video game. This game badly needs an auto-resolve option, but doesn't have one. Everything about the game outside combat is awesome, the devs did an incredible job with the gameworld and story, and I absolutely love the historical scenario. But the combat is the meat of the game, and this makes it very hard to enjoy the atmosphere and storytelling.

Highlight: The randomly triggered events somehow managed to create believable characters that I cared about by the end of the game. What made the experience fun for me was that there was a story lurking in every corner waiting for you to discover. Problem: Gameplay is very simple. It took a few hours for me to learn all the ropes and the game offered little challenge since. Camping was especially repetitive, unchallenging, and tedious. Run of the mill: At the highest setting the AI for individual units is not bad, but they don't seem to have any concept of coordination. The basic combat mechanics is not bad, but there aren't enough special abilities to keep it interesting after 20+ battles.

Oh this could have been so much more... and it would have taken little effort to accomplish it. The game started out great, the writing is very good and the story draws you in. As an RPG, it was delightful to be in an environment that seemed far more plausible than fighting Orcs and un-dead. But slowly, it starts to fall apart. Equipment, (gear for your character) does not exist, you allocate points and that replaces actual armor etc. Points? seems like such a let-down for a game this detailed. Combat also goes from fascinating to "oh no, not another combat" very quickly. As another player stated, it's also un-fathomable why half your party won't join in combat, (you can only bring six characters max into a fight), even when you are outnumbered two-three to one. (The ai does not share your cap on units in combat). A decent game that gets repetitive after a while, with some very questionable decisions by the devs. Could have been outstanding with a little more thought and effort, instead it's just ok.

This game has something going for it that just makes it downright fun to play. I'm not sure if its the simple yet effective graphics, the well balanced exploration system, the choose your own adventure elements that give a feeling of control over the story, the nice party management and advancement element, or the interesting tactical battles that somehow (after 20+ hours of play) still seem entertaining and not tedious. The game has a few minor flaws; the pathing could use some work, and it can be a bit hard to tell where you can go on the exploration map in rough terrain. Overall however, this is a great buy, and I definitely would recommend it.

Well well well... The first game to got me so far as to write a review. Pro: Almost everything I mean, the immersion is better than average. Characters are relatable and plenty. Graphics and sound leave nothing to be desired. Enough moral space to be a historically accurate character... wink wink Cons: The thing that broke it for me and as it is such a minor nuissance deserves double points: the ranged combat system is cheating as f*** Literally, you never hit anything, AI hits 8/10 times.. Until someone writes a patchnote regarding this issue, I'll have better things to do