Renowned Explorers: International Society

It's cliche to start a review by saying this is the best "FTL-like" game that's come out since FTL, but it is the easiest way to describe it. You select your leader, and two companions (who later unlock as leaders too). Then you move around a map doing an expedition, encountering nodes that yield various rewards: immediate rewards; buffs that last for this expedition; (most commonly) tokens that convert into various currencies after the expedition; or treasures, including the main artifact to find during this expedition. Along the way, some of the encounters are combat encounters, where your party of three engage in a light turn-based tactical battle against enemies, using various skills that are modified by the mood and demeanor of your party and your enemy's party, with a little bit of rock-paper-scissors. Counter aggression with devious plots, which are countered by friendly banter, which is itself countered by aggression. Each party member has one or more skills in each of the categories. After the expedition, your treasures and tokens are cashed in for currency and you're taken to the world map, where you can buy various upgrades (gear, research assistants, skill unlocks, etc) and do some limited short jobs for extra income, before it's time to go on another expedition. The game lasts a few expeditions, before you're ranked on your success. The game is extraordinarily fun. But, like any FTL-like, the tide can quickly turn against you from doing well to losing. The sound and graphics are great, pushing the theme of the game forward. I haven't yet played enough properly to judge the quality and quantity of the writing, but I like those I've yet seen. The game is not perfect though. As of this review, it lacks difficulty, has some crashes, and UI bugs -- but nothing that I don't expect patches will resolve. An improved, contextual help system would go a long way to cutting the learning curve, as would some UI clarifications and action confirmations.

Don't be fooled by the stylized, lighthearted and upbeat presentation of this game. It is a mature, accomplished rogue-lite that adds innovative elements like none seen before in a hex-based strategy game and has a depth that gives the likes of FTL and Curious Expedition a run for their monies. Instead, think of the art-style as the additional gravy on top of a satisfying, bite-sized meal that can be dug into a hundred times over thanks to the endless possibilities of play. What gives the game it's depth, is the three approaches you have to battle. Seen the Trailer? Maria's insult of the native isn't just her standard attack; it is wholly different approach to battle. Every character has three different attacks: Aggressive, Devious or Friendly. That's right, a "battle" can be resolved entirely by being nice to your opponent and making friends out of them. Aggressive is as you expect it to be from any other game - pounding your adversary into a pulp - while the Devious approach manipulates your enemy into running off the battlefield scared, irritated and depressed. The Friendly-Devious-Aggressive system is in itself a fluid rock-paper-scissor scheme, whereby your choice to prosecute the fight in a certain way, will the mood of the entire battle. A mostly Aggressive team beats Friendly Teams, Devious beats Aggressive and Friendly beats Devious, but it isn't even that simple. You can change the stance of your team to let's say Aggressive and obtain those bonusses to counter Friendly Teams by making the majority of your attacks aggressive, but you can still get away with making the occasional Devious attack on an INDIVIDUAL enemy to depress and debuff them. Not only that, but by doing this you establish a reputation in the game and not all of the 20 characters are as good at any playstyle, or any one region, or as good at solving the game's other skill-based encounters. So what kind of explorer do you want to be? RE's possibilities are great and wonderful.

Renowned Explorers: International Society is a great game that is relatively unknown. It is a game that is more than the sum of its parts with a lot of interactive and moving parts that do great to add to the game and it has surprising depth. A great theme and presentation is at the start, and both strongly complement the game. Writing for the CYOA parts of the game is very good and it involves a lot of choices and risk/reward - I strongly suggest playing the game in Explorer and not the one that lets you retry and at classic difficulty for the real experience there. Part of the fun is failing as there are sometimes odd and unexpected things that can happen from that or succeeding. Additionally, while there may appear to not be a ton of variety there at first, you'll realize that with the various attitudes, different explorers, and all the new perks there is a HUGE amount of hidden depth here that can be found. After over 80 hours I'm STILL finding new things in the game beyond what they've added in. The risk/reward balancing of exploring and choosing where to go and what chances to take is one of the strongest elements of the game, and it works with all the stuff I mentioned above perfectly in general and it makes the choice of what perks to train your explorers in meaningful. It also ties into combat and what expeditions to do. The perks here are more things like Archaelogy, Engineering, Tactics, Nature, Diplomacy, Beguiling, Rogue, Survival and so forth. A lot of them and they each have a bunch of subcategories that sometimes trigger things. The combat is a bit odd but think of it as more abstract and non-lethal - either representing slicing wit (devious), kind hearted negotiating and talking down (Friendly), or fisticuffs and saps (Aggressive). A ton of variety, a lot to do and more than I can say in 2000 characters, you really should check this game out if you're interested the least in rogue-lites, exploring, tactics, RPGs, or CYOA!

A luchador, a magician and a mad scientist go exploring. What sounds like a terrible joke turns into part whacky, part exciting and part frustrating adventures. The combat is accessible, but has a lot of nuance due to the emotion system and allows for risk-reward scenarios. The exploring itself is straight forward, go places and hope you have the right skills. If not, you can still avoid some, or you go for the risky, but rewarding route. A lot in this game allows you to set your own difficulty and this is a good thing, as it rarely seems unfair. But if you go the easy route, you will find yourself, well, slightly humbled. I dare not spoil why and encourage you to find it out yourself. For the next runthroughs, I will try to optimize my strategy, take more risks and go deeper into the customisation this game has to offer. This game takes a lot of good steps. Set your difficulty, playstyle and targets. Take babysteps if you need or go all in. A sure and safe recommendation for all lovers of turn based strategy and exploration adventures.