Renowned Explorers: International Society

[Sepiche]

Picked this up last night and played for a good few hours. It's a really fun rogue-like from the folks that brought us Reus with some shocking similarities to Curious Expedition.

You basically pick a 3 person exploration team with one captain and two crewman and go on 5 quests for artifacts. Each character has a set of stats mostly centered around speech and combat. In this case speech is actually a different form of attack in combat (2 to be precise) and represents alternate ways to beat enemies than just killing them. Your main goal is to collect items that give you renown and ultimately to be the most renowned member of the explorers society.

Combat is much deeper once you get into it that it seems on the surface. It's a turn based system where you are free to move any team members on your side and then the enemy team goes. Each character starts with a combat, deceive, and friendly "attack" that all reduce the targets spirit (hit points), but effect the characters mood in different ways. For instance one type of deceive attack terrifies your opponent and gives them a -25% to armor, while enrage gives them a -25% to damage.

The types of attacks you do effect the overall tone of the battle and will give your group different debuffs or buffs depending. For instance, if you attack your enemies outright the battle tone shifts to tyranny and your team gets a -25 to their speech defense, making them vulnerable to deceive and friendly attacks. In one battle I was fighting some nuns who where good at deception attacks, but also weak against speech in general. I was doing well using friendly attacks against them which caused the tone of the battle to give me a speech defense buff, but at one stage in the battle a few enemies lined up and made a really tempting target for one of my few AOE attacks, but that was an aggressive melee attack. The attack did a lot of damage, but it shifted the tone of the battle and gave me a -25 speech defense debuff and ended up losing me the battle as I couldn't hold out against the nuns deceive attacks anymore.

I still don't have a complete handle on the system, but it's surprisingly well thought out, deep, and fun.

As you explore the map there are also lots of random encounters with different options available depending on each of your characters skills and your previous actions, plus a cute little Price is Right style spin the wheel animation for skill checks.

Between missions you can go to different cities around the globe to spend research, gold, and status points you collect on missions to grow your entourage, get better gear, and get various bonuses from a research tree that's strikingly similar to the social policy selection from Civ 5.

Very fun little game on the whole and worth the price for sure. I imagine I'll get quite a bit more play out of it seeing all the different random encounters, and trying out all the different characters available.

[GreenGoo]

Picked this up last night and played for a good few hours. It's a really fun rogue-like from the folks that brought us Reus with some shocking similarities to Curious Expedition.

I was actually confused when I realized this wasn't on my wishlist since I was sure I had added it after tgb (?) brought it to our attention. I thought they were the same game.

[Sepiche]

Picked this up last night and played for a good few hours. It's a really fun rogue-like from the folks that brought us Reus with some shocking similarities to Curious Expedition.

I was actually confused when I realized this wasn't on my wishlist since I was sure I had added it after tgb (?) brought it to our attention. I thought they were the same game.

Yeah, it almost feels like it at first glance. Despite similarities in the theme and overall goals they are very different under the hood however. Curious Expedition is still EA so I hesitate to compare them directly yet since RE:IS is fully released, but I do find it a little more engaging at this stage.

[Lorini]

Yes, I'm enjoying it as well Sepiche .

[tgb]

It bounced off me the first time I played it but I went back and am enjoying it a lot more now that I understand the combat. Another game it reminds of greatly is FTL.

Some people on Steam are bitching (Heavens to Betsy, people bitching on Steam?) that games are too short since you get your final score after 5 expeditions (if you live that long). I think the idea is to encourage people to try new parties and increase the replayability. I'm fine with with that.

Since I'm still trying to get the 1.0 version of Armello to run properly, this will be my pallette cleanser after wrapping my head around Nobunaga.

[GreenGoo]

Yeah, it almost feels like it at first glance. Despite similarities in the theme and overall goals they are very different under the hood however. Curious Expedition is still EA so I hesitate to compare them directly yet since RE:IS is fully released, but I do find it a little more engaging at this stage.

Yeah, my viewpoint was based on only the most superficial of details.

[Malacheye]

Im playing it as well. Very interesting. I tried three different parties and have only made it to the third expedition before dying. Level 4 was the maximum my guys were and could not handle a level 4 boss encounter in Egypt.

My initial thoughts are that science and renown are more important than gold, but not having better equipment COULD be the reason I havent been able to succeed past the third mission.

Also, It seems that friendly and devious victories pay off more than aggressive victories, but there are entourage people you can buy that can give more rewards for aggressive play.

So far, it is well worth the $15

[Malacheye]

Finished a game on the 4th try. It took about 3 hrs real time. I had to re-load 3 times, twice on the 3rd campaign and once on the final boss battle, not because of losing the fight, but due to losing my last resolve/morale.

Finished with 2472 renown, which is 1st place, but far below the scores of historical figures.

Winning unlocks some new party members that can be captain, so I will replay it at least a few times.

final score for me is 8/10, where i think details on treasure/rewards is a bit lacking. Some of the bonuses were unclear to me and not shown on screen for each choice that is made.

[tgb]

Two things the game needs:

1) A scoring system for ironman games. I've yet to finish more than 2 expeditions.

2) A way to rotate the map, even though it's not a 3-D game. A couple of times I was unable to target something or someone who was standing behind some scenery.

[Butterknife]

I've put in 7 hours according to Steam, and I've completed 2 campaigns. I like the game. I enjoy the combat and the storylines, it really feels like I am on an adventure. I really like how much variety there is in each adventure as well, you really don't know what the "best" option is necessarily going to be.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if the gameplay itself has much replayability. Once you get a handle on the combat, you are really only ever selecting the "best" option. The game seems to have the same problem I've seen in many games lately -- the illusion of choice without the actual fact. You don't choose between multiple options ... you choose the best option. This doesn't mean you don't get to make lots of choices, but more that you only make meaningful choices in a few places (how to spend your resources, which adventurers to take, and long-term battle planning). Still, the games only last for a few minutes (if things go poorly) or a few hours (if things go well) so starting over is always fun.

Overall I'd give it a good rating, not an excellent one. This may be tainted a bit by how much I am getting burned out on rogue-likes. If you are interested in it I would recommend the game, but I would place it below Reus in terms of how much I like it.

[baelthazar]

All of the above sums up my feelings about Reus, which was their first game. It was more a puzzle about optimizing actions than it was a god-game. Interesting that this may have the same feel.

[Kasey Chang]

Review by Kotaku is quite funny. Appears that the player built a team that managed to talk the opponent into loss and death.

[tgb]

Be aware that while the contents of individual locations are randomized, the maps, encounters, and bosses are all fixed which makes for some very repetitive play when you're dealing with a game that only has 5 missions from start to finish, and is a rogue-like to boot.

I've already gotten bored with it.

[Smoove_B]

I realize that a year later most of you have probably moved on, but I picked this up a few weeks ago during a sale and have been enjoying the hell out of it. I was reading through the comments here and I can't tell what's been updated/changed since this thread was started. I've played through 3 expeditions now and each one has started differently (the theme). It sounds like maybe that wasn't always the case? Anyway, if you had it parked or burned out on it, maybe fire it up again as I'm pretty sure they've added or modified things. It's also the closest thing to playing a board game that I've experienced (beside the actual board game translations), which was another nice surprise.

[LordMortis]

$5 on Steam right now. Can I assume it's worth $5?

[Zarathud]

Yes, definitely.

[dfs]

$5 on Steam right now. Can I assume it's worth $5?

Quick answer...

So...$5 and five hours? Sure. It's got that in there. 10 hours? I likely have that in it. 15 hours? No I won't get that far into it.

Long Answer....

I picked this up a while ago and when I was looking for something in my pile of games that I thought might scratch my itch I started it.

I love exploration games. I love roguelikes. I enjoy a well thought out combat system.
I should really like this.

but....

#1 It's pretty hard. As many folks here have mentioned you don't get halfway through the game most of the time. Surviving to the end is an accomplishment. I have not beat the foozle's score and won the game.

#2 There isn't enough variety. Yup. I'm going to the friendly - 2 star level in the Caribbean. I know most of what I'm going to face.

#3 The combat system may be clever, but your approach for most encounters seems mostly determined for you when you chose your starting characters.

In the games defense....I could ramp the difficulty down. It wouldn't be the end of the world.

I love exploration games - but while this has the trappings of a game about exploration I see less real exploration than something like FTL.

I love roguelikes - But I want something to set a hook and make me come back. I don't get that. You may.

I enjoy a well thought out combat system - I really do, but I want more than that out of a game.

[Baroquen]

I picked it up, and I am enjoying it a lot. I've got two hrs in already so I definitely feel like I'll get my money's worth because of the sale. It doesn't seem too hard so far, though I'm just playing on Classic level. It could get to be repetitious, though I bought the DLC which adds more expeditions and other stuff. In any event, I'm happy with the game so far.

Only thing I haven't figured out is the colored hexes on the combat map. There are some gold(?) colored spots that I figure are some sort of modifier, but I haven't stumbled across any details yet. Anyone know what they do?

[Zarathud]

I believe they heal but I haven't relied on it. If a gold space and an empty space are both options, I'll move to the gold.

I have 13 hours and haven't unlocked all the characters yet. Many mission events have different endings based on the combos you bring. Some aspects may be familiar but it plays out differently -- particularly with different combos and treasures. I can probably get at least another 7 hours.

My kids love the interactions in combat--they can be "rude" or "friendly" and still be effective. And no blood, which is "too scary" for them.

[Greybriar]

After reading all the positive comments about Renowned Explorers seemingly everywhere on the 'net, I purchased Renowned explorers: International Society ($4.99) and its expansion pack Renowned Explorers: More To Explore! ($5.01) from GOG. It's a change of pace game and I am enjoying it. Don't be fooled by the cartoony graphics; it's a lot deeper than it looks.

[LordMortis]

Was going to pull the trigger last night and was turned off the by $5 DLC. So then I'm left wondering if I should buy the game without the DLC. I don't know why DLC is often such a hang up for me but it is. Maybe it's this perpetual beta state of games that never feel complete and then you end up paying more for the complete version/vision. I dunno.

Maybe I'll feel differently tonight and either spend $10 for the full game or just not worry about the DLC.

[Smoove_B]

I've only ever played the base game (no DLC) and felt is was a worthwhile experience. I view DLC as something that should add to the base game after you've played the hell out of it - it should pull old players back into the game and give them something new. I never felt like I was missing something or that I needed the DLC to enjoy the base game. If I ever play it so much that it feels stale, I'd consider purchasing it. YMMV.

[LordMortis]

I beat Shangri La in the Vanilla Game last night. I got my $5 out of the game and will probably bite on the expansion(s?) if/when they come down in price.

I unlocked all of the characters just to see what their leaderships were.

I settled on the fighter who got extra campaign tokens. I figured while you need all three tokens to advance, an emphasis on campaign tokens both gets you more tokens and more skills to better succeed at the challenge wheels.

[LordMortis]

A couple years later and I keep coming back to this gem. It's the perfect amount of rouge like and strategy and chasing different games with different achievements keeps me interested.

I wonder if Godhood will eventually live up to this. So far it's hard to see how it will come out as well a Rues (a short term enjoyment) or RE:IS which packs so much into such a simple thing.