Curious Expedition

About

"Curious Expedition is a roguelike simulation game set in the late 19th century, where you lead expeditions to uncharted lands for fame, science, and treasure. With a procedurally generated world, unexpected events, and characters based on real historical figures, it offers a unique and challenging experience. A new massive multiplayer mode allows exploration of up to 10,000 times larger worlds, adding a new layer of excitement to the game."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

+16

87%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,490 reviews

gameplay101 positive mentions

stability15 negative mentions

The combat mechanics are engaging and add a layer of strategy to the gameplay.
The pixel art style and music create a charming atmosphere that enhances the exploration experience.
Each expedition offers unique events and challenges, making every playthrough feel fresh and exciting.

The game can become repetitive after a few playthroughs due to limited variety in events and locations.
The RNG elements can lead to frustrating outcomes, making it feel unfair at times.
Inventory management can be cumbersome, with limited slots leading to difficult choices about what to carry.

gameplay
286 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
58%
7%
The gameplay of the game is characterized by a mix of exploration, resource management, and combat mechanics, primarily utilizing a dice-rolling system that adds a layer of strategy. While many players appreciate the depth and replayability offered by the various mechanics and character choices, some find the gameplay repetitive and the learning curve steep due to poorly explained mechanics. Overall, the game provides a charming atmosphere and engaging mechanics, but its reliance on randomness and lack of variety in objectives can lead to a sense of monotony over time.
- “The gameplay is engaging and it's terribly fun to run away from vicious hyenas or a raging forest fire.”
- “Curious Expedition is stylish and fun game with surprisingly deep mechanics and a great soundtrack.”
- “The mechanics work together really well, and the character selection is amazing.”
- “The gameplay itself ultimately ended up boring and frustrating me, and felt largely shallow.”
- “The gameplay gets repetitive; all of the five expeditions you go on each game are pretty much the same.”
- “Boiled down, it is full of baffling mechanics, unexplained HUD items, nonexistent tutorial, and more frustration than a grown man should be forced to stomach in an entertainment product.”
graphics
186 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
57%
3%
The graphics of the game are characterized by a charming pixel art style that evokes nostalgia for classic 8-bit and retro visuals, appealing to fans of old-school aesthetics. While some players appreciate the simplicity and thematic fit of the graphics, others find them basic and lacking in detail, suggesting that the visuals may not satisfy those seeking modern graphical fidelity. Overall, the graphics contribute to the game's adventurous atmosphere, though opinions vary on their execution and appeal.
- “The pixel graphics are really well done, everything looks like it is done in the same 'theme' and just fits really well together.”
- “The graphics are charming for the type of game it is.”
- “The art style is beautiful and timeless.”
- “The graphics are terrible, but if you're willing to tolerate that, it has a good game underneath it.”
- “There's a lot of interesting gameplay elements but unfortunately the bizarre choice to use retro pixel graphics makes the game difficult to get into.”
- “The camps, villages, caves, temples, and everything all recycle the exact same graphics.”
story
183 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
74%
7%
The story in "Curious Expedition" is largely emergent and player-driven, with minimal scripted narrative, leading to a unique experience in each playthrough. While the game offers a framework of exploration and adventure, many players find the overall narrative lacking coherence and depth, often resulting in repetitive missions and limited character development. Despite these criticisms, the game's charm lies in the unpredictable tales that arise from player choices and random events, making each expedition feel like a distinct story worth telling.
- “What makes this game so enjoyable for me is how every adventure turns into its own crazy story where you never know what is going to happen next.”
- “Every expedition, whether successful or horrifically failed, will have a unique story to tell, and you will learn valuable skills as a player that allow you to progress that much farther the next time you play, as any roguelike should.”
- “The story changes with every playthrough as the events that the explorer goes through actually make up the story itself.”
- “The game lacks a coherent story, offering only minimal narrative development.”
- “Winning the game results in brief text about the player character and their party, leaving much of the storytelling up to the player's imagination.”
- “The game fails most on what I most expected from it, the surprise element; the unexpected monsters and caves and missions are always the same; how a game about exploring can become so repetitive so fast.”
replayability
151 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
40%
5%
Overall, the game boasts high replayability due to its random map generation, diverse characters, and varying gameplay mechanics, which encourage players to explore different strategies and experiences. While many reviews highlight the addictive nature and depth of replay value, some note that the lack of significant content diversity can lead to repetitive gameplay over time. Despite this, the combination of challenging elements and frequent updates keeps players engaged and returning for more adventures.
- “Its deep gameplay mechanics, endless replayability, charming visuals and sound design make it a must-play for any indie game enthusiast.”
- “The replayability of this game is astounding with each explorer having different perks.”
- “The high difficulty makes it replayable, as do the amount of explorers.”
- “Just beware the difficulty, prepare to be pissed, and expect replayability to feel repetitive.”
- “There does not seem to be a lot of diversity and content, and that ties to poor replayability value.”
- “So I've played 9 hours when writing this, that is as long as it took for me to unlock all but one playable character; this game is far from 'replayable'.”
music
104 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
51%
4%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising its catchy and atmospheric qualities that enhance the overall experience. However, several players note that the soundtrack can be overly loud, repetitive, and at times intrusive, detracting from gameplay. While some find the music charming and fitting for the game's theme, others express a desire for a more diverse and balanced audio experience.
- “Great replayability, unreal soundtrack, and a heavy recommendation if you like an immersive strategy game.”
- “The music is fantastic, and changes dynamically based on how your expedition is faring.”
- “Curious Expedition has an enchanting soundtrack that really sets the atmosphere, and with tons of characters to choose from, and procedurally generated maps, it's never the same game twice!”
- “The soundtrack features low-fidelity, pixel-art-appropriate tunes, but some tracks are overly loud and intrusive, making it difficult to focus on gameplay.”
- “The soundtrack is very repetitive and I often turned it off due to a little bit of headaches every once in a while.”
- “The music becomes intolerable after a short while, and is extremely loud at times (win screens).”
humor
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely praised for its dark, witty, and often absurd nature, with players enjoying the hilarious mishaps and unexpected outcomes that arise during gameplay. Many reviews highlight the clever dialogue and amusing character interactions, which contribute to a lighthearted atmosphere despite the game's challenging mechanics. However, some players find the humor can become repetitive over time, though the overall comedic tone remains a significant draw for many.
- “It's a very funny game; it may seem hard at first, but it is well balanced.”
- “The dialogs are darkly funny, and the sanity mechanic is well played throughout.”
- “Each playthrough feels like its own journey, filled with mishaps and funny moments.”
atmosphere
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
84%
10%
6%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive sound effects, ambient music, and charming pixel art, which collectively enhance the overall experience. Reviewers highlight the strong thematic elements, particularly the sense of exploration and adventure reminiscent of 19th-century expeditions. While the atmosphere is considered superb, some players note that the gameplay can feel shallow when examined closely.
- “The atmosphere brilliantly captures a sense of exploration, and the fear sets in when sanity gets low too.”
- “An atmospheric roguelike with a nice dollop of strategy and a brilliant line in emergent storytelling.”
- “The curious expedition is a fantastic, charming little game, with great atmosphere, style and a big heart.”
- “Two complaints I have, though, are that the game has a lot of meta to it, which ruins the atmosphere of a 'curious' expedition.”
- “But when you look past the atmosphere of the game, you'll notice it's very shallow.”
optimization
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
67%
17%
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players noting significant performance issues such as frame rate drops, slow loading times, and occasional freezing, particularly on Linux systems. While the game offers engaging depth and replayability, it suffers from poor optimization that detracts from the overall experience, indicating a need for further patches and improvements. Despite these challenges, players still find the game enjoyable and fun, especially for those who appreciate complex optimization in roguelike games.
- “It's a catchy game that entices you with charm and simplicity but holds plenty of depth and play-pattern optimization opportunities for you to explore.”
- “Once you have some experience, the game, like most roguelikes, starts to devolve into an optimization problem.”
- “If you really enjoy playing roguelike games that require complex optimization through gear, decision making, crew, etc., play this one.”
- “Really bad optimization, runs really slow and freezes when the volcanoes erupt.”
- “Horrible performance (huge FPS drops, choppy music, memory leak?!).”
- “The biggest issue though, is that the game has relatively poor optimization, considering most of the graphics look like 2D sprites. I'm running it on 16GB RAM, G3258 at 4.4GHz and a 960 GTX, and I still get some weird kind of input/stutter lag.”
stability
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6%
94%
The game's stability has received mixed feedback, with some players experiencing significant bugs, crashes, and performance issues, particularly during intense moments like volcanic eruptions. However, many users note that the game has improved over time, with fewer glitches and better optimization, leading to a more enjoyable experience overall. While some minor issues persist, the developers are actively working on fixes, and many players find the game fun and engaging despite its early access status.
- “Runs great on my iMac with Big Sur.”
- “I really want to recommend this game, but it's too bipolar, random, and buggy.”
- “Really poorly optimized, runs really slow and freezes when the volcanoes erupt.”
- “For about a third or quarter of my games, when the game doesn’t lag, it freezes, and when it doesn’t freeze, it crashes, and occasionally combat will bug where the enemy party or your own will do no damage.”
grinding
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
93%
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and time-consuming, often requiring excessive effort for achievements and resource management. While some enjoy the challenge and see it as a fun mission, many feel that the grinding detracts from the overall enjoyment, making the experience feel more like a chore than an engaging gameplay element. The large map and slow-paced strategies can lead to boredom, especially when the mechanics become repetitive.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The map is too large, and it's not just too difficult; it's also boring and tedious.”
- “I did not find anything in this game intriguing enough to keep me grinding for fame points.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players report a deeply emotional experience, highlighting the intense highs and lows of gameplay, particularly when unlocking characters and facing difficult choices that can lead to heartbreak. The narrative's impactful moments, such as losing crew members and the struggle to achieve goals, evoke strong feelings, with some players expressing that the game brought them to tears.
- “10/10 would ride the emotional roller coaster of not unlocking someone and thinking you wasted a whole game, just to realize you unlocked someone you didn't know how to get again.”
- “It also gets heartbreaking when, in the later levels, you reach the golden pyramid with half your crew left, only to find you have to go and unlock something first that is on the other side of the map!”
- “I cried.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
100%
Users express a desire for deeper character development, suggesting the inclusion of a custom character designer to enhance personalization and engagement with the characters.
- “I love how the character development allows for deep emotional connections with the characters, making their growth feel meaningful.”
- “The progression system is fantastic, giving each character a unique journey that feels rewarding and engaging.”
- “I'm excited to see how they expand on the character arcs in future updates; there's so much potential for rich storytelling.”
- “Hoping to see them build on the ideas here, and maybe allow a custom character designer.”