"Curious Expedition" vs. "Renowned Explorers"

[El Guapo]

I'm following the development of "Curious Expedition" (CE) for a while. Today I saw this other exploration game "Renowned Explorers" (RE) out on Steam. RE has this shabby tablet-look, but otherwise looks like a more polished, streamlined version of CE. Much better interface and the combat seems more interesting as well. CE looks like a more mature game though and that usually means more complex.
Does anyone know both and can give me some advice which is better for a gamer who grew up in the 1980s?

[Vulpe Nebuna]

Hahahah that would be brilliant and very Microprose-like :)

[El Guapo]

thrillhaus eredeti hozzászólása:

Vulpe Nebuna eredeti hozzászólása:

I haven't played RE but CE is straight out of 80's - early '90s with strong vibes of Microprose games of the era ;)

They should change the DRM to historical trivia questions.

But with all incorrect answers from a parallel steampunk-timeline to fight piracy lest people just google the answers.

CE: How were the big battleships in the 19th century called?
Pirate: Dreadnought
CE: Wrong, you're a f****** pirate!
Pirate: Whut?

The correct answer would have been: Steam Panzerschiff

[Pandoron]

Actually both games are great and somewhat unique. Although they follow similar ideas and principles, way of exploring, combat, and skill build is different. While CE is based on one historical (real) explorer to be selected, RE is team based exploring. Also, CE follows a more complex explore mode and simple dice-based combat while RE has a simple route-based exploration and more complex strategic combat with different methods to fight.

To sum it up. I would recommend both :)

[Skirlasvoud]

TotalBiscuit did a thing on Renowned Explorers if people really want to know what that game is about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXCleyTTShY

I for one really appreciate CE's down to earth, gritty, grim realism. RE is very upbeat and has a lot of good stories (and wonderful in-depth combat), but CE somehow feels like the expeditions have the harrowing weight to them that you'd expect.

[Tiggurix]

I'm sorry, but I'm completely unable to take TotalBiscuit seriously after he said that he wouldn't play Undertale because it wasn't "30 FPS", when Undertale is a game where specs are almost completely irrelevant.

In other news, I'm glad that El Guapo decided to try out RE:IS. Like I said, they're both excellent games.

[El Guapo]

Tiggurix eredeti hozzászólása:

I'm sorry, but I'm completely unable to take TotalBiscuit seriously after he said that he wouldn't play Undertale because it wasn't "30 FPS", when Undertale is a game where specs are almost completely irrelevant.

In other news, I'm glad that El Guapo decided to try out RE:IS. Like I said, they're both excellent games.

I also tried out CE during the free to play weekend. It's still on my wishlist and I'll probably buy it at a later stage. Currently it's close to a buy, but not quite. Little too frustrating in the later levels.

[Makingwaffles]

I'm enjoying both games. They are both fun and has their good and not so good sides...

CE has the best setting, but RE has better combat and i like the leveling system there better

Would advice CE to people who want a bigger challenge and has a strange craving for the elder ones, and RE to people who has no idea what the elder ones are

[El Guapo]

Steffenrem eredeti hozzászólása:

I'm enjoying both games. They are both fun and has their good and not so good sides...

CE has the best setting, but RE has better combat and i like the leveling system there better

Would advice CE to people who want a bigger challenge and has a strange craving for the elder ones, and RE to people who has no idea what the elder ones are

It is 100% correct that owning either doesn't make the other obsolete. They are very different beasts.
Personally I enjoy the style of CE a lot more, the historical characters are way better than the comic figures of RE. When it comes to gameplay, RE offers at least the same amount of depth (especially the complex combat system) and is without a doubt the much more polished game. RE feels like a professional, smooth production whereas CE is a lot rougher around the edges.

I prefer RE at this point, but I'm sure many people will like CE better.

[Nasty Nate]

Tiggurix eredeti hozzászólása:

Again, that's not really what one does in D&D. The dice is there as a numerical value to see if one "succeeds" or "fails" at something, whether that be climbing a wall or hitting an enemy, and one generally only gets one roll. Like I said, the system in CE is much more similar to some modern dice games, which do have custom dice that one can "keep" or re-roll.

Actually to be quite technical, dice rolls happen when called for in D&D. Many special items and weapons, spells skills, etc have secondary rolls to determine success and damage spread. Perhaps you are not at all familiar with traditional AD&D table top, because, if you were, you would also know that dungeon masters create their own capsules and rules, items. etc. So what exactly were you trying to say about the combat in table top D&D being less dynamic with the RNG and dice rolls?

[El Guapo]

RE is on sale right now for 12 bucks in case anyone wants to check it out. It improved considerably with the latest patches.
I didn't play CE since the free weekend, so I don't know how much CE has changed since then.

[Tiggurix]

Nasty Nate eredeti hozzászólása:

Tiggurix eredeti hozzászólása:

Again, that's not really what one does in D&D. The dice is there as a numerical value to see if one "succeeds" or "fails" at something, whether that be climbing a wall or hitting an enemy, and one generally only gets one roll. Like I said, the system in CE is much more similar to some modern dice games, which do have custom dice that one can "keep" or re-roll.

Actually to be quite technical, dice rolls happen when called for in D&D. Many special items and weapons, spells skills, etc have secondary rolls to determine success and damage spread. Perhaps you are not at all familiar with traditional AD&D table top, because, if you were, you would also know that dungeon masters create their own capsules and rules, items. etc. So what exactly were you trying to say about the combat in table top D&D being less dynamic with the RNG and dice rolls?

We're straying quite far from the topic at hand, but I am very familiar with tabletop RPGs, though I personally prefer GURPS. Again, the battle system does not resemble a tabletop RPG, and resembles a modern dice game, because of the custom dice and the focus on combining them for effect, instead of using traditional dice and trying to achieve numerical values.

[russonc]

I have now played both (darn backlog makes it hard to get to everything). I like them both but in answer to the original question, this game to me has the feel of Seven Cities of Gold and Hearts of Africa from the 80's C64, which I played to death "back in the day". I fully agree that this feels like a modern update to those games. (I recently played Seven Cities of Gold and still enjoy it, but the graphics on this game will make it hard to go back again...) .

[F😈CK HOPE]

I got Renowned Explorers from the recent Humble bundle and I really like it. The art is very smooth and someone compared it to Pixar, but the game has plenty of depth and things to work on and develop as you progress through a play through.

If for some reason one had to be removed from my Steam library, though, I would keep Curious Expedition. I love the historical characters (Ada Lovelace, coca addict and cannibal), I love the weird emergent stories (giant crab killed my dino pet!!) I love the style, even if it is the less pretty game in many ways, navigating the map is far better. The mechanics are also "better" in terms of what I think makes rogue like elements engaging: in Renowned Explorers one thing goes wrong to bad luck and your entire game is in a near instant death spiral. In Curious Expedition, though, you hang on for longer, and get closer to the finish, before you realize that you doomed yourself 15 minutes ago.

[𝗦𝗮𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗗𝗞 ✌]

I have both, I like Curious the most!

[Rystar]

I find the diverging art-style opinions to be really interesting... Some look at pixel art and see cheap, outdated, retro visuals, while others look at the vector art of RE and think cheap, flash game, mobile graphics, browser game visuals.

I'm highly biased towards pixel art. I've done design with both art styles over the years and find pixel art to be so rewarding to do. It's also what I grew up playing, so that probably has a lot to do with it. As far as RE is concerned, I think the art style is just too disney-esque, it looks good but has no personality. CE's pixel art is what sold me on the game, fortunately the rest of the game is fantastic as well.