Glory, gold – and a bite of donkey: Humorous roguelike on sale for $1.50 on Steam
In Curious Expedition, players step into the shoes of historical figures from the late 19th century – among them Charles Darwin, H.P. Lovecraft and Marie Curie. Leading daring expeditions to the world’s most remote corners, their mission is to uncover treasure, gain fame and keep their sanity intact. Each journey is procedurally generated, offering a mix of strategic, moral and often absurd challenges. What do you do when a carnivorous dinosaur attacks your team in the jungle, but the specially recruited elephant has no desire to flee? Or when a group driven mad suddenly decides the pack mule looks like dinner?
Mental stability plays a key role in Curious Expedition. It steadily drains with every step, every skirmish and every strange encounter – making Sanity a resource you can’t afford to ignore. When it hits zero, chaos can break out: mutiny, cannibalism and yes, even the donkey might end up as dinner. If the main character loses their mind, it’s game over. Sanity can be restored through rest or by consuming morale-boosters like whiskey and chocolate. This creates a tense gameplay loop centered around resource management and constant risk assessment. Visually, the game embraces a pixel art style inspired by 19th-century maps and adventure novels, adding to its unique charm.
Reviews: Entertaining adventure, somewhat monotonous graphics
Curious Expedition, developed by indie studio Maschinen-Mensch, launched in September 2016. At release, the game was reviewed by the German gaming magazin GameStar, which praised its rich atmosphere, strategic depth and strong replay value driven by procedurally generated expeditions. However, the review also pointed out some drawbacks. The graphics were seen as visually repetitive, with limited variety in environments and assets over time. The turn-based combat was another weak point, described as overly simple and too reliant on luck.
Despite its flaws, GameStar gave Curious Expedition a solid score of 80 out of 100. Since launch, the game has earned over 3,700 user reviews on Steam, with 91% of them positive. The picture is less glowing on Metacritic, where it holds a Metascore of 74 and a User Score of 6.7. Here too, most criticism centers on the simplistic combat and visually repetitive environments.
90% discount on Steam
Curious Expedition is usually priced at $15 on Steam, but it's currently available for around $1.50 thanks to a 90% discount running until April 28. According to SteamDB, this deal pops up regularly, most recently during the Spring Sale in March. So if you're not ready to dive in just yet, chances are you won’t have to wait long for the next offer.
Disclaimer: Notebookcheck is not responsible for price changes carried out by retailers. The discounted price or deal mentioned in this item was available at the time of writing and may be subject to time restrictions and/or limited unit availability.
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