Noirit Mustapha

After their debut god game Reus, Abbey Games returned this year with another kind of strategy game. Renowned Explorers: International Society has you in control of a group of three explorers, determined to find the biggest archaeological find of the century. The game plays like Risk of Rain or FTL in the sense that it’s smaller campaigns instead of one huge story mode. There are 20 different characters the game can be played, and each crew consists of a captain and two members. Only certain people can be selected as a captain at first though, with others unlocked as you play with them as members.
The story opens with the tutorial area which begins and ends in the same way. The crew knows there is a huge treasure to be found in the area and must travel the land to get to it. Movement works somewhat like a board game piece moving around different nodes, all while random encounters occur at different sections. In fact, the whole game seems to be inspired by the many resource collecting board games, with different encounters yielding different tokens. These tokens can either result in consumable resources to upgrade your team and equipment, or will count towards the final renown count that helps you win the game. Battles are conducted in turn based strategy format with a unique twist. In addition to attacking the enemy to defeat them, battles can also talked over civilly or deviously. It works in the same way as aggressively attacking, but unique animations freshen up the experience in a hilarious way.
The end of the tutorial encounter introduces you to the International Society’s biggest explorer Rivaleux, who is also your rival. Once he steals the treasure there from under your noses, the remaining expeditions become a race to earn more renown than him. This ultimately leads to a game that is both quaint and intense, bringing in some fresh new ideas onto a familiar table.