Recent reviews by F😈CK HOPE

This game is probably fantastic, I really believe that it is, but if you want to play on Steam Deck: the game does not launch at all[/i][/b]

I know lots of games say "Unsupported for Steam Deck" or we're still learning more or whatever, but then they actually run fine, or they run but don't play very well. This game literally launches, loads the games landing screen, and then hard crashes to "desktop" of the Deck. It's 0% playable, does not work at all. I don't blame the devs for this, although I'd love for them to address it, but I wanted to let anyone else who loves their Deck know.

Got a Steam Deck

Installed the Steam Deck Tech Demo

Was pretty fun

I have the badges, because they used to do the cool sideways glitch text thing, plus illuminati, but honestly DON'T buy this game

It's supposed to be SIX episodes, only two exist, only two ever will exist, and it's downright rude that there is a "season pass" that only contains those two episodes, but costs twice as much as buying them individually.

Definitely do not buy, especially do not buy the season pass

When I bought it, this was a punishingly difficult grid based combat focused RPG death labyrinth.

I saw potential and got it on sale, played it a little and put it aside to come back to later.

It's now a deep, multi-faceted grid based combat focused RPG focused on survival. It's basically Diablo 2 + Eye of the Beholder grid based combat. Lots of kiting and force-quitting the game so you can have another go at the encounter.

I have clearly sunk a ton of time into this game, and also spent a not trivial amount of money on freemium items.

My 2c bottom line is:

I've been playing this game around 4 years, and without exception the crusaders released in the last year are the most powerful, only competing with one another. Flash player was supposed to be dead by now, but the rona delayed that, and in the community Q&As they still admit right now that they don't know what they'll do when Flash dies. The only part they don't admit is that this 4 person studio that's actually focused on a different game that already transitioned away from Flash, they're only trying to squeeze those last cents out of this player base, so stay away and avoid that.

I love the idea of this game, and I'm glad this game finally got released on to Steam so I could buy it. But no, I wouldn't recommend you buy the current, half-finished, bare-boned game that exists.

I boot it up sometimes, but until a meaningful update comes out (post 2019) I would say don't buy this unless you know you're getting something un-done.

Update at the top:
I have played 4 play through of this game, now, and here's what I think about the replayability:
1- Needs more events. I've seen the same events quite a few times, and they only have one outcome each.
2- Events need more ways to resolve. They all either wind up with the same outcome, or with the characters walking away.
3- The generations aspect and prestige aspects are kind of broken: if I start a new playthrough "100 years later" and prestige a couple of my heroes from last time, if one was the offspring of another, that link is kept in the spiritual descendants, which means that the new 19 year old adventurer is the child of a 20 year old new adventurer. That's not the best.

Update summary: this game has tons to offer, and I certainly haven't seen every last scrap of content, but in ~8-10 hours and ~2-4 playthroughs you'll see the vast majority of what's in the game currently. That not bad, it's a good game and it's fun to play and there's more to unlock, but that's about the depth of it as of end June 2020.

As of this writing, I've played 4 "chapters" of this game, consisting of one entire 3 chapter playthrough, and the first chapter of a second playthrough. As I play the game more, if things that I seemed random turn out not to be, I'll update this review and point that out.

I think this game is fantastic. It's just what it says it is: an epic builder, in the correct meaning of the word. Your band of three eager youths progress through a series of fairly mundane activities on the players part into the protagonists of legend, and it unfolds in a very pleasing and natural way.

Split up your squad, recruit new teammates, have kids and then fight alongside them. It's really engaging and all the gameplay elements fit together in a really natural way so that things come together cohesively.

I'm glad I bought this game, and I can't wait to see how much content there is when this game is fully finished.

I read the tutorial word for word and left feeling totally unable to play the game. I opened a bunch of guides and saw huge amounts of micro and black boxing that I just don't ever want to deal with.

This game has rave reviews, but I didn't like it and have requested a refund. This is like Expeditions series if you made it painfully opaque, un-intuitive and slow.

EDIT: also it's not a 4X and people should stop saying it is one

My original review is below, but I wanted to write something with more content for people who are curious (there's a demo, just try it)

The game runs great, super slick and smooth and polished, responsive, everything you expect from Klei.

The content is rich, and it's a certainty that they'll be adding a lot more. There's certainly games with these types of mechanics and this type of pricepoint with similar or less amount of content, and those games are done while this game hit Early Access this week.

Everything is what you should expect from Klei: engaging characters, well used randomization combined with clever content, it's a winner if you have any interest at all in any of the mechanics at play.

In short, I stand by my original review:
I love Klei
I love roguelights
I love card games

I love this game

I played the Alpha of Curious Expedition 1 on the dev's website, and bought it from them before it was even listed on Steam. The game I bought was buggy, janky, broke all the time, and was PACKED with charm and potential, and unlike any other game I had played before.

I played the beta of CE2 on Discord, and I bought it the same hour I got an email telling me it was available to buy on Steam. The game currently has lots of things that aren't finished. That's fine. It has tons of improvements over the original game: different types of expeditions, factions to support, custom explorers, a merger between the combat environment and the exploration environment, just to name some of the biggies.

This game is fantastic fun, and as more and more effort continues to be poured into it, this game will both grow and gain polish. Buy now, or buy later, but it's a winner for sure, and don't be concerned by the fact that it's still under construction.