Curious Expedition 2 Image
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 9 Ratings

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  • Summary: Curious Expedition 2 is the follow-up to the award-winning 19th century expedition simulation. Join the legendary Explorer Clubs and venture on unprecedented expeditions to regions never explored before for fame, science and treasures.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Mar 2, 2021
    90
    I really like where my successive adventures into Curious Expedition 2 took me. There’s a few minor bugs to iron out, but I found that the game was mostly a smooth ride from beginning to end (by which I mean when an expedition failed and I quit the game). There’s enough depth here that you feel invested in the fate of your character, and even once I finished playing, I kept thinking back to my latest run and what I could do differently.
  2. Feb 17, 2021
    85
    Curious Expedition 2 suffers from some of the same frustrations that plague all games with any level of procedural generation, but, overall, it’s a fun romp filled with adventure and mystery. The structured story missions that frame the side quests provide a much-welcomed story to the game, and the myriad of characters, items, and gameplay options kept each mission fresh. Much like the mysterious islands you’ll explore and conquer, Curious Expedition 2 is worth checking out.
  3. Dec 1, 2021
    80
    Curious Expedition 2 offers a customizable gaming experience that can be as casual or as hardcore as players like, with tons of content and options, many of which can be changed on the fly. The game is smooth and solid, and having so much randomly generated content (and so much content to pull from) ensures a different experience on every run-through, even if the gameplay loop gets a little stale sometimes. For a certainly fair price point, players are getting a game they can play a hundred times a hundred different ways. Some of the best games are the ones where developers simply create a space and let players play; Curious Expedition 2 does so wonderfully.
  4. Feb 7, 2021
    78
    Curious Expedition 2 is a fun and fascinating mix of roguelite, a stylish boardame and compelling adventures set in XIX century. The explorations are always fun play even if hard and punishing, with episodes of shining emergent narrative. Though, on the long run the fixed main quest structure and a little bit of déjà vu effect make the experience a little bit less magic than the first hours.
  5. CD-Action
    Oct 12, 2021
    75
    Borrowing from various genres, Curious Expedition 2 is an interesting and pretty simulator of an explorer. Sadly, it doesn’t offer enough content to keep you fully engaged throughout the whole adventure. In my case, the initial fun of exploration started to fade around the half of the campaign, as the lack of auto-battle started to annoy me (especially that my party became so strong that combat lost its thrill) and random encounters began to recur. [04/2021, p.52]
  6. Jan 28, 2021
    75
    The quality of the overall experience is impacted by the limited appeal of the presentation. Combat can also become repetitive, with the dice system somewhat restrictive later on. Curious Expedition 2 is a good run-based title that will show-off the series to a wider section of gamers than the original, allowing them to go on complex resource-constrained adventures.
  7. Feb 19, 2021
    50
    This is certainly not a bad game, but it’s missing a spark, something to make you want to skip work and play a few more turns. Furthermore, the combat system is boring and everything relies on chance too much for my liking. This expedition has lost itself.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Mar 9, 2021
    9
    Ever wanted to uncover treasures, plan your next moves on a map and find new civilizations?

    Ever wanted to make paper maps come alive with
    Ever wanted to uncover treasures, plan your next moves on a map and find new civilizations?

    Ever wanted to make paper maps come alive with cartoon-level rogue-like fights?

    Then look no further :) this is the game for you.
    More replayble than might and magic 3, age of wanders 2!

    While curious expeditions 1 was a terrific game by itself, having wonderful 8-bit graphics, this one modernizes the graphics and makes this game an instant classic.

    Nothing less than 9!

    If there was a path to provide more meaningful interactions with the local civilizations without feeling that you are actually stealing and destroying other ppls peaceful lives, then I would give it a 10.
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  2. Feb 6, 2021
    5
    "Curious expedition"'s biggest strengths were a crisp rogue-lite concept and 8-bit-charm. Both have been "improved" in this sequel - the"Curious expedition"'s biggest strengths were a crisp rogue-lite concept and 8-bit-charm. Both have been "improved" in this sequel - the sharp, unforgiving sandbox now comes with unskippable, repeated campaign missions, and the pixelated artstyle and highly recognizable sound and music had to move for a rather generic hand-drawn style and pretty bland "modern" versions of the soundtrack.

    While there are some new elements, items and challenges, the original playstyle has more or less survived this renovation, but even here the new ideas are not always welcome additions, and some of the new rules - like not being able to build on your former success when you prepare a new exploration, since all your treasures and tools are just gone, and you basically have to start over - make for a worse experience.

    At the same time the amount of missions and mission goals is quite small, and while some tiles and events have been added to the maps, they come with balancing issues and difficulty spikes that turn what should be gaming into pure gambling.

    The antagonistic fog, that is the core element of the new campaign-based gameplay, seems to have seeped into the design stage of this sequel, and while it's not a bad game, it's a rather disappointing one given the momentum Maschinenmensch had with the predecessor.
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