RE: International Society - Review @ Pixeldynamo

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RE: International Society - Review @ Pixeldynamo

Cassie Parks (Pixeldynamo) has reviewed Renowned Explorers: International Society:

Abbey Games’ first venture was Reus, a strategy god game where you control giants and help shape a world populated with people who are constantly trying to murder one another. The developer’s second game, Renowned Explorers: International Society, is another take on the strategy genre, but one that goes in rather a different direction: Renowned Explorers takes itself far less seriously than Reus and most other strategic games.

As I battened down the hatches and jumped into the adventure strategy game set in the 19th century, I found this attitude wholly unexpected and refreshing, a stance that helps Renowned Explorers to stand out among other games in the genre.

Colourful Crews

You begin your adventure by selecting your Captain and his/her crew. You can select from a pretty diverse cast of characters in each of four categories: Scientists, Fighters, Scouts and Speakers. The character portraits are drawn in a simple, clean style, which I presume have been somewhat inspired by manga. This clean, bold, Japanese-influenced art style can be seen throughout the game’s backgrounds and animation models and works well when combined with the game’s over-the-top, anime-styled sense of humour–something I’ll discuss in more detail later on.

Each character has a unique set of traits and skills to help you decide which play style you want to use in combat encounters. These attributes will help you both in combat and the game’s more chance-based encounters that occur throughout the maps, where percentages are used to determine how high a chance your character has at, say, climbing a rope or building a raft. [...]

Verdict

Renowned Explorers: International Society takes itself less seriously than I expected it to, which really worked in the game’s favour. Its elements of chance and selection of bosses make it a game that I want to replay. I can see myself sinking a good few hours into Renowned Explorers each day, replaying and experimenting with different crew combinations in order to defeat tricky bosses and discover new treasures.

If you’re someone who likes to think long and hard about your combat strategies and crew combinations to ensure a winning game every time, Renowned Explorers may not be for you, though. The game encourages spontaneity, and a “Let’s just try this out and see what happens” attitude not seen in many other strategy RPGs. However, if you have a thirst for adventure or you enjoy combat encounters that aren’t all about mindless killing, Renowned Explorers: International Society could be a treasure just waiting to be unearthed.

Score: 7.5/10

Summary:

A fun take on the strategy genre which favours being played over and over again.
More information.
 
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Thanks, I'll have to check this out. I enjoyed Reus quite a bit.
 
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