Exp:Conq Expeditions: Conquistador - Review @ Flash of Steel

Expeditions: Conquistador

Myrthos

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Flash of Steel checks out Expeditions: Conquistador and pays special attention to it's historical correctness or lack thereof.

In short, Expeditions: Conquistador gets the balance of the historical message completely right – the people that chose to become conquistadors were brave, foolhardy and largely doomed. Cortes is, rightfully, seen today as one of the harbingers of genocide in the Americas; his success in Mexico led to a rush of gold seekers and brutal governors. But he was also the kind of man that gets legends told about him because what he did seemed impossible.

The tactical battles in Conquistador are, unfortunately, the weakest part of the game. To their credit, they aren’t as incomprehensible as many of the battles in Omerta or as repetitive as the admittedly awesome fights in XCom. But they also don’t make a lot of sense. Why am I restricted to six fighters if I am being ambushed? Why is this jungle path so conveniently strewn with fallen logs for cover? How did that poison Taino arrow get through my armor? Why did I screw up and choose a priest instead of a hunter for this fight? (Ok, that last one is my fault.)
More information.
 
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Cortes is, rightfully, seen today as one of the harbingers of genocide in the Americas; his success in Mexico led to a rush of gold seekers and brutal governors. But he was also the kind of man that gets legends told about him because what he did seemed impossible.
Cortez is just another massmurderer history is obsessed with for whatever reason. Real adventurers and explorers are not widely known, so if you want to be in a history book, you have to become another Brievik.
I live for the day all those massmurderers will be removed from history books as I see no point in studying monsters.
 
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It makes a to of sense to study (human) monsters. Is's not done to glory them.
Anyway what the real Cortes did ulimeately has little meaning for the game - you make your own decisions.
 
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True, and it's the beauty of the game. It allows you not to go genocidal.
 
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BTW, does anybody know how the game has done comercially? What's next for these guys?
 
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I've seen people saying that the game has so far been a commercial flop, but they might just be assuming because it isn't on Steam's top seller list. Considering most of the pro (and user) reviews seem to be pretty positive, I'd guess it's doing OK for an indie game from a new developer.

I haven't bought this game yet as I got the impression from previous reviews that while the game is good, it is still in need of some additional patching to fix the game balance. But couldn't most of FoS's criticisms apply to say, every RPG ever made?

Most RPGs restrict you to taking a certain number of characters into battle and it never really "makes sense". It's always done for game balance / to avoid ridiculously long fights. (Occasionally games actually split them up into two parties, but that usually happens near the end as in Dragon Age: Origins and doesn't explain why certain characters stay back at camp for the rest of the game). Poison arrows work against armor because otherwise armor would be overpowered. While I can appreciate when games strive for a certain amount of realism in their mechanics, there's always going to be some conventions that require suspension of disbelief to keep a game fun / challenging.
 
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