I've got a new favorite roguelike: Curious Expedition.
I'd rank CE lower than my all-time favorites Into the Breach and Slay the Spire, but it's just as addictive as the other two roguelite/roguelikes. How many nights have I played past bedtime now? I'm not telling.Reviewed Curious Expedition for LadiesGamers and wrote about 10 things I wish I'd known as a new player. But I didn't say much about the playable explorers, so that's what I'll do in this post.
In CE, you select a famous 19th century explorer to play in a danger-and-death-filled adventure. Charles Darwin, Roald Amundsen, Amelia Earhart, and Isabella Bird are some of the big names here whose boots you could be in.
But not all of these playable protagonists were actual explorers in real life. Fancy being Grigori Rasputin, Marie Curie, H.P. Lovecraft, or the martial arts legend Wong Fei-Hung?
I was tickled by the inclusion of Wong Fei-Hung (spelled Huang Feihong in the game), as I grew up watching him in action movies. "Chinese folk hero, healer, and master of the martial art Hung Ga", I remember him best in the Once Upon a Time in China films, played by Jet Li.
Added to the Explorer's Club along with the game's Chinese language update, Huang has a unique combat die with moves like "Shadowless Kick" and the ability to heal wounds, which is real handy after combat. His avatar face is large and roundish. While the other starting explorers have single-pixel dots for eyes, he has two pixels per eye, creating an unfortunately stereotypical portrait of a slit-eyed Chinese.
I didn't spend much time being our folk hero, as Johan Huizinga was my preferred protagonist. Dutch historian and author of Homo Ludens in real life, I made him an ethically dubious treasure hunter in CE. I liked his ability to write anthropological books and his companion artist's ability to create paintings. Both types of works are high in Fame value, the yardstick of victory in this game. In other words, Huizinga was the cultured way to win. But while the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, and I occasionally lapsed into stealing treasure from shrines for ill-gained Fame.
Then I tried Roald Amundsen for a while. He's meant to be played in snow-terrain expeditions, being pre-equipped with snowshoes and polar station tickets. Best of all, though, his companions are two huskies who are awesome allies in combat.
Not all explorers are suited for rough-and-tumble with panthers and polar bears. So it took a long time to feel I was doing well in combat.
That really changed when I began playing Frederick Courtney Selous. He's not a starting explorer; you have to defeat (i.e. kill) any one tiger to unlock Selous.
You may not have heard of the chap, but you would know something of his archetype: big game hunter, British army officer, gentleman. Selous was also a naturalist and conservation advocate. The Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania was named after him and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He died in the region during World War I. All this I know now, thanks to discovering his fictional counterpart in Curious Expedition.