Gamepressure has reviewed Renowned Explorers: International Society:

Renowned Explorers: International Society review – feeling like Indiana Jones

Abbey Games Studios once again wants to challenge all fans of the strategy genre. This time, the Dutch team will put you in the shoes of 19th century treasure hunters to take part in their thrilling adventures, often on par with those of Indiana Jones.

Renowned Explorers: International Society is one of that games that can confuse, when you first see them. Simply because there’s no other title to compare it to and prepare you for what’s for you in store. The brief tutorial doesn’t help much either; it does spare you the details, but at the same time, it doesn’t cover everything it should. It doesn’t take much time, however, to see that under the guise of adventurous undertakings there are a lot of things we’ve seen before.

Our endeavor begins as we assemble a multinational team of three explorers, beginning with its Captain. Every explorer is assigned four characteristics: class (Scientist, Fighter, Scout, or Speaker), perks, stats (defining the number of “lives”, attack power, defenses and so on), and a unique trait that is in effect only when a character is chosen as the team’s Captain. Tough choices from the very beginning, it would seem. Luckily, the creators have prepared descriptions for each explorer that suggest some good companions to complement him/her – you can just follow one of their suggestions, if you’d like.

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When you begin to play Renowned Explorers you may think it’s just another simple indie game. As it turns out, the developers from Abbey Games offers a significant number of creative solutions. Interesting mechanics are complimented by the gorgeous atmosphere of the game with its humoristic approach to a setting we rarely see in video games. All wrapped up in very pleasant visuals. As far as the technical aspects go, only the somewhat repetitive music and some minor interface issues (like overlapping menu elements) could be pointed out as negatives. In the dozen+ of hours I’ve spent playing the game, I haven’t witnessed a single freeze or crash – it’s getting hard finding such performance lately.

A single playthrough on normal difficulty takes roughly 4 hours. If by then, the game doesn’t have you hooked, nothing what happens afterwards will change that. It got me hooked alright, and soon I found myself picking a new team of explorers to try a different strategy. Unfortunately, the subsequent playthroughs weren’t different enough to praise the game for its replay value, which is the crucial aspect for this kind of game, and, as a result, the final score has suffered a bit. Nevertheless, if you like turn-based strategy games, would like to try a fresh approach to old mechanics, and have nothing against a short playthrough time, you can add one point to the score.

Score: 7.5 Good

PROS:

• the atmosphere;
• interesting gameplay mechanics, employing several original solutions;
• many hours of fun;
• diversified difficulty level;
• pleasant visuals;
• requires strategic thinking.

CONS:

• some of the gameplay mechanics are left without proper introduction;
• (for some people) randomness to certain elements of the game;
• repetitive soundtrack;
• some small technical issues.