Expeditions: Conquistador

[Clockwork]

I picked this up on the steam sale for £4.49 today not expecting too much even though it is in the same style as Blackguards which I enjoyed and which I'll be comparing it with sometimes (see Blackguards review ).

The game is in the style of an old school RPG with hex-grid-turn-based combat (HGTBC for short...probably)  but is set in the early 16th C when the Conquistadors land in the New World having established a small colony in Hispaniola. At first I was hesitant about the location and time period as I can't recall any game being set there other than the worst part of the Kingdoms expansion for Total War: Medieval 2. I'm about 20 minutes in so far so I'll update the review as I play more of it.

You spend about half the time looking top down onto an avatar which represents your merry (or not if morale is bad ) band of Spaniards roaming around a Native Island with a few Spanish settlements and ports dotted around and the other half either in dialogue which is well written and as entertaining to read as a good book/comic/magazine, or in the aforementioned HGTBC which is very tactical and (for me at least) challenging without giving you the sense that any battle is hopeless.

Character creation is fairly limited for an RPG, although I didn't spend much time there I think the choice was male or female, plus a few attribute points which drive the game. From here you hire a party of adventurers to accompany you on your mission which honestly I'm not sure what it actually is yet. These adventurers are split into 5 classes: Soldier (heavy melee and ranged combatant but very slow), Scout  (high damage melee combat and quick but low health), Hunter (high ranged damage but low health and no melee skills), Doctor (Take a wild guess ) and Scholars who have the most non combat related skills and is perhaps the most interesting.

Skills. Each follower boosts your attributes and has their own set which they use to perform a variety of tasks from guarding the camp at night to understanding the native speech and some are naturally better than others at these tasks, having a good mix might yield the best results or it may leave the party unspecialised, I'm none too sure .

These followers play a very active role in the dialogue, each one will react differently to events as they have traits visible on the hiring screen such as 'Cautious', 'Narcissistic' and 'Racist'. So far I think each of them has had something to say or an event happen around them which I've been able to influence or deal with, it's a very detailed system and works beautifully.

The art is nice and very much the same style as Blackguards but with a lighter colour pallete, the music sets the tone very well and even though there is no voice acting (as far as I've got anyway) I don't think it detracts from the experience at all.

For fans of Blackguards, Fallout series, X:Com.

Screenshots in spoiler.

Spoiler

[Silver Wolf]

I saw that game for a nice price a year ago, maybe?
But I  never picked it up.

I love the setting, but hex-grid-turn-based style was almost always a deal breaker for me.

[Clockwork]

It doesn't feature that much into it compared with any other game. Really it's a bit of a roguelike survival thing but I'll only relay what they brand themselves