Renowned Explorers: International Society is an interesting game that largely went under the radar last year, in part due to releasing around the same time as Mad Max and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. However, that hasn't stopped it from being a favorite of many here at TechRaptor. While our review has been slow coming (but it is) we have been reporting on the game as information came out, which has been a decent amount as developer Abbey Games has supported it quite well with free content updates.
Today is one of the biggest days the game has, with the previously announced expansion being released. More to Explore is Renowned Explorers first paid expansion and it is pretty large. It features 2 new expeditions, a whole new campfire system that is all about your party members interacting, a modification to the treasure system, and a lot more in it. With that wealth of content, it chimes in at a very reasonable $7.49 with 10% off for the first week taking it to $6.74 and a weeklong deal of 50% off for Renowned Explorers: International Society itself.
In addition to the expansion, Abbey Games has released a patch today for the game. The base Renowned Explorers experience has been improved already with the upgraded UI for the expansion, as well as the new character-specific perks even before this patch came out. The new patch adds in another way to tune performance, a new loading screen, a long requested random crew button at selection and fixes a bunch of other little things.
Last, but far from least, Abbey Games is holding a special launch competition for the first 48 hours. Normally they run these weekly with both a story and a gameplay challenge which requires you to play somewhat differently or choose different characters, but this time, they are tying it into the expansion launch. They are challenging players to get as high a score as they can to get the most medal points, as the more medal points earned by the community as a whole will result in more content being patched in. There are three different tiers of rewards for the community:
- Tier 1 (50 MP): You're not the only traveler on expeditions...
- Tier 2 (100 MP): A dark force terrorizes the Andes...
- Tier 3 (150 MP): Muscat & San Francisco
More information will be available when a tier has been reached but the full information will only be known once the content patch is released.
You can read more information about it on their forums if you want to participate.
Quick Take
Renowned Explorers became one of my favorite games of last year with it being an absolute joy to play for me. It's not the easiest game to explain as it combines a lot of different systems to make a really nice exploring game with rogue-lite elements with nodular design and a focus on story in many ways. This is an expansion I've been highly waiting for and given I have nearly 300 hours in the base game since it released, I imagine I'll be spending a lot more time with More to Explore.
Also, with it being 50% off and also on GOG if the game looks even slightly interesting to you I strongly, strongly recommend checking it out!
