Fortune favours the knave
Gather round the fire, rogue likers and roguelike likers.
Folks, it looks kinda good.
You’re a little dude on a quest to destroy an ancient staff.
Then trekking across a world map as an increasingly exhausted meeple.
Journeying comes with small obstacles or encounters.
You might get wet traveling through a storm, then be unable to withstand the cold of night.
You might get lost and find your meeple flung sideways into another location altogether.
In this case, extra luck in the game’s lucky dip style “fortune tests”.
A Fortune test is essentially a clever probability minigame spruced up with flavour text.
Let’s say you come across a stone inscription but you’re free to’t read it.
A dialogue box appears with a pool of floating discs inside.
but the process soon becomes second nature.
Where the “feel” of the game falters, for me, is in the combat.
And this is more a taste thing than a specific failure of Unexplored 2.
It’s very far from the stabby tumbling I normally like.
Put aside any thoughts of nimble swordplay.
They’re not here.
This is a fierce Rogue apostle given 3D form.
In many cases, fighting is a terrible idea anyway.
Or even just in the pockets of a merchant in the next town.
Which brings me to the thing I admire most about Unexplored 2.
Or rather, the complete lack of it.
Like the look of that spear?
Okay, trader, fine.
Take my boots, why not?
It’s not as if I’ll need shoes when I’ve got a big pike, haha.
(You will need your shoes.
Under no circumstances should you sell your shoes).
I like this ad-hoc means of haggling.
It’s not new to video games (begrudging wave toPathologic) but it fits the roguelike format well.
Is that worth an axe?
It’s not the only novel twist going either.
Roguelikes love it when you die.
All this plays out in an inter-life sequence, as dinky little meeple movements on the grand map.
And then you’re thrust back into things, building a new character to explore the same world.
That tough final region called the First Valley.
Eat dirt anywhere but Mordor, basically.
I think by now you’re starting to see why Unexplored 2 feels a bit special.
It might come as no surprise to those who followedAdam’s recommendation for the first Unexplored.
But this time, those put off by the simplistic art will have to find a new excuse.
I ended up swapping between the different zoom options quite often.
That might be the intended solution but I have crap hands.
My poor, strained pinky.
It’s not my only complaint.
I’ve been unable to leave an area because there were invisible hostiles nearby.
I’m willing to forgive this stuff.
A game with so much systemic depth is bound to have quirks.
Regardless, a great depth and intelligence of design is there.
I’ve not had time to mention half of the swish stuff.
The unlockable character classes, the trap-filled caves, the magical infusion of weapons, the clan diplomacy…
It is a chonker of a game, an RPG where the ‘R’ stands for Rogue.
At the very least you’re getting another sweet anecdote generator.
I’ve had to run away from upset farmers because I helped myself to their turnips without asking.
Who’s worthless now, scumbags?
But vitally, Unexplored 2 makes the player feel adventurous and special.
Even when you’ve got no money, no XP, and no shoes.
