Expeditions: Conquistador
Conquer the New world: In the 16th Century, Spanish explorers and soldiers reached the shores of America. The search for gold, fame, and adventure drove these travelers into a treacherous wilderness where they faced hunger, disease, and dangerous predators. In their wake, the Aztec Empires lay in ruins.
Re-write the history of the Conquistadors: Forge diplomatic alliances with the natives… or crush the savages and bring civilization to the pagan tribes! Create an expedition of individual characters: Choose your followers wisely from over 30 characters, but be careful – they each have their own traits, opinions and moral standards.
Hunt for unimaginable riches and fight intense battles in the unforgiving jungle. In this turn based strategy RPG, a cunning plan is as vital as thoughtful resource management. Expeditions: Conquistador offers a rich storyline separated into two campaigns, challenging players throughout 25+ hours of gameplay. Strategy veterans as well as newbies will find their turn-based El Dorado!Features
- Discover the New World! Travel to legendary locations in America, roam the jungle on the hunt for mystical temples as well as ancient ruins.
- Create your own party of followers! Choose from more than 30 characters, train your recruits and lead them to battle. Coach them as they will develop from untrained recruits to fierce battlefield veterans.
- Four highly customisable difficulty levels will challenge pros and newbies alike. But be warned: The Iron Man mode is a real beast!
- Choice & Consequence: Use your skills to avoid hostility or, when diplomacy breaks down, adapt your tactics to highly varied terrains across more than 70 battlefields.
- Challenge your friends to tactical PvP combat in either Hot Seat mode or via TCP/ICP.
Steam User 10
I thought I was in for a restart on iron man mode when I lost the battle at the end of tutorial island. It was not the ending I had anticipated. I knew starting my first play through on iron man would mean making mistakes and learning from them. To my surprise, the game went on. There was no "YOU DIED", "GAME OVER", or "THEY WERE NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN".
I just had to continue with my losses. The story is a take on history. It is dark, not necessarily accurate, but realistic. I strongly recommend this to people who enjoy history, turn based tactics, or gritty indie games. It is challenging and humbling.
Steam User 4
My first contact with this series was through Expeditions: Vikings. I didn't know that there were other games, but I loved that game so much that when I discovered there were more games, I was very happy.
This game has its issues. Sometimes, there's a "right" way to win a battle that kind of forces you to play in a specific way. Towards the end of the game, the camping mechanic becomes a little tedious. However, I suppose that's why there is an automatic option. You can clearly see the ideas they had in this game that evolved into Vikings. I am anxious to try Rome soon.
Overall, this game has a nice campaign experience and a good story with interesting characters. It would be better if they had individual quests to gain confidence, as the "selected" characters are shallow and don't really immerse you in the story. The companions that you can get throughout the game are better, but still a bit shallow for my liking. I would have loved it if they had more involvement in the history and the decisions to make.
The combat is okay; I like the turn-based style, but my understanding is that the focus was not on combat, though it can be challenging sometimes.
I strongly recommend giving it a try if you like this type of game. It's not the best in its genre, but I'm glad I played it, and it made me appreciate the sequel even more.
Steam User 5
Great game and a complete steal on sale. It's a CRPG and a great one at that. This game does not have half the love it deserves. If you like Mount and Blade style games with an open sandbox and a great story with amazing characters you will love this game. You choices actually matter and when you think about doing something chances are there are options for it. Want to be a mass murderer? You can do that. Want to save the Aztec empire? You can do that.
That being said what holds the game down is definitely it's age. I didn't have any bugs while playing but some people seem to have that issue. If you are stuck on certain portions of the game it's highly unlikely you'll find a complete walk through guide due to how little attention this game gets. However overall I give it a 8/10. It has hours on hours worth of gametime as well as great replay ability. Right now it's on sale for 3.99$ which is beyond worth the price.
TLDR; 8/10 great if you like Sandbox games with stories, your decisions impact the story in a rewarding way. Do yourself a favor and give it a try.
Steam User 5
This game is an oldie, but goldie, a very solid tactical RPG.
The game took me about 30 hours to finish with probably 99% of side content as well.
Despite that, I'd consider it a shorter RPG that doesn't take too long to finish.
Steam User 4
I have always been curious about the life of pre-Columbian civilizations, cultures and ordinary people. What they achieved. What they believed in and how they treated each other. How they waged wars among themselves and what the Conquista looked like. I supplemented my knowledge by watching probably all possible documentaries on YouTube. After seeing Michael Wood's phenomenal four-episode series about conquistadors, I decided to look for a game on this topic. I wanted to feel some of that atmosphere. To my surprise, there is almost no choice here. Apart from this already quite outdated game, I didn't find anything worth mentioning. I approached it quite skeptically, however, the game is beautiful and splendid. Has a perfectly constructed and very addictive plot. We take on the role of a conquistador and lead our army to victory, wealth and glory. We experience lots of adventures and unexpected twists. We discover the richness of the pre-Columbian world, which in this game has many colors and shadows. We make lots of choices, including the ultimate fate of the Aztec empire. Although the game has some flaws, they can be easily forgiven because of its uniqueness. It is an unforgettable adventure.
Steam User 4
First campaign completed. 20 hours. Terrific game, great value for money. Not overly fast paced so I can see why some players can get "impatient" when they expected this to be on par with X-COM. Bring on the second campaign - another 20 hours at least.
Steam User 2
Normally I'm not really into tactical RPGs, but I've heard good things about the Expeditions series and I've always felt the Spanish conquest of the Americas is a criminally underutilized setting in games so naturally this game caught my interest.
While it drew me in pretty quickly, this game isn't for everyone. It has a pretty steep learning curve and really makes you feel like you're just barely surviving, at least initially. This game pretty much front loads most of its difficulty and the whole Hispaniola section of the game is quite difficult despite being the tutorial area. I felt like the game got considerably easier after arriving in Mexico. Whether that is a result of me just learning how to play the game better or my party members being leveled up more in addition to the resources I had amassed at that point is up for debate.
If you can get past that initial learning curve there is a lot of fun to be had here though. The game utilizes its setting well and is well written. The combat, while not great, is serviceable and if you're playing correctly you should be able to avoid a lot of combat scenarios or at the very least go into them in such a way that you are at an advantage. The exception to this are some rather brutal random events that will occasionally pop up as you camp at night that can lead to combat encounters that are more difficult than anything you face in the story missions and no-win dialogue options that will lead to the death of one of your expedition members. It's for that reason I recommend saving often so if you get one of these bullshit events you can load a save prior to that random event.
As for some recommendations should you play this game during character creation I advise you put most of your points into diplomacy, survival, and scouting. I also advise that your starting party consist of 2 doctors, 2 hunters, 1 scholar, 2 scouts, and the rest of the slots filled out by soldiers. You'll have opportunities to recruit additional members of various classes throughout the game, but try not to ever let yourself go below those numbers for the key classes I mentioned.
All in all I'd give it a go if what I've said sounds interesting at all.