Zero Punctuation: The Curious Expedition & Mother Russia Bleeds

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

The Curious Expedition & Mother Russia Bleeds

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews The Curious Expedition & Mother Russia Bleeds.

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[carewolf]

At least it was renowned explorers, which had the non-combat mechanics, like seducing the enemy (by shooting hearts at them and giving them love damage), scaring them (by shooting ghosts at them and giving them fear damage), enraging them (by shooting taunts at them and giving them rage damage), and finally shooting them, giving them physical damage.

I found that lack of imagination in an exploration game, damn curious.

 

[Mangod]

So, Curious Expedition or Renowned Explorers: International Society; which was more enjoyable?

 

[Darth_Payn]

Am I supposed to be more familiar with Mother Russia Bleeds' developers to know what kind of game it was going to be? I forgot their name already, I think it starts with a 'D'.

 

[4Aces]

Hooked me at Lovecraft as an explorer. Gutted me with Lovecraft meeting the Queen.

 

[Andre Nilsson]

did H. P. Lovecraft really believe that or was that just a joke and he was "Just" really racist?

 

[RedRockRun]

did H. P. Lovecraft really believe that or was that just a joke and he was "Just" really racist?

Lovecraft's racism was:

A. Telling of the times.
B. Influenced by his own mental illness.

I wish people would consider, before hating on H.P. Lovecraft, how terrible it would have been to be H.P. Lovecraft. He was one of many great authors who had an enormity of bad things happen in his life and who coped in unhealthy and/or self-destructive ways. Poe and Fitzgerald drank themselves to death. Hemingway and Robert E. Howard killed themselves. Lovecraft directed his anger and insecurities outward. He seemed scared of many things, chiefly the changing world and unknown cultures; this is reflected throughout his body of work. Make of that what you will.

 

[Chimichanga]

did H. P. Lovecraft really believe that or was that just a joke and he was "Just" really racist?

Yes and no. No, Lovecraft did not believe what Yahtzee said ad verbatim; that was a joke. However, yes he did believe that they were inferior subspecies of the human race and he was extremely racist, even by the era's standards.
That being said, I think it was when he was in his thirties that he finally left Providence to go live in New York for a few years (which he hated), married a jew (which he loved), all of which chilled him out enough to make him just normally racist when he returned to Providence before dying in his early 40's.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Glad to see there was no repeating of the tired "MRB was too difficult, enemies take too many hits to down!" I kept seeing on Steam reviews. Apparently Croshow was smart enough to use charged shots and grapple attacks.

But he's wrong; play as Natasha in single player and the dialogue changes slightly. The prison governor says he should have mutilated your nethers instead of chopping your balls off, for example.

 

[Rangaman]

I guess holding out for Hyper Light Drifter is like waiting for it to rain in the Sahara at this point.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I think we need to find a more offensive name for the Xbone. I mean, everyone just calls it the Xbone now.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Mad props for hobo with a shotgun reference

 

[Ignawesome]

I'm just going to point out that there actually are games with truly infinite non-shallow replayability, unlike Yahtzee said. One of them is Rimworld... (and also Dwarf Fortress). But Rimworld is actually playable.

 

[Ishigami]

Uhm... Recore released... just saying.

 

[Dalisclock]

I played TCE when it came out and found it okay. I love the idea, the art style works for me, but the expeditions do get a bit samey and I guess I'm bad at the game because I started running into major issues with starving to death and eating my party a couple expeditions in.

Maybe I'll give it another try and see if my feelings on it have improved.

 

[artstsym]

Yahtzee, if by the slimmest of chances you are reading this, could you please replace all future Thomas Ruff moments with H.P. Lovecraft instead?

 

[R Man]

did H. P. Lovecraft really believe that or was that just a joke and he was "Just" really racist?

Lovecraft was definitely a racist. However, the other details of his life are incorrect. Lovecraft was not actually a shut in. He actually spent a lot of time travelling in America, including living in New York, and travelling as far south as Key West. He wanted to go to Havana at one point but ran out of money.

He also had a lot of friends, though most of them were pen-pals. In fact, after Voltaire, Lovecraft is the most prolific letter-writer in history. He spent a lot of time visiting them, and he helped start the careers of people like Robert Bloch and Robert Barlow. So he was a complex person.