19th century exploration rogue-like The Curious Expedition gets free multiplayer

Developer Maschinen-Mensch enormously enjoyable rogue-like exploration adventure, The Curious Expedition, might be getting on a bit (it released back in 2016), but it's just received a free multiplayer mode, previously available in browser-based beta, in its latest update.

The gist of The Curious Expedition, if you're unfamiliar, is that it's the 19th century and players, cast as daring adventurers, must embark on a race across inhospitable climes to find (ie. steal) exotic treasures in order to secure fame, fortune, and a footnote in the history books.

What that equates to in practice is a compelling blend of board-game-like exploration across a procedurally generated hex-based map, and a text-based choose-your-own-adventure-style yarn. The ultimate goal each game is to score highest against the AI across a set number of expeditions, and to do that you'll need to purchase supplies and prepare a party - whose useful individual perks are usually offset by negative traits such as paranoia, misogyny, or racism, eventually making them something of a liability as things start to go wrong.

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