The Fifth Expedition is a new Post-Apocalyptic game on Kickstarter. The concept of the apocalypse is always something that draws me in because game developers and storytellers of every kind approach the subject in such a variety of ways. We can have the grim inevitable death ‘The Road’ provides or a rather cheerful apocalypse like Fallout Shelter. The Fifth Expedition seems to focus on the gathering aspect of the apocalypse.
Characters can interact with the environment.
Essentially, a community of people were surviving off of the output of a factory without ever really exploring it. Eventually, it breaks down and you and your crew are sent in to find out why. I’m assuming the players end goal is to somehow fix it. As far as I can see, it doesn’t actually tell you what the apocalyptic event was, but that’s commonplace in the genre. The Fifth Expedition has a rather low goal of 12k (Euro) and seems fairly simple in concept. It does mention combat, but I don’t see any mention of enemies on the Kickstarter. The real threat seems to be starvation above anything else.
In between levels the characters can recuperate. There is a level of planning and strategy to the game.
The game actually seems quite punishing. It incorporates a permanent death mechanic which autosaves to prevent you from simply reloading. Each ‘dungeon’ is procedurally generated so I imagine the game will be quite hard. Playthroughs probably won’t be that long (In fact, I think the game will be fairly small in scale). The focus is mainly on replayability, it might be a good game for lets players to try. I doubt there is much of a story to it, but the mechanics of the game sound pretty solid and it includes crafting.
Personally, I’m throwing in a few dollars simply to see how it unfurls. You can check out the Kickstarter here. If the game is successfully funded it is due out in July.
Track the progress of The Fifth Expedition Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.
