For The King Lost Civilisation Adventure Pack Review: Explore Until You Die

For The King has been sitting in my digital library on the Epic Games Store, but only just got around to playing it; this time through Steam with the new For The King Lost Civilisation Adventure Pack.

Of course, it’s available for Epic Games Stores and also Windows 10, but Dave down the pub could only get a Steam key off the back of his mates’ lorry. Don’t call the fuzz yet; it was graciously supplied by the publishers, Curve Digital, free of charge. Kisses.

Like a classic film that everyone raves about, that I end up watching a decade or so later, now that I’ve experienced it, I regret not having played it sooner. That’s how For The King has been for me, and expect a separate review in due course.

For The King Lost Civilisation Adventure Pack Review

But this is DLC, and given that the game is currently on sale, it’s worth picking up both of these. That was a spoiler – this is great. Forgive me in advance if I cover anything already in the base game; it’s all new to me, but let’s focus on what’s new, in case it’s missed.

In this new content from IronOak Games, our explorers get to explore the mysterious Jungle Falls. Once completing the first couple of missions on the first islands, Jungle Falls was my first destination, so assumed that these fire golems and elite monkey-like attackers were the norm.

With a line up of a Hunter (me), Blacksmith and Scholar, it was time to lay down some arse. Hold on, that’s not right. Kick it. There are two additional characters to choose from: the Gladiator and the Astronomer in the For The King Lost Civilisation Adventure Pack.

The latter was an early addition to the roster, pending you’ve paid their dues in the Lore Store. This flashed up as new, but don’t think it’s exclusive to the DLC. In summary, you purchase new characters, items, customisations and so on using lore currency, collected through your endeavours.

Ebony And Ivory

These new additions couldn’t be any more different from one another; the Gladiator is a powerhouse offensive character (I heard them swear once). The Astronomer is an expert on chaos and will protect you from it.

That chaos gaming mechanic threw me off quite a bit. After so many turns, a debuff will occur until you undo it – usually, a location that needs to be raided and eradicating the chaos in question. Unfortunately, it stacks, so it makes for a very challenging, yet enjoyable game.

In some ways, it reminds me of Curious Expedition 2 with the rogue-like nature and challenge, but also that ‘one more go’. What separates the two is the gorgeous character designs, and as a slave to customisation features, you can unlock loads. 

With For The King Lost Civilisation Adventure Pack, you’ll have access to new gear to customise your character(s). And, of course, you can play local co-op or online, differentiating yourself with a monkey suit, as available from the Lore Store.

Welcome To The Jungle

There are three difficulties to choose from: Apprentice, Journeyman and Master, and as with the other adventures, you can change the house rules. Being a double hard bastard, I stuck to the default settings as trying to make things easier did nowt, so when the challenge is more demanding, the rewards are better. Right?

But before you can reach Jungle Falls, you have to fight some angry chickens and secure a boat. It’s shorter by water. Regardless, your first goal is to head to Chapula to be then sent on your way to an ancient temple – a dungeon-crawling section if you will. The first challenge is finding it.

With pea soup on par with Pudding Island, navigating is a pig to see where this temple is hidden; you have to cover a lot of space, often occupied by Water Spiders and Jungle Kobolds. These aren’t that hard to tackle, but the Elite Shaman types lurking in the jungle are super fast, often casting Haste, and slaughtering your team. Stock up on the God herbs.

Though equipped with an axe, my Astronomer had a habit of bringing up a black hole, sending an enemy off to their fate. It was a pretty cool technique and saved my team a few times when the Hunter was fighting off a match with just their fists as their weapon broke.

Jungle, Rules

As exciting as this new realm in the For The King Lost Civilisation Adventure Pack is, it’s the jungle, and like its real-life counterpart, it’s deadly. Each sequential run offers to be more prosperous than the last, but when you’re at the start of an arena with a glass bow, and it breaks, chaos is the last thing to tell your worry dollies.

Perhaps this is inherent of the game as a whole as it’s pretty brutal, but the masochist in you (stay away from the rubber), will keep returning for those marginal gains. With the additional characters (that Black Hole skill from the Astronomer really is swell), plus dual wielding to make your Hunter full-on rogue, For The King Lost Civilisation Adventure Pack is a must if you’re a fan of the base game.

A bit weird to write a review solely for DLC. While there’s plenty on offer here, it seems out of context to have a score when I haven’t reviewed the base game yet. However, as stated above, this is a must if you own the game, but as a newcomer, I’d recommend fellow noobs to go out and purchase both if you’re a fan of turn-based exploration oozing with variety.