We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip was announced and released on the same day last week, and it’s free to claim untꦅil October 13 on Steam. If you haven’t heard of We Were Here, this is an excellent, bite-sized introduction to the co-op puzzle series. If you have heard of it, you’re likely a🎃lready downloading The FriendShip because you know how unbelievably good this series is.
The first game in the new Expeditions sub-series, The FriendShip is a brisk 90-minute experience that experiments with the We Were Here formula and adds some interesting new layers to the game. As always, you and a friend play the role of explorers lost in a puzzle-filled labyrinth armed with nothing but a pair of walkie-t🥂alkies for communicating. The Friendship takes place in an abandoned amusement park where your cooperation, communication, and trust skills will be put to the test. The better you perform, the more impressive your Fr﷽iendShip - the boat that takes you on a tour of the amusement park - will become.
Unlike the first four We Were Here games, puzzle performance is not pass/fail in The FriendShip. Each of its three puzzles has three tiers of completion - bronze, silver, and gold - and you don’t have to fully complete each puzzle in order to finish the game. If you can grasp the basics of what the puzzle wants you to do, you can easily obtain a bronze rank and move on to the next one - though with only minor upgrades to your FriendShip. The more of each puzzle you complete, the cooler your ship will become, but there’s nothing wrong with just skating by if you don’t feel like🦄 giving it your all.
I’m ambivalent about this change from the norm. On the one hand, it’s nice that you don’t have to get stuck on a puzzle if you’re not vibing with it, or if your particular skill set doesn’t align with what the puzzle wants you to do. The FriendShip’s three tests are very different kinds of puzzles, and it's possible that you might not enjoy the challenge every one presents.
The first is a communication test that requires you to quickly and clearly describe symbols and body language to your pa꧋rtner, the second one is a logic and math puzzle where both players have to build a pattern of matching colors using a set of tiles - but neither can see what the other is building - and the third is a test of trust. One player must guide the other through a treacherous obstacle course, but neither person is seeing the course in quite the 🌳same way. If you get frustrated or bored with a puzzle, The FriendShip allows you to move on having only done the bare minimum, no harm no foul.
It’s a fine concession, but as someone who won’t settle for less, I found partial completions even more frustrating than not finishing at all. Two of the puzzles are broken up into three sections to make the tiered completion system easier to digest, which takes something away from the coherency of each puzzle. I don’t want toও be the ‘get good’ guy, but you’re doing yourself a bit of a disservice by only marginally completing these puzzles. The game is only a couple hours long andꦆ you’re already here, so why not go all the way?
I feel especially strongly about finishing the third puzzle. The blind obstacle 💦course has many fantastic moments and hilarious s🅰urprises throughout, including the best trolling I’ve ever received from a video game. It’s such a good misdirect that the scorecard you receive at the end of the game will make fun of you if you fall for it. It’s almost a shame that the game lets you bow out of this one early instead of seeing it through to the end.
The scorecard is another new♑ addition to the series. Upon completion, you’ll get a snapshot of you and your teammate in your renovated FriendShip, as well as a detailed score, based on how much of each puzzle you completed, and a written analysis that critiques your completion based on the medals you earned and how long it took you to finish each puzzle. It includes a QR code so you can download a copy of your scorecard and share it too. It’s a great little bit of personalization that I look forward to seeing again in future Expeditions.
The FriendShip doesn't have We Were Here’s most memorable puzzles, but it’s a perfect introduction to the series that will give you a nice taste of what the other games have to offer. The flexibility of the puzzles will allow you to finish the game even if you aren’t a puzzle expert - though I can’t recommend skipping anything. If it clicks with you, there’s another dozen hours of great We Were Here games waiting for you.