Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an formidable title heading to PS5 later this yr from new studio Sandfall Interactive. Nevertheless, enjoying by way of a 3 hour demo this week, we might have by no means guessed that is the French developer’s first challenge. Expedition 33 is a elegant and AAA feeling expertise that takes its inspirations from JRPGs, however then makes it its personal with gripping performances, flashy, addictive fight, and among the most inventive world designs we have now ever seen.
The story is what’s actually going to seize you from the get. In a Belle Époque impressed France, the ominous Paintress paints a decrease quantity every year, and everybody that age fades away to mud. The titular Expedition 33 is made up of these of their final yr of life earlier than they’re painted out of existence. It’s not the primary expedition to attempt to take The Paintress down, however hopefully it is the final.
Tragedy strikes nearly instantly, although, because the crew journey to The Paintress’ dwelling, The Continent, a twisted panorama made up of sunken buildings, floating rocks, and the littered stays of earlier expeditions. What might strike you past its visuals (which we’ll get to), is how darkish and severe the story arrange is.
This can be a world drenched in tragedy and dying, and really rapidly the severity of the scenario is established. Even with out all of the context of the characters or world, we have been struck by some story moments early on in our demo. There are moments of levity, but it surely’s the willingness of the sport to steep itself within the darkness of its plot that basically stood out to us. It is a testomony to the writing and world constructing that with out the establishing chapter of the story, we have been nonetheless locked in and desperate to push the narrative ahead.
Loads of that immersion comes from the visuals, and it can’t be understated how spectacular they’re. Operating on Unreal Engine 5, character fashions are sharp and the backdrops are extremely detailed. Nevertheless, it’s not simply from a decision perspective that Expedition 33 impresses. The artwork route is not like something we’ve ever seen.
Of the handful of areas we explored every had its personal staple inside this fantasy world. One noticed an ethereal tree take up a lot of the skyline, while The Paintress’ canvas with the ominous “33” glows from afar. One other was an underwater space with air bubbles floating round us, big sea creatures ambling above, chained up mines scattered throughout horizon, and the sunshine refraction by way of the water, giving the entire thing a magical hue.
Then there’s the extent in between, which takes a form of miniature tilt-shift model. It’s right here that you just’ll journey from one major space to the subsequent. Expedition 33 is made up of a number of open ranges, with quick deviations from the principle path permitting room for some exploration.
Whereas from our expertise you are by no means discovering something main past a little bit of loot or some audio logs, each actually feed into the expertise in a succinct method. Audio logs give us some perception into earlier Expeditions, which we lapped up contemplating the mysterious nature of its setting. Then loot can assist construct your character, linking into one of many strongest elements of our time with the demo: fight.
The fight in Expedition 33 is turn-based primarily, however Sandfall has included real-time actions to boost every battle. Gamers can dodge, parry, and even soar — however the window for achievement is extremely slim. There are additionally fast time occasions as you deal extra highly effective blows, once more asking you to actually concentrate throughout fight. This specific author isn’t overly eager on turn-based fight, so these tweaks made the system way more participating.
It’s simple to develop into a bit overwhelmed with all of the harm sorts, defensive stances, and talents when the sport is throwing tutorial after tutorial at you. After a number of hours, nevertheless, we began to settle into it fairly properly. Every talent assault required a choose quantity of factors, which could possibly be earned with primary blows or profitable parries. Like many video games with turn-based methods, lining every character as much as enhance the opposite in a devastatingly damaging run for the enemy is extremely satisfying.
And like the rest in Expedition 33, fight is gloriously fashionable. Menu designs are spectacular, and the slick animations give every assault an actual heft. We now have to shout out the music, too. It’s sensible all through the entire demo, however is especially rousing throughout battle.
The buildcrafting from our quick time with the sport has some nice potential too. With every new degree you might be awarded three factors to degree up elements like well being and energy stats. Then you definately additionally earn talent factors to unlock particular assaults, so you’ll be able to concentrate on sure harm sorts and even therapeutic talents. Then you will have your weapons that you just uncover in your travels, and passive buffs referred to as Pictos to amplify these abilities even additional.
By the tip of our demo, we already had loads of choices, and all of that is relevant to each character in your get together, too. We think about we’ll spend loads of time tweaking builds and enjoying round with talents upon the complete launch, particularly for the reason that fight itself is quick-paced and nice enjoyable.
Come the tip of our demo, we have been left desperate to play extra, but nearly a bit dissatisfied that we’d had the start of the sport spoiled by being dropped into the continued story. That, to us, is an indication of nice writing, as a result of firstly, we simply wished to know extra about these characters and the thriller of The Paintress.
On high of that, Expedition 33 is nice previous enjoyable, with snappy and addictive fight, a dense construct system, and among the finest wanting environments of the yr — if not the technology. We’re eager to see how the entire thing runs on PS5, and we have now an inkling it’s going to learn from the additional juice of the PS5 Professional.
What we have now to go with probably the most, nevertheless, is the balancing act that Sandfall is pulling off to make Expedition 33 a JRPG hybrid. It has all of the hallmarks of the style with events, talents, turn-based fight, and save-the-world storylines. However it’s doing all that with a way more nuanced and nearly mature strategy to its storytelling and characters. Match that up with the real-time fight parts, and its high of the road visuals, and you’ve got a recreation that we expect can have a way more western mainstream attraction than your typical JRPG.
No matter whether or not you’re a giant JRPG fan or not, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a recreation you have to be looking for. Its impeccable artwork design and high-concept premise make it extremely simple to be drawn into its world. Nice character drama and a rising depth to character builds and fight will make investments you even additional. We might have solely scratched the floor with our demo time, but when Sandfall Interactive is ready to stick with it over the course of the complete recreation, we could possibly be onto one thing really particular right here.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is about to launch on PS5 April twenty sixth. Are the sport’s sparkly visuals and tweaks to turn-based fight sufficient to attract you in? Tell us down within the feedback under.
