In the current landscape of the games industry, where publishers are increasingly looking to do more of the same, only investing in the safe bets of big ongoing franchises to offset high development costs, it’s going to take a cunning mix of innovative gameplay with new and interesting ideas in storytelling to keep the single-player market growing and not just surviving.
Enter Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developer, Sandfall Interactive—a French studio led by ex-Ubisoft developers dedicated to crafting exactly those single-player stories since their founding in 2020.
While we had already seen what sort of presentation, narrative, and combat we’d be getting from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the big question since its first reveal in June 2024 was ‘How will this feel to play?’. Thankfully, after diving into the preview build, I can confirm there’s plenty to look forward to in Expedition 33’s official release next month.
Let’s kick things off with a bang. From what I’ve played so far, the big highlight was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s story hook and setting. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given a film adaptation has already been greenlit. In a dark fantasy take on Belle Époque France, Expedition 33 is based in a world where a mysterious god-like being — the Paintress — is slowly wiping out humanity with a few strokes of a brush.
Each year, this artist from hell paints a new number of a certain age counting down from the one that came before. When she does this, anyone of that age turns into a puff of smoke and dies instantly.
Before they perish, an expedition is made of those already marked for death to go on a suicide mission to try and defeat the Paintress so she can never do so again. After many years of failure, the game joins us with Expedition 33’s band of — you guessed it, 33-year-olds with 12 months left to live.
Having us skip the prologue to where they’ve already crossed the sea, the Expedition 33 preview kicks off after disaster has already struck. With most of the wider crew either dead or missing, you start with lone squad member Gustave (voiced by Daredevil’s Charlie Cox). He’s ventured onto the Paintress’ monolith in the hopes of reassembling whatever squad members he came along with, and fulfilling the mission against impossible odds or die trying.
One of Sandfall’s goals with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was to create a high-fidelity, evolved turn-based RPG—a surprising niche in the market. In that department, Expedition 33 succeeds, with immersive, natural landscapes filled with vivid color palettes, euphoric sound design, and well-made cinematics.
To hone in on the audio for a second, it’s the type of soundtrack where even while you’re taking a break, you’ll want to leave the game running, turn the volume up, and bask in the audible glow of the opera-esque vocals and overtures while making a coffee.
Expedition 33 isn’t the first game to sound as good as it looks, but it’s when the turn-based combat gets going that you realize how much potential there is here. If you’ve played a turn-based RPG before, especially JRPGs, the basic mechanics will feel very familiar.
Each squad member and enemy get turns, basic attacks, AP points for using skills, mechanics to replenish AP points and health, and disposable items to restore them. However, its integration of real-time combat is a pleasant change from the standard turn-based fare.
When launching attacks, for example, you’re thrown quick-time button prompts that can increase damage depending on your success. On the enemy side, because you can’t guard against attacks, reducing or eliminating damage comes down to well-timed parries, dodges, or jumps—some giving you an opening for a pleasing counter. Not only are each enemy type’s attacks different, but there are also varied attack speeds to get used to.
Mastering the windows to press the dodge or parry button at the right time could get annoying, especially when facing some of the tougher optional bosses in this particular build. Be that as it may, the thrill of overcoming those struggles generates a compelling sense of trial and error in the name of self-improvement.
This is by no means the first game to adapt mechanics like this, but it feels like one of the first titles in a long while that goes into this much detail on a cinematic scale.
When mastering these mechanics within a canvas supported by what seems like such high production values, success feels all the more triumphant. That’s more the case when backed by the soundtrack’s overture that sparks a feeling of heroic rebellion.
While these beginning turn-based plus real-time hybrid combat mechanics make for fun combat, Sandfall has tried to go the extra mile and add RPG twists wherever it can. For instance, along with each squadmate’s unique abilities, and a variety of build possibilities in tweaking stats, skill trees, and gear, there are the added layers of complexity like the Luminas system
Along with standard weapons gear, you can find stat-altering items called ‘Pictos’, of which each character can have up to three equipped. Along with providing buffs, the equipped item is also granted special abilities.
Those special abilities don’t have to be exclusive to that initial user, however. By spending Luminas, a currency that each character has, they can acquire the abilities of other squadmates’ Pictos for themselves. Mechanics like this offer much more variety in gameplay and build styles, making for a fuller RPG experience.
If you’re more of an action-adventure player who doesn’t like spending loads of time in menus to continuously tweak loadouts, this level of depth might not be for you. On the other hand, if you love complex RPG systems—seeing the large timesinks requires continuously paying off—you’ll fall in love with Sandfall’s debut title the more you get into it.
Heading toward the end of Expedition 33’s roughly three-hour preview build, there was a sharp difficulty curve around the final boss fight. Not only did it have absurdly impossible windows for dodging and parrying, but a monstrous enemy-buffing-ability that would leave almost no room for error.
To beat it on the normal ‘Expedition’ difficulty, I ended up spending at least an hour grinding just to get extra points to unlock the right skills. Even then I only just survived by the skin of my teeth. That said, it’s a testament to Expedition 33’s narrative that it keeps you hooked even during these more frustrating moments.
During my hours with the preview build, it was the expedition’s gripping goals of wanting to learn more about this beautiful yet tragic world, finding more survivors, learning of companions’ tales, and most importantly, wanting to discover why the Paintress is committing annual genocide that made me want to keep powering through.
While there are occasional gripes with combat difficulty, it feels minor when compared to the game’s signature premise that acts as the driving force pushing you ahead.
Throughout the three hours spent with the preview build, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 only got better with time altogether. With every new squad member and gameplay mechanic it introduced, another compelling layer to the cinematic battles and overall experience was added.
When combined with the already fantastic mix of snappy combat, ear-pleasing soundtrack, beautiful visuals, and fascinating dark story, this whole first course of Sandfall Interactive’s debut game is making for a unique experience everyone should be keeping an eye on.
If the rest of Expedition 33 is this good, we might have a Game of the Year contender on our hands. We only hope they release the preview build as a fully public demo so you can try it for yourselves.
