Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is clearly worthy of the praise it got.

We play as Gustave, a bright and courageous citizen of Lumiere who, along with other expeditioners, set sail towards The Continent to save the world of the Gommage, a mysterious force which erases everyone over a certain age...that threshhold dwindling each year.

E33 did a great job in making the struggle, the hardship and the loss of the characters within the game tangible. Numerous times the player, the expedition, is faced with setbacks. The story isn't that cryptic to understand but very well executed. It makes the player question their stance and in the very end even demands a decision (leading to one of the two endings).

One big pleasant surprise for me was how...artsy it is. It really feels like an art project in certain ways. The developers use the cinematography of cutscenes, use of aspect ratios and filters to convey cetain information. In their latest free content update they also added a camera mode which is solely made to appreciate, celebrate and capture the beauty of E33, its world and its cutscenes. The world is literally fantastical and unreal, from bright colors and beautiful landscapes to the weirdest creatures roaming The Continent. And the music has also a special place in my heart.

Another thing that i immediately noticed was how expressive the facial animations were. with a talented motion capture team the developers gave the characters the animated visages needed to convey the tone in each and every scene.

My critque is only that the game lacks difficulty. with the exception of a few optional super bosses in the end game, the game made it way too easy to be overpowered for the final boss of the story, even on the highest difficulty setting. Some of the free roam passages, especially the ones that involve jumping/platforming, also feel quite clunky at times. some areas look open and explorable just to then be cut off by an invisible wall.

The game is quite taxing on the GPU so people with older hardware might want to look into optimization mods (i did that and it greatly enhanced my experience).

I bought it for the full price and it was worth every penny. I would recommend giving it a go, especially when its on sale.

Tomorrow Comes.