Expedition 33 is a game that I have been thoroughly enjoying over the past nine months. I’ve played it off and on, really loving my time with the game but constantly being distracted by games like Cyberpunk or Battlefield 6. A week or two ago I sat down and wasn’t in the mood for a shooter. I wanted something cinematic, something I could sit back, relax, and enjoy. That’s when I remembered this game. I’ve been playing it pretty regularly for the past couple weeks, and I wanted to share my thoughts on what I’ve experienced so far.
Combat
The combat is the “meat” of this game. You spend a decent amount of time running around the levels and watching cutscenes, but you spend the majority of your time in these turn-based battles. I’m not the biggest fan of most turn-based games simply because they require a level of understanding that can’t be achieved just through muscle memory. You have to know exactly what attacks do, what types of items you need, and what character lineup is optimal for a given encounter. In my time playing Final Fantasy VII I would find myself dying repeatedly with no real idea what I was doing wrong.
Expedition 33 fixes this with its signature “Reactive Turn-Based” system. All enemy attacks can be dodged or parried, with successful dodges and parries providing benefits and resources that are crucial for battle. This makes the turn-based combat a little more engaging since you need sharp reflexes to survive fights. The plus side is that even if your attacks, characters, and items are all terrible, you can always win battles if you have the skill. This is much easier said than done, but realistically it means that on an average playthrough there’s little need to be Googling boss strategy guides or anything like that. This system makes combat super fun and unique, making turn-based combat fun again.
Visuals
There’s no way around it; E33 is a beautiful game. Every character, every environment, and every effect is beautifully constructed and looks great within the context of the game. Sandfall interactive is a rather small company, which makes the scope and style of this game all the more impressive.
Unfortunately, the graphics do suffer from issues. Hair and other delicate graphical details suffer from being shimmery. The opening scene uses shaders that make it look like it’s covered in a layer of vasoline. If you’re used to playing games on lower settings, you’ll be used to these flaws, but it is a bit jarring to see a game with such immaculate detail and direction suffer from weird visual problems. Some of this may be an issue related to Unreal Engine 5, while some of it may be just a lack of resources from the developers. Either way, it doesn’t hurt the game too much.
(image from jose_bove on reddit)
Story
To be perfectly clear, I have not completed the game’s story at this time. However what I have experienced has been phenomenal. I plan to update this section once I’ve beat the game. Without any spoilers, there’s been some crazy plot twists at this point in the game. I really need to lock in and beat this one.
For now, here’s my current backlog, along with an estimation of how many hours it will take to beat each game. Slashes indicate the number of hours I’ve played out of the estimation. At some point I plan to make a blog post detailing what is on my backlog, and why.
- Expedition 33: 22/29 hours
- Doom (2016): 11.5 hours
- Black Mesa: 15 Hours
- Half-Life 2: 13 hours
- Elden Ring: 19/60 hours (optimistically)
- Fallout 3: ~10/22 hours
- Red Dead Redemption 2: 50 hours
- System Shock: 2/17 hours
- Callisto Protocol: 10 hours
- Sleeping Dogs: 15 hours
- Armored Core VI: 17.5 Hours
- Control: 2/11 hours
- Remnant 2: 18 hours
- Robocop: Rogue City: 12 hours