Finally finished Expedition 33. By the end I was not enjoying it nearly as much as I was at first, I was playing it mostly because I wanted to get to the end of the story and move on to ARC Raiders and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Overall I did enjoy it, although I cannot see why E33 cleared all the GOTY awards. I mean, it’s a fine game, very well made, and you can see how it was kind of a labor of love for the developers. It looks gorgeous, the voice acting is absolutely top notch and it has a very unique and interesting setting. And the soundtrack… goddamn what a thing of beauty that is.
The combat loop is fun, although it does get repetitive at times. I didn’t like the balance very much, though. It feels like most of the time I was either overleveled and facerolling everything, or hopelessly outmatched, pretty much never anything in the middle. I got to Act 3, unlocked the damage cap, and thought “hell yeah, time to rough up some Chromatics” and promptly got my ass handed to me like I was back to level 1.
Some of the parry windows are absolutely bullshit, but you can learn how to do it fairly consistently by the end of Act 2, I suppose. I only say “I suppose” because I brought the difficulty down to Story mode and found the windows in that mode much more enjoyable.
I do think that this game is pure torture for completionists, though. I got fairly competent at the gameplay loop by the end, but unless you’re a min-maxing freak, you will not be able to defeat Simon, the secret Malenia-ish boss that’s supposed to be the hardest fight in the game.
As for the story, I thought it was a bit of a mixed bag. As I said, the setting is tremendously creative and unique and I found myself pretty invested in the characters by the time I got to the end. I did not see the main twist coming, also. And that’s why I thought it was kind of disappointing when…
spoiler
The final choice is to either let the main character be tortured indefinitely in a fake world or kill god only knows how many people in order to finally give a French aristocratic family closure over the death of their son. It was a sort of not only moral, but also emotional dilemma that I felt was very unsatisfying. I wish there was an option in which Verso finally gets to rest in peace, Maelle faces her grief in the real world alongside her family, and everyone in Lumiere gets to live.
I suppose that’s too much to ask, and would break the “tough choice” at the end, but I dislike it when my two options in the dilemma are equally unsatisfying. I do understand that it’s a story about grief, and I suppose that asking for a more satisfying conclusion is exactly against the point that the story is trying to make, but I do think it could have been handled differently.
Anyways, very good game, but I don’t think it’s GOTY material in my view.
I did agree that Baldurs Gate 3 lived up to the hype back when it released and was deserving of goty and from the outside it seemed a similar situation with Expedition 33.
I havent played Expedition 33 and im not in a hurry to do so. The general reception seemed very positive though. Im curious what would be deserving of GOTY in your opinion ?
Like the only real contenders I could think of that seemed to have somewhat similar reach would be Silksong or Kingdom Come deliverance 2 (which to be fair got both nominated) but I cant comment on either since I havent played them.
This is not me saying E33 has to be GOTY Im just curious what or which titles you have played 2025 that you would consider on that level .
Honestly, I’m not sure. I actually had to go and take a look at a “best games of 2025” list to see what I would pick from and I haven’t played most of the games on the list. If I’d played it, probably Hades 2 would be a solid contender, judging by how phenomenal the first one was, but out of all the games I played this year the only one that came out in 2025 and I would qualify as Best Game material is likely ARC Raiders. It’s a ton of fun, the gameplay is very solid, it also looks amazing, but the sound design of that game is insane, unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a game.
It’s a tepid endorsement for GOTY, for sure, but… I don’t think there was much else on my radar the whole year.
Finally finished Expedition 33. By the end I was not enjoying it nearly as much as I was at first, I was playing it mostly because I wanted to get to the end of the story and move on to ARC Raiders and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Overall I did enjoy it, although I cannot see why E33 cleared all the GOTY awards. I mean, it’s a fine game, very well made, and you can see how it was kind of a labor of love for the developers. It looks gorgeous, the voice acting is absolutely top notch and it has a very unique and interesting setting. And the soundtrack… goddamn what a thing of beauty that is.
The combat loop is fun, although it does get repetitive at times. I didn’t like the balance very much, though. It feels like most of the time I was either overleveled and facerolling everything, or hopelessly outmatched, pretty much never anything in the middle. I got to Act 3, unlocked the damage cap, and thought “hell yeah, time to rough up some Chromatics” and promptly got my ass handed to me like I was back to level 1.
Some of the parry windows are absolutely bullshit, but you can learn how to do it fairly consistently by the end of Act 2, I suppose. I only say “I suppose” because I brought the difficulty down to Story mode and found the windows in that mode much more enjoyable.
I do think that this game is pure torture for completionists, though. I got fairly competent at the gameplay loop by the end, but unless you’re a min-maxing freak, you will not be able to defeat Simon, the secret Malenia-ish boss that’s supposed to be the hardest fight in the game.
As for the story, I thought it was a bit of a mixed bag. As I said, the setting is tremendously creative and unique and I found myself pretty invested in the characters by the time I got to the end. I did not see the main twist coming, also. And that’s why I thought it was kind of disappointing when…
spoiler
The final choice is to either let the main character be tortured indefinitely in a fake world or kill god only knows how many people in order to finally give a French aristocratic family closure over the death of their son. It was a sort of not only moral, but also emotional dilemma that I felt was very unsatisfying. I wish there was an option in which Verso finally gets to rest in peace, Maelle faces her grief in the real world alongside her family, and everyone in Lumiere gets to live.
I suppose that’s too much to ask, and would break the “tough choice” at the end, but I dislike it when my two options in the dilemma are equally unsatisfying. I do understand that it’s a story about grief, and I suppose that asking for a more satisfying conclusion is exactly against the point that the story is trying to make, but I do think it could have been handled differently.
Anyways, very good game, but I don’t think it’s GOTY material in my view.
I did agree that Baldurs Gate 3 lived up to the hype back when it released and was deserving of goty and from the outside it seemed a similar situation with Expedition 33.
I havent played Expedition 33 and im not in a hurry to do so. The general reception seemed very positive though. Im curious what would be deserving of GOTY in your opinion ?
Like the only real contenders I could think of that seemed to have somewhat similar reach would be Silksong or Kingdom Come deliverance 2 (which to be fair got both nominated) but I cant comment on either since I havent played them.
This is not me saying E33 has to be GOTY Im just curious what or which titles you have played 2025 that you would consider on that level .
Honestly, I’m not sure. I actually had to go and take a look at a “best games of 2025” list to see what I would pick from and I haven’t played most of the games on the list. If I’d played it, probably Hades 2 would be a solid contender, judging by how phenomenal the first one was, but out of all the games I played this year the only one that came out in 2025 and I would qualify as Best Game material is likely ARC Raiders. It’s a ton of fun, the gameplay is very solid, it also looks amazing, but the sound design of that game is insane, unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a game.
It’s a tepid endorsement for GOTY, for sure, but… I don’t think there was much else on my radar the whole year.