A New Expedition (33)

Finally, after all this time, a new game has come out that is taking the world by storm and making people have confidence in the industry again. That game is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Now, granted, there have been several games that have come out recently that are very good and I am not going to deny that. Things like the new Kingdom Come: Deliverance and others, but Expedition 33 did something special.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the quintessential example of "passionate development".

It has been a long time since I have been able to say that and it brings me great joy to be able to do so. However, the story of why this came to be is something absolutely phenomenal. Recently, the lead writers had an interview with BBC and discussed the story of how this game came to be. One of the things that was mentioned is that Guillaume Broche, the director for the game, was working at Ubisoft and was bored and began working on the story line of Expedition 33. He said he was inspired by Final Fantasy and that is what led to it being a "turn-based" combat style.

Given that Guillaume Broche is French, he built this around a 19th century French setting and the world is created as such. Side bar -- it's beautiful and perfectly articulates the emotions the game tries to convey.

Broche went on to recruit people through Reddit and Soundcloud to form an entire team of ~30 people and created a studio named Sandfall Interactive, and over 5 years they created the game that you see now.

The production value of the game is something we haven't seen in years and it was done by a group of passionate people who wanted to bring to life a fantastic story in an uncommon setting with enthralling characters. And here's the kicker....

They did it with a budget of $50 million. Kepler Interactive, a French publishing company, seeded them that budget to see what they could do with it and they took it and ran. For reference, games like AC: Shadows have budgets upwards of $350 million and Grand Theft Auto 5 was around $250 million. These are numbers that are not uncommon for the biggest names in the industry and yet for a fraction of that amount, Sandfall Interactive made a game that has already sold over 2 million copies. The best part? The game is only $50. In a day and age where games are at minimum $70, this is a huge feat.

The passion that went behind this project is something I haven't seen in many years, all the way down to the score of the game. They took a risk on a musician they found on Soundcloud and he orchestrated 154 songs for this game, an unthinkable amount, and crafted one of the most compelling soundtracks I have personally heard in a game in years. Insofar, that they have already achieved the following accolades:

• #1 on Billboard's Classical Album Chart

• #1 on Billboard's Classical Crossover Album Chart

• #13 on the Official Soundtrack Album Chart

• #31 on the Official Album Download Chart

• Over 18 million streams since launch

These are numbers unheard of for a small development and production team and they should be applauded for their passionate development.

This is a game that I can confidently say is well worth the money.