Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Preview – A poignant and painterly RPG

thesixthaxis.com:

There’s no doubt about it, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the best looking games that’s expected to release next year. Built in Unreal Engine 5, it’s got the technical backing and prowess that this offers, but this would be nothing without the arresting art direction and the world that Sandfall Interactive is creating for their RPG.

There’s a deep and mournful sadness to the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a resignation to the inevitability of the fate of its people to simply disappear into nothingness one year at a time. That’s all thanks to the Paintress, who wakes up once a year, paints a number on a monolith and curses all the people of that age to turn into ashes and simply fade away. There’s echoes of Logan’s Run, but it’s steeped in an even greater tragedy as that number drops down and down and down.

What purpose the Paintress has in doing this, it’s far from clear right now, but just as she paints a number each time, an expedition is sent out each time to battle through a mysterious continent and try to stop her… or at least beat a path for those who will follow in their footsteps.

The visual style of this game is inspired by Belle Époque France, a period of 40-odd years that saw art leap from Impressionism through post-Impressionist movements, to Art Nouveau and beyond. I get the feeling that (while it precedes this specific time period by a couple years), Jules Vergne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas might have also provided some inspiration, not least because the gameplay demonstration saw our Expeditioners trying to reunite underwater and encountering… well, lots of strange stuff.

Despite very clearly being underwater, Expedition 33 don’t need to don diving suits and air tanks in order to survive, nor are they beholden to the buoyant physics of moving around at the bottom of the sea. As Gustave and Lune explore this strange environment, trying to find trace of their other companions, they will happen upon previous expeditions – in this