Completed Expedition 33 last night in approximately 50 hours on Story difficulty which my main three characters at Level 60.
To no one's surprise, I played and completed the game on Xbox Series X via Game Pass Ultimate.
VISUALS - 9.0/10 (excellent)
From the art style to the environments to the character models to the animations, everything in Expedition 33 looks excellent with only some minimal pop-in here and there being the lone negative.
AUDIO - 10/10 (superb)
Easily one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in any game. The music is just so freaking good. Voice acting is top tier and the sound effects are great. I did have the music cut out after going back into the world once I completed the game. Other than that though, I had zero bugs, glitches, crashes, etc. in any aspect of the game. Seriously, it's extremely polished.
GAMEPLAY/COMBAT - 9.0/10 (excellent)
The general gameplay of walking around, exploring, grappling to grapple points and whatnot all feel very fluid and responsive. The platforming is mostly your standard climb up these points to get to higher ground but there's a few areas that have these platforming puzzles/courses which is really well done but not overly difficult. They simply take patience. The combat system is turn based but what makes Expedition 33 stand out is the ability to dodge and parry. While im better at dodging than parrying, when you do parry all of an enemy's attacks on their turn, you do this counter attack which is pretty damn cool. There's also a jumping mechanic which allows you to counter attack immediately following a successful jump.
When leveling up, you get a skill point and three attribute points. The attributes are your basic strength, vitality, etc. Due to getting a lot of attribute points, I had every character set evenly at around level 36 for each attribute. I was literally even and balanced. Skills are your more stronger attacks that require AP points which you gain by performing a basic attack on an enemy as well as equipping Pictos to your character which can be something like, "gain 1 AP for every parry". You can also level up your weapon(s) as they have different elements like fire, ice, earth, etc. You can equip 6 skills and 3 Pictos to each character. When successful in four battle encounters, the Pictos that you have equipped become stronger and can then be equipped using Lumina which is a resource you find/get throughout the game. For example, say you have 10 lumina and 5 Pictos with 3 of them being equipped. If the other two Pictos are level 10 or lower, you can equip them as basically extras that don't use up the Pictos slots. You basically get the ability from these Pictos like "play first" which means your team will always first even when an enemy makes contact with you but as far as im aware, you don't gain the attributes from these so if that "play first" Picto has 500 health attached to it, that won't equip to your character.
You also have healing, revive and AP flasks basically that you can use during battle if needed and can be increased by finding the respective resources needed which you will as you progress through the game and even more so if you explore all the areas. These refill when you rest at an Expedition Flag which is also where you can upgrade your skills and attributes. These also act as a fast travel point. The combat system is really freaking good with a lot of depth to it. There's more but in all honesty, I said enough if not too much already. lol
The combat encounters themselves were usually short since I was playing on Story difficulty but the "bosses" will be tougher and take longer as a good amount of them went past the 10 minute mark for me. The enemy design is great and there are new enemy types as you progress through the game as well as different variations of earlier enemies. Amazing boss fights. Overall, an excellent combat system.
With all of that said, I do have several negatives which are mostly minor and probably a non-factor for most. Unless im completely misisng it, there's no way to setup the positioning of your three person team. I wanted it a set way and outside of when the game just had that way, I could get them lined up the way I wanted them to be. Inability to sell weapons/pictos. Weapon wise, I stuck with early weapons because I liked the element attached to them and would have liked to sell or dismantle the rest but you can't. I understand why there's dozens and dozens of Pictos but once you start getting the higher leveled ones or find ones that you really like and fit your play style, the rest just sit there. These are minor nitpicks.
While there's a World Map, there's no area maps which is a negative in my opinion simply because the areas are pretty big with multiple paths throughout and when exploring, an area map would have been a huge help. There's no way points or anything which due to what I just said, at times, you can be moving forward on the main path even though you may not have wanted to just yet. Basically, there should be a way point for the main story path as it would make it easier to avoid when exploring and trying to find/gather everything else. I do wish that there was an area checklist because there are items/audio logs/side quests and not knowing if I completed an actual area or not is very annoying and frustrating.
The biggest negative for me was during combat which is the camera at times. Sometimes the camera will be at an angle that makes it more difficult to time your dodge or parry which for someone like me who's bad at parrying in games, this doesn't help matters. Other than that, there's too many Pictos that in all honesty, im never going to equip or use and since the characters have 20+ skills each, I would have liked to have more than only 6 skill slots. Lastly, there's a Relationship Meter that if anything seems out of place. As you level up with the other team members, you open up other skills and attacks but I feel like this could have been done outside of this aspect. You will interact with your companions when you're at camp (similar to Avowed) and have short conversations with them but I just don't feel like this needed to be in the game. Overall though, still excellent and the positives far outweigh the negatives.
STORY/CHARACTERS - 10/10 (superb)
This category is going to be very short simply due to the fact that trying to go into detail or in depth can easily lead to spoilers. The overall premise and plot is really good and very unique and innovative but becomes so much more as you progress through the story. There's twists, turns, emotion, anger and more. I have only teared up in one game ever (the intro of TLOU 2013) but in Expedition 33, I had watery eyes a few times, anger twice and more throughout the game. What makes all this impactful and meaningful are the characters. All of them are excellent in my opinion, all performed extremely well by their voice actors and very well written.
OVERALL - 9.5/10 (superb)
As someone who's not really into turn based combat games seeing as how I have only completed 6 of them ever with Expedition 33 being the 7th with Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Child of Light being my highest rated at an 8.5/10, Expedition 33 surpassed them easily as it is overall one hell of a game and one of the most balanced games I have ever played meaning everything is done at a high level. From visuals to audio to gameplay to combat to story to characters to environments to animations to enemy variety to art style to everything else in between, this game is as close to perfect as I have ever played. Honestly, I can't praise this game enough. As of right now and looking at my game list for 2025, Expedition 33 is the front runner to be my game of the year and outside of Ghost of Yotei and to a lesser extent, The Outer Worlds 2, nothing and I mean nothing comes freaking close to Expedition 33.
To no one's surprise, I played and completed the game on Xbox Series X via Game Pass Ultimate.
VISUALS - 9.0/10 (excellent)
From the art style to the environments to the character models to the animations, everything in Expedition 33 looks excellent with only some minimal pop-in here and there being the lone negative.
AUDIO - 10/10 (superb)
Easily one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in any game. The music is just so freaking good. Voice acting is top tier and the sound effects are great. I did have the music cut out after going back into the world once I completed the game. Other than that though, I had zero bugs, glitches, crashes, etc. in any aspect of the game. Seriously, it's extremely polished.
GAMEPLAY/COMBAT - 9.0/10 (excellent)
The general gameplay of walking around, exploring, grappling to grapple points and whatnot all feel very fluid and responsive. The platforming is mostly your standard climb up these points to get to higher ground but there's a few areas that have these platforming puzzles/courses which is really well done but not overly difficult. They simply take patience. The combat system is turn based but what makes Expedition 33 stand out is the ability to dodge and parry. While im better at dodging than parrying, when you do parry all of an enemy's attacks on their turn, you do this counter attack which is pretty damn cool. There's also a jumping mechanic which allows you to counter attack immediately following a successful jump.
When leveling up, you get a skill point and three attribute points. The attributes are your basic strength, vitality, etc. Due to getting a lot of attribute points, I had every character set evenly at around level 36 for each attribute. I was literally even and balanced. Skills are your more stronger attacks that require AP points which you gain by performing a basic attack on an enemy as well as equipping Pictos to your character which can be something like, "gain 1 AP for every parry". You can also level up your weapon(s) as they have different elements like fire, ice, earth, etc. You can equip 6 skills and 3 Pictos to each character. When successful in four battle encounters, the Pictos that you have equipped become stronger and can then be equipped using Lumina which is a resource you find/get throughout the game. For example, say you have 10 lumina and 5 Pictos with 3 of them being equipped. If the other two Pictos are level 10 or lower, you can equip them as basically extras that don't use up the Pictos slots. You basically get the ability from these Pictos like "play first" which means your team will always first even when an enemy makes contact with you but as far as im aware, you don't gain the attributes from these so if that "play first" Picto has 500 health attached to it, that won't equip to your character.
You also have healing, revive and AP flasks basically that you can use during battle if needed and can be increased by finding the respective resources needed which you will as you progress through the game and even more so if you explore all the areas. These refill when you rest at an Expedition Flag which is also where you can upgrade your skills and attributes. These also act as a fast travel point. The combat system is really freaking good with a lot of depth to it. There's more but in all honesty, I said enough if not too much already. lol
The combat encounters themselves were usually short since I was playing on Story difficulty but the "bosses" will be tougher and take longer as a good amount of them went past the 10 minute mark for me. The enemy design is great and there are new enemy types as you progress through the game as well as different variations of earlier enemies. Amazing boss fights. Overall, an excellent combat system.
With all of that said, I do have several negatives which are mostly minor and probably a non-factor for most. Unless im completely misisng it, there's no way to setup the positioning of your three person team. I wanted it a set way and outside of when the game just had that way, I could get them lined up the way I wanted them to be. Inability to sell weapons/pictos. Weapon wise, I stuck with early weapons because I liked the element attached to them and would have liked to sell or dismantle the rest but you can't. I understand why there's dozens and dozens of Pictos but once you start getting the higher leveled ones or find ones that you really like and fit your play style, the rest just sit there. These are minor nitpicks.
While there's a World Map, there's no area maps which is a negative in my opinion simply because the areas are pretty big with multiple paths throughout and when exploring, an area map would have been a huge help. There's no way points or anything which due to what I just said, at times, you can be moving forward on the main path even though you may not have wanted to just yet. Basically, there should be a way point for the main story path as it would make it easier to avoid when exploring and trying to find/gather everything else. I do wish that there was an area checklist because there are items/audio logs/side quests and not knowing if I completed an actual area or not is very annoying and frustrating.
The biggest negative for me was during combat which is the camera at times. Sometimes the camera will be at an angle that makes it more difficult to time your dodge or parry which for someone like me who's bad at parrying in games, this doesn't help matters. Other than that, there's too many Pictos that in all honesty, im never going to equip or use and since the characters have 20+ skills each, I would have liked to have more than only 6 skill slots. Lastly, there's a Relationship Meter that if anything seems out of place. As you level up with the other team members, you open up other skills and attacks but I feel like this could have been done outside of this aspect. You will interact with your companions when you're at camp (similar to Avowed) and have short conversations with them but I just don't feel like this needed to be in the game. Overall though, still excellent and the positives far outweigh the negatives.
STORY/CHARACTERS - 10/10 (superb)
This category is going to be very short simply due to the fact that trying to go into detail or in depth can easily lead to spoilers. The overall premise and plot is really good and very unique and innovative but becomes so much more as you progress through the story. There's twists, turns, emotion, anger and more. I have only teared up in one game ever (the intro of TLOU 2013) but in Expedition 33, I had watery eyes a few times, anger twice and more throughout the game. What makes all this impactful and meaningful are the characters. All of them are excellent in my opinion, all performed extremely well by their voice actors and very well written.
OVERALL - 9.5/10 (superb)
As someone who's not really into turn based combat games seeing as how I have only completed 6 of them ever with Expedition 33 being the 7th with Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Child of Light being my highest rated at an 8.5/10, Expedition 33 surpassed them easily as it is overall one hell of a game and one of the most balanced games I have ever played meaning everything is done at a high level. From visuals to audio to gameplay to combat to story to characters to environments to animations to enemy variety to art style to everything else in between, this game is as close to perfect as I have ever played. Honestly, I can't praise this game enough. As of right now and looking at my game list for 2025, Expedition 33 is the front runner to be my game of the year and outside of Ghost of Yotei and to a lesser extent, The Outer Worlds 2, nothing and I mean nothing comes freaking close to Expedition 33.
Side note - Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive who have a bright future ahead of them and Kepler Interactive who's quickly establishing itself as one of the better AA publishers in the industry.
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