Lets start this probably super long BOOK by telling a little bit about me. I dont ever get excited for new games, nor do I even look for new games. I either hear about them when they have been out for a few years, or by some off chance of heard of a certain game before it came out, never by trailer. Everyone remembers Scorn right? I saw some really early videos of the game a few years before it came out when someone overlayed a TOOL song, works wonders I tell you what! But I was interested in the game, so when it was getting ready to come out I was like: 'OH ITS THAT GAME THAT LOOKS LIKE THE INSIDE OF A XENOMORPH!' And then watched the trailer on the Xbox store and was just OK with that until the game came out. Expedition 33 was a special moment in gaming for me though. As I had no reason to be sitting there watching the Xbox Showcase of 2024. But I was watching it and I was thinking it was CRAAAAAP, just loads of games I didn't care about. For a second there I was thinking that, that one Flintlock game was going to be the game I was going to be 'hyped' about, I told myself if I was going to watch it that I was going to see if at least one game was worth it or not. Then out of nowhere the trailer of Expedition 33 started to play! And oh my Lord! What a trailer! If I was going to I'd go through everything that got me interested in the game when I watched it, I'll just say that the biggest thing for me was the emotion in it. Just so much strong emotion conveyed in such a short amount of time. Just seeing all the different characters in different states of mind and distress while the epic music played in the background was great. The scene of Maelle on her knees covered in blood holding an expedition ribbon and screaming at The Paintress is something that will live rent-free in my head forever. But another big one was seeing the game being in turn based combat, if it wasn't for the raw emotion it would have been for that alone to get me excited for this game. It looked like a mix of Final Fantasy 8, and the later Persona games and there just isn't enough turned based RPG's anymore, but that's for a different day I suppose! Back on the subject of Scorn, I was hyped for the game, and it didn't flop, but I wont say I wasn't thinking this wasn't going to be a DOOM clone with the visual representation of a TOOL album. But instead it was a walking Sims, puzzle game that had my nerves on 10 for the whole game, while telling a pretty great story in a cerebral way. But the way I felt while first watching the trailer will never be the same watching it now as I now what the game is, and it kinda didn't live up to what I was hoping for. So when it came to Expedition 33 I was kinda going about it even more close to my chest like. As I didn't really get hyped for Scorn but I started to let my mind wonder about how awesome it could POSSIBLY be. Don't get me started on Cyberpunk 2077, I've been waiting for that game to come out for like 15 years now, and everyone is telling me this strange FPS RPG with a LMNOP in it is Cyberpunk 2077 but trust me its NOT! I don't know where I'm going with this really, but trailers can sometimes be better then the actual game/movie or whatever, like some people can really make your mind wonder about something, just for the actual thing to be nothing the same. Kinda like how The Walking Dead's later seasons trailers used to literally lie to us about what was going to happen that season, just so peoples minds couldn't wonder. Don't get me started on the things that TV shows do where they get you hyped to watch after commercials by like being: 'OH MY GOD ROBERT' and you hear something crashing or something, and now you think Mary is a widow, but once the Pantene commercial is done you find out someone just dropped some tuna on the ground and that's why she said it! SOOOO round about the trailer for Expedition 33 was great and made my neurons fire in the right way to get me super hyped about the game. And then I watched a little bit about the game to get me more hyped, and I just couldn't expect this game to even remotely live up to my excitement for it. Like this felt like a game that was literally crafted for me to play, something about it just felt like a great new amazing game that was going to be a life changing experience, a game that I haven't played in a long while I tell you! I've watched more life changing movies lately then played anything that made me think, go watch Requiem for a Dream, you'll either thank me or hate me later, either way you'll look at life differently. While Expedition 33 isn't making you feel dirty or anything, it sure makes you feel loads of gloom and Doom and will make you wonder at points if your actions even matter, or if your actions was worth all the pain and turmoil. I mean just the way that Act 2 ends is just a whirlwind of emotions. And the twist at the end of Act 1 was just great. So I can safely say that the trailers really did a great job of doing their jobs. So yeah j took the chance to get excited for a game, something I just never do, and I was super impressed with the end product and I'm glad I 'followed' the creation of such a wonderful game. Even if by the time I heard of it, it was already like 5 years old! And in the world of Expedition 33 that's a pretty long time as well! The fact that a group of around 30 employees could make such a breath taking look, sounding, playing, and feeling game is a wonder of a feat. And I could just go on forever about the music of the game as well, It's just so good, I literally couldn't tell you what to listen to as it's all just so amazing. But stuff like lumiere or Gustave's theme or monoco's boss theme, all just so amazing, While a lot of games lately have taught me some new songs from an actual band, whether it be a song made for a game, or just a song from there catalog. This game made me go look for the soundtrack for the songs made by the producers of the game, its been years for me since I've had a game like that. And while we are here, I'll die on the hill that the song SIlent HIll from Korn is not a bad song, not saying Downpour is a good game though, you can die on that hill if you want though! You also know the music is good when you can just sit on the overworld map and just listen to the background music and have it move you more then most games soundtracks! The first few keys from the title screen will forever be engraved into my musical heart and I'm fine with that. Really the more I listen to the music and think about the game, I come to realize that without this moving music I probably wouldn't be so in love with this game, think of all the twists that wouldn't hit as hard. Or how epic some bosses feel with the music playing in the background, play that on silent and see how not as cool as it is now! Ironically enough I think that sirene probably has the best boss theme in the game its so calming and soothing, the amazing high notes that are hit in it is just great, if some strange giant creature was singing like a siren to me I don't think I'd ever want to leave either! Or how about how just straight up AMAZING voice acting for Maelle its just so great, its borderline perfect! I felt so invested and connected to her character that I wanted to see her story to the end. And slight spoiler alert shes pretty important of a character, if Maelle doesn't go down as literally one of the best characters of the ninth generation of gaming, if not of the last few gens! And by the end of the game I was left wondering, if I did the right thing for them, if their journey had ended the way that it should of, it left me questioning literally everything ever and was asking some deep moral questions, some of which I don't think any games have made me ask or made me answer. Kinda spoilers, but I feel like the endings you get to choice make you go so hard against certain characters wants and beliefs, and not like in a bad writing thing, or it was rushed or they didn't understand that character and what they believed in or anything, But more along the lines of they understand them and you understand them, probably even reason with them, but you still go against them, just to do what YOU feel is right. Its hard to describe but you with either ending you take that ending specific persons hands and saying: 'no it must be like this' and for sure the ending I took, felt like a super deep dive into a persons psyche during a very intense therapy session, that's actually a great allegory for the game really! And if you have had a bad therapy day, then just go home and do a few dodges and parries and you'll be in a great mood by the end of the first battle! For mark my words, the blueprint of this game will be in all turn-based games in the future I just know it! This game will be the 'dark souls' of turn-based combat, and really that's a pretty accurate way to describe how dodges and parries kinda feel sometimes, or how hard it can be at certain times as well! Even if you think turn-based is slow and boring or whatever, just give it a try as its super fast and is more then just pressing X every half a minute, or every 5 minutes if you casted Knights of The Round! I really think that literally everyone in the world should sit down and at least play this game one time! If you play more then the next COD or Fortnite then you owe it to yourself and Sandfall Interactive to give Expedition 33 a try. It will forever be known as one of the greatest, for me and for a lot of other people in the world! It was made for those who come after!