Baldur's Gate 3 performance director praises Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for being a "beautiful" RPG "that 100% knows what it is"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 screenshot of Verso, a man with black hair with white streaks running through his fringe
(Image credit: Kepler Interactive)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been garnering praise from industry veterans far and wide ever since its launch, and now it can add the approval of Baldur's Gate 3 performance director Greg Lidstone to its résumé.

Speaking in a recent stream on Larian Studios' official Twitter page (around the 54-minute and 20-second mark in the video below), Lidstone, who now serves as director of animation at the studio, is asked if there are any recent games he's played that he thought had particularly good animation or motion capture. He doesn't have to think long at all before replying, "Expedition 33."

He continues: "I just started playing it. I had a weekend where my wife and daughter had gone out of town to go see Billie Eilish, and so I had the place kind of to myself, and so I borrowed it from somebody so I could just play the beginning and I kind of tore through it and was like, 'this is really great.' So now it's on my list of like, 'OK, I need to find time to actually do a playthrough.'"

Although he hadn't finished the game when he spoke on the stream, that didn't stop him from piling on the praise. "It's a game that 100% knows what it is, and just leans into that," he adds. "It's beautiful."

He's not the only developer to describe Clair Obscur as beautiful – Dragon Age veteran David Gaider previously said the same thing, noting that "it's kind of to JRPGs what Baldur's Gate 3 was to CRPGs."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is "a strong signal" that players don't just want live-service games, BioWare veteran says, but GTA 6's success will be a real indicator of the industry.

Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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