The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion shadow dropped two days before Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the expectation was that the rerelease of one of the most beloved RPG series of all time would completely overshadow the release of an experimental turn-based RPG. And it didn’t, in fact, the developers at Sandfall Interactive have actually stated that the release of the Bethesda helped with their exposure, raising people’s awareness of quality RPGs. We all know this; we were there. In actuality, there was a bigger, more pronounced dichotomy playing out between the two titles, one that was very quickly glossed over because the narrative isn’t conveniently simplistic for people who have decided on a narrative concerning the state of gaming. They were both built using Unreal Engine 5.
Now, for the most part, Oblivion has been pretty well received. It’s a very pretty port that, at its absolute worst, didn’t fix existing glitches in a two-decade-old game. I would say that’s a pretty big victory for the studios involved. One quick glance through the steam and you’re bound to find somebody that wants to like it, to somebody that downright hates it, and in both cases, you are absolutely, positively sure to find one culprit drawing their animosity, Unreal Engine 5. If they like it, it’s a great port that chose the worst engine. Better yet, they are confused why the Creation Engine, which Fallout 4 and Starfield used, was not the engine of choice despite similar issues being present in that. At worst, they declare it a horrible choice, again, because Unreal Engine 5 is ruining the industry.
Now granted, for every forum concerning the issue, like this post here, you are apt to find a lot of people arguing against it. It’s not like this is as forgone an issue as some others I could name. That also doesn’t make it isolated. Whether you are on X, YouTube, Steam, or hell, even LinkedIn, you’re bound to stumble upon this discourse. Hell, when I worked at Gamestop, I once had a person go on a twenty-minute rant about how Dragon’s Dogma 2 was one of the worst releases ever due to its framerate issues on console, which was a result of using Unreal Engine 5. When I explained to him, it used Capcom’s RE Engine, there wasn’t the turnaround you might think there would be. The point in all this is that, instead of having any number of legitimate conversations concerning the engine, as has become a scapegoat for any perceived failings in the industry.
There was a period when Unreal Engine was used on nearly every project, something that I would argue is more pronounced, largely with Unreal Engine 4, jockeying with Unity for the most used and accessible. The issue with this becomes that the issues the developers struggle with become more obvious. With Unreal 4, the standout issue was glossy textures, like character models such as the ones found in Shenmue III. In a great game, these become more excusable, but in a bad game, your eye is drawn to it as documentation of the game’s shortcomings. What people forget, however, is that these tools, with their easy accessibility for teams of every size, helped to pave the way for passion projects like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to exist. Games that don’t fit the mold, games bursting with uniqueness.
In the case of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, like the case with most games, success or failure rarely comes down to the engine you use. Here you have a talented team of developers who took advantage of the engine to create a fantastic game, but they didn’t just magically stumble onto the formula; it’s not really hidden anyway. Epic has continued to have success with Fortnite. Last year’s Black Myth: Wukong, Silent Hill 2, and Tekken 8 are all among the list of games to utilize Unreal Engine 5 last year and predominantly do it well. This year, we also have Split Fiction among the highest reviewed games that also used it. My favorite game this year, Lushfoil Photography Sim, which I gave a 9 in my review for, was developed by one person. None of these experiences is infallible, I can find fault with every one of them, and yes, that includes Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but a quality experience by definition transcends its faults. Unreal Engine 5 doesn’t prevent great games from being made.
At the end of the day, it’s hard to ask the question, how did the around 30 internal developers (give or take a team of 8-10 Korean animators) make a game like Clair Obscure: Expedition 33? Even when you succeed, you can’t avoid being used as part of a never-ending gaming discourse. There are legitimate lessons to be learned from this, but they aren’t learned this way; they are learned from actually listening to what the developers have to say, not nitpicking what statements shame developers you don’t like. Unreal Engine 5 is a tool, and we have seen developers wield it both well and poorly. Studios like Square Enix have also been noted for bucking common issues with Unreal Engine 4 with titles like Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, despite not being considered specialists in development with it, like the current Gears of War developer, The Coalition.
Engines are tools, and they matter far less than people give them credit for, and each and every one has its issues. What these successes have in common is passion. That’s what drives the gaming industry forward. Not where you develop, but why you develop. And this conversation continues to ignore the way games can make us feel when a character we love dies, or when a cut scene makes us scream out loud, or the feeling when you land the perfect combo after 100 tries. Those are brought to us by the human element, and we should continue to reward that.
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