You Can Play the Highest-Rated Game of 2025 for $19.99

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is currently the highest-rated new game release of 2025, and it’s available to play through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been turning heads since it was first revealed, and it has actually lived up to the hype. The RPG by Sandfall Interactive has earned widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its incredible soundtrack, exciting twists on turn-based gameplay, and emotionally-charged story.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is set in a world where a mysterious Paintress paints a new number in the sky every year. Whenever she does this, everyone that age dies. The survivors have been sending expeditions to research and hopefully find a way to stop the Paintress, with the game following the exploits of the titular Expedition 33. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s story is brilliantly paced and boosted by excellent voice performances across the board, solidifying it as quite easily one of the best and refreshingly original new games in recent memory.

Related

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Gets First Post-Launch Update

Developer Sandfall Interactive releases the full patch notes for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s first post-launch update, fixing various bugs and more.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 retails at a budget price of $49.99, which is wild when considering its quality and the healthy amount of worthwhile content it provides. There is no doubt that Clair Obscur is worth the $50 asking price, and quite frankly, you could spend more on it and not have buyer’s remorse. After all, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 currently has a 92 overall critic rating, making it the highest-rated new game release of 2025 to date. Even so, there may be those out there that don’t typically play turn-based RPGs or who may be gaming on a budget that aren’t quite sold on the game despite Clair Obscur‘s glowing review scores. Luckily, it’s entirely possible to play Clair Obscur in its entirety for $19.99 if one has an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the Highest-Rated Game of 2025 So Far and It’s On Game Pass Ultimate

Clair Obscur was a day one Xbox Game Pass game, available to those on PC and Xbox Series X that are signed up for the Ultimate tier. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate retails for $19.99 for one month, and while there is plenty to do and see in the game, it wouldn’t be a big ask at all to finish Clair Obscur in that time. Clair Obscur takes about 25-30 hours to beat on average, while those going for 100% will likely double that time.

Xbox Game Pass having the highest-rated game of 2025 readily available to play for its Ultimate tier members is huge for the service, to say the least. And the thing is, Clair Obscur isn’t the only major new game that has been added to Game Pass this month. Blue Prince also earned widespread critical acclaim, and it was also a day one Game Pass game for April 2025. The same goes for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, which was shadow dropped on Game Pass just recently. Clearly, 2025 has been an excellent year for Game Pass, and it will be interesting to see what the months ahead have in store.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Released

April 24, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Developer(s)

Sandfall Interactive

Publisher(s)

Kepler Interactive

Engine

Unreal Engine 5