The good folks over at Digital Foundry have been deep diving into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 following its incredibly successful Xbox Game Pass launch last week, and they've had some interesting things to say about the Xbox Series S version of this phenomenal game in particular.
Digital Foundry's focus in this analysis is how the game looks and performs, and it's mentioned that it's "often very beautiful" and a "very good-looking Unreal Engine 5 title - one of the most graphically pleasing current-gen RPGs".
On Xbox Series X, the outlet says that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 looks very similar to the PS5 and PS5 Pro versions, while the frame rates are "very good" in the 30FPS Quality mode, and mostly in the 60FPS Performance mode.
However, the Xbox Series S version of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is described as "the only real sore point", not just because it's locked to 30FPS, but because the "actual image quality on display is substantially worse than the Series X performance mode on a 4K display". There's still praise for the smooth performance though.
"The Series S release is the only real sore point, with substantially degraded reflections and GI and no 60fps mode. On some level, it's par for the course for Series S releases, but the downgrades here are a little steeper than with most UE5 games."
" Interestingly, the internal resolution is reasonable at ~900p, but actual image quality on display is substantially worse than the Series X performance mode on a 4K display, likely due to lowered upscale target. Performance is locked to 30fps outside of some cutscene wobbles, which is praise-worthy, but I can imagine beating the game on Series S would be substantially more challenging than the other console platforms due to the lack of a 60fps mode."
You can go ahead and check out the full analysis over on Digital Foundry if you're interested, and we're keen to hear from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 players on Xbox Series S about how you're getting on with the game so far.
Have you noticed any annoyances with the 30FPS lock? How is the image quality for you? If you've been able to compare with Xbox Series X, what are your thoughts? Let us know down in the comments section below.