Clair Obscur: Expedition 33has an astounding opening. It tells an emotional story about love that didn’t work out –about two people who might have had a future together if they were in another life. After breaking up years prior, Gustave and Sophie reconnect on the day that Sophie is fated to die. It’s a painful sequence that hits close to home on so many different levels, one made all the more impactful by the game’s phenomenal musical score andbreathtaking art direction.
Unfortunately for Clair Obscur, this is where the game peaks.
What Makes Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Introduction So Strong?
There’s something so powerful about how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 opens that makes the rest of its storytelling fall a little flat. That’s not to say that the game has a bad story; it’s largely well-written and well-acted. But, Clair Obscur opens witha moment so monumental that leaves such a lasting impressionthat it’s impossible to top.
I’ve largely enjoyed my time with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but nothing has engaged me quite as much as its stellar introduction, which works so well because of its simplicity. Despite the fantastical setting, Gustave and Sophie’s doomed love is entirely relatable because, whether romantically or not, everyone has had a relationship that didn’t work out for one reason or another. The details surrounding Sophie’s death might not be relatable on account of the magical context it’s bathed in, but the emotional core of the scene is universal.
There are plenty of other universal emotions portrayed throughout Clair Obscur’s story, but none hit quite so poignantly as the ones presented here.
On one hand, this is a good thing, right? Video games need to get their hooks into a player quickly or risk being abandoned in favor of something else, and Clair Obscur certainly leads with its best foot forward. What makes Clair Obscur stick out so solidly is how it opens incredibly well and then continues being pretty good.While the story takes some big swings that don’t always land, there’s enough working in the game’s favor between the introduction, the combat, and the characters for me to recommend it.
How You Start Is Important, But Are You Finishing Strong?
That said,it reminds me of Bioshock Infinite in thatit also has a great opening but once everything hits the fan and you give a guard a claw to the face, the action starts, and the rest of the story gets going, the game never hits the same heights. Similar to Clair Obscur, by the time all the action happens,the game has already peaked.
More than a decade later,Bioshock Infinite isn’t remembered as fondly, and one big reason for that is its story. Now that the dust has settled on the excitement of playing a new Bioshock game that has an incredible opening, people are able to think about the game’s twists and turns, removed from its hype.
If I had to guess, a similar thing will happen with Clair Obscur. Once we obtain some critical distance from the excitement of the game’s underdog story in an industry that eats small studios for breakfast and people have time to finish the game and see where everything goes,I think we might get some more nuanced, measured takes.
Currently, it feels like the conversation surrounding it is“This is the best game I’ve ever played and I’ve only been playing for about an hour,”which is very telling to me about how effective Clair Obscur’s introduction is. Every time I hear someone singing the praises of the game that feels more on the hyperbolic side,I wonder if the person has gotten tothatpart yet. If they have, have they finished the game?
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is great, but, likeBioshock Infinite, some of the swings it takes as the story gets going don’t quite stick the landing. That doesn’t mean there aren’t great things to appreciate, and that certainly doesn’t take away from how strong Clair Obscur’s introduction is, but it does mean that I’m left wishing the game ended as strongly as it began.
