Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's opening hours are flush with death. Act One's protagonist, Gustave, is introduced spending one last day with the love of his life before she disintegrates along with every other 34-year-old in Lumiere, all victims of the Gommage. There's a note of hope – the briefest of things – when Gustave and Expedition 33 set out on their quest to prevent another Gommage, but even that's snatched away when, minutes later, they're slaughtered en masse by an old man with a walking stick.
The vibes, by this point, are dire. It's a feat that Sandfall Interactive finds ways to pull us up from misery – but it does. The Continent, though overrun with murderous Nevrons, offers glimmers of beauty and kindness. It's not lost on Expedition 33's survivors, who find time to crack jokes and even enjoy their travels. Hours into Act One, I foolishly thought that Clair Obscur's trauma was front-loaded, and we were settling into a more conventionally whimsical adventure. I was, er, very wrong.
