Few Games Show Trauma And Fear As Well As Expedition 33

Bravery is not to lack fear but to persevere in the face of it. So often, we see protagonists who face down world-ending threats, horrors beyond imagination, and death around every corner. In response, perhaps a few minutes of contemplation, a break in their stance before they overcome it. Many games depict courage, but not many truly understand it.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 shows us how quickly bravery can be tested, and how courage is a veil to hide the feelings and worries that even our heroes might not know they have. To hide behind a pane of frosted glass will obscure your view of what may await, but it can be shattered without warning in an instant.

Spoiler Warning: I’ll be discussing events from the opening hour of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, with a focus on the main character.

Don’t Let Gustave’s First Impression Be Your Last

As the game opens, we’re immediately in the shoes of Gustave in his not-Paris hometown of Lumiere. Today is the day the Paintress will paint a new number on her monolith – 33 – and Gustave’s ex-partner Sophie will fade away along with everyone else at 33 years of age. In the face of this, he’s there for her. But, in their time before she fades, she urges him against his plans to join the next expedition to the Continent in an attempt to stop the Paintress himself, a mission considered by most to be a death sentence.

Gustave remains stoic on the matter – maybe it’s bravery, maybe it’s stupidity, maybe it’s avoidance, or maybe it’s all three. Once the number is painted and those affected disappear, the expedition begins following a farewell festival. Ready for anything, Gustave sets foot on the ship and is prepared to sail off into the unknown, eager to make a change in the world.

And then, the frosted glass is shattered.

Okay, seriously, this is where the first-hours spoiler talk begins.

The Expedition Lasted About 33 Seconds

In what is one of the best video game cutscenes I have seen in a very long time, Expedition 33 barely sets foot on the beaches of the Continent before its characters are met with horrors, tragedy, and straight-up massacre. Sure, things ‘not going to plan’ was to be expected – it’s a plot-point we’ve seen many times – but this… this felt so much more harrowing.

In this incredible sequence, the camera sticks with Gustave as the expedition is attacked by Nevrons (monsters that inhabit the Continent), with everyone in complete shock and terror as they’re very quickly and abruptly wiped out – dragged into the mist with screams, beheaded in an instant, or killed off with nary a split second to even feel it.

But the stand-out of this whole scene is how quickly Gustave’s disposition takes a turn – he can’t act, he can’t think, and every second breaks him into more pieces than the last. He’s not simply the brave, stubborn man we were introduced to only moments ago; he’s wholly and utterly terrified.

It’s a scene that instills the shock so well that, even when expecting things to go south, I couldn’t comprehend it all at once.

What I love most is that this isn’t a man that’s broken for a brief moment. He doesn’t pick himself back up five minutes later, ready to face the world and avenge those he watched die. He’s traumatised, and the following events make that painfully evident, with the immediate response to such shock being to give up.

After pairing up with another survivor, the real game begins, but the horrors persist. There’s more brutality to come, a guilt that Gustave carries, and he’s made such a complex character by these lasting events. He’s not brave enough to just brush it off, but he’s brave enough to keep marching in the face of fear.