Expedition 33’s big twist was designed to ‘inflict the pain on the player’
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is my favorite game of the year so far, with an exhilarating battle system, excellent exploration, and a haunting soundtrack. But I'm not the only one who loves it: the game has become a huge hit, with more than 2 million copies sold just 12 days after its late April release. "It feels very surreal," says Guillaume Broche, Sandfall Interactive's CEO and creative director.
According to Broche, the game is performing "far beyond expectations" and that the team was not expecting it to "blow up" as fast as it did. "We are still in denial, basically" he says. Lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen adds, "I'm going to wake up tomorrow and this is all a joke, right?"
A major part of Expedition 33's success is its gripping story. It kept me coming back to the game every moment I could just to see what happened next. The opening hits you with a gutpunch. Playing as Gustave, voiced by Daredevil's Charlie Cox, you learn about the tragic circumstances of the world, its characters, and the annual "Gommage" that makes everyone of a certain age disappear in a flurry of petals when a giant being called the Paintress paints a new, lower number on a giant monolith.
Gustave …