I’m not quite ready to write about Superman yet– and I’m hoping to see it again— so let’s throw this observation out real quick and then get back to the game.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has, at the moment, the most incredible flip-flop from an amazing game that was guaranteed a shortlisting for Game of The Year to what the fuck, are you kidding me that I’ve ever seen. Act 1 and 2 of this game are amazing. And then you hit Act 3 … and it’s all grinding. The story is over, basically, except for one thing left to do that you’re not powerful enough to do yet. So your job is to gain 20 fucking levels or so for each of your character and explore what’s left of the map, which really doesn’t do anything to help you know where you’ve been or where you ought to think about going, so there ends up being lots and lots of backtracking and “Oh, this area’s still marked Red for Scary, I guess I’ll check that other one over there and see if the game thinks I can handle it yet.”

I’m beating this game regardless, but man, the last act has been an enormous let-down. It’s too bad I already used “This could have been Game of the Year for me, if it had found a way to stop stepping on its own dick” as a review, because as of right now unless something changes it’s feeling appropriate again.