Clair Obscura: Expedition 33 had me in tears

REVIEW: A meaningful, fully realised game about grief. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Clair Obscura is very clearly a French game.

Grief is a dicey topic to tackle in a video game. Unlike many other mediums, you have the space, visuals and performances to tease out ideas and explore to a rich and meaningful conclusion.

Yet, many role-playing games (RPG) that explore this concept often start strong but falter at the final hurdle. There's a lingering tendency in games writing to end on a positive note even amid grim subject matter, forcing a silver lining when there just isn't one. After all, it's a game. You are there to have fun, not to feel.

Clair Obscura: Expedition 33 dares to be a bit different here, and embrace its subject matter. The ending that I chose -- there are two of them -- had me in tears. Not because it was especially sad, but because it was real. As one of many who's experienced personal grief, it's a concept that I'm incredibly critical of in video game storytelling. So many games get it wrong.

Thanks to strong writing and a willingness to explore the con…