Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review — A Dad’s Game for After Bedtime

New to the Dad Filter? Read the TurboGeek Gaming manifesto to understand how I review games as a 46-year-old dad with two boys. Every review scores games on six criteria that actually matter to parents: price, kid appeal, parent tolerance, family play value, time respect, and replay chances.

What It Is

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG with real-time action elements, developed by Sandfall Interactive. It is the studio’s debut title, and it has arrived with the kind of critical acclaim that most established franchises would envy.

The setting is extraordinary. Imagine Belle Epoque France — all Art Nouveau architecture, grand boulevards, and faded elegance — colliding with surrealist nightmare imagery. The world is governed by the Paintress, a mysterious figure who every year paints a number. Everyone of that age and older simply ceases to exist. This year, the number is 33. Your expedition is humanity’s attempt to stop her before the count reaches zero.

It is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, priced at around £45. If you have Game Pass, it is included at launch — which makes the decision considerably easier. The game carries a PEGI 16 rating for violence and mature themes.

Combat is where Clair Obscur sets itself apart from traditional RPGs. Yes, it is turn-based, but every attack and defence involves real-time input. You need to time your dodges, parries, and combo attacks with precision. It feels like a turn-based game designed by someone who understood that dads have played enough passive menu-selecting to last a lifetime.

Why This One Matters To Me

This is a “dad after dark” game. I play it after 9pm, once both boys are in bed and the house is quiet. That might sound like a small detail, but if you are a parent, you know it changes everything about how you choose what to play.

Committing to an RPG when you have limited evening hours is a genuine decision. Most RPGs demand 60, 80, sometimes 100+ hours. That is not casual time — that is weeks of evenings. You have to believe a game is worth that investment before you start, because abandoning an RPG halfway through feels worse than never starting it.

Clair Obscur earned it. Within the first hour, I knew this was different. The art direction is unlike anything I have played. Every environment feels hand-crafted, every vista feels like a painting you want to pause and study. After a day of staring at Jira boards and deployment pipelines, loading up this game feels like stepping into someone else’s fever dream — in the best possible way.

The combat keeps me engaged in a way that traditional turn-based systems never did. The real-time dodge and parry mechanics mean I cannot zone out. Every battle demands attention, timing, and strategy. At 10pm after a long day, that is exactly what I need — something that holds my focus rather than letting my mind drift back to work.

It is refreshing to play something that is not designed for children. I love family gaming — the TABS sessions, the Teardown chaos, the Minecraft worlds we build together. But there is something valuable about having games that are purely for my own time. The boys have seen YouTube videos of Clair Obscur. They think the monsters look cool. They understand they cannot play it, and that boundary is completely fine with them. They have their games, and dad has his.

Gaming after bedtime is my time. Games like this make that time feel genuinely worthwhile rather than just filling hours before sleep.

The Dad Filter

Worth Full Price?

Buy Now. At around £45, this is a premium experience that genuinely feels premium. The production values are extraordinary for a debut studio — voice acting, animation, environmental design, and soundtrack are all outstanding. You are getting 40-50 hours of content that never feels padded or stretched.

If you have Game Pass, the decision is even easier. This is one of those titles that justifies the subscription on its own. Start it tonight.

Kid Appeal

Low. This is PEGI 16 for good reason. The themes are mature — existential dread, sacrifice, the inevitability of death. The combat, while stylish, involves violence that goes beyond cartoon slapstick. The narrative pacing is slower and more contemplative than anything that would hold a 10-year-old’s attention.

My boys have zero interest in actually playing it. They have watched clips on YouTube and think the creature designs are impressive, but they would be genuinely bored within ten minutes of actual gameplay. The menu systems alone would lose them. This is not a criticism — the game is simply not for them, and it is not trying to be.

Parent Tolerance

N/A (Solo). This criterion does not apply here. There is no co-op, no split-screen, no “dad, play this bit for me” moments. This is a solo game played during solo time. Nobody is tolerating anyone — it is my personal time after the kids are in bed, and I am choosing to spend it in a surrealist French nightmare. Which, honestly, sounds stranger than it is.

Family Play Value

Solo Only. Clair Obscur is a narrative RPG with complex character builds, equipment systems, and a branching story. It is fundamentally a single-player experience, and there is no way to meaningfully involve the family without spoiling the pacing or the story. This is not a family game and it is not pretending to be one. That is perfectly fine — not every game needs to be a family activity.

Time Respect

Fair. This is where I need to be honest. RPG sessions naturally run long. The game has reasonable save points and autosaves frequently, so you can technically stop at almost any point. But “just one more battle” has a way of becoming “just one more area” which becomes “I will just see what happens next in the story” — and suddenly it is midnight.

A dad with a 6am alarm needs discipline with this game. The content is compelling enough that you will want to push on, and the game does not always provide natural stopping points during its more dramatic sequences. I have lost more sleep to this game than I care to admit. Fair warning.

Replay Chances

Medium. There is replay value here — different character builds, choices that affect the narrative, and combat challenges you might want to approach differently on a second run. But honestly, the primary draw is the story and the world, and you experience that fully on your first playthrough.

I can see myself returning to this in a year or two, the way you revisit a favourite film. But with limited gaming time, the realistic answer is that one thorough playthrough is what most dads will get — and that is absolutely enough to justify the purchase.

The Verdict

Buy Now — or use Game Pass if you have it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a game for parents who miss having their own gaming time. It is stunning, engaging, and absolutely not for kids. It respects your intelligence even if it does not always respect your bedtime.

If you have Game Pass, start it tonight after bedtime. If not, £45 is entirely worth it for a game that makes your limited free time feel genuinely worthwhile. This is the kind of experience that reminds you why you fell in love with gaming in the first place — before responsibilities, before early mornings, before you started measuring entertainment in “can I finish this before I fall asleep on the sofa” units.

Just set an alarm. Seriously.

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This is a different kind of review from our usual family-focused content. For games the whole family can enjoy, check our TABS review or Teardown review. For all our gaming content, visit TurboGeek Gaming.