Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a beautiful piece of gaming art, my personal Game of the Year 2025 (and it’s only June!), and a fascinating French homage to the jRPG genre. However, its high difficulty level can quickly discourage beginner players, causing them to get stuck on the first serious enemies instead of enjoying the story – making their emotional rollercoaster come not just from the gripping plot, but from frustration as well.
An unhealthily addictive gameplay allows you to overcome the rather high entry barrier, followed by sudden boredom after another marathon session, during which the narrator literally begs you to turn off the console and take a break. It’s a great game that’s really tough for noobs and casuals, but for completely different reasons.
Howdy partner. So among your planned careers, between a firefighter and a soccer player, you always listed a cowboy? “Favorite western: yes.”? “Who is your hero and why John Wayne”? Well then Red Dead Redemption 2 is for you. In any other case: hold your horses! If you’re not into challenges and this is going to be your first rodeo, then you might want to skip this one.
An older relative left you a property in the countryside, and you need to take care of it… Stardew Valley? No… Ha, ha, ha… No. No, no, no no… noooo. NOOOO AAAAhghgghhh!!!…
…Darkest Dungeon is a dungeon crawler and crawling you will… and, despite the very high level of difficulty, it will shackle you with dopamine and an addictive game loop.