Key Highlights:
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was the ultimate winner for Game of The Year at this year’s Game Awards, overshadowing a lot of titles.
- Hades 2 on the other hand, barely managed to win any, and offers superior combat loop.
- That being said, both games are fantastic in their own right.
2025’s Game Awards ended with a massive sweep from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, with the title claiming 9 awards from a total of 13 nominations across the board. This also happened to include the ultimate Game of the Year award.
These wins were mostly well deserved, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is for the most part a fantastic indie title that holds up well, but has a few fatal flaws over which I can’t personally recommend it for Game of The Year.
While Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a great game, my personal pick for 2025’s Game of The Year would be Supergiant Games’ Hades II, even if only by a very small margin with regards to its combat.
Hades II Should Have Won Game of The Year
While Hades II was technically in early access before, the game finally reached its commercial, full release on September 22, 2025 after which it gained a resurgence in popularity, along with rave reviews from critics and fans alike.
There was a lot to like here, from its fluid, beautifully animated combat and amazing OST, (which won it the best action game in TGA), but what stands out here is how much more cohesive Hades II felt in comparison to Clair Obscur.
In particular, I found myself being drawn to Hades 2’s slick combat loop a lot more over Expedition 33. Clair Obscur brings with it’s parry mechanic, and it often feels like it is way too overpowered, overshadowing the excellent turn based combat.
Also Read: The Most Hyped Moments, All Announcements From The Game Awards 2025: A Recap
You can use parries to completely overpower the game’s bosses, and in my opinion there should have been a more balanced approach.
In comparison, Hades 2 has a much more well balanced combat system, even if it essentially is a more action focused offering.
However, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn’t a perfect game, and it has far more flaws. The crack in this flawless mirror appears to be in its third act, where things get a bit dicey. I wouldn’t say it is bad by any definition of the term, but the third Act of Expedition 33 did leave me wanting more and better.
Also Read: All Game Awards Winners and Categories (2025)
Both Are Still Rather Excellent Games In Their Own Right
With all that in mind, both Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hades 2 remain massively successful games, and deserve every it of praise and recognition they’ve garnered over the past few months, and deserve to be played at least once.
It was always going to be a close call, and Hades 2 would have gone toe to toe in the Game of The Year awards with Clair Obscur regardless, and the winner was always going to be Expedition 33.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is still a fantastic game, and there are some aspects of it that shine brighter than Hades 2, which made it appealing for more players and the jury.
That being said, it should be maintained here that you should never take award ceremonies as the final way to rate a game.
TGA is but one of the many game awards in existence, and there will realistically never be a universally loved Game of the Year title. At the end, all this boils down to personal opinion, and civil discourse.
