Review- Gris

Gris is a lot of things. Mechanically, it’s a 2D platformer with some puzzle elements that feels wonderful to play. Sensorily, it’s a visual and auditory wonder as you move through this watercolor world, where any one frame of the game looks good enough to be hung in a museum, and the sound design and music do much to try and create an emotional experience within you. Artistically, this game floored me. Gris is a story of grief and its five stages, and by the end of the game you can’t help but admit that you played something both beautiful and worthwhile.

The first impression you’ll have of Gris is the striking, watercolor art style. What makes the art style work is the fact that it always maintains itself during gameplay, so there will never be a point when the game doesn’t look stunning, even during some of the more complex platforming sections. The same can be said for the sound design and music, as both work in tandem with the art style to allow the player to immerse themselves. The sound of the environment is immersive and never distracting, the music is captivating, and both are needed to fully sell this experience. What’s so great about Gris’s presentation overall is that it never causes conflict with the gameplay. In some sequences of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End I was just so focused on how pretty that game looks that I would often accidentally die to an enemy, jump off a cliff, or crash my jeep. I never had that problem in Gris because the game always allows you to take in the beauty without it interrupting anything you’re doing.

It would be one thing if Gris was a pretty game to look at, but it’s also an excellent platformer at the same time. In Gris the game you play as Gris the girl, and supporting Gris in gameplay is a suite of abilities that you’ll be able to unlock to help you solve platforming challenges and puzzles. These abilities grow with you as you progress throughout the game to the point where every one feels vital and well used. An example I’ll use is the first ability you receive early in the game, where Gris’s dress turns into a big cube and allows you to do a ground pound. At first this ability serves the rudimentary purpose of breaking fragile floors, but as the game progresses this ability is recontextualized through interesting mechanics for you to solve. By the end of the game, you’re not going to look at any one ability and think it was underused. They all get their moment to shine and assist you in your journey.

I recently played a bit of The Pedestrian, the puzzle platformer, and the only bad thing I would have to say about my experience is that going from one puzzle section to the other felt overwhelming. Just as you solve this intense arrangement of moving tiles and connecting doors, you move onto the next section, and it is even more complex to the point where I had to regularly take breaks. While I would say some sections of Gris require some thinking, it never feels overwhelming. The challenges in Gris were designed to be accessible and always give the players options, and that decision certainly comes through in the level design.

There are several secrets you can discover throughout Gris that flesh out the narrative in more conventional ways, but I only ever found one of these sections. Most of my experience with this narrative came through how the game communicated its themes visually and through gameplay. Gris’s pain at the loss of her mother is something that she must work through, and we must play through, and over the course of the game the true beauty of the world is reconnected through beautiful watercolor demonstration. By the end I was a bit disappointed that I chose to play this on my laptop with simple earbuds in, because had I known the visual, auditory, and gameplay experience I was about to witness and engage with, I would have waited for my PC to be built so I could play it on my ultrawide monitor. Simply put, I was in awe of Gris’s gameplay, its visuals and audio, and the themes it engages with. I highly recommend giving it a try and I hope it impacts you like it impacted me.