This review isn’t going to talk about the plot of Gris whatsoever because knowing the story without experiencing the gameplay would be doing yourself a disservice as the two are so closely tied and connected.
If there is something I generally try my absolute best to avoid, it’s playing games that are either overhyped or spoken about. You can only be bitten so many times (looking at you, No Mans Sky, Anthem, Cyberpunk 2077) before you start to be weary the moment too much fuss is made. That’s why I am only playing Gris now, in 2022 for the first time.
From the first time I saw a trailer for Gris, I wanted it, but then the aforementioned hype train came tearing through, and the words “masterpiece” and “breathtaking” were thrown around so much I started to have my doubts. However, a few weeks ago, I wasn’t feeling great and was struggling to let myself relax when Gris went on Sale on the Nintendo eShop, and I decided to pick it up. Best. Decision. Ever.
I don’t remember when last I played a game that I loved as much as I love Gris. From the gameplay to the music and the art, there is just so much to love and ever since finishing the game, all I’ve wanted is to go back and play it again. Gris is, at its core, a platformer with some light puzzles in between. You can’t die in the game, and even though there are a few boss battles to fight, this is a game all about the journey, not the destination.
Overall your time in Gris shouldn’t take much longer than four to five hours, longer if you’re like me. On multiple occasions, I found myself simply standing around, just taking in the immense beauty of the game presented to me. Everything about the game works together to create this deep-rooted feeling of calm and purpose. The gameplay also manages never to feel stale. Even though the game is only a few hours long, no mechanic outstays its welcome and constantly changes and evolves.
Along with the mechanics, the world around you also constantly changes as you play. Almost everything is black and white at the start of the game. However, as you make your way through the various levels and explore Gris’s emotions, new colours are added to the game. This makes the game even more beautiful the longer you play while also helping show how Gris is healing and changing as you play.
If you want to nitpick, one could point out that Gris is on the shorter side, and the puzzles don’t offer many challenges. However, those factors only registered with me when all was said and done. While playing, everything just felt so fluid ad perfect that I couldn’t imagine making even a single change to it. I don’t often spend my time in games taking screenshots if it’s not to get images for review. Still, my eyes found Gris so visually jaw-dropping that I had over 100 screenshots before registering, and I was unwilling to delete any of them.
