Review: GRIS
Available on: Steam, Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Cost: €14.79 or included on Xbox Gamepass
Genre: Platform Adventure Game
Developer: Nomada Studio
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Gris is a thoughtful, beautifully designed platform adventure game where you play as a young girl who wakes up in the shattered hand of a statue, burdened by a painful experience and the loss of her voice. Guided by stars and constellation paths, you journey through stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—each chapter set in unique landscapes like desert, forest, and underwater. To gain back her voice Gris must navigates these emotional terrains, in platforming sequences, solving puzzles and unlocking abilities to be able to come to terms with her pain, and ultimately reach acceptance.
Story
You first meet Gris in the shattered hand of a statue, and as she wakes heavily and we see that she has lost her voice. You can feel in your movement through the darkness that she has the weight of a painful experience. You encounter a star, and this leads you to a constellation path. The story appears to insinuate from the many statues of female figures that Gris is coping with the loss of her mother. Here your journey begins through the stages of grief, from denial, anger, bargaining, depression through to acceptance. The setting for each stage is in the form of a chapter, each with it’s own colour scheme and environment, from desert, to forest, to underwater, themed perfectly with the stage Gris is experiencing. As you progress through the game, Gris processes her grief, with the aim to achieve acceptance, gain back her voice and add colour back into the world.
Gameplay
GRIS is a side scrolling platformer, so it follows the usual gameplay for this genre, and you can also direct to platforms in the background or foreground. Unlike most other platformers, there is no combat, instead focusing the gameplay on light puzzles and platforming sequences to progress. The smoothness of the character’s movement is delightful, and really enjoyable to sweep through the different areas. There are abilities to unlock, from turning into a heavy cube to an elegant double jump to high places. Most abilities worked well and integrated challenges towards solving the puzzles, although I did find the double jump a little awkward to navigate in places until I got used to the mechanic.
The puzzles aren’t hugely challenging, occasionally they can be frustrating at certain points, but no puzzle took more than a few attempts to complete. Completing these puzzles gives stars that you can collect, which in turn will help to pave paths to new areas via constellations in a really lovely progression from level to level. While there isn’t boss battles in a typical platforming sense, there are still bosses to defeat through escape or to find a way to deal with, in stunning sequences where you really feel the tension effectively without any combat.
Graphics and Visuals
GRIS is certainly a very visually striking game with a truly stunning art style. The game’s chapters span across 4 different colours, red, blue, green and yellow and theme the visuals in a watercolour type style within these colour schemes. The change in colour indicates a change in the stage of grief and is a really effective transition of mood. Little details like the trees, flowers and fish of each area add to the progress of the story, sprouting more as Gris travels through her story to represent growth and hope.
Longevity
I completed the game in around 4 hours, but they were a fully engaging 4 hours and the conclusion was satisfying and well earned. There isn’t much replayability, although you can go back to certain chapters once you complete the game if you want to complete any puzzles you may have missed. I could definitely see myself picking up the game again at some point, especially if I was looking to experience the particular mood GRIS provides.
Conclusion
Overall, I found GRIS to be a wholly unique experience in it’s entirety, with the story, visuals, music and gameplay all working in a gorgeous union with each other to create a powerful and emotional experience. The puzzles are unique and feel neccesary to the development of her story, as well as some visually beautiful boss like sequences. It fits well within the platforming genre, but to me that’s not all this game is. It felt important, and a full experience that most players would be able to really connect with. I would recommend this game to everyone, it’s a 4 hour experience that I think could be helpful to anyone experiencing grief and loss, but also for a visually stunning platforming title with well made puzzles and a story to care about.
