Hold down Command, Shift, and the 3 key. That’s the fastest way to take a screenshot of your whole screen on a Mac. Have you practiced it? Good. I tell you this because I think you should know it if you’re going to download what is likely the most beautiful game of the year, if not one of the most beautiful games of all time, Gris. You’re going to want to take screenshots.
Gris isn’t just visually beautiful. It tells an incredible story without saying a word. Through stunning visuals and an incredible score, Gris connects you with a silent protagonist in a way that no other game has before. You’ll make your way through a puzzle platformer that, while never frustrating, manages to give you tense moments with an extremely rewarding feeling. As you piece together the world around you, you’ll figure out the story that’s being told. The story itself is like one of the puzzles in the game. Never too heavy handed, perfectly illustrated.
I’ll tell you this much. I am not tired of games that make me cry. Developers, keep them coming!
In This Article:
The Graphics
This game features hand-drawn graphics with a watercolor style. Movement in the game feels like moving a paintbrush through thin, colorful paint. It’s smooth. You control the painting. Each landscape has more details than you’ll ever stop to notice. But as you’re playing, you’ll definitely appreciate the times when things slow down and you’re given a chance to admire the artwork before you. Many have described this game as a playable work of art, and that’s exactly what it is. Each scene, everywhere you go, you’ll find something beautiful. Your computer becomes an art gallery and you are the curator.
You’ll soon see why I wanted you to be really good at taking screenshots. I must have taken a screenshot at least once every five to ten minutes of gameplay. Screenshots just don’t do it justice. Playing, watching these scenes come alive, that’s what makes them really beautiful. There are moments of action I just wasn’t quick enough to capture. You’ll appreciate every scene. There’s never a “throwaway” moment or filler.
The Sound
Just as the visuals are a work of art, so too are the sounds. The sound effects are small, yet precise. Every footstep is different, depending on the terrain. There are quiet moments when you’ll appreciate every delicate footstep you take.
Other times, the music will be all you hear, and all you want to hear. It’ll signal changing moods, more complicated gameplay, or upcoming “boss fights.” It can be foreboding or joyous. The music has a fantastic personality. The soundtrack for this game is $9.99, and I think I’ll pick it up as well. It’s truly a fantastic example of music done perfectly. It’s easy to find the right music and timing for a movie, everything’s scripted. To do that with a video game, where the player controls the cues? That’s nothing short of spectacular.
Gris won’t just amaze you with it’s imagery, it’ll delight your ears as well. I highly recommend getting a good pair of headphones when you play this game. Drown out the world around you and become fully immersed in the world of Gris.
The Gameplay
To call Gris a puzzle platformer wouldn’t be fair to Gris or to puzzle platformers. Most platformers are frustrating, even rage inducing. For fans of the genre, this is often part of their charm. Falling down a ravine or needing to restart a puzzle in most games can make you quit out of frustration and send your blood pressure skyrocketing. You won’t get that with Gris. That’s because there’s no way to die.
That doesn’t mean Gris won’t get your heart racing. You’re in your own mind in Gris, struggling to cope, understand, and rebuild yourself after tragedy. Quitting, dying, losing? They’re not options. If you fall from a great height, you’ll gracefully poof out your dress and land on your tiptoes like a dancer. You’ll be able to find your way back up, often with a shortcut nearby. The level design is crazy because, while there are no shortcuts to the top, you can find help getting back to where you were when you slip and fall.
If that’s not a perfect metaphor for fighting through depression with the help of friends, family, or a therapist, I don’t know what is.
Figuring out a puzzle might not take you more than a few minutes of thinking, planning, and executing your ideas, but it’s incredibly rewarding. It’s just the right difficulty to make you scratch your head, stop, and think. When your quick reactions and planning work out perfectly and you complete the puzzle, you’ll feel satisfied with yourself and the problem you faced. It’s fun, never rage-inducing.
Controls and Abilities
Fighting against the sandstorms isn’t easy until you get the ability to hold strong against the wind.
In the beginning, you’ll only be able to walk. Early on, when the need presents it, you’ll be able to jump. From there, you’ll unlock new abilities by completing puzzles. I don’t want to spoil all of the abilities, because discovering them was a joy. They’re something that would have helped you in the past, something that will make the way forward easier. I’ll only reveal the first you uncover. You turn your dress into a block, enabling you to withstand strong winds and break through loose ground. These will be obstacles you’ll face before you get this ability, but ones you can easily conquer after you learn the correct techniques.
Again, the metaphors for the techniques we learn to fight through mental health issues are obvious, but well done.
Boss Fights and Risk
Nothing but gray
You will find a single large enemy in your travels, encountering it a number of times. You’ll have to be creative to escape or defeat it. These battles can be palm sweat inducing, despite how forgiving this game can be. In fact, there are some amazing jump scares in it that take you from a place of comfort and yank you back to frantic action quickly. I normally don’t like these elements in games, but in Gris, they were perfect. They weren’t overplayed, they were unexpected, and they increased the excitement. These jumps weren’t for cheap thrills, they’re a part of the story, about the struggle for one’s own peace of mind.
That Story
Putting the pieces back together
I didn’t piece together everything in the story until the end. I had an idea in my head of what the world of Gris was, but I was off by a little bit. That little bit was stunning, and, as you might have guessed, I have no plans to reveal it. The magic of Gris is in its storytelling, and you won’t find spoilers here.
What I will tell you is the obvious parts. This is about a young woman’s mental health. In the beginning, she’s singing, but she loses something, and her world quickly crumbles. Her voice cuts out. The color fades, and she’s left in her own mind, the colorless, dreary world of Gris (Spanish for gray, by the way). You’ll have pieces to put together throughout the story, but you won’t be certain of what’s going on until the end. I think that’s a wonderful way of telling the story. You’re told it through emotions, not details. When you uncover the event that lead our protagonist into depression, it’ll hit you all at once. I gasped a little, and, yes, I teared up. It’s one of those games.
But, if you’re struggling with mental illness, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or others that leave you retreating into your own world at times, don’t shy away from this game. This is a story for you. As with any sad story, if you have similar experiences in your life, it could bring back memories, but it does so in a great way. As you refill the world with color, piecing your life back together, you realize that the gray is something to be defeated. We can always fight the demons of our own making.
Overall 5 / 5
I don’t give many perfect scores. This game gets one. It’s just the right length to tell this story. Not too long, not too short, and extremely satisfying. You feel like it’s the perfect length for an artist’s vision. You don’t reach the end of Beethoven’s 5th and say, “Yeah, where’s the next part?” Gris leaves you with collectables scattered throughout the world. Finding them does give you more insight into the game and its story, and that’s extremely rewarding, but you don’t need to collect them all to understand this game’s vision.
The visuals and sound in this game are masterpieces. Living paintings and a score, paired with timed sound effects that will leave you thinking you’ve got a private conductor. The puzzles are rewarding, but not too difficult. Honestly, everything in this game feels perfectly balanced. You’re here for the experience, not to be overburdened with a frustrating game or bored by something too easy.
I made a friend! He was nice.
The game is $16.99, available for PC or Mac as well as the Nintendo Switch. I suspect support will eventually make its way to other platforms, but I can’t be sure. Watch Nomada’s website for details. You can pay $17 to go see a movie, but it’ll be shorter, and it likely won’t stick with you the way this game will.
I highly recommend giving Gris a go. I’ve played many games over the years, from every genre. This one is a must-play for anyone who likes their games to be more than just mindless action. This is a game with brains, beauty, and heart, and I think you’re going to love it. I know I did.
