With abstract landscapes and uplifting melodies, Gris from Nomada Studios triumphs in bringing a new world to life through the use of colors and the voice of a courageous young woman looking for answers.
Gris is a 2D puzzle platformer that focuses on exploration instead of tight precision that’s typical in the genre. However, that doesn’t make Gris any less challenging or any less of a delight to play. It removes the fear of dying and restarting a level over and over again and lets you work out the solutions at your own pace, which I really enjoyed. It gives you simple mechanics as you progress, like a ground pound and a second jump to work with. But takes the simplicity of those mechanics and uses them as strengths when combining them into your movement and platforming. The faster paced sequences in the game stand out for that reason and will make you feel smart for figuring out what movement to use while moving on the fly.
The story of Gris is not told through dialogue or spoken lines, It’s all through visual storytelling. Gris is a young woman who’s at a dark place in her life, in order to breakthrough you’ll travel and restore the world by returning its color. Color represents parts of the world like green returning forests and wildlife to the world, and blue bringing water and oceans. All of this then manifests into the areas you explore and visit throughout the game. I completed the story of Gris in about 4 hours with still some optional collectibles to find.
The most visually impressive sequences took my breath away, not only for the beauty in the animations and colors exploding onto the screen. But also knowing the underlying message there. This was a visual representation of the young woman overcoming her struggles and inner darkness to see the good in the world and find strength in herself. This message is a fantastic one especially now in 2018 and Gris does so in a beautiful and inspiring way.
This game was reviewed and played on PC with a review code provided by a PR representative for the game
