In the debate over whether or not video games should be considered art, GRIS is the type of game that should be at the forefront of the argument. Developer Nomada Studio have crafted a title that emulates art in ways that we haven’t seen before. It goes much deeper than the beautiful hand-drawn and watercolor graphical style. This is a game where things like the meaning, story details, setting, and more are up for interpretation to the player – much like an obscure painting hanging on a wall. What GRIS demonstrates is that there is beauty in ambiguity, and solace in solitude.
GRIS doesn’t tell you much about its world or characters. All that can be unanimously determined is that the player controls a young woman who has lost her voice. Our troubled wanderer needs to travel a mostly lonely but gorgeous game world in order to restore her power of speech. This is seemingly done by platforming through levels and collecting stars. These stars are used to populate constellations strewn throughout levels and these looming star patterns are needed to unlock new areas and abilities. That’s really all there is from a story and world set up point of view. For some, that level of vagueness may serve as a detractor, but we loved it. It was as if the developers put in front of the player a partially blank canvas of a story and setting, and stoked our imagination just enough for us to fill in the rest. With room for interpretation, the story can really be whatever you want it to be.
Gameplay boils down to basic platforming and traversal of stages with no real threats to avoid or cost of failure. While the art style and music can be applauded for their depth and variety, the same can’t be said for actually playing the game. There are times when GRIS comes dangerously close to being a walking simulator, especially in early parts of the game. But that’s okay. This is a game that’s supposed to be simple, and doesn’t ask much of the player. At times, it seemed like the developers did not want to exert the player at all, and preferred them in a relaxed and euphoric state while playing GRIS.
As you progress through GRIS you’ll collect new abilities to access new areas and collect previously inaccessible stars. The abilities are simple and charming and usually only require a long press of a face button to activate. Your first new move has you turn into a massive block on command. This severely impairs movement speed but allows you to combat high winds, or smash through damaged spots on floors. Another ability, and our personal favorite, was the power to use small swarms of butterflies like a jump pad and propel yourself up and over obstacles. It makes no sense, but it helps to quicken the pace of the game and looks really cool.
The game world is broken up into a small set of different stages, each with a unique theme and underlying “base color.” A desert area, dominated by crimson and scarlet tones, uses sandstorms and arid terrain to dictate traversal and obstacles. A forest stage, draped with earth tones, has the player using timed jumps on an ever changing tree canopy and even befriending a timid forest creature to assist in progression. There is a blue water area as well, but don’t worry – as GRIS is not as much about challenge as it is presentation. It won’t have you pulling your hair out like water levels in some other games. This area skillfully uses a mix of underwater and suspended water objects above the surface that has you propelling between the two with fast and rapid movement – and it’s all book-ended by a thrilling set piece that actually gave us a chill of excitement (the music in this particular sequence is absolutely perfect in creating a thundering crescendo at the climax).
Complementing the beautiful art style and thematic levels is the music of GRIS. Using a mix of somber and synth tones with an ever present piano in the background, composer Berlinist has created an amazing soundtrack for the game. It works perfectly to evoke the appropriate emotions at just the right times – from serenity to faster paced action – the score works on so many levels. This is the kind of in-game music that you may be looking to listen to outside of the game.
GRIS is a special game. It’s not often that something in our medium can elicit such profound emotion relying solely on art, music, and the player’s interpretation of what exactly they are experiencing. This is not a game that will challenge you, and clocking in at around three hours doesn’t even last that long. But as an experience, GRIS does exactly what it needs to. This is not an easy game to describe – it’s just something that needs to be played and felt. As the first title from newly founded Barcelona based developer, we have a lot to look forward to from Nomada Studio.
GRIS launches on Steam and Nintendo Switch on December 13th, 2018.
*GRIS was provided to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*
