Gris is a short but unforgettable adventure game that immediately draws you in with its remarkable art style and soundtrack. You play as a woman — known as Gris — who wakes up without a voice and eventually falls to a colorless planet full of intriguing puzzles and creatures of all sizes.
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Gris was published byDevolver Digitalin 2018 and has continued to reach new platforms like thePlayStation 5andXbox Series Xover the years. While its visuals and soundtrack are consistently impressive throughout the three to four-hour adventure, particular gameplay and story elements could be improved to help Gris become a much more fluid and enjoyable experience.
5Length
The atmosphere and tone of Gris are some of its most compelling features and help it stand out from other platforming and adventure games. Each environmentencourages you to explore themthoroughly, and it’s easy to lose minutes at a time gawking at their beautiful animations and backgrounds. Gris' world is so wonderful to explore that it’s unfortunate there isn’t more to see once the credits roll.
While it’s nice that you can finish Grisin a sitting or two, it is so well-made that you can’t help but want to see more of it. It’s been re-released so many times that it’s almost surprising that there hasn’t been an extended cut with more content included. Gris could’ve easily been an hour or two longer with more areas to explore and puzzles to solve, but it’s also a perfectly-paced game that proves all good things must end.
4More Antagonist Forms
Gris will meet plenty of wildlife on the colorless planet, and some will even help her on her journey. While many of the creatures you meet are either friendly or shy, one of them is an ink-like monster that tends to show up when you least expect it, and attempts to stop Gris from making any more progress.
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The monster can change its shape into anything it likes, and you will have to run away from it while it’s a giant bird and later on as an eel. Both forms are terrifying at moments, and it would have been amazing to see what other animals the monster could have turned into. These chase sequences provide some of the best moments in the game, and it would have been fantastic to have one more encounter before the end of the adventure.
3Longer Prologue
Gris has a pretty ambiguous narrative with subtle themes scattered throughout, which makes the overall experience and story up to personal interpretation. There is no dialogue throughout the game, and the story is told through its striking imagery and jarring musical cues.
Many will likely have the same takeaway of Gris after rolling the credits, but the opening cutscene doesn’t provide much information and may leave you more confused than invested. There isn’t much setup about where the story takes place or why the protagonist is there, and the wordless prologue may turn you away instead of drawing you in. A few lines of text or a longer cutscene at the beginning might help make Gris more accessible to anyone who doesn’t enjoy vague storytelling.
2Puzzle Hints
Gris is at its best when it allows you to have a moment to sit back and soak in its world while exploring new areas. Watching each environment eventually burst with color can be mesmerizing, and even the most subtle details can be eye-catching.
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It’s hard not to feel totally immersed in the game’s stunning environments, that is until you find yourself stuck on a puzzle or don’t know what to do next. There is nothing worse than having to run across the screen five times looking for your next objective, and it’s always a bummer when you need to disengage from Gris to look up a guide on what to do next. In-game hints could have gone a long way to help guide you towards your next location without having to break the immersion.
1Run Button
Throughout Gris, you’ll unlock new abilities that will help you solve puzzles and travel to new locations. From turning into a giant cube to being able to swim underwater, these skills make navigation in most areas much easier. Despite all the upgrades you obtain, none of them allow you to move faster, which becomes frustrating for anyone trying to find every collectible and secret.
There are plenty of times throughout Gris where you will likely wish for a run button or something to help you move a bit faster. Whether you miss a jump and need to climb back to where you were or want to go back to an area to pick up something you missed, there is no way to move faster than the default walking speed. This ultimately becomes one of Gris' biggest issues, as slowly moving from point A to point B quickly disengages you from the experience and sometimes makes it hard to feel the urge to continue finding everything.
