So you’ve finished the game – what do you think? Well, this question’s off the point. Gris belongs to the genre I prefer to call Game-Experience. These are games, where cognitive and logical take the back seat to the emotional. Thus, the proper question would be – what do you feel?
I feel Gris is a bit like Journey – one of the better Games-Experiences out there. I mean Gris even starts in a desert. Yet I must say the emotional pull here is a tad more pronounced. That can be viewed from two sides – while it is certainly on the positive side if you are looking for this sort of thing (high chance that you do), you can say that emotional beats sweeping over you like the in-game color hurricane, can mask some apparent downsides of the game.
I feel those downsides would be wonky platforming (you can see it’s not that great when developers are forced to automate them during some cutscenes). And oh, yeah – cutscenes. You know, unskippable ones. I feel these are beyond annoying, especially during the achievement hunt. Also, you can probably say there is not that much gameplay in this game and emotional tides try to mask this – sure, yet I personally feel it’s enough for this kind of game and they really put an effort into making each part unique and infusing the game with as much variety as possible for its short span. I mean – it even has variable ‘boss fights’ in line with a theme of each Chapter. Piloting the game during these moments makes you feel exactly what the developers wanted you to feel – the gameplay fulfills its emotional function.
Of course, I feel I can’t sum up without mentioning the elephantine aspect in the room of reviewing – visuals, art style and music are all gorgeous. I mean, provided you have eyes and ears – I feel it’s quite obvious from the trailer and screenshots. And I don’t feel visuals and music are the only thing that gives this game it’s worth – the main theme behind the game is surprisingly serious. Such solemn themes of loss and picking yourself up after loss are not often looked upon in a whimsy feelgood medium of videogames.
And yet, at its culmination… the game just sort of stops. I certainly feel the ending is very abrupt, especially comparing it to the benchmark Journey – missing is that amazing endgame flight or something of the same caliber. Without it the ending lies flat and feels the same.
Apart from that I feel this game is worthy to be An Experience - short, yet emotional trip. You can’t really approach this type of games with preconceptions and notions about the wider game genre. Embrace the rollercoaster you got yourself on with its every aspect – and the ride will be worth the time and money spend. At least, that’s what I feel.