The debut game from Spanish developers Nomada Studio, Gris sees the team capitalising on their individual experiences to create what is quite possibly one of this year’s most beautiful platformers.
Gris follows a girl who is dealing with grief, and the game charts her journey to acceptance and ultimately recovery. There is no text or dialogue, everything is metaphorical and open to interpretation, so if that theme sounds a bit heavy handed you’re totally free to ignore the symbolism and enjoy everything else the game has to offer.
The art style is undoubtedly the game’s highlight. Everything is so clean and simple, but intricate at the same time, with stunning hand-drawn watercolour paintings giving the game an air of wonder and mystery. At the beginning, the world is completely black and white (or grey, if you will), but a new colour is brought back at the end of each of the game’s four chapters. Different shades create some really beautiful effects, with eye catching plumes of colour washing over the screen that often make you stop and stare for so long that you forget what you were meant to be doing. The orchestral score is equally as fantastic – for the most part, the audio is fairly subtle, but it always builds to some tremendously evocative crescendos at exactly the right moments.
With no enemies to harm you, and no risk of death, players are free to concentrate on the light platforming puzzles that make use of your character’s small range of abilities. A new power is awarded during each chapter, so there’s always something new to play around with. None of the puzzles are too taxing, although there are occasional frustrations where it can sometimes be difficult to tell which platforms are solid and which are just part of the scenery.
It’s quite an easy game that won’t take too long to complete (three to four hours at most), but that just means that Gris is in no danger of outstaying its welcome. A wonderful game that deserves a much wider audience than it appears to be currently reaching, we’d definitely recommend spending a bit of your Christmas money on this one!
GRIS / DEVELOPER: NOMADA STUDIO / PUBLISHER: DEVOLVER DIGITAL / PLATFORM: NINTENDO SWITCH, PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
