I recently finished playing Gris on my Steam Deck. I got some, but not all, of the collectables, and finished the main story. Gris is a 2D adventure-platformer built by Nomada Studio in 2018. It’s pretty, short, and did I mention pretty? Spoilers follow.

Gris joins Rime in the “adventure-platformer using grief as both a theme and the unsupported-by-evidence-yet-ubiquitous ‘five stages of grief’ as a level organization philosophy” genre. I think Rime’s is the better interpretation (though it ran terribly on my Switch), though Gris is the more polished experience.

It controls well, the character floating in a way that makes the platforming straightforward but not simple. The floating is also in keeping with the character’s conceit within the game world, which is nice. This is why it’s a little disappointing that sometimes the level doesn’t communicate well the difference between set dressing (you can walk past it, you can’t stand on it) and level geometry (a wall you cannot pass, a platform you can land on after a jump). Doesn’t feel good to try and make a super jump to find that the piece of background debris was a ledge all along. Nor does it feel nice to have to guess which walls are walls. Not much of a problem, really, just maybe highlights that the visuals were the priority more than the gameplay.

Which isn’t to say that it was neglected. The levels communicate intent wordlessly and very capably. The difficulty curves up very satisfactorily. The only time it seemed to be compromised was when it might have interfered with how pretty the world looked.

The music is as beautiful as the world and is only let down by a single riff that sounds like the Nier Automata menu for some reason? I’m not the first to notice that this:

Sounds distractingly like:

In no way am I suggesting that either is a copy of the other. The two games released within about a year of each other from development studios half a world apart (and with wildly different budgets), so it’s vanishingly unlikely.

All I’m saying is that it was distracting to me. It might be to you as well. Aren’t we weird little creatures that tie memory to noise? Anyhoo. Great music. A+.

Speaking of music, what a lovely idea giving the player a button to sing only to then reveal, heartbreakingly, that the character can’t. I like clever little touches like that.

I recommend this game to anyone who wants about 3-5 hours of pleasant and polished platforming in a wonderfully-rendered world.

(And for those who are wondering, it looks and sounds wonderful on the Steam Deck played portably. I was shocked by how good it sounded.)

https://chuttenblog.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/so-ive-finished-gris-steam-deck/

#gris #sadGirlInPrettyMuchEveryBiomeButSnow #sif #soIVeFinished #videoGame