Many researchers have stated in the past that colors carry an emotion, and that it can help to define how a person feels in a specific situation. When playing GRIS you’re captivated by all of these wonderful colors, which are magnificently designed in a watercolor palette, and provide this sense of being in a dream world. GRIS is a platform adventure title which was developed by Nomada Studio, and published by Devolver Digital. It tells this wonderful story about a young woman’s coming of age and how she must learn to overcome her own emotions, while also maturing along the way. We’ve all dealt with a multitude of emotions before and at times, many of those emotions go unnoticed because they’re just so hard to convey properly in words. GRIS does this in such a remarkable fashion that you’re always captivated by what’s going to happen next. If you’re a fan of platformers and watercolor paintings then definitely keep reading for more!

GRIS, as stated earlier, is a platformer adventure that places you in a majestic world that’s full of mystery, depth, and emotion. All of these things are portrayed with the strong use of colors, which allow the player to understand how the main protagonist feels while on her adventures. There are plenty of puzzles to solve along the way, all of which provide their own unique challenge and exploration, along with optional skill-based challenges that truly put you to the test to see just how proficient you are. As the world becomes more accessible to you there will be much more to dive deeper into, and that’s really where much of the beauty stems from in GRIS. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of colors and we highly recommend playing it to experience it all yourself.

Perhaps the greatest selling point of GRIS most definitely shines in the visuals department, simply because no other game on the market has come close to creating such a beautiful title that looks like a painting come to life. Everything is just so meticulously crafted in such a way that you’re just compelled by it all, even down to the small details such as how the dress sways back and forth in the wind as you run, or just small transitions in the watercolors. It all can come at you so fast that, if you’re not really paying much attention, you end up missing a lot of the beauty.

Her dress plays a major role as it grants her new abilities as the game progresses, which helps to better navigate around the world you’re in. As we mentioned earlier about emotions and how colors can depict how we feel, GRIS just does a splendid job in that area and you can really tell how the young girl is feeling based off of that color. One good example is red and how it can define some sort of distress or frustration, and while playing on the stage with the red watercolor, the strong winds sort of represent those emotions in a great way.

It’s easy to overlook the sound and music portion of GRIS, especially since so much of the game is so visually stimulating that you often forget you’re even playing in the first place. However, GRIS does an excellent job as well in the sound department as not only do colors convey emotions incredibly well, but so too do the sounds. We mentioned earlier that during the “red phase” of the young girls journey, you’d experience moments of strong wings attacking you and during those moments, organs would start to play aggressively to demonstrate just how strong those emotions are. The fact that the wind is blowing you back and the organ sound continues to increase in tempo, shows just how much attention to detail the team put in to really show you how our emotions can get the best of us at times. There are moments of clarity and calm, with the music once again shifting into that emotional dimension which gives you a strong indication of how the young girl is feeling.

On the gameplay side of things, all of the visuals and sounds come together wonderfully to create a fantastic experience from start to finish. Being a platformer, of course most of your time playing will be traversing over platforms in search for new puzzles to experience, as well as new challenges along the way. It’s not extremely difficult by any means but it certainly will stimulate you in more ways than one. The control scheme of the game is very straightforward and since there aren’t many actions the main character has to really do, your mind can focus on experiencing the game for exactly what it is: an adventure.

GRIS isn’t entirely long and will run you about 10-15 hours, but with all the extra challenges involved, the game can be as long as you want it to be. You can simply just sit and watch the animations for hours on end and still be entertained! As we stated before, this is a highly recommended title for anyone who’s a fan of not only platformers and puzzle type games, but also those who truly fancy the artistic side of things.

GRIS is a must have and we can’t stress this enough. With its incredible attention to detail, beautifully designed levels and stimulating gameplay, you need to grab this game and try it for yourself. We didn’t really find any major gripes with the game other than it feeling a bit slow at times, but we feel that the game was built that way so that players can truly enjoy the experience wholeheartedly and not hastily.

So in the end, GRIS takes the cake as one of the most beautifully designed games we’ve seen all year. While that statement may sound a bit far fetched, we truly do believe that GRIS speaks volumes in terms of its overall design, appeal, and message it’s trying to convey to the audience. It reminds us that we’re all human and in the end, our emotions are important to helping us better understand the many facets of life, and where we need to grow to become the greatest version of ourselves.

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