Sunday, May 19, 2024
Gris (2018) from Spanish studio Nomada, with artwork by Conrad Roset, is a side-scrolling game that manages to break out of well-worn tropes with the use of stunning artwork, color and contrast. There is no dialogue or narration.
From the Steam page for Gris, the game: “Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality…. Players will explore a meticulously designed world brought to life with delicate art, detailed animation, and an elegant original score. Through the game light puzzles, platforming sequences, and optional skill-based challenges will reveal themselves as more of Gris’s world becomes accessible.”
The game loosely follows the five stages of grief, beginning with depression. Gris is the name of our protagonist, who has recently lost her mother. The game starts with her sitting in the palm of a crumbling statue of a women. It breaks and she falls to the ground. As she walks forward, she finds structures powered by points of light. But it’s still very empty, except for Gris, who travels through these landscapes. As she collects these lights, color begins to return to her world.
The first color is red, which evokes desert landscapes and sunsets. Gris gets the ability to turn into a stone block so that she can resist the strong desert winds. Later she unlocks other colors, all of which give her new abilities to navigate her environment.
This is one of the nicest looking games I’ve ever played. It’s really more like watching an animated movie, rather than playing a game. Subtle layers of color and translucency make some scenes look like a watercolor painting. As each color is unlocked, the story progresses and Gris gains new abilities.
If you’re looking for a puzzle game that will challenge you, this is not it. This was created deliberately to not be too difficult. Puzzles are solved by finding and collecting the points of light. The game is meant to be an exploration of the story, rather than a challenge. There is no death, only discovery.
Game designers Adrian Cuevas and Roger Mendoza had previously worked on games like Hitman, Far Cry, Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed. They saw an opportunity to create a game with artist, illustrator and painter Conrad Roset that was less violent than their previous work. Visually compelling (story-rich) games like ‘Journey’ and ‘Ori and the Blind Forest’ were an inspiration for ‘Gris.’ The game’s biggest challenge was integrating Conrad Roset’s artwork into a playable game. Visual and camera cues were used to indicate where the player should go next.
“We tell a big part of the story through the statues while relying heavily on the colors,” Mendoza explains in an interview with The Verge. “The colors mark the progression of the story and the characters. That’s why at the beginning we did a color script to see the general palette of each area to make sure it worked well with the story.”
Gris ($14.99) is available on SteamOS, Windows, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Android and Xbox.
