Gris might be one of the most commanding works of video game art I have played in a decade. Thanks to the artisanal touch of the artist Conrad Roset, Nomada Studio’s indie hit made waves back in 2018 – and now, five years later as it arrives on Game Pass (free to play for anyone with an Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass subscription), it’s as impactful and relevant as ever.
A vague story about grief and loss – and the mind palaces we involuntarily create in order to compartmentalise the inky depths of our mourning – is complemented by some oddly familiar platforming. You have never played Gris before, but it feels like you have; it’s the ghost of a hundred other platformers living in your fingertips, the memory of thousands of jumps, dashes, floats and falls summoned from nostalgic corners of your brain on a whim.
It feels like the mechanics, insistent and ever-pushing forward, are made to rhyme with the story. You’re moving forward, inexorably, but something follows. The controls remind you of something that you can’t quite put your finger(s) on. The occasionally taxing puzzles always have their solutions in sight, but rarely is closure as simple as just walking up to it. Gris, similarly to Brothers, knows how to make your brain and your hands work as one, and how much you take away from this gorgeous meditation on the more desolate parts of the human psyche depends on how much you read into it. Softies and lovvies, eat your collective hearts out.
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