GRIS

The game is beautiful, no doubt about it. It looked right up my alley, and had overwhelmingly good reviews, it was on sale, so I got it. The only thing I got out of it was frustration. Maybe because I expected an instant dopamine hit from it, and didn't get it, or because the game tells you nothing (controls, progress, chapters, etc.), I felt my anger rise as I played. So much so that I got a refund...it was on sale...

There is that old Bjork video named Pagan Poetry, for some reason this game reminded me about that song. In short it's beautiful

GRIS is gorgeous, and I don't mean only visually. While GRIS definitely is an art game - or rather, it is a piece of art - all its elements complement each other. Music, graphics and gameplay are all connected. It often happens that gameplay in art games is either non-existent or completely unrelated to what's going on; music can be good on its own while neither being enhanced nor enhancing anything in the game itself; visuals are sometimes "artsy" or pretty for the sake of just that. In GRIS, the pieces that make it a game fit together and into each other to create an enjoyable and emotional experience that doesn't get boring and doesn't need an explanation. Gameplay, visuals and music basically ARE the story, or rather, the process portrayed in the game since I'm not sure I would call it a "story" as such. The gameplay isn't exactly innovative or excellent in what it does. It's fairly casual puzzle-platforming with a tiny bit more thinking when you want to get the collectibles - yes, there are collectibles, but not thousands of them, and they're not frustratingly difficult to collect. In fact, there was only one point where the game got frustrating for a minute or so because it didn't explain the bird mechanic well enough, and that's mostly on me. More mechanics are added to the platforming throughout the game to prevent it from going stale, and even those mechanics go with the theme(s). Don't come to GRIS for a challenge. It is interactive art that does a lot with what seems very little, does it extremely well, and does it in a non-pretentious way. It doesn't try to lecture the player, it simply shows something that I'd wager every single human goes through at least once in their lifetime in a very beautiful and satisfying way.

just wow... Finished the game in two sittings. Visually it's magnificent; I've never taken screenshots in videos games, but I had to... truly feast for the eyes! The game is an artistic experience, a metaphor of an inner journey that I have found very relevant to my inner struggles; I'm sure everybody may relate. It's a very forgiving game (you can't lose) and short too (much less than 10h), plays nicely with the 360 controller and is recommended to gamers, but I've shown it to a few people who aren't into video games and they've been drooling over it too!

Also, I don't usually like platformers or puzzlers, but I loved this! Short but sweet.