GAME REVIEW: Gris (Switch)
(Mae - Berlinist)
I've probably re-written the introduction to this game review a dozen times now. I keep trying to write something profound about art within video games, and how the industry has really started producing some remarkable things over the last decade. So far, I haven't done a very good job of it.
In any industry, it takes some time for people to begin to appreciate a thing before they can begin to even contemplate it as art. We generally thing of music as art -- at least anything made before 1990! -- and it's not uncommon to think of certain buildings as art. Cars, instruments, dance, all of these things have been considered art at some point in their evolution.
Video games as an art-form is something that people have been slow to acknowledge, and perhaps rightly so. The industry is quite young, after all. It really only sprung onto the mainstream stage around 45 years ago. That they might be something other than mindless, casual entertainment to be easily ignored was a belief that persisted strongly until the turn of the 21st century. It would take industry giants like Halo 2 spending millions of dollars on marketing and production values to begin to make people understand that games could be more than the result of afternoon coding sessions in someone's basement.
Slowly, people have started accepting games like 'Journey', 'Flow', and 'Breathe' as games that were very much also art-forms.
Then Gris arrived in December of 2018, a game that promised to be another entry in the 'Game As Art' niche.
Was it?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Yes. And so much more.
THE LONG VERSION:
It's important to understand up front that I don't consider Gris a 'Game As Art' title. Quite the opposite, actually. First and very, very foremost, I consider Gris to be art. I consider it to be art secondly and thirdly as well. Gris is a stunning, moving, captivating piece of art that also happens to have elements of a video game thrown into it to assist with exploring the artists' work. And what work it is!
Visually, Gris is a moving, living, breathing water-color painting. Even saying that doesn't seem to do it much justice. It is one of the most jaw-dropping, uniquely gorgeous visual displays I've ever seen. Do not experience Gris in hand-held mode on the Switch. Put it on the biggest television you can, turn the lights down low in the room, and bask in it.
Aurally, Gris is no less sumptuous. Composer Berlinist has done work here that is every bit as compelling as the visual art-work. The soundtrack to this game is gorgeous from beginning to end. It compliments those visuals perfectly, drawing you into them without distracting you from them. Turn it up. The Switch's speakers are woefully insufficient.
And that's all you need to know from an 'Art' standpoint. If you're a fan of water color or ink art, you must experience Gris. If you're a fan of incredible music, the same thing goes.
Now that I've said all of that, we can discuss Gris as a game. There's honestly not much to discuss that I haven't already touched on, but there are a few things that need pointing out:
- Gris is billed as a Metroidvania-style game. It isn't. It's a 2D platformer. You gain three powers as you move throughout the seven-ish hours of gameplay, but there's very little backtracking or re-exploring areas.
- The gameplay in Gris is easy and relaxing. Your character is easy to control, she cannot die, and the platforming in the game is extremely forgiving. Your only enemy in Gris is all of the gorgeous artwork on the screen. It's easy to get lost in it. And speaking of getting lost...
- Another reason you should play this game on a big screen is the poor contrast ratios that you sometimes run into between the foreground and background elements. As a game, your main character is sometimes VERY hard to see, especially in darker areas of the game. It's hard to criticize the developers for this because of how goddamned gorgeous the game is, but here I am anyway.
- Gris is a game about a woman named Mae. Mae is clearly going through some kind of trauma, most likely mental. The game plays like she's dealing with depression, learning how to deal with it and live again. That's an assumption on my part based on gameplay though. There's no outward story of any kind.
- Because this is an art-form first and a game second, some of the game's pacing is SO SLOW. You'll spend a lot of time walking through a world without doing anything other than looking at the world around you. It's a damn good thing that the world is so pretty, otherwise I would have gotten bored. This is the Lord Of The Rings of video games. There's just so much WALKING!
Now that I've said all of this, hear me also when I say that for all of the game's warts, and there are a few, it is still absolutely an experience you should take part in. If you enjoy art, if you enjoy games as art, if you enjoy music, creative storytelling, and gorgeous triumph, you need to experience Gris.
I've probably re-written the introduction to this game review a dozen times now. I keep trying to write something profound about art within video games, and how the industry has really started producing some remarkable things over the last decade. So far, I haven't done a very good job of it.
In any industry, it takes some time for people to begin to appreciate a thing before they can begin to even contemplate it as art. We generally thing of music as art -- at least anything made before 1990! -- and it's not uncommon to think of certain buildings as art. Cars, instruments, dance, all of these things have been considered art at some point in their evolution.
Video games as an art-form is something that people have been slow to acknowledge, and perhaps rightly so. The industry is quite young, after all. It really only sprung onto the mainstream stage around 45 years ago. That they might be something other than mindless, casual entertainment to be easily ignored was a belief that persisted strongly until the turn of the 21st century. It would take industry giants like Halo 2 spending millions of dollars on marketing and production values to begin to make people understand that games could be more than the result of afternoon coding sessions in someone's basement.
Slowly, people have started accepting games like 'Journey', 'Flow', and 'Breathe' as games that were very much also art-forms.
Then Gris arrived in December of 2018, a game that promised to be another entry in the 'Game As Art' niche.
Was it?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Yes. And so much more.
THE LONG VERSION:
It's important to understand up front that I don't consider Gris a 'Game As Art' title. Quite the opposite, actually. First and very, very foremost, I consider Gris to be art. I consider it to be art secondly and thirdly as well. Gris is a stunning, moving, captivating piece of art that also happens to have elements of a video game thrown into it to assist with exploring the artists' work. And what work it is!
Visually, Gris is a moving, living, breathing water-color painting. Even saying that doesn't seem to do it much justice. It is one of the most jaw-dropping, uniquely gorgeous visual displays I've ever seen. Do not experience Gris in hand-held mode on the Switch. Put it on the biggest television you can, turn the lights down low in the room, and bask in it.
Aurally, Gris is no less sumptuous. Composer Berlinist has done work here that is every bit as compelling as the visual art-work. The soundtrack to this game is gorgeous from beginning to end. It compliments those visuals perfectly, drawing you into them without distracting you from them. Turn it up. The Switch's speakers are woefully insufficient.
And that's all you need to know from an 'Art' standpoint. If you're a fan of water color or ink art, you must experience Gris. If you're a fan of incredible music, the same thing goes.
Now that I've said all of that, we can discuss Gris as a game. There's honestly not much to discuss that I haven't already touched on, but there are a few things that need pointing out:
- Gris is billed as a Metroidvania-style game. It isn't. It's a 2D platformer. You gain three powers as you move throughout the seven-ish hours of gameplay, but there's very little backtracking or re-exploring areas.
- The gameplay in Gris is easy and relaxing. Your character is easy to control, she cannot die, and the platforming in the game is extremely forgiving. Your only enemy in Gris is all of the gorgeous artwork on the screen. It's easy to get lost in it. And speaking of getting lost...
- Another reason you should play this game on a big screen is the poor contrast ratios that you sometimes run into between the foreground and background elements. As a game, your main character is sometimes VERY hard to see, especially in darker areas of the game. It's hard to criticize the developers for this because of how goddamned gorgeous the game is, but here I am anyway.
- Gris is a game about a woman named Mae. Mae is clearly going through some kind of trauma, most likely mental. The game plays like she's dealing with depression, learning how to deal with it and live again. That's an assumption on my part based on gameplay though. There's no outward story of any kind.
- Because this is an art-form first and a game second, some of the game's pacing is SO SLOW. You'll spend a lot of time walking through a world without doing anything other than looking at the world around you. It's a damn good thing that the world is so pretty, otherwise I would have gotten bored. This is the Lord Of The Rings of video games. There's just so much WALKING!
Now that I've said all of this, hear me also when I say that for all of the game's warts, and there are a few, it is still absolutely an experience you should take part in. If you enjoy art, if you enjoy games as art, if you enjoy music, creative storytelling, and gorgeous triumph, you need to experience Gris.
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