Gris: Nomada Studio's Game Is A Stunning & Surreal Exploration Of Grief

If you like your entertainment immersive and interactive, we've got a series just for you. Every weekend, #TheBufferZone will bring you one game that absolutey deserves your time and attention. All of our picks can be played on a PC.

***

“EVERYONE can master a grief but he that has it,” wrote the Bard. Like the vastness of the night, grief has perpetually been part of the human experience, often enveloping one whole without so much as a forewarning. And for centuries — from Euripides to Vincent van Gogh to Joan Didion — artists have ventured into the depths of this ocean through various mediums. Video games have been no exception.

There have been the more obvious titles like What Remains of Edith Finch, and then there are the unexpected gut punches provided courtesy of likes of NieR:Automata. But rarely has there been a game tackling the intricacies of loss and sorrow as staggeringly beautiful as Nomada Studio's Gris.

FROM THE BUFFER ZONE | The Case Of The Golden Idol: Playing Armchair Detective Has Never Been More Fun 

A 2D platform-adventure, the game follows the titular character, a young girl navigating the stages of grief in a fantastical world comprising four environments — a desert full of windmills and dust-storms, a lush forest with an apple-loving creature, a maze of underwater caverns, and one with buildings made out of light, featuring gravity distortion. Over the course of the game, Gris gains abilities such as turning her cloak into a heavy block of stone or a double jump, all the while as she struggles to find her voice that will allow her to sing once again, and strength to restore her crumbling world.

Players navigates through light puzzles, platforming sequences, and a few skill-based challenges. The game is designed to be without fail states, that is to say, free of danger, death, or confrontations with “game over” screens. On a level of stress, think: watching a David Attenborough nature documentary. And one of the primary contributors to that effect of eye-catching serenity is the game's phenomenal art style.

Traversing though the strange, yet stunning landscapes of the game-world feels akin to stepping into a brilliant sketchbook rich with watercolours, ink, and pencils. Every space is crafted with such care and detail that it all comes off as effortless. A sense only exaggerated by the protagonist's fluid moments and the game's minimal control scheme. Adding to the subtle, muted grandeur is the thoroughly evocative sound design by composer Berlinist.

MORE LIKE THIS | A Space for The Unbound: Finding Hope At The End Of The World

While with an absence of dialogues or narration, and the abstract nature of the storytelling, much of what unfolds in the few hours of the gameplay is up for interpretation (although, the game is scattered with a few clues that provide one with somewhat more concrete notion of what might be going on with our heroine); the themes of depression and acceptance loom large, as does a phantom-esque melancholy. The result is that while on the one hand, the game gives room for one's imagination to soar, on the other, it grounds the whole experience, making it more personal.

For a short game, Gris manages to achieve a lot. It's true that at times it does seem like it sacrifices some gameplay elements in favour of visual artistry, but when a game looks this good, it's difficult to complain too much. It's an experience of its own kind — soothing enough to calm an anxious, uneasy mind — for it flows like poetry and exudes an otherworldly beauty. 

PS: And since it's available on practically all platforms (including Android and iOS), there is no reason not to give it a go.

Available on PC, Mac, Android, iOS, Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S | Paid | Download here.