Sometimes a pretty, tear-streaked face is all you need. GRIS is simply too pretty to give a thumbs down. The exquisite art direction single-handedly elevates this ordinary puzzle platformer up.. and up... and up to the lofty heights of games as art. But, if you can bring yourself to resist the emotional tug of sad music and sad girls, and if you can lift that veil of ethereal visuals, you will see that GRIS is a very limited experience.

The gameplay, despite some clever and elegantly simple puzzles, barely exists. That is intentional because GRIS is meant to be serene and therapeutic. And it's not necessarily a bad thing because you expect a compelling story to make up for it. Unfortunately, GRIS fails to commit to a definitive narrative. Its attempts to use environmental storytelling are so weak and vague that it succeeds in telling you only two things: that GRIS is an exceptionally good-looking game, and it's supposed to be sad. If you want more than that, you'll have to fill in the emotional blanks yourself and write in the story that the devs have artistically omitted. For all its shimmery delicate beauty, GRIS comes off as a well-meaning but shallow portrayal of the pitch black depths of mourning and loss, flitting across grief's surface but never truly descending into it in a meaningful way.

But that's not to say GRIS was a complete disappointment. For a time, I did enjoy my journey across the lovely dreamscape, my meticulously animated dress fluttering gracefully in the breeze. But after a few hours of daintily traipsing through the scenery with vast, yawning stretches of absolutely nothing happening, I realized I didn't really care about this unhappy blue-haired girl, even though the game clearly wanted me to do that. Fortunately, it soon ended in a crescendo of appropriately sentimental music and fancy animated scenes before I could begin to dislike GRIS.

And that's why I'm recommending it, for creatively concealing its flaws with its extraordinary presentation. GRIS lacks gameplay and story, and artfully waves that away with dramatic flourish and sophisticated style. I didn't rub away all the dazzle from my eyes, and I'm keeping it that way.

[h1]Beautiful and boring... but beautiful.[/h1] Sometimes a pretty, tear-streaked face is all you need. GRIS is simply too pretty to give a thumbs down. The exquisite art direction single-handedly elevates this ordinary puzzle platformer up.. and up... and up to the lofty heights of games as art. But, if you can bring yourself to resist the emotional tug of sad music and sad girls, and if you can lift that veil of ethereal visuals, you will see that GRIS is a very limited experience. The gameplay, despite some clever and elegantly simple puzzles, barely exists. That is intentional because GRIS is meant to be serene and therapeutic. And it's not necessarily a bad thing because you expect a compelling story to make up for it. Unfortunately, GRIS fails to commit to a definitive narrative. Its attempts to use environmental storytelling are so weak and vague that it succeeds in telling you only two things: that GRIS is an exceptionally good-looking game, and it's supposed to be sad. If you want more than that, you'll have to fill in the emotional blanks yourself and write in the story that the devs have artistically omitted. For all its shimmery delicate beauty, GRIS comes off as a well-meaning but shallow portrayal of the pitch black depths of mourning and loss, flitting across grief's surface but never truly descending into it in a meaningful way. But that's not to say GRIS was a complete disappointment. For a time, I did enjoy my journey across the lovely dreamscape, my meticulously animated dress fluttering gracefully in the breeze. But after a few hours of daintily traipsing through the scenery with vast, yawning stretches of absolutely nothing happening, I realized I didn't really care about this unhappy blue-haired girl, even though the game clearly wanted me to do that. Fortunately, it soon ended in a crescendo of appropriately sentimental music and fancy animated scenes before I could begin to dislike GRIS. And that's why I'm recommending it, for creatively concealing its flaws with its extraordinary presentation. GRIS lacks gameplay and story, and artfully waves that away with dramatic flourish and sophisticated style. I didn't rub away all the dazzle from my eyes, and I'm keeping it that way. [h1]7 / 10[/h1]