GRIS

Indeed impact game of the year

This game is really hard to rate for me on a "recommend" and "do not recommend" scale. Overall I'm leaning recommend though, but definitely with an asterisk. To preface, the reason I recommend this game is that it is gorgeous to look at and listen to. Would definitely recommend playing it with dim lights, nuzzled up on a couch in a blanket on steam deck or something, not a PC experience by a long shot. The visuals are stunning, the colours at times, but also darks at others contrasting with the blue of water, fluorescent lights etc. at parts are amazing. The worldbuilding is also gorgeous - the creativity that went into forming this project with all its specific physics and world logic are to be applauded. Combine this with an absolutely stunning soundtrack that highlights everything without taking fully over and instead complimenting all the scenes beautifully and you have a project that I am just unwilling to give a negative rating to if given the "yes" or "no" options. That being said, the game definitely isn't without its flaws. It speaks to me in a way that some impressionist artworks do. It feels like a painting or an album rather than a game. I understand what it is a metaphor for, but frankly only because of the achievement names - the execution itself in terms of a "storyline" therefore was in my opinion a bit lacking. What was helpful in this was the length of the game. I beieve that the 3-4 hours it took was just enough as I would likely get annoyed with this if it took let's say 8 hours. The puzzles were mostly either extremely simple or a bit confusing. I was a lot of times feeling like I am skipping so much content to then just easily progress - given that I have only mandatory achievements (5/17) in this, that is definitely the case, but it just didn't seem worth it to pursue anything more and I feel like it might be more of a collector's thing than anything that would add to the "story" or gameplay. Anyway, I would say that what it excelled in in terms of visual and audio presentation, it definitely lacked in story execution and narrative coherence. But as I said, the "art" of it definitely outweighed the lack of story or coherence. So much so that I feel wrong not recommending the game. So go for it, for 3-4 hours of gameplay I don't think you'd feel like your time was wasted in any way.