izigame.me

Something, something, it's a metaphor for loss, grief, depression and overcoming it by moving on. It might seem beaten to death by this point, and don't get me wrong, it sure is. Especially reading the negative reviews for GRIS. I however don't agree that it works against the game, but rather in its favor.
Let me explain. GRIS is a masterclass in how to transform a simple premise into something powerful and moving. The fact that it is simple makes it easier for the metaphor to hit home, because there's less moving parts to the whole thing. Meaning the authors can focus on creating powerful audiovisuals that hit just at the right moment with just the right amount of force.
Yes, the game as such is 90% graphics and sounds, there's very little beyond that. And you most likely won't care because the moment it opens up you're greeted with perhaps one of the most impressive paintings you'll ever have the privilege to witness. Only it's not really a painting. It's a video game. So it's more than a painting, because as the old adage goes: every frame is truly a painting.
I'm one of the few people that have lived to my now significant age and have not experienced loss yet, and even I shed an occasional tear here and there whilst playing GRIS. This is how powerfully and elegantly it presents its themes.
To me art is primarily about invoking emotion. I'd rather play a bad game and mald about it than to play a game that doesn't move me an inch, but does everything competently enough. With that said, GRIS is obviously supposed to be an art piece first and at that it succeeds with flying colors... literally. Not congratulating Nomada on this achievement and not giving it my highest recommendation would be a crime against humanity.
That comes with a caveat of course, should you not care about impeccably executed art and all you want is gameplay, I'm not going to lie, there's little of it here. It's a step above a walking simulator. There's a number of very clever game design devices that form interesting puzzles. The character movement is fluent and responsive, making platforming a joy to even someone like me who can't stand the latter on a good day.
At around 4 hours (again, an obligatory Angry Joe meme here) it's on the edge of outstaying its welcome. I finished Arietta of Spirits recently, both games are roughly the same length. Whilst I wished to go back (and indeed did) to get the overwhelming majority of achievements in Arietta, that is sadly not the case here. I'd rather not tarnish the experience by forcing myself to play it more than I have to. I think GRIS is one of the games that replaying it will hurt its image of it in your head, so please think twice before doing so. The reason for that is of course that it's an experience first and a game second.
In the end GRIS is, and I really hate to use that phrase at all, a game that's not for everyone, and that's fine. I'd rather game developers experiment with gaming as an art form than to chase trends in the hopes of getting paid more. Disco Elysium is a good example of such philosophy. So I suppose if you liked that, you'll surely like this as well.