(PC/Xbox/PS4/PS5) GRIS is an atmospheric platformer that is also emotionally devastating.
As many kids, I was an absolute space nerd; still am, to be honest. One of my favorite memories as a youth was reluctantly seeing Halley’s Comet — the cosmos is scary, y’all! — then getting donuts at Dunkin Donuts. I still have the sketch of the comet that my father asked me to draw on a napkin afterwards and it’s one of my treasured objects.
This game? It will fucking wreck you. If you aren’t crying by the end, you aren’t human.
It helps that the gameplay is so damn fluid, the character design so dynamic, the visual style evoking Mœbius, the audio design so spacious, and the animation is astounding. I do not want to replay it it, but …re-watching these trailers definitely tempted me. This is one of the most brilliantly realized games I’ve played in some time, but geez, also so tough to deal with.
If you aren’t a gamer, jump ahead to the ending, linked below, because it will decimate you: