Gris

To say that playing Gris is like playing though painting, or playing out a poem, doesn’t do it justice. You play as a young woman, who starts out curled in a clearly broken emotional state in the literal palm of a goddess-sized statue. At its core, the gameplay consists of risk-free running and jumping. There’s no combat. You can’t “die.” When you start, the world is essentially stripped of color. As you progress, you unlock more traversal abilities, and levels start to fill in with color. A picture emerges: Gris isn’t just another profound indie platformer with a giant heart on its sleeve. It’s a meditation—on depression, on fleeting friendship, on finding the will to keep on keeping on. Best of all, you can play through the whole thing in a matter of hours. Hear! hear! to games that respect our time.

A good match for: Fans of indie games, great art, or terrific music (the Barcelona-based indie trio, Berlinist, composed a haunting, hopeful score that’ll shake you to your bones).

Not a good match for: Players seeking a challenge or an adrenaline rush.

Watch it in action.

Purchase from The App Store