Grief
Simon Christiansen (2008)
Grief is a very interesting replayable puzzle game, with several different endings,
that will take multiple attempts to come to the conclusion. It's short, so you probably won't
even have to save. The game play itself is solid, handling the number of scenarios well, though
the implementation could be a little deeper, giving it a bit more verisimilitude.
You start out waking up from a dream, and right away your goals become very clear, but if you do
get stuck, there's a great hint system to help you along. The play area is small and easy to
navigate, which is important because you'll be running through it several times, but the overall
feel of the game is a bit claustrophobic.
Only the essential rooms are in the design, and I feel this cheats the mimesis. The office building
really suffers by this, with only the hallway and your office implemented. Even though it's not
necessary, it would've felt more like a real workplace if there were a few extra cubicles, perhaps
a bathroom, and even a cafeteria. Your home suffers in the same way too, missing a living room and
a bathroom. There could even be a few extra objects in the living room that could confuse the player,
yet set up the ending.
But all nitpicking aside, this is really a great game with a story that is set up right from the
start. It has multiple endings, and a fair amount of agency. I do feel it suffers from a lack of
implementation that makes the game feel like a series of props instead of a simulated world; but
I figure most people will overlook this, and really enjoy the sort of meta-puzzle here needing to
be unlocked. I gave it an 8.