Dull Grey is an award-winning visual novel set in a stark, unforgiving world. Provodnik Games developed the sport, and studio Sometimes You ported it to the Nintendo Switch. Dull Grey exists within the same universe as Provodnik Games' previous interactive road novel, Railways of Love, but stands alone in style in addition to storytelling. Dull Grey's initial release in 2023 garnered critical acclaim and multiple awards, however i arrived to it entirely new.
You play as Kir, a man around the cusp of adulthood. He lives in a global defined by the Progress-Program-a government initiative that dictates every citizen's role, station, and life trajectory. Kir's world is illustrated in washes of grey and black. Sprawling, foggy mountains give way to lonely tundras dotted with broken-down, semi-sentient robot spiders. Buildings are pieced along with scavenged parts. A shifting soundtrack brings the landscape alive. It pulses hauntingly, punctuated by the humming and creaking of machinery and roaring geysers splitting with an impenetrable fog.
Kir's career are grim. He and the members of his family live on the outskirts of society. His mother decides you're ready to take Kir to a place called Thermal to satisfy the navigator, an enigmatic presence who will be the ultimate decider of Kir's fate. Dull Grey centers around the tension between mother and son as they attempt their journey. The Progress-Program defines career options for everyone, and Mother leans into what she sees as the confines of their reality. Together with everyone around Kir, she insists there are 3 choices: will Kir be a lamplighter or a tallyman? Dull Grey repeatedly asks that very same question. It's a game with two choices. And five endings.
I'll admit that I initially blew through my first playthrough from the game. Like Kir's mother, I took the field of the Progress-Program at face value. When given two choices, I then picked one and fell in line. Like Kir's late father, I decided I would be a lamplighter. As being a tallyman sounded a lot like being a collector, and that i decided I'd rather attempt to help my community like a lamplighter rather than attempt to rise in the ranks of the oppressive government. As an effect, Kir’s ending was acceptable. He was able to eke out a lifetime of marginal happiness despite the boundaries placed around him. I wondered, is that this it?
I played it again. And again. I learned through repetition that Dull Grey is a deceptively simple game about choice. It can feel overwhelming to break the rules against a system. It’s difficult to imagine a different future on your own when everyone around you tells you what your life is permitted to seem like. But Dull Grey explores so what can happen in the space between a command as well as an answer. It embodies the power of keeping yourself open to possibilities in a world that demands you put yourself into pre-defined boxes.
Despite a few light typos and some choppy wording which may be more caused by losses in translation than writer error, Dull Grey is a visible novel well worth your time. It successfully delivers what every visual novel strives for-transcending words to drag your reader into its world and rewarding players who're curious and patient enough to determine beneath its surface.
Dull Grey is currently available for the Nintendo Switch, with future planned releases on Steam, Google Play, and also the App Store in 2023.
