Return to Grace Review

"To Grant Wishes"

Campaign

February 23, 2024 at 8:19pm
By Jason Stettner

This is essentially what most would note as being a walking simulator game. Which is a fair assessment, but basically this is a narrative driven adventure game with light interactive elements. I actually quite like these types of experiences and instantly found myself drawn to the premise.

The goal of this story is to find out the long running mystery as to what happened to Grace. Grace was an AI that helped guide humanity into a golden age of exploration, discovery and expansion.

It’s been a very long time since Grace vanished and now an archaeologist named Adie Ito has finally tracked down a promising lead. With limited oxygen and a crash that would likely leave Adie dying she begins a final journey towards a long lost station.

The hope is of course, to discover what exactly happened to Grace and if this grand machine could be restarted. A possibly important and noble quest as humanity has stagnated and fallen greatly without Grace, at least that’s what is suggested.

It’s an interesting adventure, not a long one for which you can do in a couple hours. You get more out of it from further exploring as some areas offer you the freedom to look around more than just the necessarily amount.

Gameplay

As mentioned you’re mostly just walking about and interacting with objects. Sometimes you will pull levers, other times you’ll balance across beams. Nothing too complicated and something that any type of player could engage with. It’s almost entirely based on the narrative and that’s a good thing for this one.

Outside of just interactions there are portions of choice. Your choices will alter the overall story and that was fascinating. You can choose to be more reckless, select an item of tranquility that tells the world around you about the type of person you are. It’s neat, a little superficial but interesting nonetheless.

I liked the interactive bits here, particularly the calming ones and I mostly wish there was just more of that present. The visuals here were really neat as it featured a ‘60s retro futuristic aesthetic. So old school style but in the far future, super cool in style and very vibrant. The visual part of this game truly did stick out to me. I did play this on Xbox Series X where it featured a 4k resolution at 60fps.

The Conclusion

Return to Grace is a curious walking sim experience, one with a nice sense of mystery but alas a tad light in its overall execution. I was somewhat hooked the whole way through, but I also felt that the ending left something to be desired. It was a short but sweet story, and I’m fine with those. I was just assuming it would be more impact and less predictable.

I enjoy the philosophical query presented by this one, but it’s not out of the realms of what we’ve seen prior which left disappointment. A total side note, I wish there was more discussion about this one online as I do enjoy reading folk’s thoughts on breaking down elements of the narrative in games like this. I liked what I played here and enjoyed it.

I just wish it was more expansive and used its tension more effectively. The voice acting was great and I liked the unique voices that guided you along the way. It’s something that anyone can enjoy which is great, but I was left desiring further from it. The visuals are great, and the core character is well done. I’d play more like this, but I would expect a deeper level of thrill or just a more fulfilling conclusion.

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Return to Grace Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by ID@Xbox

Rating Overall: 6.7