Dull Grey

Dull Grey is an award-winning visual novel from Provodnik Games which was originally written in Russian by Roman Vlasov. Let’s get straight to it; was this game a ray of sunshine in my review pile, or was it a cloudy day as the title suggests? Find out below in my Rapid Review.

While Dull Grey has its share of flaws, it’s still a really enjoyable visual novel whose storytelling and minimalist presentation makes for an interesting experience.

I expect promising things in the future from Provodnik Games based on Dull Grey‘s writing and interesting gameplay premise. But I also hope to see better translation and editing as this can make or break impressions, especially for a visual novel of this brevity. There were jarring moments when the quality of translation dropped significantly. I appreciate that there are many possible endings, but the most interesting ones ended up more confusing than satisfying. For these reasons, I hovered between rating the game “I Like It” and “Not Sure.” Overall, though, the game holds together well enough.

A compelling story underneath the dourness.

Despite a couple of light typos and some choppy wording that may be more the result of losses in translation than writer error, Dull Grey is a visual novel well worth your time. It successfully delivers what every visual novel strives for—transcending words to pull the reader into its world and rewarding players who are curious and patient enough to see beneath its surface.

...And that really was a fitting way to conclude my experience with Dull Grey – on a note of frustration, convinced that my time would be better spent elsewhere.