Grief

A dark apartment, a dying signal, and grief made literal

Grief is a psychological horror short from solo developer VimmGames, set in a Soviet-style apartment somewhere in Estonia in 1998. Players explore a decaying, dimly lit home while a story about loss and trauma unfolds through VHS tapes and environmental storytelling, punctuated by jump scares from a recurring creature. This review draws on an English review sample, 21 reviews at the time of research, Mostly Positive (16 positive, 5 negative).

Praised for a powerful, emotional story

Reviewers consistently credit the game for tackling heavy subject matter with real weight. "I really liked it. Very powerful and emotional topics covered. Jump scares were pretty decent," reads one detailed review, awarding the game 8 out of 10 despite some reservations. A separate reviewer, similarly enthusiastic, describes the overall experience in comparable terms: "I loved the story and the amazing atmosphere." This review treats that as fair: multiple reviewers independently crediting the story's emotional weight, rather than just its scares, is credible evidence the game's central narrative lands for a meaningful share of players.

Praised for decent, well-placed jump scares

This review also found consistent praise for the game's moment-to-moment horror execution. "Good story, good scares, runs good," reads one brief but representative review. A separate reviewer who otherwise raised concerns about the game's dark presentation still credits the same specific quality: "the amazing atmosphere, plus the lovely jump-DAMN!" This review treats that as fair: reviewers who disagreed sharply about other aspects of the game still converging on the same praise for its scares is credible, corroborated evidence of competent horror pacing.

A fair, heavily corroborated complaint about oppressive, unreadable darkness

Set against that praise, this review found the sample's single most repeated complaint by a wide margin, echoed by reviewers on both sides of the recommendation divide. "Game is such a waste of potential because for some reason every game developer thinks that the darker you make your game the better it is... got halfway through the game and couldn't see nothing with the little light you gave. add a brightness setting," reads the sample's most-voted review, explicitly negative. A separate, positive reviewer independently raises the identical concern: "the experience was great overall, with only one downside: the dark vision. It would've been perfect if you added a gamma option in the settings." A third reviewer's entire review reads simply: "its so dark hard to see." This review treats that as fair: at least four independent reviewers, including reviewers who otherwise loved the game, raising the exact same specific accessibility gap is about as strong a corroborated complaint as a small sample can produce.

A fair, corroborated complaint about performance problems

This review also found a second, independently corroborated technical complaint. "Trying to play this game in 4k resolution constantly had my pc fans racing with high GPU temps no matter what I changed in the graphic settings," reads one detailed negative review, which also notes the game's sound cut out entirely on multiple occasions and that it lacks a manual save option. A separate reviewer reports a similar issue independent of resolution: "the game turns my PC into a jet engine. I have no idea why, since the game doesn't actually need that much processing power," adding a specific bug where "if you turn off the depth of field, you end up with a completely white screen." This review treats that as fair: two reviewers independently describing the same overheating and resource-usage symptoms, alongside a separately reproducible visual bug, is credible evidence of real, unresolved optimisation problems rather than isolated hardware issues.

A fair complaint about pacing and an unresolved ending

This review also found a more measured but still credible complaint from a reviewer who was otherwise positive about much of the game. "They tried too hard to make a story out of it and it just dragged on and on and on and there were only like 1 or 2 puzzles that really had no sense in them... it had an open ending that just didn't make much sense to me," reads that review, which still credits the game's graphics, jump scares, and length elsewhere. This review treats that as fair: a reviewer who clearly engaged with and enjoyed parts of the game still specifically flagging pacing and ending clarity as weaknesses is a reasonable, tempered point for prospective buyers to weigh against the story's praised emotional core.

A note on missing achievement corroboration

This review's own check of Steam's global achievement data for Grief returned no tracked achievements at all. That removes a normal, independent way of corroborating how far players typically progress or where they tend to drop off, so the story-pacing and completion-rate claims above rest entirely on the review sample's own accounts rather than on any additional Steam-side data.

Final verdict

Grief is a short psychological horror game with a genuinely affecting story and decent scares, and this review found real, credible reviewer praise for both. That praise is tempered by an unusually strongly corroborated complaint: the game's darkness is a genuine accessibility problem with no brightness or gamma option to address it, echoed by reviewers on both sides of the recommendation divide, alongside independently reported performance issues that go beyond a single player's hardware. For fans of short, story-driven horror who can tolerate a punishingly dark presentation and some technical rough edges, it's a reasonable pickup at its low price; players who need adjustable visibility or a stable, well-optimised experience should temper expectations considerably.