GRUNN is a pretty standard cosy game about gardening. Or is it?
You're a gardener hired to clean up some greenery over the weekend at a lonesome household surrounded by a park, church, and - of course - eldritch mysteries of the cosmos. As anyone who worked as a gardener can attest, the work can be a little monotonous. Trimming hedges, cutting grass, finding the severed hand of the previous gardener who stumbled upon a demonic curse... You know how it goes in this line of work! Of course, as a professional you'll take it in strides, unshakable to the core, making sure your client is happy when the time comes. Grass cut neatly. Flowers flourishing. Evil thwarted.
This is the part in which I praise GRUNN for its stellar atmosphere. I know I should avoid comparison because even if I aim for them to be flattering, they often come as cheap but... GRUNN has the SILENT HILL vibe, if it was "cosyfied", softened, smoothened with relaxing charm. It manages to be, at the same time, beautifully chill and warm (those sunsets look incredibly gentle and soul-nourishing) and yet keep you a bit on edge with all the spookiness that will hang over your shoulder. The world of the game is at the same time very small and intimate as well as grand and twisted - thanks to the addition of some reality-breaking moments that never failed to make me go "Wow, okay, this happened".
The aura of mystery is prevalent, like a mist seeping through the walls. It's a mix of genres, an exploration game, collectathon of sorts, a little bit of puzzler sprinkled in, and of course - a narrative to dig into. It excellently does all of them, too. The time limit is obvious, given to us at the very start, and as time tends to be - it is ruthless and does not care for our fumbling around. But worry not! Failing is very much a part of the experience. The game sports multiple endings and finding them all is as much fun as trying your best to squeeze the final one, the good one. It is always a bit of a rush to finally find a use for an item you found some time ago. Each discovery is very satisfying, and it will aid you in future runs as you will start shaving down the time needed to get deeper into the bones of the story.
The atmosphere and the art style. Those two elements make sure that the game feels unique, standing out from the crowd. It is a very tough mix to balance - to be at the same time soft and sort of goofy, yet managing to upkeep a modicum of spookiness. GRUNN works well by blending the two elements. For example, all the human beings you'll encounter are goofy by design, a little twitchy on their faces, with ill-defined faces that manage to be silly and uncanny at the same time. The colors of the world around are at the same time toned down, washed away... And yet can be vibrant and beautiful, especially as the day nears its end, and the golden sunset basks everything in that end-of-summer glory.
Music and soundscape help too. It hits these notes of something forlorn. Hard to describe the feeling the music squeezes out of me, but it shifts from location to location, adding or removing certain layers to emphasize the mood the game is aiming for. It is done with great care and always delivers the exact drop of sensation that I would be looking for in various places the game will take us through.
I reckon I don't have to put an extra emphasis on how much I enjoyed my time with GRUNN. I am still playing it, now hunting for the achievements, trying to score all endings (perhaps with a tiny help of a helpful guide on the side). It has this quality to it, this grasp that wriggles under your skin - a sensation that you were this close to finding something new, and strange. More secrets are hiding beneath its casual, cosy exterior. That those strange spaces between are hiding more for you to find. It's a great feeling, a hunger to sate when playing, that keeps the game engaging over and over again, at least until you know you stripped it of every ace up its sleeve.
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