I tend to be a little suspicious of anything that is tongue-in-cheek described as “very normal.” It has the energy of Mental Baz. You’ve met mental Baz, right? He’s psychic, it’s true! Sometimes he drinks half a lemonade with lunch and wears one of those T-shirts that look like a tuxedo. An absolute mentalist! Anyway, after last week’s review of Grunn, she’s thankfully a lot more intriguing and innovative than destitute aged Baz, who, honestly, is a little shy and actually really nice once you get past the façade. Grunn just released today and I’m tempted on a high note that it’s a bit like Outer Wilds, only with all the touching wonder replaced with spooky fantasy. Here’s the trailer:
“A gardener is hired to do maintenance work for the weekend. A simple task, but surprisingly some tools are missing,” Grunn reads Steam page. “The owner of the garden is not nearby and their house is inaccessible. Perhaps new tools can be found in the mysterious town, or perhaps one of the reserved inhabitants has seen them?”
Grunn comes from the Tom van den Boogaart Sokpop collective, which has created a lot of great things, including Stacklands, which is one of the 100 games they have created since 2022. This really is one of those lesser-known – better cases, but here’s a non-spoiler summary of my review:
Is Grunn for you? Well, do you like the feeling of doing things that used to take you a long time, again, but really quickly? Do you like strange and delightful discoveries? Do you like saying “ah!” really noisy as the mystery comes together? Do you like dying in different ways and unlocking up-to-date endings, and knowing that you can do things differently next time?
I don’t think I’ve ever used these types of quotes for my own words before. He looks prosperous. Even perilous. Either way, Grunn is great. Check it out.
