On occasion, I play a game that I do not think is spooky, and then it hits me like a sack; these people lied to me, and it isn’t a perfectly normal gardening game. This week I played a loop game where I garden, wander around a small town, pick up coins and banish demons back to hell. This week is Grunn.

Grunn is a not-so-perfectly normal gardening game from Sokpop Collective and Tom van den Boogaart. The game was released for the PC on October 4th and retails for $13.

I want to thank the developers for the key! I cannot thank you guys enough.

The player takes the role of a perfectly normal person who was hired to do some perfectly normal yard work in the Dutch countryside. All you have to do is cut the grass, trim the hedges, water the plants, and flatten out the molehills. This has to be done in two days and then the bus leaves on Monday.

Under no circumstance are you to enter the house though. Someone may be watching.

Off the bus and ready to go to work, the player is ushered to a small shack, given the information on how to take care of the house, and is set off to do the thing. The thing is, most of the tools, except for the sheers, are missing, and the owner isn’t home to tell you where they are. It is also noted that going out after dark is a risky endeavor, so try to get everything done before sundown. Picking up items is as easy as pressing a single button, and using them is just as easy as holding the left mouse. A little percentage meter on the bottom right ticks up as the player does the maintenance work, and once you get to 100, then it’s over.

It is quickly realized that events are happening around the home and, for that matter, the town as you do yard work. A strange bird appears with a message from a previous maintenance worker and a polaroid that foretells your next step. Before you know it, Grunn plunges you into a loop-style game that hinges on you, the lowly yard person, to essentially save the world.

The loop gameplay is an interesting bit as it provides a lot to do, but the correct thing to do is shrouded entirely, creating quite a lengthy game. This Dutch countryside that Grunn is based on is quite large (and on occasion can be even larger), so having a plan of attack beforehand is key to doing well. There are plenty of achievements to collect on your journey in this Dutch countryside, but there is only one true loop that will stop this so-called end of the world. It took me about four to fully realize that I was missing a significant item that would end the game.

I thought that Grunn was an annoying game, but as I progressed, I realized that between the cheeky endings and loads of unlocks, there is a really great loop game inside.

The polaroids do a really good job of giving the player that little push they need to get to the next unknown objective. There is a bunch of stuff to do and people to give stuff to, and it is up to the player to sort out which avenue will take them to the end of the game or just unlock an achievement. I had not found the item tab until the last few runs before I completed the game, and I was beating myself up because I never took the time to look.

Grunn’s gameplay design is so good that you will be going back to look for more fun, cheeky things to do and really nail that completion time down.

The spooky parts are incredibly spooky, and they got me to jump more than a dozen times, even when I knew that it was coming.

Grunn really hits with the nostalgic PS1 graphics. Everything has got that wavy, bland look to it. NPC’s faces are unrecognizable, and colors and buildings blend with the intentionally bad draw distance, but when it came to the sunset and visuals at night, it made me really appreciate the game more. Grunn is not always rural countryside all the time and, on occasion, even takes the player to a different town/world entirely, and even then, the visuals are a pleasure.

I can’t help but adore the visuals.

The sound design is incredible. The garden sheers, watering can, and the magical horn all sound exactly like I imagined they would. The atmosphere is great when entering dark, spooky areas, which is a lot of the time. There is a lot of sounds going on in Grunn, like the sound of rain hitting the ground, a children’s band playing terrible music, water filling a room, the breaking of glass, the flickering of flames off of a few candles all have really good audio.

Grunn is an interesting take on the loop genre. Having it seems like a perfectly normal gardening game and, after the first attempt, inform the player that something heinous is going on and that you are the only person who can figure it out and launch them back into a mystery that needs to be solved in two days flat is wild. The amount of different avenues that Grunn gives the player is pretty intimidating at first, but as you play the game, the avenues start to dwindle, and the path becomes clearer every time. It drip-feeds fun and cheeky events, endings, and items constantly to keep the game feeling fresh. It took me about four to five hours to figure everything out and roll the credits, and I imagine that 100% could take upwards of six to seven hours.

Grunn is a solid, spooky loop game that keeps the player wanting more by constantly introducing new events, items, spooks, and endings. It’s got everything I want in a spooky video game.

8/10