Posted on: June 4, 2023
FKAWMEWB
Verified ownerGames: 171 Reviews: 22
Beautiful mix of gothic and sci-fi
"What else can you call people who spend their lives just being... fodder. They cry, they suffer, they yearn - just to be another meal on someone else's plate." GRUNND is a captivating experience from start to finish. Its hand-drawn side-scrolling landscapes, steeped in mist and perpetual evening twilight, are beautiful enough that each random screenshot could be your next desktop background. Indoor locations range from crammed and cosy hamlet to eerie mansion to an industrial rave event. The hypnotic soundtrack and flawless voice acting contribute to the artistic unity of this 2-3 hour game. The story offers a tantalising glimpse of a world between gothic and sci-fi, remotely like Amnesia (if you include Rebirth). Don't expect definite answers though: If the game is right in calling you Hero, you live up to this title mostly because you don't know the rules of the place- which in itself is food for thought, just like the whole piece will keep you thinking long past the ending credits. In terms of narration and dialogue design, the game definitely takes a page out of Disco Elysium's book, the occasional bit of creative grammar only adding to the general feeling of strangeness. GRUNND does have some trouble managing its internal state: A gate you opened before will tell you it is closed; in dialogues, you get "tell me more" options without the topic ever coming up to begin with; talking to an NPC one time too often will reopen closed quests; the journal seems to be broken half the time, compared to the save data you find in the registry. I suggest you work each dialogue tree from top to bottom and otherwise trust your instincts. Still, this is really just a minor distraction. If you like slow, introspective games (stuff like Dear Esther, minus the obtuse prose), you want to play this. I'm looking forward to another game set in this fictional universe. Works fine on Linux using Wine/Lutris with corefonts or allfonts (not sure which) installed.
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