Bernband is a simple game, but its effectiveness cannot be overstated. It is, essentially, just a game about walking around. A walking simulator that is actually just walking. No puzzles, no objectives, just walking.
What makes it meaningful is its atmosphere. It takes place in a small chunk of a futuristic city. A commercial center of bars and shops and narrow corridors and walkways. You can’t talk to anyone or interact with anything; you just wander aimlessly. You might discover a raucous bar, then wander lonely, empty corridors looking for whatever else might be happening. Many of the rooms and hallways are empty, simple, and grey. But, through the use of vivid lighting and surreal atmospheric sound, it made the alien seem familiar and weird. It tangibly conveyed a hot summer night after leaving a venue.
I had never heard of Grunn until it released. Somehow, after watching the initial trailer, I saw Bernband in it. Maybe it was the protagonists’ strangely placed hands or the gaze of random strangers, but I somehow knew it was from the same creator. And while it’s an entirely different beast than Bernband with a totally different focus, you can see where the lessons have been applied.
Grunn (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Sokpop Collective, Tom van den Boogaart
Publisher: Sokpop Collective
Released: October 4, 2024
MSRP: $12.99
In Grunn, you wake up on a bus in the countryside. After following the only route out, you find out that you’re a gardener. You’ve been hired to maintain the yard around a house, but suspiciously, you’re told that you’re not allowed to actually go into the house.
You quickly find that the only tool you have available is a pair of hedge trimmers. Clearly, the yard needs more work than that. Your only choice is to go out looking for more tools, but first, you need to get out of the yard, as a waist-high fence blocks your egress. It won’t take long before you notice that you’re being watched. You only catch glimpses, but you’re definitely being followed. And while there are townsfolk around to talk to, you can’t understand a word that any of them are saying.
The town is a dangerous place. If you stay outside too long after midnight, the darkness will swallow you up. Touch something you’re not supposed to, and things might end poorly for you. And death is death; you’re sent back to the start of the game to try again, though each one counts as an “ending.” Grunn keeps track of all the endings you’ve found, so collecting them all is a goal if you think repeated failure is something to shoot for. Otherwise, there is a good ending.
Permadeath may sound pretty harsh, especially when it means you’ll be re-cutting the grass every time it happens, but Grunn only takes place across three-ish days. It is, to be honest, somewhat annoying to have to trim the same hedges every time the game kills me for my curiosity, but not enough to really ruin the experience. A loop takes about 45 minutes, and it took me around 6 hours to hit the good ending. I just became rather proficient at speedrunning my chores. Reminds me of when I was a teenager.
The multi-day loop works in Grunn’s favor, as it forces you to look at the cause and effect of your actions. There isn’t a whole lot of branching, but you may not recognize exactly what caused a mysterious portal to open in the garden and give you a quick way to the park. After a few laps through the game, you will.
The overall goal of the game is unclear. It isn’t actually just to ensure the yard is in top shape for when the owners get back. You’re not trying to escape the town. The only way to discover what you should be doing is by just poking at things until something happens. You eventually learn to quiet the ghosts of the dead, and you may learn what the hell is up with those kids on the ferry. Many of the items you pick up don’t have an immediately discernable purpose, so much of the discovery is rubbing things on other things.
To help you figure out what can and should be done, you come across a number of polaroids scattered across the world. They don’t reveal what you should be doing with the subject depicted, but they at least let you know to take a closer look.
It’s an odd formula that may sound mundane, and that’s because it is. You’re essentially a stranger to a quiet town. There’s weird stuff happening, but nobody else seems to really notice or care. Not that you can ask them. There’s obviously something dark going down, but rarely does it attack you directly. Most of the scares come from catching brief glimpses of someone watching from out of sight.
You’re sort of just existing in the snapshot of a world, attempting to preserve it as it is and exorcise the evil from it. You know, while also keeping the flowers watered and the hedges trimmed. It isn’t exciting. It doesn’t have to be.
I’m not sure that Grunn is going to remain cemented in my mind the same way Bernband is. The goals here are a lot more modest and less bold. On the other hand, it is an enjoyable experience. No matter how many times I woke up in that seat on the bus, I was always ready to take on the game again. Gradually unraveling its mysteries while keeping the hedges trimmed kept me engaged. Without thinking too hard about it, Grunn is probably the most relaxing horror game I’ve ever played.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]
