So I Tried... Grunn

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never played before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I’ll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time around, I picked up Grunn, which seems like a very cute, very normal gardening game, and it would be, if not for all the spooky happenings at every turn!

What I thought it was

I recently came across Grunn on Steam while browsing for horror games to play, and at first, I thought it was just another case of a cute game being lumped into the wrong category — what could be so spooky about clipping grass on a sunny day? But after watching more of its trailer and reading the description, it became pretty clear that this isn’t your typical chill farming sim, as you’ll have to balance typical landscaping duties with the more difficult task of trying not to die. Plus, looking back on it, I should’ve definitely noticed the pool of blood featured on the key art (I blame the cute gnome for distracting me).

The premise has you playing as a gardener hired to tend to someone’s garden while they’re away, and unfortunately, when you arrive for the job, most of your tools are missing. I figured searching for them would lead to strange, mysterious events, and my best guess was that I’d most likely be on the run from an intruder — watering can in hand, terror at full throttle, and all.

What it actually is

Grunn is quite weird, fun, and much more puzzle and exploration-focused than I expected. While its opening moments feel similar to a first day on a Stardew Valley farm as I grab a pair of shears to clear away overgrown grass, the gameplay takes a more inquisitive turn once you discover there are several Polaroids scattered about the area. I thought these pictures were just hints pointing to bonus treasures, but they’re actually integral to the main gameplay loop, leading me to my missing gardening tools by showing where to find them or showing me something that could happen if I continued cleaning up the garden, such as a bird returning to its nest. Others gave me hints to go somewhere at a certain time of day, hinting that a locked door might be open or an empty bench might have a mysterious occupant to meet.

I simply continued exploring, hoping I’d find the rest of my tools in time to complete all of the owner’s tasks before they came home. But the more I followed the Polaroids and avoided going to bed in favour of exploring the grounds past dark, the more surreal and odd things got as I encountered ghostly apparitions and doorways to other dimensions. I even met my first death when I returned to my shed and opened a weird door (which wasn’t there earlier) that led to an even weirder hallway for me to walk down, and the moment I turned around, a killer appeared behind me. This, as it turns out, is only one out of 11 endings you can get in Grunn! You’re meant to play it multiple times using what you learned from your previous run to see more and hopefully get closer to a good ending.

Will I keep playing

Grunn is definitely a fun, strange title that I plan to keep playing. It hits all the right points for me, from the unsettling vibes to the enjoyable Polaroid puzzles. Exploration already feels quite rewarding, even though I’ve only played a small portion of the game. I’ve seen some players equate it to Outer Wilds, which I loved, and I agree the similarities are strong with their loop-based gameplay. If you like that feeling of making little yet odd discoveries as you explore, this would be right up your alley.