GRUNND

I bought GRUNND for a little over 3 euros from Fanatical. Still feels like I didn't spend my money wisely. It reminds me of the Blind Prophet - the art style is great, but everything else blows. PROS: - graphics and the music are great. I really wish they were used in a better game. - voice acting is ok CONS: - store page says "full controller support" but the controller acts like a mouse and is frequently unable to detect inputs, especially during dialogues - animation bugs are plentiful - saves are bugged (only autosaves work) - puzzles are extremely basic, to the point where the game is essentially a walking simulator - text is really small, which sucks since I'm playing this on a TV - the walking animation is extremely slow even during action scenes, so the game feels like it's deliberately wasting the player's time - there are endless dialogues that don't tell you anything useful or interesting, which again feels like an intentional waste of the player's time. Cryptic dialogues can work, but they need to be sparse and you need to write them well - Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring are good examples of how to do this properly. - the story is some nonsensical purgatory t…

This game feels like it was going for a Disco Elysium aesthetic and play style but couldn't execute. The narration often differs significantly from the subtitles. There are dialogue options that reference things I have no knowledge of, and based on other reviews would be relevant later in game but you have no context for and no reason to know in your first character interaction. The controls are extremely slow and limited, and the environment is not an interesting enough walk simulator to enjoy the plodding pace. The interactions struggle to load in, so you have to stand in front of 1 interaction point but wait for any nearby ones to dim, or it will think you are still interacting with a previous point. The spooky imagery is so dark (lighting wise) and abstract that it doesn't really feel unnerving. You mind as well hold up an ink blot and say "isn't this an unsettling motif?" I got it for very cheap in the Steam Summer sale but I didn't find it engaging and I did find it frustrating to play.

I really loved the atmosphere and was intrigued by the story but it was just too janky and slow to make it enjoyable.

Controls are clunky at best, game often unclear on how/why you need to do something to progress, story just barely above nonsensical. Not fun.

so boring. also buggy, like character walks behind buildings and reappears on the other side. new scene fades in and character is walking in place, facing dead-end direction. translations are bad, voice actors are flat. disappointing.

No ! Simply NO !