Grunn is a delightfully scary game about the dangers of a Dutch garden

Grunn is a game about gardening. It is a very normal game where things are exactly as they appear, or at least that’s the kayfabe developer Tom van den Boogaart likes to spin up around the project. But things immediately seem off as I start my journey in Grunn. The bus driver’s face is wrong, and I can’t make out anything he’s saying. I’ve just arrived at my new job site, and the vibes are absolutely rancid.

It’s hard to say what type of game Grunn is, exactly, because it defies conventional genres. It is a gardening game where I spend chunks of time carefully trimming hedges and clipping away at tall grass. It’s also a game where I found a skeleton and had to soothe its upset ghost with my magical trumpet. That victory was short-lived, as I fell into a trap and drowned shortly after.

Grunn is modest in scope and scale, taking place in a small town with a gas station, dock, church, and stately manor. Despite being set in a relatively small environment, this game is stuffed with secrets. Little Polaroids are left behind by an unknown party, giving me clues on where to go and what to try. Most puzzles are pretty simple to figure out as long as you’re willing to explore weird holes, mysterious strangers, and magpie nests.

The visuals are cartoonish and low-fidelity; figures look like they’re made out of clay. Everything has kind of a goofy bent to it — even the jump scares. Despite that, Grunn kind of got to me. Part of it is the sheer commitment to the bit; no matter how silly things get, everything is still lethal. I can — and do — die at the hand of all sorts of threats, from angry ghosts in a graveyard to a furious guard dog blocking my path.

This weird, minimalist horror comes in a two-hour package, but it took me multiple sittings to finish the dang thing because frankly, it kind of freaked me out. Sure, the visuals are simple and stylized, but the audio does a great job of setting the tone, and the pacing is quick enough that I never had time to dwell overlong on any one area or problem. 

I came for the gardening, but I ended up sticking around just to explore every little corner of this weird little game. Grunn is a marvelous Halloween surprise, perfect to enjoy as a palate cleanser between longer campaigns and more intense, complex narratives. Like a fun-sized chocolate treat, it’s a sweet experience I’d feel good offering to just about anybody.