Grunthouse Demo

The scary and the unexplained has boggled the minds of people ever since we can remember, because there have always been creepy things wandering in the darkness. While the first stories may have been related to strange animal sightings back when humans were still living in caves, the apparitions have evolved and morphed over the centuries, which is why we now have so many different types of monster figures.

Grunthouse is an indie development that doesn’t aim higher than trying to reproduce the more popular Amnesia: The Dark Descent, complete with the same environment and similar atmospheres. However, while Amnesia managed to inspire real fear into most players, mostly thanks to the great work on the sound and visual design, Grunthouse comes a bit short on the technical side, which kind of ruins the entire thing.

To begin with, the story is almost non-existent, because there is no intro, no notes you can stumble into, and virtually no clue about what you are looking for or who you are. Instead, you are planted in the middle of a dark mansion with a lamp in your hand, with the supposed goal of getting out alive. Exploration seems to be the main purpose, but even that is annoying to do when you have to deal with a lot of technical issues.

The most annoying aspect of the exploration bit is the fact that it is too dark to see anything, including the corridors and the rooms you have to navigate. While darkness is a good way to make the audience feel uneasy, you can also go overboard with the concept and nullify the dark atmosphere and replace it with frustration, because you often find yourself going in circles.

While the visual aspect can be often ignored in favor of the other elements, that only works when the rest of the game is good. Otherwise, a terrible graphics engine is just another inconvenience, which is what happens in this case. The 3D models are awful, there are virtually no special effects to talk about, and the level design is most of the time comprised of four walls and the occasional door.

In the end, Grunthouse fails to feature even one strong point, which means that there are not many reasons one could recommend it to another fellow gamer. Hence, you’d be much better sticking with the more recognizable names in the genre than giving this a try, that’s for sure.