Gruntz

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Review: Gruntz

To make a long story short, you're charged with recovering the scattered pieces of the Warpstone. The foot soldiers in this quest are the Gruntz--amorphous orange creatures with no innate qualities save for a shameless stupidity and geek-like repetition of popular-culture references.

You send them about their business in a world of trouble seen from a top-down point of view. It is full of lava to fry in, water to drown in, holes to fall into, and enemies who get medieval on their little orange tuchuses. The safe path to level's end--and an assortment of well-concealed secrets--will find the Gruntz stepping on switches to lower barriers or raise bridges, and collecting gauntlets that allow them to destroy certain objects, shovels to fill and dig holes, straws to suck up the goo left behind by destroyed enemy Gruntz (and, eventually, create new ones), a variety of humble toys to distract the more formidable enemy Gruntz, and so forth. (In fact, there's quite a bit of "so forth.")

They're controlled using standard real-time strategy mechanics--point and click, drag and drop--and you can rope them together, C&C style, for combat--especially handy in the "Battlez" variant in which you face three opponents with controllable AI. (Multiplayer's included as well, and the Web site has a place to find fellow Gruntzers and a level editor.)

The "Everyone" on the package isn't just a rating. It's a statement of intent. Gruntz is immensely accessible. While the little voices and supple animations will certainly appeal to children (12-ish would be a good starting point), it's never childish. There's a whole lot to it--I've just touched on a few basic elements--but it's never overwhelming. It's challenging (I've saved my game 60 times so far), but never exactly frustrating. It's possible to reason these puzzles out. I've never felt out of my depth, and that's a comfortable feeling.

Even the saving is accessible. At key junctures, Gruntz automatically offers you the option to store your progress. (You can save on your own initiative at any time.) And while the manual is an intimidating 60 pages--and, frankly, longer than it needs to be--the "!" icons within the game landscape provided most of my instruction. I looked at the manual only when writing this review to clarify a few fine points.

I do wish the game would tell me when I no longer have the resources necessary to finishing a level. And the Gruntz did eventually get on my nerves. They don't shut up unless you shut them up. They whistle the theme from Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Andy Griffith Show. They squeak "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and "All righty then!" It's cute for the first couple of hours, and progressively less cute each additional hour.

But I couldn't quite bring myself to turn off the voices. In spite of myself, I've started to like them. The Gruntz have enough trouble on their hands without me applying duct tape. The least I can do is let them talk.-- Peter Olafson / GamePro