Game developer, Grimtaste Studios bills RUNT as a rural gothic visual novel mystery. The story setting deals with how five brothers survive in a post-apocalyptic world in the town of Skipclaw. You play as Runt, the youngest and — surprise, surprise! — the smallest of the five Strayer brothers.
On the fifth anniversary of their father’s death, someone splattered a mysterious blood-written message across the pulpit. It is cryptic – 5 Days. 5 days till what? Their father was a cult leader, self-named the Mouth of God. Who wrote such a message and why? Is it one of your brothers? One of the townspeople who live inside the walled city of Skipclaw? Or could it even be one of the monsters that roam the lands outside of the city?
So many possibilities and so few clues. And you only have five days in which to find the culprit. Investigating your brothers will be difficult as they all look down on you. Investigating the townspeople will be equally difficult because there is no friendship between them and the Strayer clan. The townspeople tolerate the brothers only because they protect the town from outside dangers.
As Runt, you must juggle your investigation time against your protection duties and your brothers’s schedules. Your daily schedule divides into shifts and free time, considering your protection duties and your brothers’ schedules. When on shift, your brothers are the only ones you can interact with. The family dynamics between the brothers and their differing political views will hamper your investigation.
Investigations are much more robust during free time. Then you can speak to townies and gather clues. For the first time in your life, you may develop relationships. You’ll also be able to visit different locations that yield up clues. Items are usually quest based and the quests serve as a vehicle for you to witness events that may shed new light on your findings.
Runt will also discover secrets and have to survive dangerous encounters disguised as micro-games. On day 5, you determine who the quarry is based on review of your findings. Then you will accuse a suspect and Skipclaw will respond with corresponding fates. The outcome is based on your actions, the questions you asked, the order in which you asked them, and the conclusions drawn from them. If done correctly, the result will be part of the game’s True Path.
What Runt boils down to is a game of Clue. However, this is not your grandparent’s version. RUNT takes place in a very mature context with grimly dark overtones. During your investigation and interactions with characters, you will encounter gruesome deaths, complete with gore, blood, and body horror. Those are the visual experiences. Mentally, you must deal with verbal homophobia, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts, fratricide, pregnancy, misogyny, animal deaths, and sexism.
If you are up for such material, RUNT makes for an engrossing tale. There are branching narratives that arise from your choices and the story events related to each choice. What you experience depends on your narrative, which is further influenced by your stats. When prompted for a response, there are three choices that correspond to negative, neutral, or positive responses.
Eight clues exist for each character. Pair two of them together to form conclusions. There are three ending types: Townie, Brother, and Creature. Runt’s Journal plays a huge role via its Mind Map mechanic. With the Mind Map, you track leads and story beats to use as reference material when doing your analysis and decision-making. The Journal also contains a Me tab to review Runt’s stats and his To Do list. Depending on how you approach situations, four stats will be affected: Brutality, Submissiveness, Cockiness, and Delusion. These stats also influence how others perceive you and the narrative choices that are available to you.
There are two additional tabs in the Journal. They only become available upon completion of your first playthrough. The first is the Notes tab. This lets you review each Ending you’ve seen and the Truth Fragments that ending uncovered. There is also a Returns tab that allows you to start again from specific days of the week. You may use this function if discoveries make you realize a suspected chain of events is no longer possible. The system keeps any information learned up to that day, but it discards any information after the restart day you choose.
Hidden Objects and Micro-games are the two other elements at play during your investigation. You find Hidden Objects throughout Skipclaw, and they give you items essential for completing quests. Plus, they open up additional dialogue choices. Micro-games are puzzles available each day. They have time limits and affect Runt’s stats and other character’s actions. There are four types: skinning and butchering, shooting, sewing, and generator management. As you progress, the puzzles become more complex, leading to a survival gauntlet in the True Path.
RUNT is designed to be replayable due to the branching narrative and CLUE-like structure of the gameplay. It is likely no two players will have the same experience. RUNT should take about four hours to complete the first non-true path playthrough. To reach the final True Path, you are looking at over eight hours. For the dedicated, over twenty-five hours will be clocked to attain 100% completion.
RUNT is a very ambitious endeavor, especially for an indie game. The creative team should be very proud of what they have accomplished. For a point-and-click story, the game oozes atmosphere, and the mature themes add layers of emotional intensity. Even though the screens are mostly static, the artwork is stunning. The character designs visually leap out at you. Especially impressive are the four brothers and their costumes. They are all masked, and the masks emphasize their character traits. Take the eldest, Bear. He is already huge, and his bear costume stresses his size as he towers above all.
The character designs are sublime, and the lighting effects are used to accentuate them further. Another lovely touch is that your cursor is placed in the center of a flashlight beam. Often you can only see the portion of the screen clearly that falls within the light cone of the flashlight. Sound also effectively conveys environmental cues, such as footsteps, door knocking, breathing, and the various sound effects of clothing, like the zip of a zipper.
The game is a story-driven one. If you are looking for an action game, look elsewhere. If you are looking for an engrossing story done with great artwork and sound, plus a clever UI, RUNT delivers. It must be emphasized that this is a brutal game dealing with mature themes.
