Gruesome is a roguelike in which you play the Grue. Instead of conventionally exploring dungeons to find treasures and slay enemies, you play as the enemy, hiding in the shadows waiting for explorers to stumble into your slavering fangs. Each floor of the dungeon has a few adventurers wandering around, carrying torches that deal a fatal flash if you are caught within the radius. You cannot step into the light willingly, nor can you advance on an adventurer - they must fall into you inadvertently.

You have a few abilities to aid you that use limited special points, a shadow ball to douse a light so that you can attack, a sensory augmentation to detect all adventurers on a floor, and a shadow walk ability that stops time momentarily.

Unlike most roguelikes out there, then, Gruesome is pretty simple. That’s not to say it’s not difficult. It’s easy to die, which comes with the territory, but it’s not so hard to start right over because you don’t have so much invested in your character - there is no inventory or new abilities. Just a basic goal - ascend the 20 levels and eat anything in your way - and a simple set of tools to achieve it.