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Thunderhead begins with the player sitting behind the wheel of a delivery van. The task is clear: bring basic supplies to several homes in a small rural town. The route is marked, the items are packed, and the roads are empty. As the van approaches Thunderhead, the silence becomes noticeable. No vehicles pass by. No one is outside. The town stands, but it does not respond. The game starts without introduction or warning. The delivery task remains, even if no one is there to accept it.
The town layout consists of streets, houses, landmarks, and spaces between buildings. The van is used to travel across these areas, but the true movement happens on foot. Players explore homes, notice details, and begin to form questions. Some houses contain objects left in a rush. Others appear recently lived in. A small cemetery, a hill in the distance, and a road that leads nowhere become important markers. The world does not explain itself. The player has to read the surroundings and interpret what they find.
Thunderhead offers a focused experience through:
No interface demands attention. There are no menus, mission trackers, or spoken lines. All progress is made by walking, watching, and connecting the physical space to the delivery objective.
As deliveries continue, the presence of a new hill near the cemetery becomes more significant. Notes in homes, small patterns in object placement, and altered spaces all lead back to this location. It did not exist before, yet now it defines the town’s structure. The deliveries become secondary. Curiosity replaces routine. The hill represents something that arrived and was accepted without question. Thunderhead does not resolve its central event. Instead, it places the player within it, surrounded by what remains after something has passed through.
When the last delivery is complete, the player may continue to explore or return to the van. Nothing ends with a signal. The town stays silent. What happened is not explained. The only evidence is in the space — in objects left behind and in paths now unused. Thunderhead is not about solving a mystery. It is about moving through one. The delivery task is completed, but the place itself remains open. The route ends, but the questions raised along the way do not.