As someone who played it during its early access period, I was immediately surprised by how much Grounded has evolved for its 1.0 launch. It feels like it\u2019s not only fulfilled the potential of its \u201cHoney, I Shrunk the Kids\u201d survival premise, but exceeded nearly all of my expectations of it. Even though it\u2019s still plagued with mostly harmless bugs (the software kind) that can annoy, I enjoyed practically every minute of the over 100 hours I\u2019ve played so far of this stunningly creative and consistently funny adventure, and it easily stands shoulder to shoulder alongside some of my favorite survival games.<\/p>\n
Grounded is a survival game first and foremost, but draws a ton of inspiration from Obsidian\u2019s history as a team of RPG wizards as well. You\u2019ll split your time between scavenging the charming backyard setting for materials, crafting awesome items from the corpses of your enemies, building badass structures to protect yourself and your stuff, fighting giant bugs that gave my co-op partners nightmares, exploring extremely difficult dungeons, leveling up your character\u2019s stats and equipment, and more. Numerous character progression mechanics, an enemy weaknesses and resistances system that had me poring over data in the menu, the elaborate boss fights, and NPCs and dialogue options that break up the action all make it feel more like a roleplaying game than most of its survival peers. Admittedly, there aren\u2019t very many NPCs to find and most story development is either told via collectible audio recordings or locked behind hours of survival gameplay and a bit of grinding, but Grounded strikes a great balance between making you feel on your own in a hostile backyard and meeting quirky characters, most of whom inevitably try to maim you.<\/p>\n Grounded\u2019s tale of shrunken children in search of a way to return to their normal size isn\u2019t always front and center; you might spend a dozen hours gathering supplies and improving your base without that goal ever coming up. But when it does take the spotlight, it shines by being utterly ridiculous and laugh-out-loud funny. One of your main allies is a fiercely annoying, spatula-handed robot who\u2019s programmed to cook burgers; the bad guy\u2019s name is Director Shmector; and you spend a lot of time running around collecting a currency called Raw Science \u2013 Grounded just never takes itself seriously, to hilarious effect. In fact, one endgame reveal was so over-the-top and wonderfully stupid that it caused both of my teammates to remove their headsets for a few minutes to \u201cwalk it off\u201d as I howled with delight. I wouldn\u2019t trade that moment for anything, and Grounded\u2019s remarkably idiotic story is positively chock-full of them.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even with memorable characters, though, the star of Grounded is hands-down the backyard itself, which is completely beautiful and oozes personality from every blade of grass. One inhospitable and extremely rude area of the yard has an overturned charcoal grill that acts as a volcanic mountain range, while another has a leaking bug bomb that fills the area with a noxious gas and mutated insects. A child\u2019s sandbox becomes a hysterical, hostile desert where staying out in the sun for more than a few seconds causes you to burn up, so you\u2019ve gotta dart between patches of shade for cover. A koi pond becomes a terrifying and deadly game of cat and mouse as you explore the water\u2019s depths and avoid the oppressive gaze of the pond\u2019s gilled master. Every tiny patch of grass acts as its own distinct area, with its own host of increasingly dangerous creatures, things to discover, and obstacles to overcome, and the attention to detail and creativity born from that never stopped making me smile \u2013 even small things, like how you have to collect drinkable water from blades of grass that carry a single drop of dew, are excellent little touches.<\/p>\n And although you and your friends have been shrunk down to the size of an ant, Grounded is anything but small. That\u2019s because the handful of main story quests are gated behind your character unlocking perks to get stronger, gathering materials to upgrade and maintain your equipment, and making improvements to your base to make life easier, like by creating ziplines to travel quickly across the massive map. In the over 100 hours I\u2019ve sunk into it so far I never came even close to running out of things to do, and although I now feel like I know the yard like the back of my hand, it\u2019s still overwhelming just how big the place feels. I feel like I\u2019ve still yet to scratch the surface in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n Part of what makes Grounded so immensely addictive is the fact that it gets so many things right with its sandbox, from building and resource management to exploration and combat. What starts out as a pretty straightforward set of building blocks with base building quickly proliferates into downright insanity that goads you into unleashing your creativity with multi-story buildings, ziplines, trampolines, and housing for your pets. This alone can soak up hours of your time as you work to perfect your tiny dwelling with all the modern accommodations a miniature child might want, like a cooking station for making delicious insect-based foods, a comfy leaf bed for a night\u2019s rest, or a garden for growing your own mushrooms and the like. In my group\u2019s case, we built our home into the side of a massive oak tree, and over the course of our playthrough our structure steadily climbed up the twisted roots and branches until it felt like a proper fortress. Placing items and getting the spacing just right isn\u2019t always perfect and sometimes the finicky controls for placing structures can result in wasted time or resources, but it\u2019s flexible enough so that you can build around most environments or else tear off what\u2019s there to make it your own.<\/p>\n If you’re interested in building, exploring, and refilling your hunger meter before dying, here are TieGuyTravis’ recommendations for the best survival games you should play!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n When you aren\u2019t building your micro utopia, you\u2019ll venture out into the hazards of the comely backyard in search of adventure and supplies to bring back to your fort. This part of Grounded feels much more like a proper RPG adventure than a standard survival game, with melee and ranged combat mechanics that often require precise timing or that you make clever use of equipment, smoothies (Grounded\u2019s potion equivalent), and the environment. In my case, I sought to become a proper melee tryhard who used perfect parries to swat away incoming attacks, wear down the enemy\u2019s stamina, and stun them into oblivion, while my party members dealt death from afar with an arsenal of elemental arrows.<\/p>\n Like many things in Grounded, combat starts out as a fairly straightforward affair and quickly escalates into a complicated algorithm that might call for an Excel spreadsheet if you were to map everything out. Early on, you\u2019ll mostly just be blocking, attacking, and navigating the sometimes-tricky terrain to achieve victory \u2013 all table stakes of a standard survival game. But as you\u2019re introduced to beefier and meaner enemies, as well as the inhospitable environments they call home, you\u2019ll have to do research, make decisions about what to craft, upgrade, and carry with you, and switch up how you bring the fight to the insect antagonists. When you enter the Haze area, for example, you\u2019ll need to wear a gas mask to protect against poison, and prepare for things that can fire at you from afar or, worst yet, run up and explode in your face, dealing massive damage to your equipment, which may call for you to bring some ranged options of your own. In another area that\u2019s swarming with powerful larva creatures that deal \u201csizzling\u201d (essentially fire) damage to you, you\u2019ll likely have to rely on melee weapons, well-timed blocking, and fire protection since enemies come at you so fast and in such great numbers. <\/p>\n Grounded 1.0 Review Screenshots<\/p>\n
\nTieGuyTravis’ Favorite Survival Games<\/h2>\n