[ENG] Grounded - Review

(Polska Wersja Dostępna Tu! - [PL] Grounded - Recenzja)

(Note – this review talks about the state of the game few days after it's initial release. Many things may change or a lot of things can be added in the span of next several months so... Keep that in mind.) 

(I know what Early Access means and I am fully aware of what I was buying, but even with that – I can't help but be a bit disappointed. Still – the state of the game will probably be improved as the game progresses in Early Access).

Grounded. A game made by Obsidian Entertainment, people who made brilliant titles like Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds or Pillars of Eternity. They revealed their new project which was... Quite different from what they did up to this point – it was a survival game. And that on it's own would be a surprise, but when they revealed what type of survival Grounded will be – the internet reacted variously, many people were interested and happy, whereas others weren't so sure about the game.

I personally was interested in the unusual type and nature of Grounded and I was waiting eagerly for it's release.

So, what is so unusual about Grounded? Well, we are shrunken to a size of an ant and we need to survive in a vast garden. Other than that there are quite typical survival tropes – finding food and water, making a shelter etc. And in this particular case – discover the cause and mystery behind our sudden new size. Although these tropes are quite typical, they feel a tad bit different in Grounded due to much smaller size of our characters and things that aren't usually used as a reliable materials (Have you ever seen someone building a grass fort and surviving in it? I personally haven't.)

(You can ride a ladybug, but you better be careful to not attack it)

There was a demo during Steam Summer Game Festival, the single-player segment was available for everyone to check for a few days.Though I was really interested in this game, I decided to check the demo to be 101% sure that I know what I am going to buy. And... The demo was pretty decent and I am sure it helped some people decide if they should buy this game or not.

The demo had a 30-minute limit after which the game was throwing you back to the main menu, though there was a time limit, there was no attempt limit – meaning, you could play even 20 times if you wanted. Personally I played 3 or maybe 4 such 30-minute sessions since... Even though I knew it's a demo and what I'm looking at isn't even close to what final product will be – I was interested.

(Breaking an acorn like it's a huge rock!)

It's a game released... Okay, released may be bit of a stretch since it's an early access title (that solution probably brought some additional negative opinions), and developers confirmed that the current state of the game is only around 20% of what they plan to do. The game was released on PC and Xbox One on July 28, 2020.

There are 4 different characters to choose from, but I haven't seen any (pun not intended) bigger differences between them except visuals and voicelines. We can play alone or in 4 player multiplayer and we can play in first or third person. The game is a bit clunky here and there, but... Well, did anyone expect a game without some degree of clunkiness from an early access title?

(Though, to play multiplayer you need an Xbox/Microsoft account and you can't just invite people through Steam which is... A bit inconvenient).

(4 characters and 4 difficulty settings)

Despite being survival/sandbox type of game, Grounded offers few story missions (and there will be probably much more as the game development progresses) that offer a bit of background and insight into the story. As well as some 'tutorial' missions that clearly explain for example how to acquire clean water. Though... At it's current state, you can finish all of the 'important' story missions in less than an hour, and if it's really '20% of the story' like they announced, the story isn't going to be long. It's more of a 'Demo+' rather than a first version of Early Access because... When you compare EA to the Demo that was released a month prior – there are really no big differences between the two.

Probably one of the best things Obsidian could do when creating such a game was to take people with arachnophobia (such as me) into consideration. And thanks to that, there is a certain setting that allows people with arachnophobia make spiders much less 'spider-y' in both visual and sound. Though... Even though I had this setting turned on, my heart still started pumping a bit faster when I was walking close to cobwebs. I think this setting needs a bit of tweaking because the sounds are still 'spider-like' so even when you don't see the physical form of it, you can still hear it.

(One of the more important buildings currently in the game, it's good to come back here often)

From the very start we can begin gathering resources – twigs, pebbles etc. We can quickly do the most primitive axe from pebbles and few other things; we can then use that axe to chop down grass and flowers like trees. I'm not gonna continue about what you can do from these flowers and grass blades but... There are few options.

The food and water is a bit more complicated matter – whereas food we can find in mushrooms for example, pure water is much harder to pass by. There are a lot of water in the puddles, but drinking it isn't exactly healthy. Pure water is collected in the form of dew atop of grass blades and needs to be knocked down to the ground by using for example a pebble.

The survival section of the game kind of reminds me of The Forest, but on a miniature scale and... I think I'm not the only one thinking that way.

(Mysterious machine, could it be the reason of our shrinking?)

As we walk through the garden, we meet a variety of animals, some of them initially peaceful – ants, ladybugs; and some aggressive towards us from the very start – bigger bugs, spiders etc. Of course, we can attack both passive and aggressive animals but we need a necessary tools to do so (You're welcome to try and conquer a spider that is much bigger than you with a pebble, good luck with that).

There are some advanced AI systems out there that replicate animals' behavior – ants forming and working as colonies, spiders forming webs to catch small prey. So, for example – if we decide to suddenly attack an ant – there is a high possibility that many other ants will converge at our location and just burst us down. One could say that the world is reactive since the animals react to our behavior and actions in the garden.

But (pun not intended) there are a lot of bugs and glitches – mainly with enemies attacking you through walls. You think you're safe in your shelter? Well, too bad – spider doesn't think so.

(As you can see, the mode for arachnophobics disables most of how typical spider looks like)

Seemingly normal things like soda can, baseball ball, some devices etc. serve as quite reliable landmarks in this vast grass forest. Moreover, we can use for example a soda can as a good safe spot for first few nights (if we cover the opening of course). Creating a first reliable and resistant shelter can take a bit of time and effort so said soda can for example can be a decent base for starting.

There is a mysterious computer that allows us to research various materials and things found in the garden and in effect create stronger equipment, structures and items. When we die we can respawn and collect our items from the backpack, but... It may be a bit hard if we died in a really unfriendly part of the garden.

(By analyzing the gathered materials, we can learn what we can craft from them)

So, do I regret buying Grounded? A bit. Can I recommend it? It's hard to say, the game in it's current state isn't worth 30$ because there are just too few things to do and too many glitches and inconviences to be enjoyable – and when there aren't that many things to do in a survival game... You know, it gets pretty boring, isn't it? If you really enjoy the project and trust the developers (Let's be honest, Obsidian made Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, they deserve a bit of trust) – buy it and support the project (But maybe you really wanna read through other reviews, watch videos and streams and so on before deciding).

Personally, I am currently leaving the game and I'll probably come back when more development in both terms of story and survival have been made, for now – I think I'll stick to other games.

I am not saying I hate the game or that it sucks - I really like the game, the concept and I'm eager to observe the development of the game, plot and what else Obsidian's keeping up their sleeve, but in it's current state, I just can't find the game enjoyable for more than several minutes at best.

I'll probably make an update review later in the future, when the game is in really late Early Access stage or heck, even when it's finally out, but for now... I can't recommend the game in it's current state, but I can see the potential lying within the project and I hope my worries and negative experiences will be proven wrong by the time this game exits the Early Access.

Find your way out of the treacherous garden and solve the mystery of your newfound size!

Kind Regards,

Wing.