So when describing Grounded to anyone an obvious handle is Honey I Shrunk the Kids. The only slight problem with that reference is the film came out in 1989 before some of my younger readers were even born. So as I weep for my youthful friend's lack of 80’s lore, let me tell you why I think Grounded should be on your radar this Autumn.
Set in 1990, this is a survival and resource-gathering game from those fine folks at Obsidian Entertainment. If you have played any of their other games (and you really should have) you will have seen these guys know their craft. So it won't be much of a surprise then that Grounded is a fantastic game that does the genre proud. As this is now coming out of the Microsoft stable it is, of course, on PC Game Pass day one. If this still doesn't tickle your fancy then let me tantalise you with more reasons why you should give this bug-filled extravaganza a whirl.
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“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”
Alphonse Karr
A New Perspective
The basic premise is that four kids have been miniaturised down to a size where ants look like large dogs and birds seem like feather-clad dragons. You must choose one of the four kids and set out to find a way back to being ‘embiggened’. Each of these characters are identical in terms of ability and so this is just a matter of whose voice you prefer. The kids do talk to themselves (and occasionally the bugs) as they grapple with their new minuscule situation. When playing with other people you will also get decent banter between the friends as you play.
The setting for this grand adventure is your typical American backyard with all the paraphernalia you might expect: gardening equipment, discarded food containers and so much more. The developers have used a quite aggressive depth of field effect which works really well. When you see a giant baseball for example the depth of field really highlights that you are tiny and this object that you would once have just picked up is the size of a small hill.
Grass now stretches above you like a vast rainforest and even drops of dew clinging to them would fill a bathtub. I love how knocking them off with pebbles makes them bounce around before the surface tension gives way and they absorb into the ground. In fact, the physics in this game are overall very well implemented. Drops of juice will drip from massive juice boxes and travel until settled on the lowest point. The garden pond looks like a massive lake which hides many secrets in its depths and is by far my favourite biome. I love how so many everyday items have been included to act as landmarks. The garden oak tree, for example, towers above you like a giant wooden obelisk watching over your insignificant efforts below. Of course, all this world-building would be for nought if the was nothing to do.
Sticks and Stones
As you awake you will notice there are a few survival gauges to tend to: namely food, hydration and of course a health bar. You can knock dew drops from foliage and slurp them up, which is better than drinking dirty groundwater. As you progress securing other sources of clean water will be a priority. A dew collector made from twigs and spider web is ideal, but spiders won't give this resource away for free. Food comes in many forms, tiny mushrooms and honeydew for example will give you a quick bump of nutrition. However, it’s creature meat roasted over a campfire that will really fill that hunger gauge up. Stamina is used up for most activities such as chopping down grass and pegging it from bloody great bugs after your sweetmeats. It will also deplete when blocking attacks, which means keeping yourself well-fed is a top priority. Pretty soon you’ll be stuffing your pack with dried Gnat jerky and protein smoothies for those long days in the garden.
After plonking down a few essential structures such as a camp bed and some storage, it will be time to consider more substantial lodgings. Dandelion stems effectively act as wooden supports and grass ‘planks’ fill in the walls like wooden panels. The base building in Grounded is a really well developed system and stood out right back when the game first entered early access. I think what I really like about it is how open and free it feels. As long as there is enough space you can place structures wherever you like. This leaves you a great amount of creative freedom when deciding where to set up your home away from home. Often the UI and tools you use to build in survival games can break the experience if they don't work properly. Thankfully, the way you put structures together is a really solid system that is easy to learn and yet has plenty of scope. You will place down blueprints in the world and then fill them in with the necessary resources. Walls, steps and roofing all click together nicely which makes putting together your first house a cinch.
As you roast grub steaks over the fire, you will eventually attract worker ants who will try and steal your lunch. This will inevitably lead to conflict, so raising yourself off the ground and building walls is certainly a good thing to do early. As the sun sets there are also other incentives to make sure you're tucked away in your leafy treehouse when the stars come out. I remember nighttime being dangerous in early access but the developers have now perfected this stressful experience thanks to their nocturnal wardens. Wolf Spiders sleep during the day (unless you inadvertently wake one) and so using the sleep cycle is one way to avoid them. However, if you want the best weapons then eventually you will need to seek their fangs and that will take some preparation.
Squashing Bugs
This beautiful game world would feel a little barren without the many creatures that inhabit its leafy layers. Your first encounters will likely be with smaller critters like mites, weevils and aphids. Some will run away while the more aggressive ones will start an impromptu tasting session. However, as you wander around you will start to see (or often hear) some of your larger neighbours. In one memorable moment, I remember seeing the distant grass being pushed by something quite large, all very Jurassic Park-esque. To my relief, it was one of my favourite insects that came lumbering out of the grass, a now dumper-sized ladybird.
One aspect of this game that is impressive is the AI and hierarchy that is in place. Aphids will scurry to the top of grass while warbling protests down at you for example. Everything has a place in the food chain and as you will see, tiny humans are also fair game. No creatures show this system better than ants, who at first seem like inquisitive dogs looking for treats. You will often see them chasing (and devouring) smaller insects. However, soon they will start to take an interest in your camp's food supply. You could just watch them snack on your tadpole steaks or you can teach them a lesson with your spear. As you attack workers this can then lead to the larger soldier ants making their way over and these giants don't seem as friendly. You may even get certain groups of insects remembering where your base is and attacking in force later.
Of course, as you explore new biomes the creatures you encounter will get bigger and more dangerous. While there are a few smaller arachnids around you will bump into the bigger ones very quickly. Unless you have good armour or a better strategy, running will be the only way to deal with these massive creatures. These encounters can be very tense and if you do actually fear spiders quite terrifying. So much so that the developers have added a mode that turns spiders into more friendly-looking blobs.
Goonies Never Say Die!
There are not many games that aren't improved by friends dropping into the fun. In Grounded you can have up to three other players in the same game and this save is held by the player who created it. A save can be set up to be open, which means the other players can play, even if the host player is offline. Myself and a group of friends have been dipping into the early access game over the last few years. Now we have embarked on the finished game it has been awesome to explore this world with the full story included.
The interface and HUD work really well to make playing with others easier. You can always see where your friends are and even switch a handy distance marker on. As armour does have some varied set bonuses it makes it easy to assign roles to each player. Your tank will be wearing heavy ladybird-plated armour and will absorb the pain into their shield. While a light-footed archer donning bee armour will be dealing out death with their bow. There is also a whole range of meals, smoothies and consumables for well-prepared groups to take advantage of.
While the first few hours of Grounded might seem a little pedestrian don't be fooled, this game will utterly destroy you if you venture too far before getting ready. Even when you have mastered taking on the bigger spiders, which is no mean feat, there are even bigger challenges that lie in wait. If you do decide to play the game solo, this is totally doable with an adaptable difficulty slider. However, I will say that making progress and defeating some of the bigger enemies seems far more achievable when in a group.
Is it PC?
I find Grounded to be an absolutely stunning game world that captures the setting perfectly. There are so many cool ideas that show you are now infinitesimally tiny, the design team really do deserve credit here. It is also impressive that, considering how many assets are on screen at any one time, the performance overall has been excellent. I have been playing this on the overclocked 3080ti at 1440p and getting on average 110 frames. On a few occasions this has dipped down to 60 and I can’t seem to nail down why.
The options menu is well stocked and lets you do everything you might want to such as reassign keys or alter your field of view. There is also full controller support but with any game that uses inventories, I’m not sure why you would on PC. This game does not take itself too seriously and the UI definitely shows this. Fonts are bold and menus pop out at you, like a Saturday morning cartoon. In fact, there is a show being put together that runs alongside the characters in the game and will be out soon.
The sound effects are fantastic and give the beautiful game world a wonderful sense of life. If any of you have sat in a suburban garden on a summer's day the noises you would expect to hear are all present. Distant bees searching for pollen, a dog barking somewhere and a cacophony of birds singing. Sitting on a ginormous toadstool eating my aphid jerky lunch while the afternoon sun shines through the tree is positively lovely. The creature sounds have also been carefully developed so you can learn to identify what is making a noise. Weevils will mutter to themselves while bumbling around, it seems almost cruel to skewer them to make a shield. Larger creatures will also bend foliage as they move, making a distant rumbling noise to be wary of. The music does an admirable job of creating a great atmosphere while also increasing in pace when danger lurks. Sometimes synth, sometimes a little bit Goonies; there is a lot to like here.
Conclusion
In a very crowded market, it is partly admirable and partly insane to make another resource survival game. In some ways we have seen this all this before: gathering twigs, smashing rocks and roasting our kills over an open fire. Surviving the night to do it all again the next day. Yet there are only a handful of these games that stand out for me and Grounded is certainly one of them. The aesthetic is also a huge draw for the game and leans right into those teen adventure films that were so awesome in the 80s.
The development has also gone down without a hitch. Each update added a new area of the garden and with it a plethora of new items/creatures; this is how you do early access. With the story now being layered over the top for release, the final piece of the puzzle falls into place. The team at Obsidian Entertainment have once again hit the giant baseball out of the garden and given us a real gem. I highly recommended you give it a go.
