Grounded: A big, little masterpiece
Have you ever watched the classic 1980s family movie ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ and thought it would make for an exciting video game? Well, acclaimed developer Obsidian Entertainment did, and the result is exceptionally intriguing.
Grounded is an open-world survival game where you play as one of four children who have been shrunk to a miniature size, attempting to solve the mystery of your bizarre predicament. Set in an enormous backyard, you will face off against various insects, creatures, and conditions to survive and progress.
With many survival games on the market, Grounded takes a different approach in several ways, but is it any good? This Grounded review will break down Obsidian’s hugely popular and quirky survival title.
Story and concept
At the beginning of Grounded, you will select one of four charismatic kids with distinctive personalities. Choosing between Pete, Max, Willow, and Hoops will not impact your gameplay at all, but they each have excellent voice lines that we find ourselves often imitating throughout our time with the game.
Starting in a small cave in the garden, you are set on your way to investigate a mysterious machine nearby. It is quickly evident that you have been shrunken to the size of an ant and must find out why and figure out how to reverse this inconvenience.
Although the emphasis of Grounded is definitely on the gameplay, there is a mysterious story that does drive you forward in the game, giving you some much-needed direction that some survival games are often lacking.
After discovering a hidden laboratory, you encounter a chirpy robotic character called BURG.L, who sets you on your way to uncovering more secret labs and following the trail of a mad scientist named Wendell Tully.
The concept of Grounded is undoubtedly novel, but it gives rise to a whole host of wacky scenarios that are entirely unique to this game. A simple piece of garden furniture becomes a looming set piece, a normally innocuous insect becomes a terrifying foe, and different yard sections become unique biomes.
No matter how many hours we played, it never lost its novelty factor, and the complete story missions were a welcome addition to the experience.
Graphics
One of the first things you’ll notice when firing up Grounded is that it is visually staggering. Despite its cartoony, stylized graphics, the world, characters, and critters consistently look amazing.
With polished models and environments, exploring the backyard world of Grounded is a delight. A particular shoutout needs to be given to the lighting of the game, which helps to set the tone and changes the game’s feel depending on the time of day.
- In the morning sunrise, beams of light filter through the grassy canopy, illuminating water puddles and shiny stones are strewn throughout the dirt.
- At night, the darkness creates a terrifying atmosphere where you will be jumping at every rustle around you, anticipating the attack of a deadly spider.
To customize your graphical performance, there are comprehensive settings to suit your system, screen, or preference. You can even find an ‘arachnophobia mode’ that reduces the usually scary spiders to a comical cluster of rounded shapes, which is a nice touch in terms of accessibility.
Sound and atmosphere
We have already mentioned the great voice work on display here, with memorable vocal lines and individual personalities injected into each character. This work extends beyond the four protagonists to the robotic BURG.L, mad scientist Wendell Tully and mysterious antagonist Dalton Schmector.
Aside from the characters in the game, each insect and creature has unique sounds that they emit. Friendly critters like Weevils, Aphids, and Gnats have hilarious vocals, while more antagonistic creatures like Spiders or Mosquitoes have a more menacing sound design.
Getting away from character or creature sounds, Grounded features a distinctive soundtrack, from its retro menu music to individual tracks that play depending on your environment.
Underground caves will have a more stripped-back score, while cutscenes will swell into a more hopeful ambiance. In combat, the tension is heightened by more urgent music that gives an impending feeling of danger to the player. This level of detail for so many different tracks is quite staggering and is an underappreciated aspect of Obsidian’s flagship survival game.
Gameplay
Grounded operates like a traditional survival game in many ways. You start with nothing and gather supplies such as rocks, sprigs, and mushrooms to craft tools and stave off hunger and thirst.
These tools can then be used to harvest more advanced materials, such as grass planks or quartz crystals, that give way to different crafting opportunities. Using these materials, you and your friends can construct a base with excellent building mechanics where you are limited only by your imagination and the material available to you.
Bases can be used to sleep, store items and process a variety of materials later in the game. With each new material you discover, you can analyze them at a variety of labs scattered around the world to uncover new recipes. This flow means that you are always discovering new ways to improve your base and equip your character or progress in the story, which is incredibly satisfying.
A wide range of armor sets are available in Grounded that are derived from different resources or insect parts. Each of these grants has a unique set bonus that will aid you in various scenarios, encouraging you to switch things up occasionally.
Alongside this armor is a similarly vast selection of weapons with unique use cases again. All of this equipment can be upgraded to increase its capabilities, which will be useful for combat and progression.
We have already mentioned that you will be visiting a number of hidden laboratories throughout the game, and they are well-placed across the game’s biomes to allow you to see everything the yard has to offer in your playthrough.
Whether you are clambering high into hedges, descending into the depths of a pond, or traversing through the desert-like environment of a sandbox, new challenges are always facing you. There are also numerous bosses worldwide, which can be particularly challenging, offering a great milestone for your progress in each area.
As you engage with the world, you will unlock a series of perks that can improve your abilities in the game. Whether it is the ability to swim faster, withstand more damage, or hold your breath for longer, there are plenty of ways that you can switch up your build using this system.
There are also a number of hidden items and materials that you can use to upgrade your characters, as well as computer chips that you can present to BURG.L to unlock new crafting recipes.
With so much to discover, see, do, and fight, Grounded offers an incredibly varied gameplay experience. At times, however, we did find the hunger, thirst, and stamina bars in the game quite restrictive.
It becomes frustrating when they deplete so quickly, resulting in the need to constantly eat or drink in order to maintain your health and abilities. Even though these systems are essential for survival games, it is more of a burden than an engaging mechanic in Grounded.
Replay value
The base-building mechanics of Grounded will keep some players entertained for hours on end, and the ability to construct enormous bases or compounds is extremely rewarding for those that are inclined. With a ton of content that is continuously being updated, there is enough to do in Grounded to keep you coming back time and time again.
One thing we did not mention earlier on when discussing the story is that there are actually multiple endings to Grounded, depending on your actions throughout the game. We won’t spoil this here, but it is intriguing enough that you will want to go back and uncover missed secrets and get the best ending possible for the characters that you have spent so much time with.
Final thoughts on Grounded
Despite the odd frustration with the survival mechanics of Grounded, it is an absolute triumph that is packed with content across its roughly 20-hour main story.
With an engaging narrative driving you through the game, spending time as one of the four charismatic main characters alongside friends was a delight. Presented with stunning visuals and set to atmospheric audio, it is easy to lose yourself in this big, little world for days at a time.
