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As we continue to see walls being torn down between platforms, more people are getting exposed to former exclusives than ever before. On the PlayStation side, we're getting our first look at Grounded, formerly only available to Xbox and PC players for the last four years. If you're not in the Xbox ecosystem, you might not know much about the game, so allow us to get you up to speed: Grounded is a highly involved cooperative survival game that will encapsulate you and your friends as you endure the horrors of being the size of a bug.
At its heart, Grounded is essentially the video game version of the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. A group of kids have been shrunk down to the size of an ant and forced to fight for their survival in someone's backyard. For the regular-sized person, there’s nothing to worry about here. There’s a nice tree in the centre, a woodshed, a small pond, and other typical things you expect to see in a yard. However, in this situation, danger is everywhere. Spiders continually make their threat known. Walking alongside that pond will have you under constant assault from mosquitoes. Interfering with ants can have a colony working together to bring you down. There’s nowhere to go that feels truly safe.
While survival is the main course in Grounded, there is a story should you want to pursue it. The backyard you are in belongs to a scientist who developed the shrinking technology that put you and your friends in this predicament. Exploring the many miniature bases hidden throughout the yard will have you picking away at the story. None of it is a truly masterful piece of storytelling, but it does keep you moving forward instead of blindly walking around the area. Hearing your characters crack jokes as they interact with various elements makes them enjoyable to be around, but the character complexity isn't what you come to this game for.
Survival in Grounded is a constantly evolving process. At first, you’ll likely have a pretty basic hut made of grass that's easily torn down by bugs, so you're under constant pressure to keep bettering yourself. Sometimes, that means grinding through bug parts for better weapons and armour. Other times, it’s experimenting with buffs from food and filling your base with various necessities. The constant need to better yourself always gives you something to do, even if you don’t want to pursue the story. There's always a bigger threat to take on that demands you prepare for the worst.
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One of the biggest problems with most survival games is the learning curve for beginners. In the case of Grounded, things at first are a bit tedious as you come to grips with building a base and maintaining your hunger and thirst while fighting off bugs. At first, the situation can feel like banging your head against the wall, especially if you choose the wrong spot to build your base. For example, the first base we built during the day seemed pretty good. It was near the tree right by the pond — a centralized area of the yard. However, when nighttime came around, a wolf spider would constantly patrol through and absolutely devastate our peaceful spot. Those kinds of moments can be very disheartening and make you consider how much worth building a new base has. With that being said, Grounded does a pretty good job of leading you on a path to learn how to craft the proper items you need to survive. That doesn’t mean you won’t stumble a few times as you run into something way bigger and stronger than you, but it’s at least a little more forgiving for newcomers than some survival games.
Luckily, there are all kinds of settings to adjust your experience to be more suitable for how you want to play. You have the standard difficulties that affect health and how hard enemies hit, but creative and custom modes give you a huge breath of freedom to play however you want. You can leave bugs out of the world, have them completely ignore players, stop food from spoiling, and so many other things. Grounded is dedicated to giving you the best possible experience they want, regardless of your mastery of survival games, crafting systems, and dealing with bug threats.
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As a whole, Grounded is a great deal of fun because of all the little things it gets right. There are no other games on the market that give you that Honey, I Shrunk the Kids feel. It’s unique, with an art style that looks great at every turn. Every location you find new bugs in is bustling with new challenges and opportunities for progression. Grass blades that look larger than life in your shortened perspective have a heft to them that gives a feeling of foundation for your building. Even for people who don’t get squeamish around bugs, running into these creepy crawlies can send a shiver up your spine. This kind of visceral feeling makes Grounded unique in a way that keeps you coming back even if you don’t want to.
Conclusion
Grounded is the perfect survival game to jump into with friends. It tests you constantly, but isn't too hard to the point that you want to turn it off. Now that the game has come to PlayStation in addition to other platforms, it's more approachable than ever and a high recommendation for anyone looking for a different kind of experience than the usual.
Comments 22
If you’ve been holding off on this game, I can’t recommend it enough. Sunk so many hours into it on Xbox, making bases with zip-lines across the whole map.
Thanks for this well written review. It will be nice to see more people playing it...
I'm not a huge fan of survival mechanics, so I fell off this one hard as I do with all such games, but it's a great setting which is why I tried!
I played this on Xbox and loved it. As someone who usually can’t get into survival games, I thought it was VERY welcoming to new players, so I’m surprised to see that as a con.
I think that this game (& SoT) is a classic example of why the distinct ecosystems of the Xbox and PlayStation was a positive. These online GaaS might well be good but I just have absolutely no interest in them whatsoever.
"that will encapsulate you and your friends" - we'll be summarized or enclosed?
The spiders in this game are nightmare fuel! I don't have arachnophobia (which this game does tackle by allowing you to reduce spiders to essentially a blob visually), but spotting one still raises the heart rate and makes me run the other way.
Nice review. I am definitely more interested in this than I was before. Perhaps I missed it: the review says it’s good for yourself and friends. How many people can play together? Is it local or online multiplayer…or both?
This my favorite by far of the 4 games xbox brought over. I love this game.
Im not a fan of survivor games but I absolutely loved this game and highly recommend it.
I loved the world and exploring it. I love the characters and the story was very good overall as well. The gameplay was very enjoyable.
I know sea of thieves gets all the hype, but I enjoyed this way more than sea of thieves. Though it’s a good game as well.
@AfroMario I bought a series x a couple years back and out of all the Xbox games I’ve played even though I don’t care for survivor games this game grabbed me more than any other.
Sorry...who are the "friends" you play with? Characters in-game? Other players? Is this co-op online only? Couch co-op? Is it single player? Is there a campaign?
@frankmcma You can play it solo or online (with 3 other people). There are 4 kids you can play that you choose when you start.
There is a campaign - you wake up shrunk (I don’t even know if there is an opening cutscene to explain how you shrink - at least not when I played a long time ago) and must figure out how to get big again. But to do that you have to survive and craft to get where you need to go to achieve that goal.
We aren’t talking a cinematic experience here, but there is a “goal” you are trying to reach. There is at least one NPC (I never got far) to guide you along, so it’s not completely devoid of campaign tropes.
@GamingFan4Lyf thank you!!
I'm 60 hours in and loving it! It's a good challenge which it should be. The world is fun and the basebuilding is really well done. Lots of fun mechanics. I do feel the game could be better optimized because there is some framedipping especially around bases, even the basic ones. Hopefully they keep working on this cuz I intend to put many more hours into this fantastic game!
According to reviews the Xbox version plays better than the PS5 port.
If you build your first base closer to the ‘mysterious machine’, you’ll be safe from prowling wolf spiders. Also, they are nocturnal and sleep through the daytime. I never went out after dark!
Tip: there’s also a red ant nest near where you start. If you assemble the appropriate ant-parts armour, the soldier ants will ignore you. You can then get bigger enemies like orb weaver spiders to chase you, lure them to the ant nest and let your new soldier ant pals kill them.
@Old_Man_Harper Wow, great tips! I may have to jump back into this game someday and give that a shot.
I really do like this game, but I am so bad at it (especially because I play this stuff solo).
@GamingFan4Lyf Happy to help - I completed the game solo, although I didn’t get the best ending, which needs you to complete a couple more things that might be easier with other players.
Another tip - there’s an easy way up to the picnic table that doesn’t involve you spending an entire real-life morning building a tower up to it. Like I did…
On Xbox Gamepass, this title is now advertised as 'Fully Yoked Edition'. Guess this is the version that comes to PS5. I've played it on Xbox, and really liked it. Another hit from Obsidian.
I am honestly greatly enjoying Grounded on PS5 just as much as I enjoyed it on my Series X..
It is a well designed experience and a lot of fun with friends.. Now excuse me while I smash this spider in the face with my stick of doom..
@GamingFan4Lyf You should get some friends to hop into it with you! Its honestly a lot of fun with a group of friends!!
@The_Gamers_Grotto So can you play the main campaign coop with a friend? Or is it a different mode where you can play with others?
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