Grounded Review (Early Access/Game Preview)

Hey you! Do you want to play a game where you’re the size of an ant and explore someone's back yard? No, I did that in Toy Story on the Playstation 1 Oh okay. Well you, how about if one of the greatest developers of western RPGs in the world, branched out and made a small four player survival game? No.

I’d rather get shit faced off this wine. Err right... Well you, wait wait wait! How about if we- Grounded is a game that nobody asked for, entering a genre that is already crowded and made by a development studio who makes games nothing like this. But I know that, you know that, even Obsidian Entertainment knows that.

And yet, here I am, about to tell you that Grounded is a good game. Or at least it will be in a year's time when more is added. You see, Grounded has a lot of potential. It has a unique premise, good crafting systems and exploration which has the potential to be rewarding.

There’s the makings of a great game in here somewhere, but there needs to be a whole lot more work until we get there. I started Grounded on my Xbox One and selected Max from the four playable characters. All of the characters are purposefully cheesy, and say things like “My name’s Peter.

My friends call me Pete!”, which I thought was pretty funny. When I started playing, I do what I always do in open world games; completely ignore the objective and go explore the map. And to be honest I was pretty impressed. As you’ve been shrunk down to the size of an ant, your perspective of everything is really intriguing.

Regular objects that you’d use in everyday life, now appear as giant structures on the horizon. Like a garden light which now appears as a landing UFO beaming light into the darkness. Or a water fountain which extends upwards into the sky like a huge skyscraper.

It really messes with your mind and a lot of the time I’d see something in the distance, but identify in completely the wrong way. Like one time I saw this arch in the distance and my video game brain identified it as the entrance to a temple. But when I got there it turned out to be a garden bench.

You often forget where you actually are as huge blades of grass form dense vegetation. It feels like you’re in a jungle. I was immersed in this jungle, until I looked up and saw the house in the background and remembered I was in someone's back garden.

Obsidian also remind you of this, by filling the map with Landmarks, or should I say, human items that people have dropped in the garden. Early on I loved seeing these landmarks from this shrunken perspective, and because they each have unique branding too.

Like this juice drink Raspberry Crime which had a Raspberry wearing a balaclava on it. I found that really funny and I’m glad that Obsidian’s absurd sense of humour has made it into Grounded. So, I’d been exploring for about an hour and I’d reached the edge of the map and was greeted with some “work in progress” tape.

I was actually quite surprised at just how small the map is and how little environmental variety there was. Most areas are just grass, dry grass area, a tree or open areas with water. I realise it’s difficult to provide environmental variety given the back garden premise, but I still think more needs to be done here.

More plant variety, more insect variety or even environmental storytelling would be great. It did feel like the early access label showed here. When I’d finished exploring I decided to head back to the story objective and start the main quest. I did find it quite hard to navigate on the way back though, as there’s no compass on your HUD.

I constantly found myself opening my map just to check I was going in the right direction. I think more needs to be added here to make the whole process a bit more streamlined. But when I did start the story, again I was pretty impressed. I went into this burrow to clear out termites, which was like a mini-dungeon of sorts.

And then into this underground science lab, which at the risk of sounding obvious, reminded me of the vaults from Fallout. Unfortunately though, that’s it. The story finishes after 30 minutes. You meet this charismatic robot called BURG.L, , and the story’s over.

The game opens up and you can do whatever you want. But unfortunately, there’s not that much to do... Once you’ve completed the story, the game opens up and your main objective is to get stronger and build a base. There are daily quests from BURG.L, but they are so basic they won’t keep you entertained.

But it is worth doing them as you get a unique currency called Raw Science, which is used to unlock more base building options from BURG.L. So basically, in Grounded you gather materials, kill insects for parts and then craft it all together to survive.

A lot of time you have to create your own objectives and goals to work towards as there’s not that much to do, Some people who like the freedom sandbox games create will enjoy this, but I personally prefer having one overarching objective to keep me ticking over.

It is of course fine to have your own goals and objectives, but not when it’s the only thing to do. I noticed this a few times when I’d hit a roadblock and couldn’t progress any further. I’d crafted all of my level one gear and I was still too weak to take down powerful insects.

This was at the six hour mark by the way. It’s a shame as I was really enjoying it up until this point. I loved crafting and especially chasing the armour sets. It’s a bit like Monster Hunter World, where you take down monsters for their parts and craft armour with them.

The armour you craft also has unique perks which makes it easier to take down the insect. I love this in Monster Hunter and the same can be said here. I should say, that one of the reasons I got bored quickly was because I was playing solo. Obviously if you’re playing with friends, then it’s a lot more entertaining and you can also split the workload between people.

Playing solo, it takes a long time to build up your base. You have to chop down grass, carry it to your base and craft it. Because so much work goes into crafting a base, it is really annoying when a swarm of bugs attacks. I found playing solo, it was almost impossible to stop them doing significant damage.

This led to a few moments, where I was completely demoralised when they attacked my base and destroyed my storage chest. It sent my items spewing out into the world and I had to pick them up one by one and put them in a new chest. Again, I think this whole process can be streamlined.

Other times my base was straight up broken as insects phased through the walls. I came home one night and found I had an uninvited family of ants over for dinner. They wouldn’t leave either. Quite rude actually. Of course, is expected as the game is in early access, but there are other areas of the game that I’m seriously worried about.

The combat in particular is extremely clunky. It’s exactly the same combat system as The Outer Worlds, and even Fallout: New Vegas for that matter, which came out 10 years ago. Obsidian have tried to add complexity as you can time your block perfectly and stun an enemy.

But as it feels so clunky, it just doesn’t feel good. In the Outer Worlds and Fallout: New Vegas, this combat system is acceptable as the focus is on the RPG mechanics and the narrative. But here, combat is a core design pillar of the game. It makes me really worried for Avowed as progress in this area has been minimal over the last ten years.

If the combat is as clunky as this, I honestly can’t see me playing it for that long. When exploring in Grounded, it felt like 9 times out of 10 I was never rewarded for my efforts, other than seeing an interesting landmark or some gardening equipment.

I hate to draw this comparison, but it reminds me of the early days of Fallout 76, where the reward there was also just an interesting landmark and nothing else. Like one time I found this empty can, jumped inside and there was nothing there. Admittedly and like in Fallout 76, the location was strong enough to be a reward.

Like one time I had to climb up this bush so I could knock a berry off to scavenge it. Not only did it turn Grounded into a 3D platformer, but there was a patrolling spider up there, which created a mini-stealth mission. But while I was exploring there was nothing up there apart from some Raw Science.

Something as simple as a unique weapon, unique armour or rare crafting materials would have been great. And Obsidian are aware of this, as some areas do have rewards in them. There’s this ants nest you can explore and if you fight your way past some soldier ants, you find some unique Bee armour and a tape.

The tape can be traded into BURG.L to unlock more items in his shop. These types of rewards are great, but they are far too rare in Grounded currently. Like most elements, the foundations are there, they just need to be built upon. Overall, I was pretty impressed with Grounded during my 9 hours with the game.

I did have a lot of memorable moments, but I feel like more is needed to make it great. More environmental variety, more dungeons, and more depth to the combat would be a great start. Due to its premise alone, there are so many interesting ways this game could go.

How about a level in a neighbours house, where you have to navigate upstairs while avoiding their pet dog. Or how about a level in the sewer where you have to take down the Rat King Boss. These unique gameplay moments would not only be fun, but would make Grounded stand out from its competitors.

I know that I would definitely play something like that. In a year's time, when more content is added to the game, I’m confident it will be great. There is so much potential to develop this game further and I am genuinely excited to see where it goes.