Grounded Review

Grounded is a survival-crafting adventure game where the most ordinary things like a backyard become extraordinary because you've been shrunk to the size of an insect. To find your way home, you must survive and fight against a surprisingly diverse insect population. And yes, dear reader, that does include spiders—a lot of different spiders. (Don't worry, there is a Arachnophobia setting.)

So, does Grounded make the survival part a chore or an immersive experience? Let's dive in, and find out.

The Story:

The introduction reveals a mysterious string of teenage kidnappings sweeping across the country, with the latest victims being Pete, Willow, Ally, and Max. When the game switches to a car driving by a suburban backyard, a briefcase is tossed out, and the player wakes up inside it as one of the four missing teens. Unaware of what has just happened, they quickly realize they are now the size of an ant, with no memory of how they even got there.

As you begin exploring, you discover that you're in the backyard of a scientist named Dr. Tully, who possesses a device that could return you to your normal size. There's just one problem: the device isn't working, but thankfully there might be a way to fix it. When exploring one of the broken down labs, the protagonists meet a friendly robot named BURGL. He explains that he may know how to fix the device, if someone could go and recover his memory chips around the backyard.

And so, with a clear goal in mind, the teenagers set out on a big quest in a very small world. 

Grounded establishes a compelling mystery from the start, revealing the truth slowly through text logs and audio recordings. Without going into actual spoilers, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the overarching mystery. The teens themselves frequently comment on their situation and the insects they encounter, which gives them a lot of personality, and makes them very likeable protagonists. By the end, it truly feels like they have forged a deep friendship through their shared ordeal. My only critique is that if you play solo, you miss out on humorous character interactions between the teens. It's a small but significant part about their development that solo players won't experience..

That being said, while a full party of four players provides the most interesting interactions and incentivizes co-op play, the main story remains fully accessible and enjoyable for solo players.  

Gameplay:

As stated earlier, Grounded is a survival-crafting adventure. As is typical for the genre, you will find a vast array of materials spread across the world to analyze and craft new tools, gear or base improvements. You'll also need to hunt for food, and water sources, and upgrade your equipment to manage durability. However, unlike its peers, the setting makes for a unique take on these mechanics: you aren't just hunting animals; you're hunting insects, and water often appears as giant dew drops clinging to the towering blades of grass above you. 

Grounded features a simple but very satisfying combat system, with a wide variety of weapons. You can choose from one-handed options like weapons such as spears, axes and hammers, or two-handed weapons like clubs, swords etc. There are even bows with various specialized ammo types,. Regardless of your choice, all weapons allow you to charge up attacks to deliver devastating blows that can potentially stun your six to eight legged foes. 

In combat, insects will retaliate in efficient and deadly ways. To survive, you'll need master the timing of your shield or block to parry their blows. It feels a bit like a boxing match, except the opponent has far more fangs and, for most players, looks absolutely terrifying.

Early on, you're incentivized to explore and discover new locations, not just for materials but potentially for other secrets. Beyond crafting, your character can be upgraded in two other ways. While exploring, you will find white and golden "milk molars." These can be used to upgrade stats such as max health, stamina, how fast you heal overtime, and how slowly you succumb to hunger or thirst..

The second method involves "Mutations," which are earned by fighting with specific weapons or achieving feats around the backyard. Mutations provide passive buffs that increases your combat prowess or exploration utility. For example, "Ant annihilator" increases damage against ants, while "Natural Explorer" boosts movement speed. There are many to collect, all with different unlock requirements. Unfortunately, without a wiki, players are often left guessing how to unlock specific ones. However, they offer excellent build variety and allow you to swap between four different presets on the fly! 

Additionally, you're encouraged to build a cozy base; the "cozier" your home is, the better the "rested" buff  and rewards you receive. Just beware of revenge raids by the bugs, they remember your slaughter, and they will strike back.

Pros and Cons:

Let's start with the pros. Grounded has an addicting and fun gameplay loop, you'll consistently get rewarded for exploring and improving both yourself and the base. There is always a smarter way to get around the backyard, plus it's heavily incentivized, and rewarding to build shortcuts to make exploration easier.

There is a good amount of insects to fight which keeps combat interesting and rewards the player for changing up their tactics alongside giving good choices of build variety, and playstyles. 

The soundtrack is surprisingly memorable and gives an immersive 80's vibe. Most insects have their own theme which effectively can either excite or terrify the player when it starts. Personal favorite is the cheesy but very loveable end credit song.

You can customize your difficulty or settings fairly freely, which makes things like durability or even food and thirst meters obsolete if that's what the player wants, the trade off is that achievements get turned off in such a run.

The bugs have a lot of character and fairly memorable sounds. It makes the game immersive when it's easy to recognize what bug is approaching purely based on its sound.

The game goes for a full 80's vibe and has a pleasing cartoony aesthetic.

There does exist an Arachnophobia setting which changes all the spiders into comically floating blobs. There is even different degrees of it!

As for the cons... As much as I like the story, you miss out on a bit too much characterization by playing with fewer players. It would have been nice if the other teens could have at least been NPCs in your base, which would still let you experience the things they say to each other. Sadly, that is not the case.

Speaking of bases, certain "auto-build" features are locked behind creative mode. While these would make base building a lot smoother, enabling them in a standard playthrough requires changing the settings, which, as stated, disables achievements. Unless you have already beaten the game or don't care about achievements, those features feel restricted. (Setting up a server, especially between Xbox and Steam accounts, can on occasions be a bit of a headache.)

Closing Thoughts:

Grounded is a well-made and well-paced experience from start to finish. With the help of the community's feedback during early access, the developers managed to balance the best of all the genres they tackled, creating a very enjoyable game for solo players—but especially for those playing with friends. Somehow, they managed to make quite a few bugs cute as well, and that alone is an impressive feat.

VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on PC