Obsidian Entertainment, the legendary studio that brought us gems like Fallout: New Vegas or South Park: The Stick of Truth, released a new video game called Grounded in 2022. This survival title with a promising premise of kids shrinking and having to survive in their backyard became one of the most acclaimed Xbox exclusives, as it was distributed by Xbox Game Studios.
Due to Microsoft’s new proposal to bring its best exclusives to competing consoles, Grounded was ported to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch a few days ago. This allowed you to experience this curious game to an even larger audience and we had the opportunity to test the PS5 version. Here we’ll tell you about the best (and worst) of this Obsidian Entertainment project, and tell you if it’s worth buying it on your console.
What exactly is Grounded about?
Four teenagers, Pete, Max, Willow and Hoops, disappear from their homes and turn up cowering in the backyard of a house. They must survive the wild environment, figure out how they got there and try to get back to normal. And that’s all we’ll tell you about Grounded’s plot because that’s all the game initially tells you. This is one of those narratives that relies heavily on mystery, as it will be up to the player to put the pieces of the puzzle together to discover the truth of what happened to these kids. It’s not a particularly deep plot, but it serves its purpose of causing a lot of intrigue to motivate the player to move forward.
Despite its intriguing story, at least we can say that Grounded has a cute sense of humor and the whole experience has a lot of personality. The concept of a survival video game that takes place in an ordinary location (like a backyard) but is made dangerous because the characters are small is quite original and this game capitalizes on that premise in crazy and fun ways. That’s why we’re not surprised that there are already plans to adapt this game into a TV series.
Exploring a dangerous but beautiful world
In our opinion, Grounded’s strongest point is its mesmerizing atmosphere. The environments, lighting, sounds, music and voice acting all work together to make you feel intimidated by this dangerous world, but also motivated to move forward to solve this story. It’s a game that knows very well when to use musical themes and when to stay silent to adapt to each situation. When it does play, the music is quite pleasant and has an electronic theme, similar to the soundtrack of a classic sci-fi movie.
The luxury of detail in Grounded’s courtyard is exceptional. Every step you take is going to be filled with curious, funny, and memorable details. From the insects you encounter (whether dangerous or benevolent) to everyday objects that look like huge structures from this minimalist point of view, such as toys or food. You can tell that Obsidian Entertainment put a lot of effort into creating a really interesting world and we can’t help but praise this achievement.
Grounded’s art style is cartoonish and, although it doesn’t look bad at all, we can’t deny that at times it looks a bit cheap for a video game that was published by one of the biggest companies in the industry. But these mediocre graphics end up benefiting the player, since on PlayStation 5, Grounded works perfectly. There is no lag at all and everything loads at extreme speeds. The only exception is when we try to load our game from the pause menu: If your last Save Point is too far away, the game can take several seconds to load. But luckily this doesn’t happen when you die, as in that instance it does load immediately.
A ruthless survival experience
Don’t be fooled by the colorful graphics and the curious premise: Grounded is first and foremost a survival video game. And it’s important to clarify right now that if you like this type of games, then you’ll love this one. After choosing your character, you’ll have to explore the different corners of the courtyard, not only to discover what happened, but also to stay alive. You’ll start with almost nothing, but slowly you’ll be able to defeat enemies and collect items to get stronger and build other things, such as weapons, armor, furniture or even structures.
Another important aspect of Grounded is the classic mechanics of the survival genre. Your character must constantly feed and hydrate himself to stay alive, not to mention that you’ll have to pay attention to his energy bar every time you perform an action. Although these types of mechanics are typical of this genre, the truth is that they are quite annoying and will ruin your experience if keeping track of your hunger, thirst and energy isn’t something you find particularly fun.
It is also important to clarify that this is a very difficult video game, and your results will depend on how good you are at surviving. Every enemy creature you encounter in Grounded, which would normally be small animals in any other context, can be really dangerous and defeat you in seconds if you are not careful. From small ants, to the biggest spiders, almost everything in the courtyard will try to kill you. And if you do lose, there is a chance that you will come back a long way.
However, in Grounded the save points are set by the player, so how much progress you lose is entirely up to you. Another important element to lose is your backpack: Every time you die, you will lose your backpack with a large amount of your items. But luckily, you can go back to where you lost them and retrieve them. And they never disappear. No matter how many times you die or how far you’ve gone, you can always recover lost backpacks. This is another divisive element of the game that has the potential to make or break your experience, depending on how much you like these ruthless mechanics.
One aspect in which Grounded disappointed us a lot is in its mobility and combat system. When it comes to fighting, the main character is quite slow and uncomfortable to use, while the bugs are fast and can defeat you in seconds, which can be very frustrating. The platforming in this game also left a lot to be desired. When you have to explore a flat surface, everything works perfectly. But when you have to go jumping between the branches of a tree, the controls are again a bit clunky. This is really annoying because you always know that if you make a mistake and fall from a long distance, you will die and lose a lot of progress.
The main story of this game can be very difficult, but this is where its open-ended nature comes into play. If you’re having trouble with a particular section, you can always head to another area of the map, collect new resources and build new weapons and armor to come back later when you’re much stronger. And even if you’re not in a hurry to complete Grounded’s story, this world is full of life and you’ll always find things to do. It’s a video game with many hours of content, especially because the PS5 version already includes the Fully Yoked expansion, which comes with new enemies, new items and new features that expand the experience.
Truth be told, Grounded is not a game for everyone. Despite its charismatic personality, intriguing story and fascinating world, the gameplay is extremely challenging. This is a raw survival experience that you will only enjoy if you are already familiar with this genre. If that’s your case, then we can’t help but recommend it, as its gameplay is intense, but satisfying; everything works perfectly. But, on the other hand, if you are looking for something easier and more relaxing, this title is not for you.
Grounded: Fully Yoked Edition is currently available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Many thanks to Obsidian Entertainment for giving us the opportunity to review this title.
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