Grounded - shrunken kids first-person co-op survival game from Obsidian

[ADL]

Grounded is Obsidian's sleeper hit and I hope it does well. It's like Fallout 76's first year before they added Wastelanders but way better.

 

[Infinitron]

The Grounded team is proud to announce that over 10 million players have visited the Backyard! In honor of this milestone, Game Director Adam Brennecke recorded this message for everyone.

As part of celebrating this grand achievement that wouldn't be possible without all of you, the team is putting Grounded up for a Steam free weekend!

Running from February 10 at 10:00 AM PT through February 13 at 8:00 PM PT, new players can experience Grounded and check out the latest update, Into the Wood, through the free weekend.

And don’t forget, Grounded supports cross-play so Steam players can play with both Xbox and PC Game Pass players at any time, meaning if you have friends who haven't played with you yet, now is the time!

Grounded is only getting bigger and better as the team makes progress towards the 1.0 release later this year and we could not do it without all the support that our community has given us. Thank you for helping us make Grounded the game you, and the dev team, want to play.

Until next time, stay safe and stay grounded, friends!

 

[ADL]

Check out the free weekend. It's great.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Surprised to learn so many children under 8 are allowed consistent Internet access. But I won't begrudge obsidian finally finding their audience. God knows crpgs were not a good fit for them.

 

[Zombra]

Check out the free weekend. It's great.

Still waiting for the game to actually be done. Not gonna play this more than once.

 

[Duraframe300]

 

[Nano]

Quality content from RPG developer Obsidian Entertainment.

 

[agris]

I just learned about this game, and to think there's been Obsidian shills since November of 2019...

 

[Infinitron]

Join Shyla, Obsidian's Social Media Manager, as you go through and learn how the bugs are are starting to work together to bring the fight back to your base! With 3 new base defense modes, more things to collect in the backyard, and tons of quality of life improvements, this is one update you won't want to miss!

Shyla needs to lose weight.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

made myself watch all of it and I have to say... it actually looks more interesting than anything obsidian has put out since FNV.

and it's kinda hard to argue it's not an RPG. Seems to have character progression, equipment with choices(including upgrade paths), quests with a main story

 

[ADL]

This really fucked with my old farming methods. Played for about three hours today and I'm already noticing some of these changes. I'm going to have to really fortify my outposts throughout the map with the new turrets they've added.

Faction Reactivity

Bugs will take the fight back to your base when they get tired of you intruding on their territory or killing their kind. The more you annoy a particular species, the more likely they will say "knock knock!" at your door.

Especially now that they can jump. Some of the old meta base locations are screwed.

Bug Jumping
Some bugs have evolved to get you where you previously felt safe. Bugs hate cheese...

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Duraframe300]

Haven't played since the first preview. Looking forward to it.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

https://deadline.com/2022/07/xbox-video-game-grounded-in-the-works-animated-series-1235064968/

Xbox Video Game ‘Grounded’ In The Works As Animated Series From ‘Star Wars: Clone Wars’ Brent Friedman​

EXCLUSIVE: Grounded is the latest videogame that is being adapted as a TV series.

The Xbox videogame, which was inspired by A Bug’s Life and Honey I Shrunk The Kids, is being adapted by Star Wars: Clone Wars writer Brent Friedman.

It marks the latest videogame to get the television treatment following the likes of Netflix’s Arcane and Paramount+’s Halo.

The series, which exists in the same universe as the game, follows four friends, who the summer before high school, plan “big things” to elevate their social standing, but their plans are upended when they stumble upon shrinking technology that makes them two inches tall. Now the four shrunken friends must learn to survive in a towering backyard that’s a jungle full of enormous predators and hiding a vast corporate conspiracy threatening their entire town.

The game was released via early access in July 2020 and has had over 10M players and will be launched wider in September.

Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox are adapting the game into a series in association with Waterproof Studios/SC Productions, Kinetic Media and Bardel Entertainment

Friedman, who also wrote on Star Trek: Enterprise and is adapting Earthworm Jim into a series, will craft the story with Brien Goodrich, who worked on the Halo videogame attached to direct.

The move comes as the development team will be hosting an in-person booth in the interactive zone at San Diego Comic Con in July. The show will then be taken to Kidscreen and Mipcom later this year.

“We couldn’t be more excited about diving into the whimsical universe of Grounded. This partnership will be one of great collaboration, expanding on an already wonderful journey of exploration and adventure,” said Tina Chow, CEO, Bardel Entertainment.

“The team at Obsidian have created an incredible world that has already grabbed the attention of the gaming community. We are excited to work with our incredible partners to bring the story to life in an animated series, added Carl Whiteside, MD, WP/SC Productions.

Adam Brennecke was Obsidian's real MVP all along

 

[ADL]

If that's what it takes to get ongoing support and potentially a sequel, all for it. This game is the best of its kind and the only "survival game" that I've been able to stomach.

 

[polo]

A friend who knows nothing about obsidian told me it was quite good too, but incomplete.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Obsidian is y'alls boy. I never claimed them. Not once.

 

[Infinitron]

Release date is September 27th:

Today marks two years for Grounded! We love you all and are thankful to share this journey with you.

As a special treat, Game Director Adam Brennecke is here to share what's coming in the flight that is available NOW, and the release date of the 1.0 launch! Give it a watch and then hop in the 0.14 Public Test!

NOTE: The Public Test is only available to players on Steam at this time. We hope to release it to Xbox players tomorrow morning. Thank you.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/grounded-review-a-delightful-mix-of-harsh-survival-and-warm-hearted-design

Grounded review - a delightful mix of harsh survival and warm-hearted design​

De-bugged.

Grounded's charming, Honey I Shrunk the Kids premise is elevated by its uniquely welcoming approach to wonder.

The first time Grounded killed me, I was beaten to death by a lawn mite. You know; those teeny, tiny little red bugs that could line-dance on a head of a pin and scurry along paving stones, looking like they couldn't hurt anything? Yeah. One of those. Emphasis on the "one", too, as this lad had been alone. And yet he'd taken one look at my sassy side ponytail and (correctly) presumed I was an easy target. Was it unexpected? You bet. Scary? Surprisingly so. Embarrassing? Yes. Very.

Given I'm still on Day One of my survival journey I'd been hoping for a gentle tutorial period, but this bad boy had barrelled towards me, focused and unflinching, like a toddler locks onto a ball pit. A single thought flickers through my head: if these are the early enemies, what the hell are the strong ones like?!

The second time I cark it, I died of thirst. It wasn't that I ignored the instruction to get something to drink as much as I was distracted by the glorious wilderness – well, if you can call a suburban backyard the wilderness – and I didn't realise until the sun went down that I was missing the sap required to rustle up a torch. So, instead of creating a Lean To and hunkering down for the night, I huddled beneath the Kid Case spawn point instead – hotly aware of every slither and scuttle around me – and slowly expired of acute dehydration. Turns out that was more embarrassing than being walloped to death by the mite.

The truth is, if you're not killing yourself on Grounded, something else will be instead. Though it dresses itself up in a cutesy cartoon aesthetic, beneath the sun-dappled biomes is the stone-cold heart of a skilled and complex survival sim that I utterly underestimated: and it's brilliant.

You've seen it, right? The Honey, I Shrunk The Kids-esque backyard survival game that stole the XO19 show back in 2019? It launched as an early access title the summer after it was announced – and a free one at that, at least to Xbox Game Pass subscribers – and has since built up a passionate fanbase that makes me feel very, very bad about my lack of imagination and creative flair.


The reason I'd avoided it thus far is because of bugs, and by that, I mean actual critter bugs, not gameplay ones. My arachnophobia is epically bad, which means that even though I'd pushed the wonderful spider-safe mode slider the full distance, the gloopy legless blobs that scuttle around Oak Hill still bring me out in a cold sweat.

To be clear: just because it doesn't quite work for me doesn't mean I'm not incredibly appreciative that that arachnophobia Safe Mode exists! More games should have one, actually, for any in-game critters that trigger common phobias, such as rats, snakes, and so on. My problem, I think, is that the way the blobs move is too reminiscent of spiders. That, and the fact they hiss if you stray too close; it's a dreadful sound, almost as bad as the big boys in Animal Crossing: New Horizons… and that's saying something.

Consequently, it doesn't matter how wonderfully cartoony its presentation is; Grounded won't feel like a gentle romp in the backyard as much as it will feel like a Fear Factor audition tape for anyone with a problem with bugs, especially spiders. And sadly, it's not just a matter of avoiding their nests, either; many of the resources you'll need early on are scattered around the roots of a gnarly oak tree, which just oh-so-happens to be the preferred hangout of the spiders, too. And while you can outrun them – well, if you don't get caught on the numerous environmental hazards, that is – they're incredibly tough and difficult to kill. At times like these, Grounded often feels as much like a survival horror as a pure survival game.


Oh, but it's beautiful though! Big, bold, gloriously colourful biomes stretch across your miniature kingdom, stuffed with vibrant, oversized flora that itches to be explored. Forests of grass tower over you, rippling in the wind, sun streaming in between the blades and dappling the ground in light and shadow. Browning leaves litter the ground to create little makeshift tunnels that double as handy landmarks. There's a serene, sun-touched Koi pond, festooned with a carpet of lush green lilypads. Maybe it's just a quirk of my limited time with the game, but it's a shame I didn't see the weather changes, as I can imagine the world – and the things you can do in it – change significantly in colder climes.

That's not all, either. Beyond the natural splendour lies a smorgasbord of oversized sights to behold, including a special juice box and discarded cans and mysteriously miniature-sized field stations where you can analyse your findings, and critters stick to their respective homes like uneasy strangers at a dinner party, so you'll quickly learn where to find (and where to avoid) the locals.


And pretty much everything you find can be repurposed into something else; grass stems can be used to build walls around a cosy little base. Pebbles can be thrown into the air and dislodge dew drops for a refreshing drink. You can just about survive by eating the world's wild mushrooms but if you want a more satisfying meal, you're going to have to build yourself a roasting spit. Use a rock and some plant fibres to fashion a little hammer, and that can be used to smash up acorns and provide a tough shell. You'll need to unlock crafting recipes as you go, and construct a workbench in order to knock up the fancier stuff.

It's such a joy to see your skills, abilities, and confidence grow with every new crafting unlock, be it an essential – say, a water canteen or a sturdy armour set – or a change to your homely base that is a fabulous but utterly unnecessary cosmetic improvement. There is a way to unlock all recipes for free at the start of the game (although the menu that sits in doesn't seem to be working at the time of writing this), but honestly, discovering these things on your own by analysing absolutely every item you come across is an absolute delight.

It can be grindy sometimes, though. Like any survival game, some of your time will be taken up by scavenging for ingredients, and some are easier to come by than others (thank the lord for the sap catcher, as I struggle to see the stuff out in the wild), but there's no race here. No time limits. The main draw of the 1.0 version will be the inclusion of the (fascinating) story elements, something players have been calling for, and whilst this new feature has been woven skillfully around its the sandbox elements, Grounded is one of those wonderful playgrounds that thrives even without a story mode; we know, because thousands of people have already invested thousands of hours doing so.


The desire to explore trumps every instinct to follow simple instructions, and whilst you'll soon learn that you can drop a lean-to pretty much anywhere to sleep out the night, remembering things like feeding and hydrating yourself can become mild annoyances. Dropping the difficulty can help with this; in fact, Grounded offers an array of accessibility and preference settings, enabling you to disarm friendly fire if you're co-oping, neutralise hostile bugs, or make yourself invulnerable, albeit they weren't changeable at the time of writing. But once you find your groove and build yourself a little home… well, the world's your teeny, tiny oyster.

There are a few little issues. The map's a little useless – I have the directional sense of a crumpled napkin, and thus could've really done with a handy little radar or mini-map on the HUD as I couldn't always make out waypoint icons in amongst the busyness of the game's striking environments – and it's oh-so-easy to get snared on the terrain around you. This is frustrating enough when you're exploring, but maddeningly unfair when you're trying to outrun an angry predator.

Beyond that, though, it's hard to complain about what Obsidian has delivered here. As someone who instinctively shies away from survival games, Grounded's stunning, ant's-eye presentation of the natural world and plethora of personalisation settings make me feel surprisingly welcomed… even if that welcome involves the occasional hissing spider.

https://www.pcgamer.com/grounded-review/

GROUNDED REVIEW​

Obsidian's survival romp is one of the best.​

I haven't taken a survey, but I feel pretty confident that nobody at PC Gamer is more afraid of spiders than I am. They petrify me—unless they manage to get on me, at which point I flail around like I'm on fire. And I'd rather be set on fire than feel a spider crawling over my skin. Given this, it's ridiculous that I'd put myself in a situation where I had to review a game that was full of them. But for a survival game as good as Grounded, I'm willing to live through one of my worst nightmares.

Grounded is a time travel device, dragging me back to the garden where I used to spend long, sunny afternoons pretending I was in Eternia or Third Earth, collecting grass stains and scrapes. It's a game fuelled by vibrant '90s cartoons and movies like Honey I Shrunk the Kids, with a quartet of kidnapped, shrunken teens exploring the alien world that's right under our noses.

It's a whimsical survival sandbox that feels considerably more playful and welcoming than most, which is why its occasional pivots to arachnid horror are so effective. Back when it launched in early access, Grounded's threats were few. The massive, terrifying spiders that littered the garden never wandered far and were easy to outmanoeuvre, lulling me into a false sense of security. But with every update, they became deadlier, transforming into relentless hunters searching for prey in areas I once considered sanctuaries.

So even though I'd played a lot of Grounded before diving into 1.0, I still had to study my eight-legged nemeses, figuring out their behaviours and weaknesses—a process that typically involved sacrificing myself. It's possible to target creatures by cupping your hands together, making a fleshy telescope, which reveals their resistances and vulnerabilities, but for more information you really need to follow them around and watch how they interact with their ecosystem.

All of the garden's inhabitants have their own patterns and peculiarities. Red ants, for instance, are peaceful but inquisitive when first encountered. They'll fight other bugs, but if you leave them alone they'll not get in your way. If you invade their nest, however, the soldier ants will try to drive you out. And if you start doing some aggressive garden maintenance by squashing lots of friendly ants, they might even declare war and try to chase you out of the garden. And that's why my very first base had to be abandoned.

Ground war​

The world is just so tantalisingly reactive, and it's a reactivity you're encouraged to exploit. I killed my first stinkbug—a poison-spewing devil-beast—by creating a three-way brawl between it, a ladybug and a group of ants. The bugs have all the physical advantages, but you've got that clever human brain.

Sometimes the best path to victory is cheating a little bit. Maybe you'll climb up somewhere you can't be reached, peppering your enemies with arrows. Or maybe you'll be even more cunning, drawing them towards a place where you know they'll get stuck. So while the critter AI seems troublingly effective at times, it's also easily baffled or broken. Rather than an issue that needs to be fixed, however, the ability to win fights through cheesy tactics just feels like another legitimate survival strategy, and even in a state of befuddlement the garden's biggest predators are still intimidating menaces.

There are few sandboxes that feel this alive. The garden is never at rest, and every step you take is accompanied by a cacophony of bug noises—at first seemingly discordant, but eventually reassuring and familiar. Visibility is low when you're surrounded by tree-sized grass, but after living in the garden for so long, now I can paint a picture of it using my ears. I feel like a tiny wilderness expert, all thanks to the incredible sound design. At least until I get distracted and something nasty sneaks up on me.

This happens a lot more in co-op. Just the other night I was chatting away with a friend after they narrowly escaped a spider. We were hanging out in our base next to a building-sized juice box (which I've since turned into a watchtower) discussing how safe we felt, and how we were hidden from any spiders that may have followed him back. Too late, during a break in the conversation, I heard an alien noise: something akin to footsteps, but with more implied menace. And then a leg appeared, coming around the corner.

My friend was murdered first. He didn't stand a chance. I was ready to leap into the water, where I knew the wolf spider couldn't follow, but I wanted vengeance. I rushed towards the demon with my pitiful club and a half-hearted battle cry. It reared up, red eyes glowing, evil fangs at the ready, and let out an unearthly shriek. I didn't even get to hit it once.

The horror is so effective, especially once night falls, that I've caught myself whispering several times, even though these spiders aren't yet able to hear conversations over Discord. And whenever I've felt safe, that's when the spiders have attacked. I woke up one morning to find one of them just hanging out on my roof—a harrowing encounter that's got nothing on the time one of them smashed through my wall.

Escape is the premise that drives Grounded forward. You need to unravel the mystery of your kidnapping and find a way to get big again, exploring labs that were built by the scientist who made the monumental breakthrough that led to your unfortunate situation. These lab excursions can be pretty tricky, and even the easiest one sends you into a spider-infested hedge. Even if escape isn't on your mind, the labs are a great source of Raw Science, which makes life in the garden a lot easier—if you want to survive, you need to get smarter.

Brain power​

Raw Science is effectively experience, filling a meter until you level up and unlock new crafting recipes. It can be found out in the wild in finite quantities, but you can earn more by completing simple quests for BURG.L, a friendly, bumbling robot. Analysing resources and bug parts at field stations also unlocks related crafting recipes and gives you yet more Raw Science. It's handy to have multiple ways to unlock these recipes, but the level system can sometimes feel superfluous as a result.

More than a few times I've earned nothing at all upon levelling up because I've already unlocked the recipes by using the analyser, taking the wind out of my sails just a little bit. And that's all you get when you gain a new level; things like health and stamina upgrades are connected to an entirely different system. Traits, too, are handled separately, by a mutation system that gives you significant advantages for completing challenges. Kill a lot of bugs with your spear, for instance, and your spear attacks will start to lower your foe's defences. You can only select two at a time, however, though that number can eventually be increased to five. The pace of progression is great, making you quickly feel like you're getting a handle on this survival malarkey, but I'd prefer fewer systems with less overlap.

While levelling up might not always feel very meaningful, collecting Raw Science is still imperative because it can also be spent at a lab computer on special recipes that can't be unlocked anywhere else. These range from longer-lasting torches that will let you delve deeper into anthills and spider lairs, to sturdy fortifications that will turn your base into a fortress, and the list of recipes expands every time you discover one of BURG.L's lost chips, hidden throughout the garden.

Crafting and construction benefit greatly from the creative setting. Even though you're often making familiar items like swords, chests and walls, every single object reinforces the fact that you're pocket-sized. So instead of making a sword with steel, you'll need to hunt down a deadly mosquito and harvest its proboscis. Tangoing with a flying monster who could potentially kill you with a couple of jabs is just a bit more thrilling than mining and smelting ore. Since Grounded runs on cartoon logic, that mosquito sword will also heal you by stealing the blood of your enemies. Isn't nature marvellous?

That logic applies to base building, as well, which is flexible and gravity-defying enough to allow you to erect a massive structure that snakes up the side of an oak tree using only twigs and grass. Everything can be recycled, refunding a portion of the cost, while furniture and crafting stations can easily be relocated. It's simple and forgiving enough so that you can really start putting together elaborate builds not long after you arrive in the garden. You'll unlock all the basic parts quickly, and the resources they require can be found nearly everywhere.

Adventure time​

It can be tempting to focus on perfecting your safe, comfy base, but there's always something nudging you out the door, whether it's the need for food and water, or a new recipe demanding rare resources. What you need might be in an unknown area, and Grounded seems to delight in giving you shopping lists full of things you're probably not equipped to find—usually in the form of a limb from a bug that will squash you in seconds. I found that to be a great motivator, though, and there's usually more than one way to get what you need.

Go exploring and you'll come across hidden weapons, spider sacks containing new bug parts and resources (and horrible spider babies), and plenty of Raw Science—all of it waiting to be snatched up by a bold idiot.

That's what I was hoping to find when I wandered, unprepared, into an anthill for the first time. Instead I just found lots of eggs. Not wanting to go home empty handed, I started grabbing them, at which point every ant lost their shit. And then my torch went out. I flailed around, ran into walls, yelled quite a bit, but I still managed to escape with a sliver of health and my prize: four eggs. The sun had set while I was having my misadventure, so I hoofed it back to my base to get some well-earned rest. Figuring out what to do with the eggs could wait until tomorrow, I thought. When tomorrow arrived, however, the eggs were gone, replaced by four fully-grown ants. In my house. Messing my shit up. And that's how I accidentally became an ant farmer.

The default settings are well-tuned, delivering a cavalcade of tense but surmountable adventures where death is a pest rather than the end. You can get your inventory back by finding your grave, though your gear will be slightly damaged. But Grounded is flexible enough to generate all sorts of survival experiences. If you'd rather build and explore without any risks, you can turn all the threats off, letting you bound around without being worried about starving or becoming spider food. Coupled with its myriad accessibility options, including an arachnophobia mode that turns spiders into amorphous blobs, this makes it a game with very few barriers and an abundance of tools.

I thought I'd grown tired of survival systems and arduous corpse runs, but in Grounded I haven't been tempted to turn off any of the dangers even once. I'd miss trying to dodge bombardier beetle artillery strikes while I'm searching for food, or hunkering down under a tree root praying that the prowling spider doesn't notice me. I'm happy to put up with all sorts of obstacles if they're thrilling enough.

Knowing that death could come from any direction, I've been forced to figure out safe routes through the garden, jumping across the natural platforms created by grass and clover to stay above all the threats. Where there are no paths, I've made them myself, constructing bridges, stairs and zip-lines everywhere, allowing me to reach my far-flung outposts. Slowly but surely, I've been taming this wilderness and turning it into my own personal playground.

When I was small, I made my plain suburban garden the most exciting place on Earth, and Obsidian has done the same. I've been chased by whale-sized carp, ridden ladybugs like an insect-hunting knight and massacred bees on top of forgotten action figures. Every new section of the garden is another alien world waiting to be explored, understood and then conquered. It's the most fun I've had in any survival game, even if my fear of spiders has only grown more acute.

THE VERDICT
90

GROUNDED
Grounded is a delightfully creative and occasionally terrifying survival sandbox.

 

[Haba]

New Infinitron theme:

They see me shillin'
They hatin'
Shitpostin' and tryna catch me ratin' dirty

 

[Ivan]

congrats Adam and team. looking forward to playing this w/the nephew

 

[Jenkem]

You guys laughed when I said this would be the best game Obsidian has ever made...

 

[Bigg Boss]

Is this game for pedophiles?