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

[Ivan]

Is this game for pedophiles?

only if you can remove clothing items

 

[Kruyurk]

Is this game for pedophiles?

The Japanese RPGs section is just over there https://rpgcodex.net/forums/forums/jrpg-weeaboo-discussion.60/

 

[Bigg Boss]

I'm just making sure guys gawd. It looks ok.

 

[Flou]

I still think this thread should be under Obsidian's "folder" and not under general gaming. Stop being edgy Infinitron.
The game itself is very good. Really glad that Adam and the team got to work on such passion project, it shows.

 

[Zombra]

I still think this thread should be under Obsidian's "folder" and not under general gaming. Stop being edgy Infinitron.
The game itself is very good. Really glad that Adam and the team got to work on such passion project, it shows.

The Obsidian folder is under the RPG section ... this game is not an RPG.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

It allows you to play a role of 8yo kid, both in game and irl*, which is a revolutionary crpg mechanic.

*Just without good games that were available when you actually were 8yo.

 

[Duraframe300]

 

[rusty_shackleford]

this game is not an RPG.

more of an rpg than some games in grpg

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Flou]

I still think this thread should be under Obsidian's "folder" and not under general gaming. Stop being edgy Infinitron.
The game itself is very good. Really glad that Adam and the team got to work on such passion project, it shows.

The Obsidian folder is under the RPG section ... this game is not an RPG.

And? It would make more sense to have every Obsidian related game thread under their folder instead of spreading them out just out of spite.

 

[Ivan]

made it 30 min and quit. I don't have the patience/mind to find the fun in chasing after items>blueprint>items. I couldn't get into Don't Starve either.

first impressions though: you die very fast on Normal, visuals are quite ugly, combat feels limp. I'm sure the kids will enjoy it...nah

 

[Arryosha]

Are the physics/environmental interaction decent in this, or are most things in the environment just static set pieces? This seems like it would be important for me to have fun in this game.

 

[jackofshadows]

first impressions though: you die very fast on Normal, visuals are quite ugly, combat feels limp. I'm sure the kids will enjoy it...nah

Kids will probably enjoy it if they'll play it together. My first impressions were this game's been designed with co-op in mind first and foremost.

 

[whydoibother]

I still think this thread should be under Obsidian's "folder" and not under general gaming. Stop being edgy Infinitron.
The game itself is very good. Really glad that Adam and the team got to work on such passion project, it shows.

The Obsidian folder is under the RPG section ... this game is not an RPG.

Items should be classified under the most exact definition. "Obsidian game" is more exact than "RPG". So it should be under "Obsidian game".
Anyways, Valheim came out during this game's early access, and took its thunder. People who are into these kinds of games probably played Valheim for 200 hours and burned themselves out, and I doubt they'll come back to this.

 

[Ivan]

Are the physics/environmental interaction decent in this, or are most things in the environment just static set pieces? This seems like it would be important for me to have fun in this game.

good sense of place, walking through the blades of grass felt nice, many obstacles, some platforming. I didn't like the floaty Halo jump.

 

[Zombra]

Items should be classified under the most exact definition. "Obsidian game" is more exact than "RPG". So it should be under "Obsidian game".

Not if that definition is wrong. RPGs > Obsidian does not include Obsidian games that are not RPGs.
Or is it a good idea to file things under wrong definitions? In that case, this should be under Obsidian Football Dentist Simulator Rhythm Games, because that's even more exact!

 

[Ivan]

So I gave this a more earnest spin and found lots of things I hated but quite a surprising amount of things I quite liked. By and large, I found this to be a laborious, sissyphian experience, retreading old ground just to upgrade items, I was crying for some sort of fast travel/shortcut system but no. That said, the level design and world design is quite awesome and I loved that the game doesn't have leveled enemies. In fact, I was reminded strongly Gothic more than a few times. I liked that the game doesn't hold your hand in figuring out how to get to your objectives, sure there are objective markers, but given your size, you have to do a lot of the heavy lifting. There were a lot of cool moments where I was able to look back and see how much land I had traversed.

That said, combat feels janky as fuck, like Skyrim first person combat. There's a parrying system which is ok, but combat becomes a clusterfuck fast when fighting multiple enemies. I made it 3/4s of the way through before I couldn't be bothered anymore to return to my home base to make sure my equipment was properly leveled up. Youtube shows the game doubles down on combat tower defense to end itself....yeah fuck that shit.

I'd be happy to check out a sequel that doubles down on the great world design, completely rethinks the progression curve, and adds in some traversal/teleportation tools.

Kudos for reminding me of Gothic + Stalker. Night time is fucking dark, well done.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

retreading old ground just to upgrade items, I was crying for some sort of fast travel/shortcut system but no.

I think the zipline system is a good in between paired with the various movement speed boosts in the game.

 

[mediocrepoet]

By and large, I found this to be a laborious, sissyphian experience, retreading old ground just to upgrade items

Imo that's more of a genre problem for survival games rather than a specific issue for Grounded. Not that I disagree with this assessment, though I haven't tried the game since they had a free demo like a year or so ago.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Alright. I tried playing Subnautica. I tried playing this. I think this genre just isn't for me. It's the tedious inventory management (and going back and forth between various containers which you have to build) that really does it in for me. I think I may only enjoy a game like this if it had an unlimited inventory, or at least something significantly forgiving in that regard. I can't help feeling like my time is being wasted otherwise.

I mostly liked everything else though.

 

[Forest Dweller]

More on that point, here's a comment from a Steam thread involving inventory space:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/962130/discussions/0/3046105389678925997/

Honestly, you should only have 2 sets of armor on you at once at the most depending on what you’re doing. Other than that focus on harvesting certain items per trip out of your base and not gathering everything. For example, first trip focus on combat drops, second trip can focus on clover, sprigs, etc. stuff like this can really make a difference in the long term.

This is the exact way of playing that I can't stand, but which games like this seem to actively encourage (or require?). It makes the game feel like a job instead of a game. I can't see how anyone could find this fun. It's just tedious.

 

[luj1]

this game is not an RPG.

more of an rpg than some games in grpg

almost anything is

 

[MWaser]

The grindyness of grounded is somewhat annoying but that's just a "feature" of the genre, it's not a killer in of itself of the game.
What is the killer of the game is the absolutely shit quality of boss fights and the final "challenge" of the game which are complete dogshit and feel like your effort really never led to anything satisfying or fun, unlike Terraria.

 

[thesheeep]

It makes the game feel like a job instead of a game. I can't see how anyone could find this fun. It's just tedious.

These games thrive on the feeling of immersion and actually being part of the world.
Stuff like unlimited inventory just takes that immersion and breaks its neck with Doomguy-like anger.

Where do you put all that stuff? How can you carry it? Magic pockets? Fuck that shit.
Screw unlimited inventories, there's no in-world explanation for crap like that.

That said, it's not like you couldn't introduce anything to ease the burden - just like you could in the real world.
Daggerfall figured this out in 96 and only a few games have since adapted a similar thing.
In Daggerfall, you could buy a horse cart, which would essentially make your inventory unlimited while traveling, but very much limited while dungeon delving (obviously can't take the horse + cart with you down there).

Speaking about the survival genre, why not introduce some mechanic that counts any item in any container in your base as "in your inventory" for the sake of using crafting stations? Within your own base, opening and closing boxes is a very small thing to believably abbreviate/abstract away.
Or allow investing resources into some kind of carrying mule to reduce the backtracking to a more manageable level.
To be fair, a few games actually do some of that, but it's rare.

Ie in Conan Exiles, you literally have slaves - but there's no way to make them follow you around, carrying your burdens. Wasted opportunity.

But so many games do either unlimited inventory, which sucks, or limited inventory but no other way to ease the burden, even if the game world itself would offer more than enough that could be used for such purpose.
How many RPGs have you seen with mules, carts, etc. yet you somehow can't have any? This always bothers me to no end.

 

[mediocrepoet]

But so many games do either unlimited inventory, which sucks, ...
How many RPGs have you seen with mules, carts, etc. yet you somehow can't have any? This always bothers me to no end.

Unlimited inventory generally represents having horses and carts, etc. and you use your imagination. Needing everything spelled out in full detail is another facet of decline, imo.

That being said, I've hated every survival/crafting type game I've tried, so I'm really not the target audience. I'm more in agreement with Forest Dweller.