Grounded Xbox early access review: Honey, I shrunk my free time

Source: Windows Central

Grounded is now in early access for Steam and Xbox Game Pass, and has defied expectations to deliver over a one thousand thousand players in but a few days.

Grounded was built by just xiii people at Obsidian over the course of two years, and already captured the imagination of the industry for its unique setting and nostalgia-saturated survival gameplay.

While we don't score games that are still in an unfinished preview state, I thought I'd jot down some thoughts on the current state of the game, what I love, and where I promise to run across it go in the time to come.

This is Grounded, a game almost beingness tiny — with truly massive potential.

A huge tiny run a risk

Grounded

$30 / Xbox Game Pass

Bottom line: Fifty-fifty at this early stage, Grounded is an incredibly fun take chances with heady combat and creative survival gameplay.

Pros:

• Dandy construction tools
• Amazing, unique setting
• Satisfying combat system
• Raw unbridled potential

Cons:

• Early-access crude edges grow
• Seriously needs defended servers

What I love about Grounded

Source: Windows Fundamental

When I first wrote most Grounded, it was from the perspective of an before build with a hard 30-infinitesimal time limit on play sessions, equally Obsidian gathered information in its closed beta. Long story short: I loved Grounded then, and I love it even more than now.

Grounded was flying under the radar quite difficult with the wider gaming press, but establish its audience chop-chop after launching into Steam and Xbox Game Pass, winning over a million players in only a few days and topping streaming charts on Twitch. And information technology's clear to meet why.

Grounded'south setting is totally under-explored in the industry. There are a few games where you're shrunk down, but they're usually as part of a single level or outcome. There are very few games that actually targeted that Honey, I Shrunk the Kids nostalgia, but Grounded went all-in and utterly nailed information technology.

Source: Windows Central

Yous play as ane of 4 pre-divers teens, inexplicably shrunk down and deposited into a backyard brimming with hungry insects and gigantic flora. Grounded will have a story, just the early access version merely features a few elements of the wider plot here and there. Conspicuously, some sort of scientific discipline experiment went wrong, leaving y'all in the midst of a unsafe adventure. The backyard is dotted with abandoned science facilities and bunkers, some of them locked out for hereafter content patches. At that place are also audio logs here and there which add together some context. It'll be interesting to encounter where Obsidian takes the plot, which certainly has obvious potential.

Therein lies the existent excitement with Grounded: information technology's all about that raw potential. The game features a dozen or so insect types, just there are hundreds they could add, from scorpions to wasps, to praying mantids, grasshoppers, and beyond. The way Obsidian has designed the game's crafting loop echoes the likes of Monster Hunter, where you arts and crafts weapons and armor from the creatures you defeat in combat. This adds a compelling reason to undertake the challenge of fighting beasties more than powerful than yourself, learning their behaviors and combat patterns, planning your attacks, and even building traps if needs be. Every time they add a new bug, information technology could come with new armor types, adding new playstyles, new weapons, and more. It's exciting to call up about.

Speaking of gainsay, Grounded's combat is relatively basic but satisfying to participate in. Skyrim-mode, Grounded has both offset and third-person modes, with archery, and melee combat with typical combos and heavy attacks. Where Grounded diverges a bit is with its perfect blocks and stunning system. Smack a bug in the head enough with a high-stun rating weapon and it volition get mazed, similarly to how status effects build up in Monster Hunter with repeated attacks. If you time a block perfectly past learning the unlike bug's attack animations, y'all tin can negate impairment completely too, which rewards practice and precision. It's a relatively bones system, only it'southward easy to see how it could exist expanded with new status furnishings, new weapon types, and other contraptions.

Like any self-respecting sandbox survival game, Grounded likewise features a crafting system that youngsters familiar with Fortnite volition find themselves right at habitation with. You lot can construct floors, walls, platforms, windows, doors, and all sorts of tools to aid in your survival, built from blades of grass and weed stems. I appreciate the attending to detail with the arrangement also. Instead of stuffing huge blades of grass into a magical bottomless inventory dimension, you have to transport them on your shoulder to where you want to become them to. Information technology adds a layer of immersion often missing from survival sandbox games that also feeds aspects of the game'due south tense atmospherics. If you get attacked while heaving a pile of grass planks across the map, you may take to drop them to run.

Source: Windows Primal

Make no mistake, I've described Grounded as a horror game in the by, and if you're scared of spiders it tin can truly take you to some fearful moments. The game'due south day and dark cycles drag the game'south living ecosystem. Certain bugs slumber during the day, while others become more aggressive, and seek out prey to consume — namely you. Spiders are also incredibly stealthy while on the hunt. Turning effectually to run across a gigantic Wolf spider in your face with glowing, murderous eyes is as heady as it is terrifying.

Finally, when Grounded isn't scaring you half to death with its creepy nighttime spider hunting, information technology soars as a truly stunning visual experience. With gorgeous Pixar-way art, evocative music, and impressive lighting and h2o effects, Grounded is a attestation to what a small team can achieve with aught but hard work, talent, and raw passion.

What I hope improves in Grounded

Source: Windows Central

Equally an early access game, I experience information technology's only fair to give the team behind information technology the do good of any doubts, which is why nosotros're not giving a score until it'due south officially released as a final product. That said, information technology'southward still a product you tin can buy right now, and there are things you should be aware of before dropping your greenbacks.

Grounded has a fairly large range of rough edges.

Grounded has a adequately large range of rough edges. Some of the almost annoying include problems with clipping. Bugs can assail you through walls, and often do. Additionally, sure objects in the world seem to interfere with critters' pathing. Ants and other bugs often go stuck within rocks and other ecology features, which has gotten me killed by "invisible" enemies more than than in one case. This is one area I'd prioritize highly for a fix. Although, there are far worse issues.

Ane of Grounded's nearly annoying, and potentially harmful issues stem from bugs in its lighting and reflection systems. Sometimes the edges of the screen tin flash at random in bright multi-color lights. This event was fixed in the beta, simply has returned for retail. This is irritating at best, and could really induce impairment in people with photosensitive epilepsy, and the game certainly doesn't carry any prominently-placed warning almost that problem. If you suffer from seizures of this type, you lot may want to avoid the game for the time being, or at least avoid bodies of water in the game, which is where the result seems to occur most frequently.

Source: Windows Central

I spent the majority of my time with Grounded playing solo, just naturally, y'all may want to play a game like this with your friends. And you lot tin can, up to 3 of them in fact. However, the game'due south engine seems to struggle with online play, which can really hinder combat mechanics and other systems. Also, I've seen anomalies where a player could see something totally different to another one, with the game rendering placed-objects differently beyond dissimilar clients. If in that location was always a game that desperately needed dedicated servers, it's probably this one.

Finally, information technology's all still a little blank-bones overall. The story elements can be completed in about ten minutes, leaving you lot to focus mainly on the sandbox aspects and gear upgrades. I explored beyond the entire map, unlocked every recipe, and got all the virtually powerful gear after virtually 10 hours of play. If you're non into the construction and base of operations edifice aspects of the game, y'all may find yourself running out of things to do and discover relatively quickly. This is something that will improve over time without a doubtfulness, but you may want to hold off on an outright purchase, or just play via Xbox Game Pass, until subsequent updates. To that end, Obsidian has confirmed the game volition receive monthly content drops, starting at the end of Baronial.

Should you play Grounded?

Source: Windows Central

Grounded still needs a lot of work before it can join some of the other top-shelf survival sandbox games out in that location, simply what Obsidian has offered thus far has been nix short of impressive.

Obsidian has already solidified itself as one of the best studios in Microsoft'south arsenal.

Grounded is an exciting promise dripping in fuzzy nostalgia, with huge potential for expansion across its construction features, a broader sandbox, and more than invertebrates to squish. Any mundane existent-life setting becomes an exciting gamble when you're half an inch alpine, and it'due south tantalizing to recall where Obsidian could take the states side by side.

The game still has some kinks and crude edges to iron out, whether it's janky animations, pathing issues, or the drastic, drastic need for dedicated servers, simply those will all come with time. This is one of the nearly promising games Xbox Game Studios has released in recent years, and with Grounded, Obsidian has already solidified itself as one of the best studios in Microsoft's arsenal.

Survive the k

Grounded

Huge potential.

Grounded is an epic survival game set in your very own backyard. Shrunk to the size of an ant, you have to scavenge, survive, and investigate what went wrong.

Grounded

Primary

• Grounded: Everything Y'all Need to Know
• Grounded: Is information technology good?
• Grounded: Beginner'due south Guide
• Grounded: List of creatures
• Get Grounded'southward best weapon
• Grounded: How to get the level two axe/hammer

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/grounded-xbox-pc-review

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