Little people, big feelings: Grounded is a one-off in the survival genre that deserves much more interest!
Fascinating stories take place in the microcosm. Some of them so small I almost overlooked them. Take Grounded for instance. This bakes pretty damn tiny rolls for a survival game, judging by the live player numbers on Steam.
An average of just over 1,000 simultaneously active players … reminiscent of the smallest indie survival games. But behind Grounded is none other than the Fallout veterans from Obsidian. But that’s not the main reason why I’d like to urge you not to overlook the game on Steam and in Game Pass. It’s also growing considerably!
Do you prefer your survival fight gritty and realistic? Not only Grounded is doing a lot, but (Project Zomboid) is also turning into a real board in Early Access:
Project Zomboid: Survival role-playing game celebrates biggest update to date & player record
What is Grounded all about?
Size plays an important role in Grounded, namely that of your characters. You scurry through the garden alone or in co-op with friends as a thumb-sized teenager. Survival is not that easy when spiders the size of elephants hunt you down. But fortunately you are not small-minded, but equipped with all kinds of practical survival knowledge.
You can make arrows out of toothpicks, build a base out of leaves and grill nutritious aphids on your campfire. But why have you shrunk to Smurf size in the first place, what are all these strange contraptions in the garden and how can you even use the scurrying insects to your advantage? You have to find out, but you can’t yet. Because the story is not yet complete in Early Access.
Nevertheless, the game is definitely worth a look: Grounded skilfully plays with its curious setting, a unique game world and the many typical survival virtues, which become something special thanks to Obsidian’s creative hand. Because even if you’ve already killed a thousand zombies in DayZ and built a gigantic base in The Forest, Grounded feels new and exciting due to its unusual perspective and the many funny ideas.
Look at the screenshots alone:
In small steps to the big end
Since its Early Access release on 28 July 2020, Grounded has received many minor updates and three major updates. So while Obsidian is rounding the edges of the game, new content is also being added regularly:
The Koi Pond: It’s dangerous in the pond with expensive Japanese farmed carp, especially because the new spiders in Grounded like to dive after you. And don’t be distracted by all the other little animals while the big fish is eyeing you. It’s worth it to conquer it! New equipment such as a diving helmet and fins will tempt you.
Shroom & Doom: Another big Grounded update brought more fresh content. You can fight a new boss and build your base out of mushrooms since then. In addition, your teenager gets a pet, but only a very small one!
Here you can have a look at the pet:
The Haze: The biggest update yet brought a new biome in the form of the sandbox, expanded and escalated the toxic Haze biome, and added new places to explore, such as an ant hill and a rubbish mountain. New creatures such as the rolling basement isopod also make combat more versatile.
When is the release?
Are you still there? If all this doesn’t knock your socks off, you probably just don’t share my fascination with Grounded. That’s not a bad thing, of course, as tastes differ. But maybe you’re just waiting for Early Access to come to an end so you can experience the game in full. Early access to unfinished games is not always met with enthusiasm, and rightly so:
And one of the reasons can also be found at Grounded: Originally, the full version was supposed to be released in 2021. As is well known, nothing came of that. But the developers are still planning a lot, including the important continuation of the story. Therefore, it will probably take a while until Grounded is actually released as version 1.0. Our estimate would be the end of 2022 or even 2023.
