Grounded – a micro-adventure of mega-quality

Obsidian Entertainment is known primarily for its role-playing games, many of which have long been classics. Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2 evoke fond memories for many players. Therefore, the studio’s decision to release a survival game seemed a bit strange. One could even speculate about the pressure from Microsoft, which bought Obsidian Entertainment to strengthen the Xbox game portfolio.

However, the full version of Grounded turned out to be a great game that combines the studio’s tradition of creating unique stories with a decent implementation of survival mechanics. In April 2024, the game finally made it to the PlayStation 5, and this is the version that will be discussed in the review.

Grounded was released in Early Access on Windows and Xbox back in 2020. The full version of the game was released only in 2022, and this delay had a negative impact on the perception of the game. After all, maintaining a stable interest of players for two years in a row is not an easy task. This is not to say that Obsidian Entertainment coped with it well, as some updates during this time were very minor.

However, the final release turned out to be extremely high quality. The gaming press quickly named Grounded one of the best games in the survival genre and gave it high marks. It also gained sympathy among players, even if we are not talking about any kind of crazy popularity. It’s just a great game, and there are many of them.

And then something interesting happened. Microsoft and Xbox decided to revise their game release policies, so some projects made it to the PlayStation. This is a significant event, because a few years ago, Microsoft and Sony were diligently holding on to their exclusives. Nintendo, which also released Grounded on Switch, still protects its exclusives like the apple of its eye.

Microsoft has sent Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and now Grounded to other consoles. These are not the most demanding games for hardware, and Grounded is characterized by stylized, simple graphics. But we can still make some comparisons and draw conclusions. However, let’s talk about everything in turn.

The basic concept of Grounded is based on the idea of shrinking children who now have to survive in the backyard of an ordinary American house. Just like in the 1989 movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The mention of the year is important because Grounded takes a lot from the style of the 90s. The script, the design of the objects, even the fonts – everything here reminds us of carefree days, of course, from the point of view of Americans.

Gameplay-wise, Grounded doesn’t really change anything in the standard survival genre formula. You find yourself in the middle of a thicket of grass with no resources and no idea what to do next. By exploring the environment, collecting materials, and crafting, you will gradually move forward, discover new biomes, and fight increasingly dangerous enemies.

But Obsidian wouldn’t be Obsidian if it didn’t approach the construction of even such a simple setting with soul. Grounded has a story mode that tells the story of a scientist’s family drama while his children try to survive in a shrunken state. In a sense, the scenario completely copies all the features of the story “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”, but stretches and shuffles them a bit to make it look better in an interactive format.

This means that you’ll be actively collecting notes and audio diaries to find out all the details. It’s not the most sophisticated and, frankly, rather tired narrative technique, but it works in Grounded. Not only because everything is done well, but also because of the genre. “Survivalists traditionally don’t burden players with plot details, with the rare pleasant exceptions of Subnautica and The Long Dark. But the story in Grounded is not just a nice addition, but a gentle introduction to the basics of the game.

The story quests guide you through the main biomes, unobtrusively building a progression. At the same time, the story here is really heartwarming: it tells the story of a scientist who, in pursuit of great discoveries, drifts away from his family, and his attempts to fix everything. It’s also somewhat in the spirit of the 90s.

However, no one is stopping you from abandoning the story and playing in free mode. There is a huge amount of content in the game, and the PlayStation 5 version was released immediately with the Fully Yoked patch, which added new modes, items, enemies, and much more. And it’s nice that the game never forgets about the conceptual integrity. Therefore, everything here revolves around insects and does not depart from the aesthetics of the 90s.

Speaking of insects. They will be your friends and enemies in this game. It is worth admitting that even with simple, stylized graphics, encounters with some representatives of the local fauna can be quite frightening. The game even has a separate mode for arachnophobes, which turns spiders into a set of spheres to make it less scary.

You can fight insects with a huge number of weapons and equipment. At this point, Grounded again reminds us that it was made by a studio known for its RPGs. Different equipment gives you different bonuses, a full set of armor opens up additional benefits, and weapons and amulets have special properties. Sometimes you can even play an immersive sim and clash insects with each other or with local robots, which are also available here, and go exploring the locations yourself.

The game is also pleasing in terms of building your own base. At first, the choice of building elements may seem very modest, but the game also reveals itself gradually. In a few hours you can build the base of your dreams, and then a real work of miniature art.

Grounded never forgets about the player’s convenience, so many things are done for your comfort. For example, a special device can show all the recipes that are made from a certain resource. And the database of all recipes is always stored in the menu at your fingertips.

The mutation system, which is responsible for character leveling, also works for convenience. Depending on the style of play, you can unlock power-ups for certain attacks or other passive bonuses. Everything is fully automated, so there is no need to bother with it. But in the end, you get a character that best suits your playstyle.

Just like any other survival game, Grounded reveals itself from a new angle when played with friends. Here, you can create one world for everyone to share, so that they can enter the clearing and do something useful even without your presence. With other people, collecting resources, battling insects, and building a base goes faster and generally reaches a new level.

As a game in the survival genre, Grounded is a benchmark. It has a lot of content, a variety of situations, and a lot of room for creativity, even gaming self-realization, so to speak. All of this is neatly diluted with traditional role-playing elements for Obsidian Entertainment that do not draw all the attention, but at the same time harmoniously complement other mechanics. Even at one level of the concept and its implementation, Grounded is sincerely appealing.

However, all this could be said about the Xbox and PC versions as well. The release of a Microsoft exclusive on Sony’s console could show the difference in hardware between PlayStation and Xbox. Or it could have focused on the different approaches to development of competing companies. But this did not happen in the case of Grounded. The release on PlayStation 5 turned out to be just fine.

The game runs well on Sony’s console, and technical issues and bugs are rare. On the other hand, the very fact that they occur almost four years after the game’s first release is a bit disappointing. Visually, the PlayStation 5 version is still somewhat inferior to the Xbox Series X. This is especially noticeable in the bokeh effect, which is designed to show the contrast between the size of the main characters and the “large” objects on the lawn. On PlayStation 5, it’s a bit sloppy and blurry.

In addition, Grounded does not particularly utilize the capabilities of the Sony console. The DualSense gamepad, which has become almost the main feature of the console, does not provide any additional sensations here. This somewhat destroys the immersive effect that players have become accustomed to with Sony exclusives. Therefore, as a PlayStation 5 game, Grounded is significantly inferior to other projects.

The very release of a Microsoft exclusive on PlayStation is definitely good news, because games should be available to everyone. However, in the current realities of the gaming industry, we still want such releases to provide a more pleasant experience adapted to other hardware. So it’s not time to talk about a revolution in the console war using Grounded as an example. However, this game is definitely worth checking out, so if you haven’t tried it on other platforms and remain a fan of Sony’s console, this is your chance.