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"Honey, I [Grounded] The Kids!"
ED!
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"The world is a vast, beautiful and dangerous place – especially when you have been shrunk to the size of an ant. Can you thrive alongside the hordes of giant insects, fighting to survive the perils of the backyard?"
In early access for a little over two years, Grounded is finally releasing getting a full release (note this trailer is pretty spoilery on locations and I peaced out halfway into it as there were definitely some surprising interiors I wasn't expecting):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBD-GS61Gto
Explore this immersive and persistent world, where the insect life reacts to your actions.
Shelter and tools are critical to your survival. Build epic bases to protect you and your stuff from the insects and the elements. Craft weapons, tools, and armor, allowing you to better fight, explore and survive.
You can face the backyard alone or together, online, with up to three friends - the choice is yours.
Uncover the secrets lurking in the shadows of Grounded as you freely explore the backyard and progress through its mysterious story.
Critical response so far has been pretty good:
In early access for a little over two years, Grounded is finally releasing getting a full release (note this trailer is pretty spoilery on locations and I peaced out halfway into it as there were definitely some surprising interiors I wasn't expecting):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBD-GS61GtoExplore this immersive and persistent world, where the insect life reacts to your actions.
Shelter and tools are critical to your survival. Build epic bases to protect you and your stuff from the insects and the elements. Craft weapons, tools, and armor, allowing you to better fight, explore and survive.
You can face the backyard alone or together, online, with up to three friends - the choice is yours.
Uncover the secrets lurking in the shadows of Grounded as you freely explore the backyard and progress through its mysterious story.
Critical response so far has been pretty good:
PC Gamer wrote:Grounded is a delightfully creative and occasionally terrifying survival sandbox.
Spaziogames wrote:This final release for Grounded confirms that Obsidian gave its soul to the game, crafting a survival game which is still improvable, but unique in a lot of ways.
Gamersky wrote:As a survival game, Grounded has a good story and gameplay, but only if you can accept all kinds of bugs and terrifying spiders. The game creates a mini world that allows players to explore driven by curiosity, and there is some guide missing when the player is exploring. The difficulty of the single-player mode seems a bit unfriendly, reducing the fun of the player experience.
Attack of the Fanboy wrote:Grounded is a charming survival experience that mixes exploration, action, and crafting into one grand package. There are plenty of options for those wishing to get immersed in the world, and anyone willing to put up with the odd multiplayer requirements will surely get hours of enjoyment out of this game.
"Get the hell out of me" - [ex]girlfriend
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For background, GROUNDED is a survival game with the "so obvious everyone ignored it" hook of "you're a kid who has been smallerized and trapped in your backyard." It is exactly the plot to "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" and the game - with it's stylized graphics (that look fucking fantastic by the way) - makes no bones about it. It is the refinement (if not iteration) of the survival game that makes this game really fun. I've not put hundreds (or even dozens) of hours into the game, for fear of spoiling a full-release playthrough, but everything I have played shows that OBSIDIAN has made a survival game that doesn't punish and frustrate like a survival game. One "refinement" I liked was finding out that while you do indeed drop all items on death (other than those you had equipped), you are not limited to how many dropped item bags you have, meaning, if you die in a particularly tricky spot and need to "prep" for your recovery mission, and you happen to die during this secondary mission - you will simply drop a second bag of items. There is no "recovery" mini-game where your enjoyment of the game has been ground to a halt as you egg-shell your way through the game to recover possibly hours of resource grinding. What this also means is that - other than time - you're not really wasting anything in the backyard and that it is always possible to recover from a death. . .
Which apperantly you will experience as the game in the full release version (and in the EA version I played for about five hours) is pretty tough, even at the standard level. So, while the games aesthetic is welcoming and pleasing, it can still put its boot on your throat if you try to engage in systems or encounters you just aren't ready for. However, given the above description of difficulty, this just means you're spending time puzzling out the solution to an encounter instead of just bashing your head against a wall - which is I think a good mix of accessibility and difficulty.
As for the actual gameplay systems themselves, from what I experienced (and again, I didn't go too deep) they are sufficiently deep with a good progression system to keep you coming back until you are "finished" with the game. Tech progress is made through scanning of items you find in the world that unlock the other items it appears in, so you're not hunting down recipies (as you can literally see all of them at the start though just their icon outlines) but exploring the world for resources. So while you'll get a flurry of unlocks in the beginning, you're still going to be stymied from the fact that you haven't discovered ALL the resources an item requires (I was stuck on something called "Grub Leather" which I guess comes from Grubs, which I would be able to get presumably using an "Acorn Shovel" which requires Acorns to build, so that was a goal of mine: "Where do I find acorns?" Is this markedly different than what you would find in another survival game. . .no, not really. It's just the connection to "our world" and implementation in the game that makes it so much more refreshing. I don't know what a "Chimera's shriveled liver" looks like. I do know what an acorn is and have a reasonable idea of where I would find one (probably near a tree, definitely not underwater or in a beehive or in the "Lost Caverns of Elsinore").
Speaking of resource gathering, there's also nice touches to the resources themselves: water comes from tiny puddles that will make you sick (I died drinking too much in one game) or fresh dew collected on blades of grass (which are your "trees" in this game). Chop the grass down to get the water, but be careful that the water doesn't roll into a puddle and you waste it. Speaking of the grass, did you know grass ages and dies? Well the game does. So overtime a patch of green grass - which provides one resource - will age and die becoming dry grass - which provides another resource. Armor is largely produced from the animals you kill, because of course they are, and the modeling work really drives that home. Your "binoculars" are the "finger binoculars" you did as a kid and landmarks in the game are largely "lost items" from your time playing in the yard.
Finally, this game is "known" for the ARACHNOPHOBIA™ feature it has which allows you to tone down the spiders in the game, because, boy oh boy, are they actually terrifying particularly at night. It gave a real "Leviathan" moment from SUBNAUTICA when encountering one (and honestly I just turned around and ran, so didn't get a real good look; still died too). Unlike SUBNAUTICA though, this didn't feel suffocating and prohibitively "scary" (I legit didn't want to explore deep into the sea in SN because of the tension experienced in that) because there's no penalty for death and the world around you is still so colorful and inviting (despite wanting you dead). A lot of this has to do with the background world feeling so detailed (you'll see blades of grass moving in the distance, informing you of potential enemies or a ladybug just tooting around) and familiar. That said, they are spiders and they can be rendered to nothing more than geometric objects if you're so inclined (and the REALLY well done modeling done for them throwing you off).
All in all, really fun game that will only be made funner with the inclusion of the final bit of the narrative. It is also the last few hours to get the game at the EA price so it is essentially "on sale" at the moment.
NOTE: I will update this with more details on the game; also feel free to remove (I was sure there was a thread for this game already but I couldn't find one).
For your own Steam Signature visit https://alabasterslim.com/steam-signatures/
Guild Wars 2: Kendrik.5984
I honestly don't remember the game at release, but messing around for a few hours this weekend (leaving the quest stuff alone for release) and combat felt fair, but nothing to write home about. The reviews have said though that combat is both the weakest part of an excellent game, and that the encounters in the beginning (even on default difficulty) are tough. You can swap difficulty on the fly or full on customize your world though: it can't be toggled and you lose achievements, but its there.
I'm a few updates behind, but had just started making mushroom castles, which were great.
You can also build floating floor plates, so can build a floating fort in the pond, which I also did.
From what I can tell the combat has not changed much over the various updates. It's definitely one of the weaker parts of the game. What I have found, though, is that the basic enemies (mites, ants, etc.) are easy to defeat and that equipment upgrades go a long way towards increasing your survivability against the more dangerous enemies. With that said, coop play appears to be a focus and that agrees with my experience...the kids and I had a much easier time defeating things like spiders and swarms of mosquitos when we were working together and once we'd all gotten upgrade armor / weapons we were quickly able to start murdering stinkbugs and what-not without too much issue.
For your own Steam Signature visit https://alabasterslim.com/steam-signatures/
Guild Wars 2: Kendrik.5984
I instinctively was killing the ants because they kept showing up and. . .not doing anything. o_O. It was just my natural inclination when encountering a new species. From the description of some of the game mechanics, this inspires "payback" of a sort so I'm sure my humble lean-to and workbench would have been attacked soon. I was able to build a sweet "Shogunate" looking bit of armor out of some ant parts that was worth it, but I legit thought my game was busted because they kept coming around to snoop.
. . .those, poor, poor WORKER ants (really should have made note of that adjective in their name).
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
All platforms should have the update live at the moment.
Seems ok to start with. Didn't play too long because my toddler was in my lap. And he pushed buttons on my keyboard to turn it to a different language and the numbers/hotkeys weren't working and I didn't realize until I exited the game why they weren't working.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Since Steam users have to log in the xbox game services or whatever the pc equivalent is I am pretty sure you can do cross play.
Spent all yesterday playing. It is funny that despite doing sever games it still takes me a long time to hit tier 2. Given I decided to try out the Koi pond which I had ignored before so unlocked many things I had not previously. Once you know what you are looking for it really is not that bad down there.
Enemies can still hit wicked hard though I have mostly been in light armor due to horrendous stam costs in heavy. Upgrading gear seems to be more of a thing at least with armor since it is relativelt cheap. The game seems to veer towards parrying since it can really open up bugs but that sucks for players less parrying inclined like I usually am. Some enemies are great on their tells while others like the ladybug just seem to whack the player.
I did custon diffculty and turned off dropping items on death, it is the best QoL due to having to forgo dangerous item runs especially for something you needed your gear to do in the first place.
I have gotten the message that the red ants want me gone but being in full red any armor I haven't seen any real action yet.
Anyone know if regular Milk Molars are shared/can be picked up by multiple people or is it just the first? Cause if so that sucks, things like increasing stats and number of mutations (which seem to unlock faster now) can be a big game changer.
Edit: Will also say it is not the most solo friendly experience since there is no way for a solo kid to revive themselves like Bosco in DRG.
Even so, just turning off droping loot has negated many rage quits as I just see it as a free teleport. Debating on the hunger and thirst since they aren't too bad but do get in the way and if thr Milk Molars can't be shared it will be a serious problem long term. I get it is like part and parcel to survival games, but I did not miss it when I turned it off in Subnautica and Valheim's supposed lack of needing food is a bad joke.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Nice cause only Mega Milk Molars were saying "Buff the group" while regular were "Buff yourself" which led to confusion.
Interesting; I was going to go that route too, but just figured with the penalty for death really only being you have to run back (potentially multiple times) to your bag, I just kept it on. On my way to the first story beat, I got "ambushed" (not really, I just didn't know what it was) by an Ant, and had to do some real shucking and diving around the guy to eventually beat them, but I did many times, often not recovering my gear the first go.
This is on WHOA! though, and I'm kinda seeing that the initial onboarding on this difficulty is as bad as expected, but once the utility items start opening up (e.g.: being able to store water) things are getting quite a bit more manageable.
Mega Milk Molars, when allocated, apply to anyone/everyone on the server. They are a shared pool anyone can apply to skills. These don't get duplicated but the buffs apply to all players.
It's fine until you get to areas of the game where you need X gear to even survive/get there in the first place and now you need to grind in order to get to that item again if you did not make backups/have a hoard of resources. Combined with the obscene damage some enemies can put out, failed corpse runs or dying in spectacularly bad places has been the reason for me to rage quit for the night or put the game down for months.
There are some smoothies that can make up for this but they do not last long and wish they would, esprcially mundane ones like increasing your load capacity. One hit and you drop whay you are carrying so having it last a few minutes is baffling for +2 loading capacity.
If I start over, which is possible, definetly gonna start with grass more accessible or do as much clay or what not. I picked a nice place by the pond and only finally gotten the tier 2 axe to harvest the weeds (that sometimes give 4 weed stems and other times like...12-16) so I can harness them but it was a rough go at the start.
Also, keeps chests of stuff high up, or the ants will steal food out of it.
Found that one out purely by accident.
It seems like it would be a fun co-op game to play with the kids while we're all being moved around for the next few months till we can get overseas.
But I'm curious how complex it is out of the gate? Is it more Minecraft approachable, or potentially overwhelming like Ark?
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Yes, especially when you trigger their aggression response "X wants you gone" they'll attack your base. If an aggressive creature is trying to get to you it'll start attacking your structures in the way. Beware the wolf spider.
It's pretty simplistic but kind of brutal? Thankfully there are a bevy of difficulty options you can tweak though it does disable achievements. With shared worlds you can set a multiplayer game that any player can start up and you can join so a pseudo server since there isn't a lot you need to have done in the down time like V Rising or Conan Exiles.
It's on Gamepass so that may be a way to go about checking it out.
The same sort of applies to combat. The initial onramp is a SLOG (at least on WHOA!). Like, I did one of what I guess you might call a dungeon in the game and. . .ugh. However, actually looking into what my options were (in terms of crafting) and I THINK, with some actual healing and Level 2 Heavy Armor, I'm now able to actual one-on-one some of the enemies in the game. Next upgrade is getting some one-handed Level 2 weapons so that the fights against the opening bugs aren't a war of attrition.
The game isn't complex in the slightest (at least relative to other Survival games I've played) and with a co-op group you should be a formidable force against the entirety of the back yard. I know with ARK, I couldn't get off that first beach and kept getting murdered by some tiny dinos and just gave up because I didn't know what was going on. Here, in the beginning you're honestly just keeping an eye on thirst and hunger; game itself just tells you "Go check out the yard." The only thing here to figure out honestly is what you need to progress to the narrative destinations you are given but it's not that difficult to suss out on your own.
Also looking at starting base locations, seems need the machine is a good option? Or should I plow forward with the story before starting. Seems multi-level ones are locked till the not far into the story?
If you want cheevos enabled you can bump the difficulty down to mild and still have a good challenge. You do keep whatever equipment you are wearing including in your hands so losing items on death is not as bad as I recalled.
If you are truly going to build a base solo then build where the resources are. Don't be like me and have to walk forever just to get grass planks. You can easily build another base down the line or heck just start as an outpost. The first research center is naturally a great first base location.
Zavian and I found out you can take your singleplayer game online seemlessly. If you create a shared world version you can select other players in the game creation menu for who can load it up and play when you aren't around like a pseudo-server.
After 20 or so hours with the game after never playing it in EA (so a true noob) here's what I would suggest:
1. Get a canteen. Or two. Food is plentiful and you barely loss any hunger of thirst from the bonus to the first set of armor you craft (which is the game easing you into the meter requirements, if you ask me), but water goes down way quicker than food and is noticeable. So making sure you can top off your thirst if you're caught in an area where you can't get to clean water (see below) is key.
2. Don't drink dirty water. It trashes your hunger and the benefit of food. It's a "hail mary" move when you've out of water and can't find clean water, but it shouldn't be done early on.
3. Get a bow and arrow. There will be one item that you might think is rare, but a bit of exploring around the starting area and you'll find it easy. With the bow, you will be able to farm for things out of reach much easier (you don't want to use rocks or your weapons to get a precious berry).
4. Don't sleep. There is no fatigue penalty, so the only reason to sleep is if you absolutely don't want to be out at night. Once you get your bearings after a few days in the yard you'll be fine not sleeping and navigating in the dark (even without a torch). Sleeping is wasted time, time that you could be building out your base (especially if you don't want to adventure at night), time spent wasting away from your precious Water and Hunger meter, time just not spent being productive. Also, nighttime is KILLER for condensation (of course) so you'll never worry about thirst during the night and can quickly fill your water supplies).
5. Craft trail markers. I don't know how many can be on a map, but you only get one map waypoint, so trail markers help immensely on pinpointing areas for resources. The map is only a rough outline of the yard and the yard itself is INCREDIBLY dense (i.e., you're not climbing mountaintops and using your "hawk sense" to scan the whole of creation) so it is REALLY tough to remember exactly where that one really good resource area or secret that you want to get back to is. The game has a TON of icons so you can really specify what it is you were marking (I don't think you can name trail markers; you can storage containers).
6. Don't get frustrated. I felt like I wasn't making any progress in the unlocks I was doing and just was getting stymied in the yard, especially on WHOA! difficulty. However, the game intentionally wants you to discover things on your own; it's not doing it to be obtuse, I just think the game designers know exactly that players want to make game discoveries on their own. If you think you've hit a roadblock, you haven't.
7. The biggest one: it is okay to die. There is literally no penalty to it other than having to run and pick up your gear. Now, if you manage to lose your backpack in an area that is just too damn difficult (and there will be those areas), once you decide you've had enough recovery tries, you can just use the "Recover Backpack" feature in the options menu. This will reset all backpacks to a fixed starting location. It is a cheat sure (as it is meant for bags lost in the terrain that can't be recovered), but it means that at least you'll still be able to keep your achievements if you lose your bag. Though, unlock a lot of survival games, you can save any time so realistically there's no penalty.
. . .honestly, the game is pretty much an RPG with an incredibly well implemented survival layer built in. It wants you to enjoy your time in the backyard, even while you're gritting your teeth cursing at those "mother fucking Orb Weaver Jr.'s."
Next I'll need to start more of the story and look for some more items. I need an acorn to create a shovel to those grubs.
I'm essentially building a damn playground in a gameworld, but it doesn't feel like work (well the gathering of materials can be a pain, but thankfully I've got some good unlocks to make that MUCH easier). It's something I really never do in any other survival game (beyond building some janky 3 by 3 house full of storage chests - all function no form), but just comes as natural here. I think it has a lot to do with, while the yard is huge, it is much smaller than other survival games without a fast travel or (I don't think) mount system. Which I actually am much preferring. The game world feels manageable, while still feeling like an open world.
. . .really, really hoping this one is a sales winner for Obsidian and allows them to make more interesting games outside their wheelhouse (maybe try their hands at a roguelite given how well they've cracked the survival genre here - though HADES seems like the definitive roguelite for people who don't like roguelites).
What I enjoy is because of how I assume the EA played out, harder areas are kind of gate kept from you until you figure out how to get in, and by that point you probably have the gear to do something there (though the upper yard can feel like a huge ramp up from your lower yard shenigans).
I will warn you other new players about a folly A FOLLY I did in spoilers it relates to the Haze (poison) area.
Do not DO NOT seal the can if you don't want to fight a war against new more aggressive wolf spiders that move in the daylight like Saruman has blessed them.
Honestly as someone who bounces off No mans sky or Minecraft, the story based goal nature of this game, with minor quests to engage you is just a winner. Though I worry this will have jaws like social changes as more people become star ship troopers against the insect menace.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
Is the shared world version mentioned above by Karoz basically going to be like a server so we can all jump on whenever and build it up together? But sounds like it's capped at 4 players at a time?
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185