Obsidian Entertainment been on a roll recently; in the wake of their wildly successful The Outer Worlds sci-fi RPG, they've grabbed gamer interest again with new footage of their Avowed first-person fantasy RPG along with Grounded, a game starring kids who've been shrunk down to a centimeter in height, who must survive in the wilderness of a grass lawn. As this open world survival game releases in early access, many gamers are wondering two things: what will they be able to do in Grounded, and will the plot of the game be an adaptation of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in all but name?
This article aside, the best way for players to get a close look at the gameplay of Grounded is to the play the demo, currently available on Steam Early Access and the Xbox Inside Hub. Gamers can learn about the world of Grounded alongside Max, the demo protagonist, who wakes up at the bottom of a dirty ravine and wanders out into a jungle of grass, mushrooms, and baseballs the size of boulders. A machine on a tripod looms overhead, a high-tech mechanism suspiciously similar to the shrink ray from the comedy movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
As the player (and Max) progresses through the demo and follows a strange radio signal, they quickly learn how to combine pebble dust and rock stems into crude spears, fend off ants, and eventually stumble across strange campsites, furniture, and scientific tools designed to by used by shrunken humans. Who else was using the shrinking machine before the player, and what were they trying to do in their shrunken states?
Grounded's Survival Mechanics
Mechanics-wise, Grounded is a survival game centered around crafting items, searching for food, and constructing bases in the style of Minecraft or Seven Days to Die. Unlike these other survival games, Grounded has players craft tools and weapons out of grass sprigs, collect water from dew-drops, build forts out of blades of grass, and construct armor out of insect shells. Footage from the trailers hints at other spectacular Honey, I Shrunk the Kids shenanigans players can pull off in Grounded, ranging from hang gliding on dandelion seeds to interacting with giant versions (well, normal-sized versions) of toys and trash left in the backyard.
Grounded will be a game that can be played with up to 4 other characters in online Co-op, in which players collaborate to harvest resources, discover new recipes, and construct increasingly elaborate defenses. Developers at Obsidian have emphasized their intent to create a challenging yet light-hearted adventure experience: to this end, they've implemented a number of features to make life easier for players – for instance, a special slider that scales down the graphical realism of enemy spiders for people with Arachnophobia.
Grounded's Story & Plot
Someone built a shrinking machine in their backyard, created a set of miniature science facilities for one centimeter-tall scientists, and then left all this dangerous equipment lying around for young kids to stumble into. Did the creators of this shrinking machine all get killed by ladybugs, or did they shrink the kid heroes of Grounded on purpose? A supporting character in the Story Trailer, a stressed-out robot, warns the players that the unknown creators of this backyard science experiment are watching. A brief shot near the end of the trailer also shows the main character walking towards a sealed door marked with a corporate logo and the words "Ominent", which seems to combine the words "Ominous" and "Imminent."
Grounded's Release Date
Obsidian's Grounded game released in early access on Windows PCs and the Xbox Store on July 28th, 2020. It's currently unclear how long the game will remain in beta form before being released as a finished product.
All in all, Grounded is shaping up to be a fun new twist on the survival game genre that also builds on the premises of movies like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids or Richard Matheson's The Incredible Shrinking Man. It explores the serious implications of "shrinking technology" while still retaining a light-hearted atmosphere of adventure; for a game about being small, it has some fairly big ideas.