I’ve been running around for more than two in-game weeks and every day has been warm and sunny and every night mild with light fog around 3 am. There isn’t much variety in terms of weather, though. Exploring at night and running into a pack of pincered larvae or spelunking into an old anthill just to run into the spider who’d made its nest there provided some hair-raising scares and instilled a sense of tension that carried over into every step I took. There are also plenty of other mini monstrosities out to get you, from other large bugs like acid-spraying bombardier beetles to the tiny mites that spring towards you from the ground like furious, fuzzy versions of Half-Life’s headcrabs. And it’s not just the 12-foot-tall spiders, either – though they’re far and away the big winner of the “scariest thing in the yard” award, even with the much-discussed Arachnophobia slider turned all the way up (WHO THOUGHT LEAVING THE EYES ON THEM WAS A GOOD IDEA?!). “Terrifying” is probably more accurate, because Grounded is, at times, just as much a survival horror game as it is anything else. “Eerie” might not be the right word, though. Sunlight filtering through the branches of a tree in the early morning or bouncing through the chitinous exoskeleton of an ant the size of a German Shepherd were constant reminders to stop and savor the beauty of the environment, and the way moonbeams pierce through the light fog that blankets grass-blade forests (coupled with some truly great sound design) added a ton of eerie atmosphere to nighttime exploration. The miniaturized world you inhabit is rich and verdant, and it benefits heavily from some especially gorgeous lighting effects (although some of the depth-of-field effects lose their luster when you emerge from beneath the canopies of mushrooms and clover and realize the kid you’re playing as must just be incredibly nearsighted). This is due in no small part to the fact that Grounded looks great. From puddles turned into lakes to twisting branches under a garden hedge that more resemble the framework for an elven or Ewok village than “that place you quietly stuffed your beer can because you were too lazy to throw it out,” I was always intrigued to discover a new landmark or Easter egg that helped flesh out the world and my role in it. While it surely plays a little fast-and-loose with the relative sizes of certain objects and creatures, Grounded’s mega-sized take on a suburban backyard is fascinating to explore. You can collect daily activity bounties like visiting specific locations or researching specific items from BURG-L, the only NPC – who handily provides the most Obsidian-esque material throughout – but beyond that your adventures are all in the pursuit of no hard goal beyond the ones you set for yourself. With no ongoing story beyond some collectible audio logs – I hit an “End of Story Content” message after less than an hour – it’s the “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”-style setting that’s currently doing most of the heavy lifting.It doesn’t really diverge from the traditional survival game structure in any particularly meaningful ways – you pick an avatar from one of four teens who’ve been shrunken down to around one inch tall and spend your time exploring and gathering plants, rocks, and bug parts to craft items and build your tiny home. While Obsidian had previously said Grounded would incorporate strong story and RPG elements alongside the survival aspect, and while you can see hints of that, there’s not much to speak of yet.
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