Game Cover

Oh, hell no! I'll fight giant bugs all week long but I draw the line at scary-ass, man-bug monsters.

Platform played on: Xbox Series X, PC

# Review

I've been playing this adventure survival game with my girlfriend. The player plays as one of four teenagers shrunk down to the size of an ant. The player must explore the now relatively massive garden and figure out a way to get back to full size.

Shrunken to the size of ants

The core gameplay loop involves exploring the massive open world, fighting bugs, collecting resources, and progressing through the main story. Grounded represents a newer way of releasing games, which is bit by bit over years. The game was first launched as early access in 2020 and the final update came in 2024. My girlfriend and I only started after the full launch where most of the bugs are ironed out and all of the content has already been released. When we first started, the game felts huge and we had to use guides for many of the gameplay mechanics. I expect if one played the game since launch, the changes must've been iterative and less overwhelming. The game has a very quirky tone and cartoonish art style which I enjoyed.

Tons of content

The combat can be difficult at first even on mild, especially some of the later bosses even on Mild difficulty. We had to look up some build guides and even then, some of the bosses are very spongy and do tons of damage. While there are mutations that a character can unlock through certain actions, there's actually no character progression in the traditional sense. The bulk of progress is done through upgrading gear, which can be very grindy and RNG based, especially players will likely need specialized gear for each of the later bosses. The base building and crafting system is pretty intuitive and pretty deep. One can build some pretty interesting structures, such as ziplines to cross the map quickly.

Deep building and crafting

Now that we've beaten every boss of the game and Grounded 2 is released, we'll probably be moving on to the next game.

# Conclusion

A charming and fun adventure game.

# Overall rating: 8.3

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