Obsidian Entertainment is best known for its work on RPGs such as Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, and The Outer Worlds, but the team has recently worked hard on something completely new: a beetle survival game. We spent a day at Obsidian to watch the game and got away with this list of 10 reasons why you should love this unusual project.
See the world from a different perspective
Grounded is in an Earth-like environment, but it’s the size of an insect, so it looks amazingly different from the ground. Tiny bugs become fearsome animals, and small pieces of garbage become potential lodgings.
Build new technology
As with most survival games, the game begins with scant supplies. However, if you collect branches and pebbles, you can build makeshift weapons, huts, and other useful tools. For example, juice can be combined with twigs to make torches, and insect exoskeletons can be used to make armor.
Funny story
At the beginning of the game, scale down to the size of an ant to do some scientific experiments. But surprise! Things get mixed up quickly and you are unable to regain your normal size. A crazy robot will guide you through the early hours of the morning and help you survive the night, but we suspect that this unnamed bot is more busy than it first seems. Ultimately Grounded wants to offer a carefree and entertaining story.
Four-player co-op
With Grounded you can choose between four different characters: Max, Willow, Pete and Hoops. All four characters have the same skills and abilities, but players can invite their real friends into their game to help build camps and destroy enemy creatures like spiders.
Simulated world
Grounded is a simulated world, which means that the other insects and critters in your backyard continue to live their lives, even if they are not in sight. When they are nearby, you can watch the beetles hunt and fight each other. When players hunt and eat, this can lead to food shortages that destroy the ecosystem.
Things grow with time
To compensate for greedy scavengers, all plants in Grounded grow slowly over time. So, if you return to an old area after a long break, it may feel new again.
Play in the first or third person
Is that really that exciting? I dont know. You tell me? But I did not know where to put it.
Lightweight RPG elements
Obsidian did not elaborate on the RPG systems, but promised that players would evolve and grow as the game progressed. As you ascend, you will unlock new levels of the Technology Tree.
A variety of biomes
We only saw the starting zone during our preview, but Obsidian promises there will be a variety of environments in the final. The opening zone looks like a traditional turf, but in the final there will be a wider choice of locals. This is just a speculation, but the last game could have small puddles that look like lakes or sandboxes that feel like massive deserts.
Flexible, evolving design
A nice aspect of Grounded is that Obsidian has limited his team size to about a dozen people. This allowed the studio to experiment wildly with the game. Obsidian plans to keep the team size small so that they can continue to experiment with the design during the early access period. Overall, this means that the Grounded team can be incredibly nimble and respond quickly to player feedback as they implement new ideas.
Obsidian plans to launch Grounded in the spring for Xbox One and PC. The game is also part of the Microsoft Game Pass subscription. So you do not have to wait long to test this unique project.
