The 3 Worst Things About Grounded
1. Work in Progress
Since Grounded is considered “Early Access”, the game has an assortment of unfortunate shortcomings. The one that stood out the most for me was the lack of Achievements. The developers have noted that Achievements will be added at a later date, but who knows if those Achievements will work retroactively, or if you’ll have to accomplish all the required tasks again. In terms of story, you’ll eventually come across a helpful robot that will provide you some challenges to complete, however, these are quite basic and are more like chores than anything. On one of my adventures, I came across an area that was quite literally taped off with “Under Construction” yellow tape. I could still explore beyond the yellow tape – even finding a massive picnic table, but there wasn’t much else out there.
2. Micro-management
Grounded is all about ensuring the survival of the four teens who get shrunken down and stranded in the backyard. You’ll need to scavenge all sorts of resources to survive, and this includes water and food. In fact, on-screen, you’ll see both a hunger and thirst meter that are both constantly depleting. Maybe the micro-management of eating and drinking will become second nature as I play more, but during my initial time with the adventure, it just seemed like an unnecessary burden. It does add an element of realism, which I can appreciate, but it can become a bit overwhelming when you’re trying to explore. I can’t imagine Obsidian will remove the hunger/thirst element – so for now, I’ll just need to accept it.
3. Eek! A Spider
The spiders in Grounded are creepy as hell, and they’re lurking all over the place. If they spot you, especially early on, your chances of survival are pretty slim. The spiders are also incredibly realistic and for people who suffer from arachnophobia, the game could be potentially unplayable. Fortunately, the team at Obsidian recognized this issue and have included an “Arachnophobia Safe Mode” slider that will scale the spider from a menacing monster to something resembling a marshmallow with red eyes. Changing the spider’s image doesn’t make it any less lethal – but if you’re triggered by the sight of spiders, this should help ease that.
The Grounded adventure is just getting started. Just yesterday, Obsidian released an update addressing a number of gameplay issues and they have every intention of continuing these updates for the foreseeable future. The game world will continue to expand, more craftable items will be available, and more creepy crawly creatures will be lurking around. I personally can’t wait to see how Grounded evolves and will continue to enjoy these larger-than-life adventures.
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.