With Grounded, the makers of Pillars of Eternity, who are now part of Xbox Game Studios, presented Obsidian Entertainment impressively proves that the studio knows how to do more than just role-playing games. In terms of gameplay, this is a survival multiplayer title that breaks new ground.
Instead of being transported to the vastness of space or a deserted island, Grounded takes you to a backyard at home. You slip into the role of people who have been shrunk to the size of ants and are confronted with all kinds of dangers in Grounded. The Struggle for survival from both the third and first-person perspective.
A safe haven in Grounded: Your own base
Your base is the hub of your adventures, which you can customize with numerous walls, floor coverings and other extras. But as secure as your base is, you will be forced to upgrade your base at regular intervals. Shelter and set off in search of resources. The focus is of course on the search for Food and water to prevent your character from losing life energy due to hunger or dehydration.
But it's not just food and water that you have to look for. At the same time, you can explore the backyard or Garden either alone or in multiplayer with other players to collect raw materials. These can then be used to create weapons such as axes, bows or swords, which can be of crucial importance in the fight against the aggressive insects.
You can also produce traps, items for your base or tools that speed up the extraction of resources.
All kinds of insects: The inhabitants of the game world
As mentioned at the beginning, your heroes are limited to a size of just a few millimetres. shrunk the insects that inhabit the garden can quickly become a deadly danger. Spiders, bees and aggressive ants in particular will hunt you down. Other insects, on the other hand, can become valuable allies. While aphids, for example, can be caught and cooked to be eaten as food, ladybugs will lead you to aphids and other resources.
With increasing playing time and the associated progress, the threats and the level of difficulty are constantly increasing. Especially in the night the Insects are more aggressive and hunt your characters mercilessly. This means that, in addition to skill in battle, a clever strategic approach is also required. And to the arachnophobes among you: If necessary, it is possible to completely remove the spiders from the game at the touch of a button.
Especially in multiplayer, Grounded since the launch It has been a great success and has already attracted one or two imitators. Among them Smallandwhich treads similar paths both visually and in terms of gameplay and Merge Games is created.