Grounded

This is the best video game I have ever played through. We played as Mom, Dad, Son (11) and daughter (9) and it was absolutely perfect.

The story was great, the adventure was great, the setting was spectacular.

The survival aspects were light enough that it wasn't a burden, the progression/gathering wasn't punishing, but also felt very rewarding when you came up with something clever to get resources faster.

The building was really fun and creative and we built multiple homes and multiple outposts throughout the yard.

The ending was great (there are two potential endings) and the Marc Rebillet loop daddy ending song during the credits was just a completely unexpected cherry on top!

I can't recommend this game enough to any and everyone.

Having played a lot of survival/crafting games, this one stands out for its environment, combat, and progression.
Arachnophobia warning - skip if you don't care
I've always been a bit unsettled by spiders, but also found them fascinating from a distance. I don't like them on or too near me, but I didn't know I had arachnophobia until I played this game. There are several different types of spiders in this game and I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to complete without fighting at least some of them. You are going to encounter many of them that will chase you regardless. Most of them are bigger than you, some significantly. There is a setting to change their appearance, but it breaks immersion pretty bad because they become absurd looking. I had a REALLY hard time getting through the game for this reason alone as it turned it into a horror jump scare game at times and I would have to take a break after some of the encounters. That said, once I learned all of their attack patterns and how to kill them, they became less of a high threat and I was able to manage my fear a bit better. Playing with friends also helped, but I wasn't always playing with friends.
Environment
The environment in this game is obviously very unique as you are in a backyard, shrunken down to about the size of a common ant. For me, the novelty of this never really wears off and it's always neat to run into standard household items at a massive scale. The game world is built around this, and there are different 'biomes' represented by common back yard fixtures that require proper gear similar to Zelda temples (water is a koi pond, desert is a sandbox, volcano is an overturned charcoal grill, etc).
The graphics have a bit of a cartoony feel to them, but everything is crisp, the lighting is nice, and the art style is consistent across all of the biomes and creatures. I personally find the game to be quite pretty compared to some others in the genre.
Building and Crafting
The building system is solid, not amazing. I would describe it as a hybrid between ARK where there are predefined pieces you snap together, and the forest where the pieces you place create a ghost version of your structure, and you have to fill it in with materials to complete the construction. Similar to the forest, there is an aspect to it that involves manually hauling materials in your hands (not inventory), but they give you tools to help with this such as pallets for grass planks and weed stems. As long as the pallets are close enough to where you are trying to build, you will automatically build from them and save yourself some running back and forth. A big tip is that the pallets can be relocated with material on them, so you can move your pallets back and forth between where you gather materials and where you are building. Also notable is that there is not really a stability mechanic in that you can build as many things off of a single point of contact as you want, but each link in the structure supports the next, so if the one point of contact gets destroyed, the whole thing comes down. This also means when you build your ghost structure, you have to complete the point of contact first, then the next thing, then the next. You can't fill in unsupported pieces in the middle.
Similar to building, crafting is set up to work out of containers in a radius. As long as you place all of your chests and workbenches near each other, you never have to grab items out of your chests to use them for crafting, this extends to crafting from your character inventory. The radius is also pretty generous so you don't have to be too careful about your placement of everything. If you craft something from your inventory or the workbench, it is instant and the product is placed in your inventory. For other stations that process materials, they take time but have their own inventories so you can go about your business while they work and retrieve your materials later.
Combat
The combat is good. Armor is varied and offers different perks (run faster, attack boost, carry more, draw more aggro in a group, etc). There are weapons with different damage types that are more or less effective depending on the bug. 1H, 2H, Bows, Shields, Magic Staves. You can parry (for the souls-like fans, you can take down a wolf spider with the first tool you make if you're good enough), and there are augments that can be applied to the weapons (poison, cold, fire, etc). There are also consumables you can craft that grant temporary buffs.
There are several bosses that have different themes, mechanics, and move-sets. I didn't find any of them to be particularly frustrating, but some are more difficult than others. Having the right weapons, armor, and buffs to exploit their weaknesses and mitigate their strengths makes the job easier, and patience is key. If you take your time and learn their moves you can beat them, trying to ham-fist your way through and stat check them isn't going to work. Bear in mind this game is not Dark Souls/Elden Ring so don't let this scare you off, but it does require a level of coordination and engagement with the combat that might turn some people off.
There is also a neat mutation (perk) system, where typically if you do something enough you end up with a mutation to help you do that thing better or easier. E.g. cut down enough grass for planks, and you get a mutation to cut down grass in less swings. Kill enough wolf spiders and you get a perk that makes you immune to their powerful poison bite. You start with 2 but can unlock up to 5 mutation slots and swap the mutations you are using to approach different tasks, similar to swapping different armors, weapons, and tools. This adds another layer of complexity to how you kit yourself that keeps things fresh.
Progression
The story is serviceable, nothing special but it is fun and complete so there is a soft end to the game despite it being a sandbox. A decent amount of the story has to be found on cassette tapes that you pick up, so it is possible to miss some finer details or musings of the scientist that is responsible for your predicament, but you'll get the meat and potatoes regardless.
Progression is mainly achieved via completing quests and scanning every new material you find at designated stations. Each time you scan a new item or complete a quest, you will earn the game's main currency 'raw science', which you can also find deposits of hidden across the map. Scanning new materials will sometimes unlock new recipes. Other recipes and some perks must be purchased with raw science. Generally speaking, the different areas of the map are gated by obstacles, hazards, and enemies that you are not ready to deal with until you collect materials and unlock recipes from elsewhere that allow you to properly gear for the challenge.
Conclusion:
This game is one of my favorite survival crafting games. I don't think there is any one thing it does better than all other survival games, but I think as a package it is one of the most well rounded and polished of the games I've played. For reference, said games in no particular order of preference would be be: 7D2D, Valheim, ARK, Sunkenlands, Enshrouded, Icarus, Nightingale, Stranded Deep, The Forest 1&2, Green Hell, Raft, Smalland, and of course Minecraft.

I cannot begin to describe just how epic Grounded is.
It's probably one of my favorite games ever, and I own a lot of games.
While I adore the visual style, don't let the cartoony graphics fool you, this game is serious.
It has so much depth, so unbelievably complex yet so simple, it's rich at every corner, and oozes top quality in every department.
The main plot is fantastic and is loosely based off of the movie "Honey I shrunk the kids", where a group of teenagers, one of which you play, is miniaturized in the backyard and need to find their way back to regular size.
There is a gigantic amount of fantastic enemies, some of which you cook, others you fight and major ones representing bosses, all with different mechanics and weaknesses. All of which give you materials for a slew of things, ranging from upgrades to weapon and armor, decoration for your base, food and potion mats etc.
The world building is incredible, the base building is also incredible.
And best of all the exploration is impeccable. There is so much to discover, so many secrets to unravel, and each of those gives you great rewards in terms of developing the story, your base, and gear, so you can be ready for the what comes next.
It's all optimized and balanced to perfection. This is a gigantic feat by Obsidian.
This game does not waste a second of your time. In fact, It's a game where 5 hours feel like 20 minutes, you simply cannot get enough of it and there's always something exciting waiting to be done.
At the time of writing I'm at about 208 hours, and I haven't felt a second of fatigue which I usually do rather quickly. It's pure excitement every time I boot it up. I will be playing for many hours to come. I seriously cannot find one bad thing to say about it, and hope more than anything for a sequel to this gem.
It is infinitely playable, repayable while community as well as dev content flows at a constant rate.
It's the best survival-lite, crafting, combat, story based exploration game on the market, it's like no other.
And while it's really fun playing it solo, Coop is so much better.
As a matter of fact, it is the ultimate coop game to play with your friends, partner, son, or father.
This is it, it doesn't get any better.
As much as this game is praised already, it isn't praised nearly enough. Easiest 10/10 ever.

Awesome survival game and a great time with a buddy. I love the Honey I Shrunk The Kids vibe this game has going on. Lots of fun content and well worth a try. If you enjoy survival games you will love this one!

So what we have here is one of those non-gridded sandbox survival games. You know the ones: games like Sea of Thieves and Fallout 4 where you're able to build houses in a more free-form design, usually in a world that isn't procedurally-generated. And in this game, those are both very true, but with a fun twist.
Here's the rundown: this is one of those games, except it takes place in the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids. You're a tiny teenager in the 1990's, scrambling to both stay alive and figure out what the hell is going on. You spend most of this game building houses with blades of grass, twigs, and bug parts. You fight ants and spiders, and you explore the wonders of a back yard scattered with toys and abandoned junkfood packaging. Then, deep within the confines of this now-giant yard, you begin to find hidden labs, where Dr. Tully and his robot companion BURG-L help you to piece together the backstory and return to normal size.
What this game excels at is the idea of letting you as a player have more fun. You can craft basketball courts and play basketball anywhere in the world, your fastest form of travel is custom-made ziplines, and you can even do goofy things like adopt a pet weevil or fly around on a gnat. It's not overly-concerned with balance or practicality, but still provides a good challenge and gameplay flow.
The building in this game is superb, with the only issue being that more people don't know about it. It's hard to find cool builds online, which is unfortunate, as that becomes a driving force for me enjoying these kinds of games continually.
Overall, great game. Check it out!
And because you might be concerned, this game has cross-platform play, so don't hesitate if your friends have it on console, you can still play together.

it's good. Kind of a crafting survival game. Gives Subnautica vibes... but in a backyard.

It's one of those games that once you get in the flow of it, you look down at the clock and it's 5 am and you don't know what happened. It's so good, nothing scratches that itch in terms of survival/craft. It feels the most polished of the genre. The different biomes are fun to explore, the enemies are terrifying, playing with friends is a blast.i love it