Grounded

Game is really fun and i recommend it however the depth of field is way too aggressive, Luckily were on pc and can turn that off
go to: C:\Users\*yourusername*\AppData\Local\Maine\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor and open the Engine.ini
Add these lines at the bottom

r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0
r.DefaultFeature.MotionBlur=0
Game will now look much better and wont have a console like apperance.

Took wife and daughter to climb a giant tree.
Area was dark, so I brought two torches.
Wife and daughter didn’t bring torches…..amateurs.
Had to inch along the branches so they could see by my light.
Wife complained and asked for my spare torch.
Told wife if she wanted to see in the dark then she should have brought her own torch.
Wife raised eyebrow.
Dropped spare torch onto branch for her.
Torch rolled off branch down to vast emptiness below. We don't talk about that.
Continued inching along with just one torch, and no plan.
Finally made it to the lab in a distant tree.
Wife and daughter entered before I could get there.
Spiders were waiting, attacked wife and daughter in lab.
I rushed to try to help them but was too late.
Watched in horror as wife fell OUT of lab to ground below, getting knocked unconscious, needing to be saved.
Daughter was left fighting spiders alone.
Had to make a call.
Jumped down to ground below to save dying wife. I am the worst father ever.
Heart wrenched at screams for help from daughter up above, terrified, dying to spiders.
Meanwhile on the ground, spiders surrounded me and my unconscious wife.
Torch finally ran out. Those spiders ripped us to shreds.
10/10, would lead the worst expedition again.
This is a game that caught me by complete surprise. I don’t normally like survival games. So often they have crafting systems that stretch my ability to suspend disbelief, suddenly able to produce ridiculous items with just a few bare ingredients. I don’t know what it is that's so different about this game, but I had a great time here.
I bought four copies of this game, for myself, my wife, and 8 and 11-year-olds. We’ve been playing it quite a bit for the past couple of weeks, and by now we’ve played just about all it has to offer. We’re holding off a bit on doing the final mission, but I’m sure we’ll be beating it in the next few days, and singing our champion song.
Where this game truly shines is multiplayer and exploration. If you like those concepts, you would likely enjoy this game. It never really pushes you to go in a certain direction. If you wanted to, from the very start of the game, you could go anywhere. Some of the areas are blocked off in the early game, but the game doesn’t stop you from building staircases to wherever you want to go. It would be foolish, since you’d die quickly in areas you’re not ready for, but the game is all about exploring. There are many interesting things to find along the way.
The exploration in many ways reminds me of Breath of the Wild, or also The Outer Wilds, which were two games where exploration was fantastic. I don’t think it’s as good as those two games, but still I always wanted to see more of the map and explore. I don’t care as much for games where they just tell you where to go and you follow the map to the next waypoint. Instead, here you have a very vague idea where things are, and what to do, but it’s up to you to explore and put it together. You have to pay more attention to your surroundings, not some quest-marker holding your hand.
There were so many bonding experiences we had as a family in this game. My 8-year-old son was fearless, joining me on many an adventure and I found myself following him as he leapt into battle. My 11-year-old daughter was more timid and reserved, scared of the spiders but embracing the base-building part of the game. She designed our base and built first-class rooms for everybody, while still joining in on some of our adventures. My wife isn’t much of a gamer, but sometimes she’d join us and, well, quite honestly, die a lot, but in the funniest of ways. I particularly loved when she randomly threw her expensive weapon into a lake because she couldn’t figure out the controls. It was strange how much my defensive instincts would kick in at trying to keep my family alive – in a videogame of all things. It was a weird feeling but then again it’s what I loved so much about this game.
Tonight I decided to make a scavenger hunt in the game, so I started a new world in creative mode, built stairways and ziplines throughout the world for ease of travel, and placed items in chests throughout the world with cryptic hints for the rest of the family to find. It was a blast to watch them scouring the world to find them. My boy was the one who ended up finishing first. Was again a great bonding experience, and I look forward to doing that again. Endless replayability with that.
With all of that being said, I don’t think this game is necessarily for everybody. At first I didn’t care much for the combat, it felt very much like button mashing. As the game went along though, I paid much more attention to blocking, and types of weapons, and watching the attack movements of the bugs, and that made it significantly funner. It’s also a game that really is best with at least one other person with you. As a single player experience I think it loses a lot of what makes it great. There also isn’t a ton of story here, and the story itself is meh. But I don’t really think this is a game about story, it’s about exploring and having adventures together.
Is this a perfect game? No. We had some glitches, some disconnections, etc. And on the Xbox One it looks horrible, compared to pc. But for me, videogames are less about graphics and more about experiences. Graphics were pretty, yes, but overall, how do I feel by the end of the game? There’s something about being in a shared world, all working together, to tackle challenges, that just resonated with me in this game. We went from being scared of pretty much everything in the game to eventually being THE THING TO FEAR in the backyard. My boy was fearsome in battle. My daughter made us a wonderful home. My wife was deadly with a crossbow when she could figure out how to use it. And I, well, I just wished it wouldn’t end. It’s been a genuine pleasure that I did not expect but I’m thrilled we experienced.

Sum-Up
In-depth analysis further down.
🟩 Pros
🟥 Cons
- Enormous map filled to the brim with secondary locations, lore and secrets; it proves compelling and interesting to explore at all times.
- Superb base-building and management systems, each with an impressive level of polishing, ease of use and quality-of-life features.
- Excellent variety of weapons, accessories, tools and item sets that cater to a wide array of specialized character builds.
- Engaging combat system that not only has a surprising level of depth for this genre, but also emphasizes gear level and player skill in a balanced way.
- Well-designed progression system that encourages thorough exploration and feels rewarding with every new discovery.
- High variety of enemies, most of which have unique behaviors, attack patterns, abilities and weaknesses to research and exploit.
- Lack of proper guidance / hints to discover both main and side content in some cases, the latter being especially obscure at times.
- Balance issues in late-game phases: most weapons (except 2-handed) prove underpowered or gimmicky against high tier foes.
🟨 Bugs & Issues
🔧 Specs
- Lobbies need to be closed and re-done each time to load a save in multiplayer.
- A few enemy attacks have an oversized hitbox or may hit without an animation.
- Rarely, voice-lines may repeat multiple times in a row.
- 3900X
- 2080Ti
- 32GB RAM
- SSD
- 1440p
Content & Replay Value:
It took me, alongside a friend, around 70 hours to complete Grounded on the Standard difficulty, taking extra time to explore the map thoroughly, clear all locations, build a complete base and defeat all the bosses we could find. There isn’t really a point in replaying once finished, as the content will be the same.
Is it worth buying?
Absolutely. The standard price of 40€ is more than fair for this content amount and excellent quality, even without any discount.
Verdict: Excellent
Rating Chart Here
Without a doubt, one of the best and brightest entries in the open-world survival genre. Obsidian got back on track and delivered once again.
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In-Depth
Setting & Writing
After Dr. Wendell Tully discovers a technology that allows resizing people to minute scale, an experiment goes wrong and four teenagers become reduced to insect-size. Grounded is entirely set in a garden backyard, that from your newfound perspective is an expansive grass-bladed jungle filled with once-cute insects, now acting as mortal predators. The level of detail is remarkable with each environment, be it a labyrinthine anthill, the dark depths of a fish pond or a secret, half-wrecked laboratory all crafted with minute attention to detail.
The story clearly isn’t the main focus, and is narrated in a generally-goofy way that however has its more serious or dramatic moments. Between fully-voiced dialogues and dozens of lore entries in the form of files, recordings and data, you’ll put the pieces together and discover many interesting insights not only on the events but also the locations and bizarre places present in the Backyard.
Exploration & Survival
The world is nothing short of massive and is mainly divided in upper and lower backyard, plus a whole series of standalone dungeons be them main-quest related or secondary. You’ll be able to go as you please, although multiple areas will need specialized equipment to make passage feasible, or will simply have too powerful foes for a long time. Between free building, parkour options and several traversal tools like dandelion tufts or ladders, you’ll have many options on how to reach the next unexplored area. All points of interest will be permanently marked on your map, and custom markers are there too for keeping track of places.
Hunger and thirst will be your main concerns, both entirely manageable and, while a constant concern, never frustrating or annoying, but instead well-balanced, especially when you learn all the sources and tricks to get the most out of your surroundings, like kicking water drops out of grass blades. In case of death, you’ll respawn at your bed, lose all the inventory except armor and a few other things, but you’ll recover everything if you go back where you died. Items like Molars act as upgrade points when found: you can spend them in the Lab, once unlocked, to improve your character’s stats and learn powerful passive advantages.
Crafting & Base Building
The system in place to handle progression and research is quite unique. As you find new materials from natural sources, killed enemies and so on, you’ll be able to use one of the several Research Stations around the map to analyze them, gaining insight on what you can build with them and also Raw Science points - used to buy even more recipes and perks from the trader once unlocked. Raw Science may also be found in the world, gained from quests and from some special defense event zones. For the rest, crafting is handed as any other survival game, using specialized workbenches to craft certain resources.
Weapons and armors may also be enhanced up to +8, using rarer materials to increase attack, defense and passive perks in the process. Performing specific actions many times like mining, killing specific enemy categories and so on will unlock Mutations that can be freely enabled on the go to give passive advantages, for instance Ant-Nihilator gives bonus damage against ants, to name one.
Bases can be built almost anywhere, with a powerful yet easy-to-use system that allows complex architectures if one wants to. Better get fortified though, as enemies act as factions that will get progressively angry as you inevitably face them in battle while exploring, and attack your base with the intent of destroying it from time to time. A whole array of defenses can be built to help you, like mines, spikes, turrets and more.
Combat System & Bosses
The combat plays out mainly in melee, though ranged options and even magic exist, later on. All enemies have repeated attack patterns you should learn to attack and block at the right times, with perfect parrying being the highlight that, when mastered, can stagger any foe. Manage your stamina wisely and make sure to analyze each enemy’s data card, unlocked by spotting them, to learn their weaknesses and resistances to the many types of damage, and bring the appropriate tool for the job.
Boss fights are challenging and really feel like endeavors that require the best gear available at that point, and the right strategy to beat. Some optional bosses, very obscure to locate, will truly challenge even combat veterans, and award unique materials and items as a reward.
Quests & Secondary Activities
Quests are given by the various terminals in the world, tasking you with scouting places, killing specific enemies or crafting certain items in exchange for Raw Science. The main and side missions may also unlock new recipes, so they are definitely worth doing. Other activities include MIXR defenses, high-stakes sieges against huge hordes of enemies, in return for unique perks and tons of raw science, and also optional or secret dungeons that usually host hidden recipes or unique items.

Best game I've played in a while. I'm getting kinda old (39), so I don't have much time for games. When I do play them, I usually get bored and quit after a while. This game is different. I played for 5 hours straight after buying it, only stopping because I have IRL work to get done. Responsibilities...I know. But anyway, the developers did a great job. Play this game!

Don"t listen to people telling you that you NEED a team to play this, i'm having alot of fun playing on my own.

Look I don't really do reviews like this but this game is ******* amazing. I payed thirty bucks for this game and my wife and I have been playing it for 3 days straight. The amount of sheer content in an UNFINISHED game is mind-blowing. The fact that I've only experienced ONE bug in the game is staggering (And it's a mild audio bug that's corrected by logging out and logging back in). I haven't clipped through the world, gotten stuck, glitched out, or otherwise experienced a single issue that isn't an intended game mechanic.
The Map is humongous and will take you between 8-10 minutes to sprint across, longer if you walk and sprinting across the map isn't really possible because of the nourishment requirements.
The enemies are a challenge. Some are annoying, some are just cute, some are a serious challenge that take real life days to prepare for and some are the stuff of nightmares that you won't ever want to mess with. (Think reaper leviathan from subnautica but they're giant insects)
The crafting is in depth, systematic, methodical, tiered, upgrade compatible and is mostly linear.
The building mechanics are simple but will let your imagination work without many boundaries.
Multiplayer - This is where the game has challenges but they're not the challenges that most multiplayer games have. I haven't experienced a single connection issue, desync, sudden disconnection, server error, or otherwise problem that keeps me and my wife from playing together. The multi-player issue is that the game requires you to have a microsoft xbox account (No subscription required) and you have to connect to friends through the xbox friend's list to play together. It's not so much of an issue as it is a mild irritation that you'll overcome if you have someone you specifically want to play with. Otherwise I'm not aware of a public search option for playing with other people. Have some friends in mind to play with before you purchase this game.
The graphics are very good, they're not amazing or mind-blowing but I have no issues playing the game with max visual settings. There's some blur that happens when trying to look at things far away but I'm almost certain the game's designed that way.
Half of the game you'll find yourself stopping and saying out loud "Whoa, what is that"?!
The other half of the game you'll find yourself twitching the camera quickly and saying quietly "What the f#@! is that"!?

its just like living in australia