We went to the offices of Obsidian Entertainment (California) to see an exclusive gameplay of Grounded, the new title of the survival genre studio.
Obsidian Entertainment has surprised players with its new proposal: Grounded, a game encompassed in the survival RPG genre. Not a month has passed since The Outer Worlds arrived on PS4, Xbox One and PC (soon also Switch) and despite being so recent, the studio already has a new title in hand. His first trailer has been screened during the X019 and we already know that it will arrive in early 2020 exclusively on Xbox One and PC (Game Pass and PC) in Early Access. In FreeGameTips we have gone exclusively to the Obsidian offices in Irvine (California) to see an extensive gameplay of the game, interview its creators and, in short, to know all the details about Grounded.
A different title than usual in Obsidian
When thinking about Obsidian Entertainment, the genre RPG automatically comes to mind. His latest work, The Outer Worlds, showed that the Californian studio continues to dominate the role as the first day (and it is already 15 years of history). Therefore, upon receiving the invitation for the presentation of a new exclusive title, the first thing that came to mind is that it was a game encompassed in the genre. Seeing the trailer that has just been revealed on X019 we knew we were facing something different.
“This is something different from what we have done so far” – Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian
A small team of about 13-14 people began to raise the idea of Grounded in the fall of 2017. Thanks to this, they were able to fully dedicate themselves to it while the rest of Obsidian employees were focused on carrying out The Outer Worlds and other jobs. As we have advanced above, the game will arrive in early 2020 to Xbox One, Game Pass PC and Steam and will do so in Early Access mode, as there are still several aspects to be polished.
“When we were finishing Deadfire (Pillars of Eternity II), Adam Brennacke (director) and Bobby Null (leading designer) had a brainstorming session about what could be treated in a survival game. The idea of Grounded came up, Feargus approved it to carry it out and in a few months we had the first prototype ready, ”says Roby Atadero, senior programmer.
Grounded is a survival RPG that can be played alone or in an online cooperative with up to 4 players. The plot premise tells us that, due to a mysterious experiment, four children are reduced to a size of 9mm and must learn to live with the now giant insects in their backyard. To do this, they must collect materials and build both shelters and weapons and armor in order to protect themselves from hostile insects in the area.
“Grounded is an exciting project for the team. We are proud to be a creative studio and contribute our experience with the RPG genre to survival ”- Feargus Urquhart
Although it may seem like a simple premise and without too much depth, Obsidian promises that he will have a good main story with missions to complete. Of course, we should not reach Grounded waiting for a great script and deep conversations as the study has accustomed us. We repeat, once again, that it is something different from what they have created so far.
Discover, build and fight
The first mission proposed by Grounded is to eat something (a mushroom this time) and find a source of water (a drop that rests on a leaf). With this, they welcome us to the micro-world of the game through a simple tutorial with which to learn the basic mechanics of survival. One aspect that stands out from the beginning is the fact that the entire map is interactible. Thus, we can collect stones, branches, common objects and others to obtain materials with which to build our base and protect it with traps to avoid predatory attacks.
In these bases we can be protected, sleep, cook thanks to the fire of a bonfire and have a crafting table to create tools, weapons and armor. These have different skills and attributes depending on the materials they contain (wood, insect shells, etc.). As for cosmetic objects, there will be, from Obsidian ensure that everything can be built and there will be no internal micropayments.
All the progress of the characters is through the objects and cracking, so there will be no differences between the 4 protagonists: Max (the funny of the group), Willow (the arrogant), Pete (the nerd) and Hoops (the leading athlete of the group). In the design of the characters the variety of genders and ethnicities is appreciated, since it is an aspect that is not always taken into account but that will help different players feel more represented. We can play both in the first person and with the camera in the third person, which allows us to see better the character we carry.
A detail that is clear both by the gameplay and by the words of those responsible for the game is that Grounded is more fun with friends. Up to 4 players can cooperate to build shelters, defend them, explore the world and much more. Of course, at the moment the servers work so that player 1 must open the game for others to join, so these other users cannot access that game world at will, only when the host is connected .
The exploration of the wide world of the game will allow us actions such as climbing (and light platform through the leaves, branches, rocks and others), swimming in the puddles (which for the characters will be lakes), duck, run and others. We will find areas of land, grass, large logs, dark caves and much more in order to discover how everything looks from a vision of 9mm in size. Of course, the scenarios are not generated procedurally, so they have already been designed by the team to the millimeter.
“Everyone has ever had the dream of being small. With Grounded we want players to be able to fulfill it ”- Adam Brennacke, director of the game.
As for the dangers, as you can imagine, they intensify due to our small size and the consequent large proportion that insects have in comparison. We will find a great ecosystem of bugs in which ants, bees, ladybugs and even dangerous spiders roam freely through the grounds. One of the points of interest of the game is to prosper until you can go sufficiently armed and prepared to face the biggest bugs and not perish in the attempt.
An accessible title for all types of players
The feeling that Grounded gives us after seeing it in depth is that it is aimed at a mostly childish and younger audience compared to other Obsidian productions. To begin with, its graphic design is colorful and with pleasant lighting (something unusual in other survival titles). The menus are intuitive and simple, in addition to having a font size large enough for anyone to read it easily.
As for the difficulty of the game, they ensure that there will be different levels for each player to decide the type of challenge he wants to face. Even so, by asking the director of Grounded about whether it is possible to starve or faint from not sleeping, he answers with a refusal:
“We may lose health and be weakened, but we cannot die from not eating or sleeping. At least not for now, ”says Adam Brennacke.
This is something that invites us to think that its general difficulty will not be as high as one would expect from a title whose essence is survival. Roby Atadero assures us that it is one of those games that are intended for all audiences and any player can enjoy: “We hope to build it in a way that maintains its survival essence and has that experience at its core. We want players who are accustomed to these types of challenges to be satiated and expected, but we also want to make sure we build the systems and gameplay in a way that less experienced users can enjoy exploring and living the game. "
They assure us that the interaction with the ecosystem will have consequences in it, but we could not get to see it in the gameplay, since it seems that it will be something in the long term. Of course, the plants will grow again after a while, the eliminated bugs will repopulate their colony and others. This is one of the aspects that could become more complex as the months until the launch of the game progress.
There is still much to add
Grounded will arrive in early 2020, but will do so in Early Access. This means that there are still many aspects to be polished, mechanics to add and ideas to apply. Many of the questions we asked the director of the game during our visit to the Obsidian studios had the same answers: "We still cannot assure you / We are looking at it / It is an idea that we want to add."
Atadero details that being a small team, the process of adding or changing something is very fast and therefore they are in a constant brainstorm and its consequent application in the game. They also ensure that they will be very attentive to community comments so that the Early Access phase serves as a final testing ground before launching it in its final version.
We will have to wait until the first quarter of the year, which we are about to start, for Grounded to reach our consoles and PC. At the moment, it aims to be an interesting title for lovers of the survival genre (in a simple version of it) and for any user who enjoys an afternoon of play with his group of friends. As if it were a Píxar movie, the colorful style of the game and its friendly essence could conquer a good base of young players and, who knows, if the title evolves enough even to captivate those who seek a greater challenge .
X019: We have already played it
Grounded captured all eyes on the first day of the X019 festival. The London marred by the usual rain, allowed for a few hours to try the anticipation of one of the surprises of the biggest Xbox Inside to date.
The first thing that comes to mind is the animated film Bichos, a miniature adventure. After the sweeping success of Toy Story, Pixar brought the million-dollar question to the big screen: what would the vision of nature's smallest be like? Ants, insects and derivatives were the protagonists of a film that fell deep among the generation that grew up in the 1990s.
Seizing the control after Grounded is a leap of faith. One cannot avoid feeling certain prejudices from a distance. Another survival? The offer out there is not that it is scarce: Ark: Survival Evolved, Rust, DayZ himself and even Minecraft (in a way) already gather the great mass around the genre. But this thought changes radically when we feel that the lawn of your garden is a deadly trap; an entire Amazon due to circumstances that force you to adapt in a matter of minutes.
Die or survive a new day. That is the key that surrounds the experiment. This small demonstration aims to show its capabilities in three phases: collection, construction and defense. As if it were a tower defense, at nightfall we will be prey to the hordes of thirsty bugs by our bits of grass.
Its developers warn us of the early phase of the demo. Despite this, and saving framerate problems, the truth is that the proposal shows muscle of its playable abilities. Unlike its rivals, resource management works significantly differently. We give you an example: with the result of cutting down a piece of grass (the equivalent of a tree), the physical pieces are not incorporated into an inventory slot, but you must physically take them to the places where you want to build.
This has a great impact on the way survival works itself. Leaving outside your shelter becomes a sort of raid that must be planned in advance. Naturally, there are such extremely small objects that will be incorporated into your inventory, such as fibers, nut pieces, and so on. Inventory that will work similarly to what is seen in other games of the same profile.
So far everything seemed more or less normal. It wasn't until we started experimenting with the environment when our feelings improved even more. The stage acts as an entity in itself; Each structure has its own physical features. You navigate the garden thinking like a real adventurer. If it is impossible for me to reach a stone, I can use logs to create an improvised bridge. The physics of objects allows you to take advantage of their behavior to our benefit. For more than half of the regulatory time it seemed that we were on a kind of wild platforms. We used the road leaves to reach higher and higher, all after learning a control that reminds us of the emerging opportunities of the old school.
As detailed by its leaders present at the event, within the hood is Unreal Engine, an engine already treated by the company. They still don't know how the worlds will work in terms of connectivity. As we said at the beginning of the text, at the moment they focus on a cooperative experience for up to four players.
When night falls we must protect our shelter. We hope that the way we should do it changes as development progresses, as it does not work as it should. Insect enemies still develop erratically, lacking a set of moves that pose the challenge the player is looking for. Of course, if you fit several strokes, the most common is that you end up on the canvas. There is improvement field.
Obsidian is faced with the opportunity to demonstrate that there is life beyond its comfort zone. For now, point to it; Thanks to Xbox Game Pass you can receive constant feedback.
