


Grounded Axe:Get this useful tool quickly.(It's actually Silicon Valley's Josh Brener doing the voice, apparently, but it's still got a heavy dose of the Claptrap filter.) You'll need the sound on in the gif below to really get the idea. That prize goes to the miniature robot that sounds like Claptrap's long lost brother. That's fine if you're content with battling bugs, constructing a base, and having freeform fun, but if you want more in-depth questing you're out of luck at this stage of development and may want to wait until the full release.Ī final note: spiders aren't the most repulsive thing about Grounded. But the biggest issue right now is probably that the story quests only take about 30 minutes to complete, and after that you're mostly left to your own devices.

Grounded has a few problems in Early Access-twice I've gotten stuck to the scenery and needed to reload an earlier save. Other times I've sunk several spears and arrows into them and they just kept coming. You quickly learn which creatures are always hostile and which aren't, but you can never tell just how the battle will go. At times I've chased off a massive spider with one well-placed throw of my spear. I like that Grounded's insects are a bit unpredictable. I wouldn't want to meet these spiders even if I hadn't been shrunk down to the size of a jelly bean. Spiders are scary enough when you run into them above ground in bright sunlight, and much worse when you meet them in the darkened tunnel. Plus, if you run into some baby spiders, there's bound to be a massive momma nearby. But if you blunder into a spider it'll pounce on you in a flash and kill you incredibly quickly. You might get some advance warning before a spider encounter: Some areas are covered with webs, and as a spider stalks through the yard you can see the blades of grass swaying in the distance. Bugs, love them or hate them, are very wonderfully done in Grounded, from the scurrying and squeaking little green aphids to shiny, lumbering ladybugs (I hope we'll be able to saddle and ride them) to the busy, mostly neutral soldier ants-they won't attack you unless provoked but they will absolutely steal stuff from your storage baskets, and I'm pretty sure I caught a few trying to eat some bug meat I was roasting on a spit over my campfire.
