Blending the survival vibe of something like Ark: Survival Evolved with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is reason enough to pique our interest. And that's exactly what Grounded is - available now (as an Early Access release) on Xbox Game Pass (PC and Console) and Steam. We put Adrian Haas through our own shrink ray to explore the microcosm of Obsidian's latest.

And to find out whether he has the smarts of a Szalinski kid. Or, if he's just another soda chugging Thompson.

At first glance, there's not a lot separating Grounded from other survival games like Ark: Survival Evolved or Conan Exiles. There's your typical survival tropes: hunger, thirst, exploration, weapon and armour crafting, shelter building, and so on. What sets Grounded apart from the crowd though are all of the little things, like quest markers measured in centimetres and the fact that you're not gathering rocks or even pebbles; but peblets. Hydration comes in the form of dew drops, and the clover portion of a four-leaf clover is strong enough to withstand your weight.

At this stage of the game's Early Access journey, things are as relatively bare as the wide open spaces of a new vegetable plot awaiting seeds - in Grounded such a site is huge. Only a portion of the story has been revealed, and with the opening teaser being engaging as it is, there’s a sense that this is more proof of concept than a rough-around-the-edges full game.

Our Full Grounded Early Access Impressions