Smalland Review - Grounded and Valheim had a baby

[@WorthABuyreviews]

It's not a bad game it's just that some design decisions had me scratching my head, way too much micro for me which gradually started to ruin the fun of the game. Repairing armour is a huge deal as you have to get loads of different mats to repair it, every day we felt that all there was to do was busy work fetching mats, you never really had time to pause and take in all the games beauty. And with the silly combat system forcing you to carry and switch between all the games weapons every fight it made my whole experience pretty dull, the storms finished me off with the player having no protection, it's just constant frustration. One to keep an eye on though as it could be loads better than it is atm.

[@heetsees]

Ya man the game looks pretty good and stable but I'm not gonna pay someone to make me work. Where are the endorphin activators? If it's a slog I can't be bothered. I Thank you Mac for throwing yourself om the sword to protec us from rubbish 😅

[@WorthABuyreviews]

@@heetsees Xray vision, totally forgot about it as we never used it once.

[@Grandmastergav86]

@@WorthABuyreviews I quite like the idea of it as a Monster Hunter alternative; needs more time in the oven and a considerable deal more thought put into it from the sound of it.

[@leopoldbuttersstotch73]

All i heard was crying. ITS EARLY ACCESS!🤦‍♂️ I guess go back to Grounded with the 10 year olds.

[@ZM-dm3jg]

I've been excited for this game for months. Your review convinced me not to buy it, it seems you didn't find it fun at all just frustrating

[@robertrenato]

You're spot on with the not feeling small thing... Why is there "normal" sized grass and vegetation onthe ground? it's probably the thing that breaks the illusion the most!

[@TamanduaGirl]

That's moss not grass that's why it's got little spore things coming out of it.

[@SolDizZo]

Moss should look like shrek's swamp

[@box2231]

They need to fix that asap

[@TheSaintArmando]

I totally agree, it does indeed break the illusion. They should take a look at grounded, and see how they did it.

[@TamanduaGirl]

@@SolDizZo I've lived in the pacific north west my whole life. I don't need a cartoon to show me what moss looks like. moss grows all over. There's even a very short species of moss that grows between the grass blades. Shreks swamp also is a different climate so different species of moss. The moss in this looks very much like a common moss that grows here. Moss would very much be similar to tall grass if you're tiny. It's all very realistic for a wild space vs a curated garden space.

[@Retrosenescent]

"Let's get into the combat. The combat's terrible." Love how you just get straight to the point 😂

[@bloodrunsclear]

'If you plagiarize one person, you're a thief. Plagiarize lots of people...you're an artist!' - Dave Berry

[@TranquillityOfficial]

Aww I was looking forward to this game too. It seems like it needs a lot more work to be enjoyable. Thanks Mack!

[@dustinduplechin9403]

the game is great trust me

[@Shishakind86]

It's a lot of fun. It's the review that is flawed. He sounds like survival games are just not his cup of tea and he disses the game for it.

[@rugoshath]

Really hope devs listen to your criticisms

[@PinchySkree]

The progression should be unlocked for everyone on kill. The loot should be crafting materials

[@tylerdurden7965]

hate it when different type bugs/monsters/animals/etc... just ignore each other and focus on killing the player. giant beetle and water bug here, smashing around right in front of each other but completely ignore each other, hyper focused on killing you. why?? their bugs, when did they become best friends and form a alliance to murder the player?? why do game developers do this...?

[@gucciguy3408]

They tend to be too lazy to develop these types of systems or don’t want to add it in the budget.

[@Sartekar]

Another thing that made Valheim so great. Greydwarves constantly fight the skeletons in the Black Forest. Every creature attacks other creatures if it makes sense for them to do so. Very immersive and enjoyable. Sometimes you just need to run away and lure hostile creatures into each other and then pick up the scraps

[@007ptb007]

​@@Sartekar the skeletons are hostile to absolutely everything in valheim, they've no desire to co exist, they just hate.

[@troller9838]

Shame the game has this many design problems. It looked pretty interesting. Hopefully it gets better.

[@anasevi9456]

it's been in early access for over a year, so not expecting any changes for the better gameplay loop wise.

[@troller9838]

@@anasevi9456 The game is not released to the public yet. You're thinking of that other game, Grounded.

[@leopoldbuttersstotch73]

@@anasevi9456 No, it releases EA in one day.🥸

[@CAETT0]

The problem is, the game itself is not bad. He just payed 0 attention to it, therefore complains about situation that are avoidable or simply false. You don't need 3252 different armors. Just put 2 cold resistance pieces on and you're fine, no need for specific blunt or piercing resistance. You can use one weapon against every monster, you just deal slightly less damage. Storms don't come out of nowhere. The background is noisy for 10 minutes and you get a storm warning 5 minutes before. 15 minutes are enough to build/find a shelter. Repairing is free as long as it's above 75% health. He complains about nonsense, it's 100% a skill issue, not a bad game design.

[@orlandosotelo9533]

hope you're doing well Mack, are you planning on doing "resident evil 4"?

[@LDacic]

I really like when the elements are integrated in a game. Such as winter armors, freezing unless close to a fire, staying wet after leaving water, etc. Fun things!

[@WholeWhiteBaby]

My suggestion for games with temperature armors : underlay padding. One type for cooling effects, another for warmth. Completely plausible as a concept.

[@stevegee8010]

This game's been in development hell since forever. It was even removed from Steam as a 'coming soon' game years ago and it was stuck on 'coming soon' for years before that.

[@NedransVikingar]

I think it was dropped and another studio picked it up recently? That's also very bad imo.

[@Sonacnights]

Been playing this game for about a week and honestly, half the complaints are totally valid and agreeable while the other half feel like blatant oversight on the players part or just skill issues. The design flaw for armors is that durability doesn't increase proportionate protection, so whether you have the stone armor or the black hornet armor, the durability is the same. The specific damage type protection the armors offer is pretty negligible, too. To say you can't tell what enemies do unless you get close enough to fight them is just false. You're told about the antenna vision from the start which highlights resources and enemy stats from a decent distance, including their weaknesses, resistances and whatever special damage they do. Storms arriving in only 10 seconds is also completely untrue. It takes like an entire minute and yeah, you absolutely can build a shelter in that time - I was doing it with plenty of time to spare on day one since 'being in shelter' literally just means being under a singular roof. So drop a foundation, attach one of the curved roof pieces, sit there and wait. I definitely agree it's not very fun, but the complaint about the time and inability to prepare is bogus. As for being cold, you definitely don't need the padded armor to be ready for a storm once you have a cauldron, which is fairly early on. Could easily just make the foods that offer 50pts of cold resist which is enough to reduce the freezing effect in a storm down to just cold even when you're butt naked, and completely negate cold altogether if your wearing armor that offers more than maybe 2-3pts per piece, unless it's winter, in which case you'll still get the cold debuff even with the food. But as long as we're on the topic of cooking, which is super easy to do, make some foods that negate nourishment loss for anywhere from 5 minutes to 12 minutes. One food thing every several minutes for a constant nourished buff means that even with the cold debuff, you're passively healing as fast as you're losing HP to the cold. Also, repairing tools and armor does not take a ton of resources after only a couple fights, and in fact they take literally 0 resources to repair if they're still over 66% durability. Even then, after fighting a few stag beetles which are a nightmare for durability, I had to repair my black hornet set from as little as 2/140 durability and it barely took 1/7 the resources I needed to make the set to begin with. I rarely felt the need to go and grind out resources just in case I broke something or needed to repair stuff because once you reach those certain areas to farm resources, they are so abundant in that area that you end up with tons extra anyway. I have multiple stacks of iron scrap and ingots just from two trips to the street with a friend who took half the nodes we came across for his own separate base and stash. I'll gladly agree to things like the world feeling kinda small, or like you said, like a normal scaled big world or something. Once you get gliding armor especially, the scale feels way off. Tamed bugs absolutely need some work. Either a huge buff to their HP and DMG, armor, or maybe a knocked down state so you can at least pick them up within a certain time if they take too much damage. I had the grasshopper for about 5 minutes, only able to hop one time at a time because it fully drains stamina even if your hop is only a couple inches because it's uphill or something, and it got wiped out by a gecko in maybe three attacks? 0 reason to have mounts right now. The upcoming Hornet mount looks cool if only because you can fly up with it, I'd imagine. I'd like if they eventually added a leveling system where we might be able to apply small amounts of damage type resistances directly to out characters in place of having those resistances on the armor just so it feels like a permanent choice rather than a minor bonus for some armor until you find one that has better protection values, since that matters way more.

[@CAETT0]

The game and its design are not the problem, it's 100% you. 1. The combat system is not bad at all. I mean, if you want a "one armor/weapon fits all" then well, you can go for that, but it's not efficient. But honestly? "You NEED the perfect armor against a boss"? No, then it's a skill issue imo. In our playthrough, we just looked at the 'basic' stats like "armor" and "cold resistance" and were totally fine against every boss monster. That you need a specific weapon type is also false. You can fight every monster with one weapon if you want to. But you deal slightly less damage. But this is not a "Smalland-only" system and not that bad as you state it to be. Nearly every game has those weaknesses ans strenghs systems, so wth is your problem here? Skill issue I guess. The combat is a mix of Valheim and Dark Souls and of course you don't just smash a monster. Again, a freacking skill issue, not a bad game design. 2. Really, you complain about the winter? Because it's cold outside? NO SHT Sherlock. Don't dare to say "OmG I nEeD 56233 diFfeRent ArmOr in My pOcKet" No. You don't. Put two cold resistance peaces on and you're fine. Put literally 0 blunt resistance on and YOU'LL BE FINE AGAINST BLUNT DMG, just use your brain and roll or block. Skill issue. 3. "And then a storm comes out of nowhere" This is a lie. The sky is noisy for like 10 minutes, THEN you get a storm warning and THEN have 5 minutes to find or build a shelter. ~15 minutes, that's enough time. Your problem: You pay like 0 attention to the environment AT ALL and then complain about it. xD Skill issue. 4. And of course the game itself does not mark you any cave, wtf. You can set marker by yourself, why would the game carry your ass like this? The game does not punish you like you state. It just does not treats you like a baby. Again, skill issue. 5. Durability. I can tell you something: You can repair your stuff for free when it's above 75% health. If you would just listen to the owls in the tutorial you could have known that, but well, you just don't care and complain AGAIN. Guess what? Skill issue. Bruh, your review honestly sucks. You're bad and don't pay attention to the game itself and then you complain about it. The game is great, even for a early access title. Just use your fcking brain next time.

[@WolfManCer]

Thanks for your honest review, I will check the game out then.

[@rezzybeans]

300k gratz Mack!

[@ComdrStew]

I remember reading that a couple guys that worked on this made Grounded. You don't look as small as in Grounded either. Instead of being 1 inch tall you seem to be 3 inches tall.

[@thefella131]

It's been on my wishlist for 2 years and after your review it's staying wishlisted.

[@ZM-dm3jg]

Same

[@theaoa2727]

This game is definitely worth it the day one patch fixed a lot of the problems

[@Plague_Doc22]

Will you be reviewing Terra Nil? It's a reverse city builder kind of a thing. Where u try to replenish nature instead of use its resources. Seems like a cool concept.

[@match30xgaming]

Whats your opinion on the state of the game now im thinking about getting this on ps5

[@jaccatt3989]

this game looks like it can be so fun! i hope they sort it out. thanks for bringing it to my attention ill probably buy it

[@wallsgreebo8352]

Bit gutted. Had this on the ol' radar for a while and hoped it'd be good but that thing about whether the developer thinks about 'is this mechanic actual fun?' really hit home. Seen too many games over last few years that dont seem to have that awareness - is this fun? Is it just busywork for the sake of busywork? Anyway, thanks for review and hopefully they'll sort it out cos it does look like it could be a cool game 🙏🏽

[@markkelly9621]

Why would you still have lots of insects running about in the winter?

[@titusvreeke]

Valheim also has different weapon types and NPCs are vulnerable to specific ones. I think that's great actually. But It's not super punishing in Valheim to have the wrong weapon type, i.e. you can kill skeletons with a spear, but it will be much easier with a mace. I'm not sure how punishing the vulnerability system is one this game.

[@MrSongib]

It seems a fun game, I play "Don't Starve" so at this point I can cope with its mechanics regarding armor type, etc. In Dont starve, if don't have equipment for a certain season, you can dead of the weather, but there are other "Option" too like Cold fire and Hot fire thingy. so it's manageable.

[@brichards989]

Similar to Valheim, as your title suggests, it definitely caught my attention and I will keep an eye on it.

[@aztecmummy1]

Lots of rolling around like a pr*ck, as Mac says, lol. Good review as always, I have bought some games based on your recommendations, and have not been disappointed! Thanks for your reviews!

[@_synt3rax_437]

Thanks for the Headsup, was looking forward to playing it but im going to wait and see if they acutally improve anything.

[@anttt7993]

I miss that ambient music in the background.

[@BlackGold-fc7tu]

Yah its weird there's small flowers and grass everywhere

[@Nanain]

re: storm shelter - it is possible to build a 1x1 foundation, 3 walls and a roof and be safe, while the game is swearing you are dying - it's not fun, but it's doable

[@leriuslordvelle3028]

Great review, quick question, what is the name of the music you've got playing at the beginning of the video.

[@barbrady4916]

LOL this reviews funny af. Subscribed 😂

[@evilmanc1]

balls ive had this on my wishlist since 30/12/2018 when it looked like it was being cancelled and i was excited to learn it was coming out. till now :(

[@jim7993]

He doesn’t know what he’s talking about

[@andrewnero3415]

Why was there never reviews for the latest god of war or resident evils? Anyway, appreciate the content. Only reviewer I watch

[@Charok1]

Mack, the windmill at the end of your video is spinning BACKWARDS. 0/10 haha

[@RichardPhillips1066]

Maybe these devs needs to hire someone that understands game mechanics an expert

[@leopoldbuttersstotch73]

maybe with your expertise you could make a better game?🤡

[@RichardPhillips1066]

Yes ...I don't understand how so Much Effort can be out into a game , bot no effort made to make sure it's fun

[@katieford7125]

My 13 year old nephew is really into Spore and Empires of the Undergrowth; if Smalland could fix the "kick in the balls" aspect of playing, this game is definitely something that I would recommend to, and play with, him. The potential you speak of is there!

[@Invad3rDiz]

He would love Grounded

[@LLAAPPSSEE]

Location based dmg would be nice perhaps? Kinda like in Monster Hunter -- different dmg types for certain body parts. Some kind of layered armor system? Add insulation mods to your gear, etc. I dunno. Better yet, just a "cloak" or something you could craft. Feel like the game world doesn't feel small partially because of the ground texturing/modeling/small grass. Ground should be more craggy. Then again, maybe these characters are a bit bigger than grounded? Heh. Storms, I've seen people whip up a quick curved wall/floor/bed to survive a storm. It'd be cool if the storms didn't kill you outright but instead the world would sorta procedurally flood in spots/rushing streams would appear and could push/pull/drown you.

[@-drey]

3:34 the ground texture is very.. smooth . they need a massive normal map or something to mimic the zoomed in uneven grains of dirt

[@nielzdg]

exactly, terrain on the very small scale should be much more rough and bumpy

[@calderarecords]

SO much potential. Needs a LOT of work & it could be fun. Also kinda looks dull graphically. But its a great concept. Hope they work on it more.

[@wafflecopter9296]

I think the sense of scale issue is mostly because of how far away the third person camera is. It kind of forces you to look ar the ground the whole time and not at the environment above

[@MakoRuu]

I've been patiently waiting for something along the lines of The Borrowers, or Epic. This is pretty close, but it needs a ton of work.

[@bettertackle6549]

Awesome review Mac. Thank you for sharing how scuffed this game is.

[@martiantexan7632]

Some legit criticisms, but a really funny review bomb. I did curse the gameplay too, and have enjoyed it quite a bit as well. Definitely love the visuals over the cartoonish stuff, well optimized, runs ultra settings on rx580.

[@mybuddyken436]

Thanks for the video. This looks like one I am going to have to wait on. Perhaps they will get it right someday.

[@DublinOdinson]

Damn it. I've had this on my wish list since March of 2018. Gotta say, it is extremely disappointing to see this review and hear the state of it. Thanks for being honest as always, Mack.

[@RatgenerationX]

Great review 👏 I'm still buying this game and I'll sit on it for the next 2 years like conan

[@maltorsever]

BeeO girl (if you know you know ) 😆. Do Barotrauma next Mack !

[@maltorsever]

@@LongHairedYetiCave 🤣

[@shredman59]

Ball Kickerz! Hey, hopefully they can work on it a bunch before release.

[@mw47]

Yeah, i'll wait till autumn or Christmas before i put my hands on it.

[@styxxrivers7576]

Well DAM I wanted you to like this and have lots of good things to say about this. Thank you for your honest feed back Mack.

[@asm3282]

Your review of this game is how I felt playing Valheim...

[@Pl4sm0]

same

[@cl-audio322]

Appreciate the honesty. Hopefully they will perfect this as they go.

[@graham1034]

Hopefully the game improves over early access. I'll wait a while and watch some reviews after some major updates.

[@jigzyonline2]

I bought it to see how it evolves. Will play it now and then but its very flawed. Then you find other aspects are designed really well so let's see how it turns out.

[@armelior4610]

As someone who doesn't "get" survival games and think it's all busywork, I don't really understand the difference here. But having to change your whole equipement for each enemy sure seems tedious

[@vaulk8949]

BWAHAHAHA OMG I DIED listening to you go on about having to carry a weapon for every type of of damage and armor for every type of resistance. Well done my friend, well done. "How many Fkin armor sets do you have to have"???!!!

[@Vico7787]

5 minutes in and its obvious this guy went in to it with a negative opinion. So much of the stuff he complains about are either good features or things that are in either grounded or valheim and fans love them. He has some good points, dont get me wrong, but this video is borderline slanderous at a point without anything credible backing the hate in half of his remarks. Weapons should do certain types of damage that are needed for different enemies. That is a key part of these games in all honesty. That is just one example of many. Grounded and valheim both do it and the fact that he wasnt aware of it honestly makes me trust his judgement on these games much less

[@thegoldenapple5314]

combat is not bad, its just like valheims combat makes it unique and cool

[@adrianwilliams6577]

Thanks for the warning, steering clear.

[@switchfoot8702]

Was thinking about trying this game, but with your review I will pass. Thanks for sharing!

[@Balteraxe]

You know what this game needs? X-ray Vision!!!

[@TheSteveo909]

hm. As you say it may not be there yet but it can't be denied it looks like a game with a hell of a lot of potetntial. Think i'm going to hold off on it for now but if the devs do some decent updates I could defenitly see this beecoming a game i'm interested in the future as I loved games like Valhiem.

[@Sovjetski-]

you killed this game for me, i was locking forward of this one, but not anymore :/

[@BehelitKeeper]

really want to like this game, i hope it gets alot of love and feedback

[@Bertilz]

Interesting review but why on earth complain that the devs are patching the game PRE early access? Just want atleast until the game has been released in early access in that case.

[@WorthABuyreviews]

Because they made a review branch of the game that is for reviewers and a branch for retail, normally the review branch is the final build before release and any updates go to the retail branch for testing. This is so reviewers can play the game and post their review before the game releases, they wiped the review branch on Saturday which is ludicrous, we noticed a lot of servers running from reviewers that also got wiped, wonder why there are not many reviews out for the game lol

[@daemonthorn5888]

Speaking of winter.... what are insects doing out and about in the winter? You don't have grasshoppers and beetles running around in the winter, with snow on the ground.

[@HatedSovietLion]

It reminds me of Outward a little bit, but with more survival mechanics. Anyone confirm or not? I've been waiting for another Outward style game.

[@jm-po6bs]

I appreciate your review!

[@roqsteady5290]

Don’t make a game you think people want, make one you want to play yourself.

[@warmongruel6418]

Best review ever!!! Haven't laughed that hard in awhile

[@leakyabstraction]

"Potential" actually sounds like a scary word for me, after all those early access games that had "potential" but did nothing with it, because they devs wanted success via milking a genre without putting in all the work to create an actually good experience, or boneheadedly stuck with bad design decisions.

[@Daviusus]

Devs must add Storm protection armor

[@GothicDragonX]

The busy work and having different types of armor and weapons for various enemy types sounds appealing. As for the weather, keep in mind you are bug size creature. Weather should be dangerous for the insects and apparently you. It shouldn't kill you, but it complicates things in lousy weather. Also, you should have an early warning that bad weather is coming to prepare yourself for those days. I haven't played it, but this gameplay reminded me of an animated movie called Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, especially when flying from tree branch to tree branch.

[@whatisbestinlife8112]

Honestly, a lot of your reaction to this game is how I reacted to Valheim.

[@Pl4sm0]

same, I never managed to like Valheim

[@rhyswhittington8759]

currently playing valheim now and im having quite a bit of fun but i get where your coming from. combat sucks, the building is very finicky (still fun) and the game doesnt run veyr well (mind you i am a dirty console player)

[@007ptb007]

Really? I was thinking the devs of this should be looking at valheim as a what to do guide, currently valheim is brilliant on pc, they've improved so much since its release and I'm 380 hours in now

[@whatisbestinlife8112]

@@007ptb007 Yeah, I'm not trolling. I've tried to get into it a few times now and it just doesn't grab me like it seems to for others. The combat is mediocre at best. The base building/crafting is standard base-building/crafting. If you really like that kind of gameplay I'm sure it's fine but it doesn't seem anything standout to me. And the exploration wears thin and gets repetitive pretty quick. I just never got the sense of wonder out of it that others seem to. The setting is cool at the beginning but just doesn't feel very deep or immersive after a bit of time in it.

[@whatisbestinlife8112]

@@rhyswhittington8759 Cool. More power to you if you're digging it.

[@Charok1]

So it's Bug Exiles. Hopefully they expand it to be better like Conan did.

[@jasonmains1366]

Hi mack will u be reviewing resi evil 4 remake

[@jackthelad9933]

Boss fights = I'm out.

[@joeys316]

Would love to see a Core Keeper review.

[@wille84fin]

10 player coop, cool.. Cool.. Does it have offline single player?

[@WorthABuyreviews]

Yes you can play offline in SP

[@wille84fin]

@@WorthABuyreviews Nice, thanks.

[@stewiedarkinvisibleid]

From your review, I took that this game has no quality of life aspects to it. Thanks for pointing these things out.

[@drgeorgej5562]

Can you please make a list of "gems"? I've seen your best of the year videos, but maybe complication of gems?

[@ChiefToad]

I'll keep my eye on this one. Looks like it isn't ready for primetime yet. This feels like the early access games of the 2015 era. True early access. Not Valheim/Grounded early access quality.

[@DirkusTurkess]

You're definitely not gonna like the upcoming "Get kicked in the balls simulator".

[@zeehart]

Majority of the complaints in this video are "skill issue". It screams of "HEY THIS GAME SUCKS BECAUSE I CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO DO BETTER".

[@leespiderpod]

Should’ve stayed in alpha a bit longer. I’m sure it’ll be good by the end of the year

[@rhyswhittington8759]

the durability nonsense also was a big reason why i got put off by grounded, sank over a hundred hours into the game with a mate and that was by far my biggest complaint. feels like you spend way too much time repairing stuff.

[@Gomezli16]

“Grounded” asset store version!

[@CorDharel]

But hey Mack at least you don't have X-ray vision!

[@arrasonline]

Thanks for saving me some money. Why play this when we have Grounded and Valheim?

[@luciahaskins3170]

Maybe a revisit later.

[@robertnicolas6716]

" we don't play games to be kicked in the balls" meanwhile at Starcitizen central they have a whole department dedicated to kicking players in the balls for playing their game and...... wait for it....... actually coming back for more guys ! And.... wait for..... paying thousands of dollars to get even more kicks in the balls! A brave new world indeed !!

[@xXFoundationXx]

i find it such a problem these days that devs get so busy working on making it look amazing, they forget to put time in to make it play amazing

[@felicitymorgan2456]

I thought point coop is so you can all be different "classes" I like maces, my sis loves bows 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@2Poor4UserName]

"you need warm clothes when its cold and shelter during storms?! in a survival game?! REEEEEEEEEEE!"

[@alin.c7233]

When i watched your video it felt like you are describing destiny 2

[@flwrgirl_1]

love your reviews!

[@ares395]

I hope it becomes cool, cheaper grounded with a different feel without the asinine features of valheim. User feedback will be very important. Honestly the only 2 things I hate in grounded are the price and the fact that you need a damn xbox account to play on steam for no reason.