Grounded

I would recommend Grounded to anyone that likes survival crafting games based on just the premise it's built on, but the execution sends the game into a whole new category of my favorite games where it essentially becomes the epitome example of the genre it represents. I could go on and on about what Grounded did right, with some particular keynotes being the creative uses of base building to push forward the game progression and story elements, the QoL features like auto-pulling from chests when building, and the unique way the game handles NG+ in a survival crafting game, which was surprisingly well done. I'd never seen NG+ done in a survival crafting game before. My gripes are few and far between. The [spoiler]Infected Broodmother[/spoiler] was jam-packed with bad bossfight elements, and overall the game leans really heavily on the idea of inflating healthpools and damage reduction as a form of difficulty. This is understandable and inevitable to an extent, but that encounter in particular was egregiously bad about it. The climbing/parkour elements could be anywhere from fantastic to brain-bleed inducing depending on what you were attempting to climb, but given the size of the map I really can't be too critical here. Terrain generation isn't easy at that scale. I would not have said no to a character that knew how to elevate their foot higher than their shin. All that said, buy the game. You'll enjoy it if you don't just hate the genre.