Obsidian just revealed that Grounded will come to Xbox Game Preview and Xbox Game Pass in July earlier this week. Spiders were at first not large part of the foes players have to fight (unless that involves manipulating the left behind spider webs), until the new arachnophobia mode made its way to the Obsidian announcements on Twitter. They did confirm to one Twitter user that they are still doing research on how this mode will exactly work, but it is almost promised that it will come sometime in the near future for those not fond of the creepy crawlies.
In Grounded, the player’s character is a kid who is accidentally shrunk to insect size outside their home. The player must then craft weapons to fight and evade monster-size (relatively speaking) beetles, ants, praying mantises, and other creatures. Grounded, announced at Microsoft’s X019 event in November, will be offered on Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview beginning July 28. The game will feature a single-player campaign as well as a four-player cooperative multiplayer.
This announcement came soon after the trailer for the game was revealed and many people in the comments said they will not be playing and expressing their disgust for the sole reason of the “giant” spiders that the player has to fight. Twitter user @TheRealKoding posted a tweet, saying that while they were excited to see something new finally coming from Obsidian, the spiders would likely turn people away from playing the game. Quick to rid any worries from fans, Obsidian quickly assured @TheRealKoding that the dev team is working on an arachnophobia mode, completely free of spiders. This statement was quickly caught by anyone with particularly negative feelings to the creatures in question, and the news has been met with large approval in the comments. There is no word on (if anything) will replace the spot of spiders in the game.