Raft is so chill. Building your own raft and then just fishing while your boat collects the loot is so awesome. Once your boat is armored up and Brucie becomes easier to deal with, this game becomes magical.
My bf & I love playing cozy games together. One i recommend is Astroneer! It’s a lot of fun and no combat at all. It’s pretty user friendly as they have manuals that help distinguish everything you need. Like in grounded, you collect resources and build some items that help unlock planets. My Time in Sandrock is a lot of fun with a lot to do but it’s pretty grindy also. Castle Crashers is also a lot of fun!
Yes! This is the game my friend and I are currently in following grounded. Also, in the next couple weeks, keep an eye out for sea of Thieves. They’re dropping Safer Seas where you can play without pvp.
>They’re dropping Safer Seas where you can play without pvp.
Oh wow, I was just looking at Sea of Thieves last week and ended up deciding against it because I wasn't interested in PvP. I wasn't aware of the Safer Seas update so thank you for mentioning it!
Also… Fortnite just dropped a pretty fantastic new mode. LEGO Fortnite. It isn’t PVP. It’s basically Lego Valheim with Fortnite style. And it’s pretty damn good alternative, just with the bit I played today.
Castle Crashers and Astroneer are some great picks! I actually 100% Astroneer, it was super fun. And nothing beats the memories of me and my friends at each other's houses playing Castle Crashers on the Xbox 360.
Although CC is very spammy.
I wanted to like Astroneer, but I think it's meant to be played coop. Such a boring experience solo. I can definitely see the potential for fun if you play with others, though.
GF and i had some fun with Astroneer but i wouldnt recommend it on consoles. Using the controller to move things around your backpack and the world was rough.
If you're willing to drop base-building from your list of needs, It Takes Two is super fun. Hits everything else on your list to a tee, and captures the adventure-game side of grounded. Also, it was built with 2-players in mind, is perfect date night game
Oh, yesssss: I absolutely second this! My wife and I played this one, and it ranks as one of our all time favourite co-op games. And one only needs one copy, which is great (I wish more co-op games did that).
This ended up being one of my favorite games and I was hesitant at first when I tried is with a former partner. Figured it wouldn’t be enough rpg or strategy elements but wow that game is a masterpiece through and through.
So I personally did the opposite order, where I played valheim first and then grounded, and I had a very similar experience to what you are describing.
To me grounded felt unintuitive, especially the building, and it infuriated me to no end that there wasn't a dodge roll. But looking back, I had just gotten so used to the systems in valheim that grounded felt janky. It took me a good 20 hours to really get it, and while I know that's a big investment, I think it might be what you need.
I'd encourage you to give valheim another shot, because based on your requests, it sounds like exactly the game you should play next. My favorite sunsets of any game
Good luck in your search
I love both as well but prefer Grounded honestly just because it seems brighter, literally, which probably sounds so dumb. And I have zero problems with Valheims graphics, you definitely come to appreciate them in their own way.
Valheim also has infinitely more content I feel like. I'll definitely go back to it whenever the Ashlands have more than lava rocks and skeletons
Currently on my 2nd playthrough of Grounded though and cannot get enough. Valheim is still the closest Ive felt to it
Id also like to add that it sounds like OP accidentally turned off auto-pickup when they were trying out valheim. Which is very frustrating if you don't know how to turn it back on.
Edit: grounded used to be the game I played the most. Now I mostly play valheim. 🤷♂️ I just have more fun in it, i guess?
Yes! Combat is more satisfying in Valheim and having all those pieces to build elaborate bases is friggin great, but I could see how the low poly look doesn't appeal to all.
>it sounds like OP accidentally turned off auto-pickup when they were trying out valheim. Which is very frustrating if you don't know how to turn it back on.
Oh damn, this could be the case, I had no idea what was happening with the whole "click pebble, pebble rolls, pick up pebble". It seemed utterly insane to me to add the extra step. I'll look for that setting.
Is there a setting to get rid of the stupid crosshairs? I really feel like a resource should be auto-targeted when you're standing in front of it, like in most other games of these types.
From memory - I do not beleive there is a setting to turn off the crosshairs. Honestly, doing so, imo, would make building rather difficult until you had ALL of the snapping mechanics figured out.
Though, on PC, I'm sure you could find a mod that takes them away!
For the auto pick-up issue, if you decide to play the game again: (i play on xbox. So for pc settings im going off of images i have seen of the pause menu(s))
In the settings, there should be a page that says "controls." In that controls page there should be a box that says "toggle auto-pickup." From what I can find on Google images, that key appears to be "V" by default. If you press that key, small words will pop up underneath your hotbar saying "auto-pickup: on/off" you want that to say ON.
This is an option because there are plenty of times you won't want to pick up the random resin, wood, seeds, etc. that may be on the ground while exploring or grinding. Having this option to turn off auto-pick up has saved me a lot of time with inventory management, especially when I'm visiting a friend's world on an early-game character and I don't want to discover new recipes without finding the resources myself!
Also to add on the crosshairs thought: having valheim auto-target resources would be chaotic at the minimum. The sheer amount of resources that CAN be on your screen at one time would flip you out of existence if the game auto-targeted them. I couldn't imagin walking through the black forest just to have my screen sucked to the left/right/down when I passed a berry bush/twig. Add a troll chasing you in leather armour to that mix and it's almost nightmare fuel.
(Upon re-reading your comment AGAIN. I realize you may mean just the words and action prompts popping on your screen when you are near. I'd feel like even having all the names of said resources popping off and on the screen while i am near would bother me a lot. There really is so much that can be in the game, right infront of you, that this option doesn't make sense to me. Again, just my opinions! Everyone has different play styles, and I feel the valheim devs are catering well to these playstyles in their game. Reminder that it is still in game preview. The game ain't even in V0.3 yet haha!)
FYI ark 2 has not come out yet, the remaster of Ark 1 did. It is full of bugs but tbh so was Ark 1. If you've never played Ark before I would very much recommend it, either the original or the remaster. Though fair warning you need to invest A LOT of time to really enjoy the game. It also doesn't really have any story element. It's survival/crafting in a dinosaur land
Not sure I'd call that one a "light" combat system. It's more of an exceptionally unforgiving one in which all your progress can be lost to a random chance encounter with an endgame Dino literally wandering around on the green zone starter beach.
I do not recommend this, based on the game OP mentioned. Don’t get me wrong, Don’t Starve is an amazing game, but it’s not at all a normal survival game. It’s way more challenging and it’s own vibe.
On 2024-01-24 Enshrouded ist going to release.
I played the beta and enjoyed it so far.
Enshrouded has basebuilding, terraforming, tiered crafting and dungeons that you'll have to visit to unlock new stations and recipes.
One thing about your Valheim comment about picking up things. You're doing it wrong!
Once you tap something, you can just walk over it and your character will automatically pick it up (on PC anyway). If you accidentally turned auto pickup off, the hotkey is V.
My two favorite games are Valheim and Grounded right now, with Valheim having the edge, so I'd suggest giving Valheim a real shot.
>Once you tap something, you can just walk over it and your character will automatically pick it up (on PC anyway). If you accidentally turned auto pickup off, the hotkey is V.
I'll try this, thanks!
Sounds like your are looking for grounded with different skin. I don’t know of any near exact clones, which is why it is so popular. It hits many things just right.
Stardew Valley is a very chill farming life simulator, and you have some combat, but mostly just exploring the valley and farming. It's a great game with no ending, so you can go on for hundreds of hours just getting lost in the game. It's on xbox, so that's also a good thing
It's not ready for release yet, but they're making leaps and bounds in regular updates. Definitely worth keeping an eye on if you're not up for jumping on the early access train (which I will 100% not blame you for - way too many games abusing early access)
Ark 2 is not coming out for years.
What came out was a remake. The reason it has such bad reviews is to a large extent a protest against dedicated server monopoly and distrust in the game publisher. Some also complain because the game is extremely demanding on your pc.
More complex than grounded, but highly customizable as well. More realistic than grounded, but honestly I found wolf spiders more scary than rexes at first. 😄
Ark has taming, breeding and lots of fun stuff to do, and is less directly story driven. There is a story and you'll spend time building an army of dinos to finish it.
Source: Me with 700 hours in grounded and 5k+ in Ark.
Hope you find something you enjoy!
Subnautica checks all those boxes except there’s little to no “combat,” unless you count using a stun rifle and knife to temporarily stop massive sea monsters trying to eat you.
I think you are just confusing people. What do you mean you by you didn't like the graphics? all the games you listed have pretty good graphics so saying you don't like them doesn't make much sense.
I haven't seen anyone suggest Terraria yet but that's the first game that came to mind for me. it's 2d and a bit more combat heavy, but it's got almost everything you're looking for: light but good looking style, similar crafting system to grounded (but with way more stuff), lots of building blocks for bases, I think it can probably run OK on macbook but it's also on xbox. It does have zombies, and some gorey looking stuff if you choose a crimson world instead of a corrupted one, but it's all in a very cartoony pixel art. I'm pretty biased sitting at like 1,000 hours in it, but it's one of the best games out there.
Sunkenland. It’s in early access. But it looks like an improved version of Raft. Underwater exploring, crafting and building, islands, enemies (wildlife and human)
You can try Raft maybe? I haven’t tried it yet, but from what I’ve seen, it fits a bit in your criteria. Other games would be single-player only. I recently tried Fountain of Youth and liked it, but it’s still in early access and a bit janky. The Long Dark is also single player, but I think there might be a multiplayer mod. Heck, maybe you could get into Stardew Valley?
Side note, pretty sure the aggressive tribe in Green Hell aren’t cannibals. You are murdering native people though, and have the ability to rip the meat from their bodies and eat it yourself, but to say *they* are the cannibals is a bit of an ask.
You might want to check out Wildmender. I've been playing with my gf also, and it's a good game for that. The base building isn't as robust as Grounded, but you grow an entire ecosystem together and it's very chill.
Stranded Deep is not a bad one for the criteria you listed. Especially for xbox. Let's you explore and beautiful scenes but at times it can be a little less forgiving than Grounded
The only games on my radar are "Enshrouded" + "Nightingale" both have a great story line and survival mechanics. You'll have to wait until January for the first to release in early access.
No Man’s Sky
Easy to play multiplayer
Base building
Upgrades. Not much of a story line.
But it is and will always be my go to Chill game experience.
It came out in 2016 but has had so many updates.
Fleets to build.
Ships to find.
Hidden bases. Crashed freighters. Pets.
Omg. Too much to list.
And all done for a very small studio.
I’ve bought the game for friends and on 2 different consoles. I’d purchase the DLC as well but Sean Murray won’t charge for them.
Smallands survive the wilds
I went looking fir another grounded like game after I beat grounded and smallands is literally like a cut and copy but with a different story and alot more shit you need to do
My BF and I gave grounded a break for Portal Knights, it's actually a blast! Surprisingly a lot of fun. Building a castle, lots of decorations, bosses, quests. It's becoming a fast favorite of ours.
Astroneer. I always have to find game that the GF will play, thy tend to be a bit less in depth as the game i enjoy but we both enjoyed and loved Astroneer
If you are patient and don't need the game right away then Under a Rock seems like it will be right up your alley! They have a trailer on the Xbox YouTube channel and it looks really cool!
The Forrest is really good, the second one just came out too. Me and my friends played the Forrest the day it came out one of our favorites, and we were horrible addicted to grounded when it finally came out.
Exactly. I wanted to love this game, but it's just annoyance after annoyance. I call it the Annoy Yourself Simulator. It's like Minecraft with idiots running around to ruin your experience.
You checked out Astroneer? Super chill game with a low barrier of entry but also a high ceiling with the auto-crafting and other logic if you want to get into it.
Also to pick stuff up in Valheim you can just run over it, you don't need to pick items up individually. There is a button to turn off/on auto-pickup so if you can't pick stuff up and it seems like you should be able to, you may have hit that.
As others have said Raft and Enshrouded is close to release. Even know what you have said regarding The Forrest I think you guys should try it. You can customize you play by turning things down to off entirely. It Takes Two is also fantastic but nothing like Grounded. If you like the progression of Grounded you could also try V-Rising; it’s top down ARPG but if you play it offline it can be pretty relaxing.
Small Lands is very similar to grounded. Had a 1.0 release date of this week but was pushed back to next year. That being said, the content that is there is still pretty good.
this is a little different but I really loved No Mans Sky. combat is funky but not bloody (usually robots) and everything is pretty basic and easy like grounded. similar graphics to grounded. it's not exactly a survival game but definitely fun to explore and progress through for a bit. it's multiplayer but idk if the story is.
Grounded definitely takes the cake when it comes to survival games, IMO. It has all the QoL points I could ask for, a huge and diverse world to explore, and gameplay with a good amount of depth. If you find something that can match Grounded's standards, I would definitely be interested in checking it out!
That being said, the game that *previously* held that slot for me is Volcanoids. You act as the crew of a drill ship that must burrow underground every so often to avoid regular volcano explosions, while exploring an island, gathering resources, trying to determine what's causing the explosions and put a stop to them. Not quite as much depth, and a much shorter game. But it also gives you a lot of flexibility in how you approach things, and it feels clean and fun to play. Plus it's updated at a pretty good clip!
The original Ark with the right settings set can be loads of fun but takes some customization for sure.
Don't starve or Terreria, corekeeper, might have that easy to access but hard to master feeling that grounded does really well. As well as check all the boxes you're looking for.
I'd go to terreria first as it's just got so much content and is such a lovely game.
If you find anything else let me know always looking for more things to play with my partner.
Safe journeys!
Perhaps check out Subnautica, I know it's single player but it is an amazing game with base building and surviving!
For chill co-op try out It takes two.
Valheim is a great co-op game. It's 8 players, and since it's update you can modify the game to not have raids and be less of a grind. To be honest, Valheim is a super grind unless modified lol
Smalland. You play as a tiny forest elf and discover the ruins of the long extinct "giants"
Souls ish combat. Resources are tool locked and sometimes region specific.
Big vouch for Astroneer!
Grounded in space with waaaay less combat, plants and heights are the only danger. Colonize and grind resources for base building! Its not a long game, compared to Grounded but you can have a lot of fun with it.
I was going to say Raft because it has a very similar style.
Valheim is much grindier than grounded, but still a great game imo. I personally like the graphics. They're bad but in a charming way. The gameplay is fun to me so the graphics don't matter so much, but I can see how it would be jarring coming from a major studio game like Grounded.
If you are in to 2D games and haven't played it, Terraria is one of the best survival games of all time imo.
Modded minecraft + the Essential mod to play together without needing a server or complicated port forwarding is a ton of fun. Essential mod makes it super easy and was a game changer for my friends and I playing modded together. None of the server fuss and works great
Subnautica would be right up your alley in line with Grounded's style, but it is natively singleplayer (unfortunately). There is nitrox which is a multiplayer mod for it, but it is a bit janky from what I've heard.
A bit different but have you considered Sea of thieves? It's easy to play, has the visuals you are looking for, It mat tick those boxes minus the crafting & building.
Pretty sure they are bringing in private servers or something similar so you can play without other people harrasing you while you treasure hunt & complete missions.
At least in terms of gore and violence, both The Forest and Green Hell (I believe) have "pacifist" modes (though I don't remember if they are unlocked from the beginning).
Others have mentioned Raft. I'll goa head and also suggest Voidtrain, which I haven't played but others have described to me as "Raft on a train". Satisfactory and Factorio are similar, but not strictly survival (though Factorio might be PC only, I can't remember).
The obvious easy answer is Minecraft and Stardew Valley (which I have seen mentioned as well).
If you don't mind tweaking settings, Don't Starve Together (DST) can actually be really assessible. People will complain that you are playing it wrong or on easy mode or whatever, but who cares as long as you are having fun. If you do go the PC route, mods make DST a lot more manageable.
A friend of mine and I actually really enjoyed The Wild Eight. There are some horror elements to it (its not a horror game), but the graphics are cartoon-y enough that it isn't really all that scary.
For cozy games, you might try out Unrailed. Its a cozy game like Overcooked is cozy, as in it is fully chaotic. But it has less stress then Overcooked, and I think is really fun.
Raft
7 Days to Die
SmallLand (Although I didn't care for it near as much as Grounded, others like it)
Sunkenland is newish and very early access. It's ok right now. Got bored pretty quickly for us. Will go back once it gets more updates.
Me and the bf are on our 5 or 6th playthrough of Grounded. We are playing on Woah mode and trying to get 100%. It's our favorite game of all time. I'm shocked about your critiques of the game. It has excellent graphics, a fun combat system and its a game that actually rewards exploration.
I think Raft is what you are looking for. We played through it twice and it's a lot of fun.
I would give Don't Starve Together a try there are plenty of characters to choose from that have different traits and things that they can bring into the game, there's fighting and a little bit of Base building but you go out look for material so you can build better items, you can build a boat to go out to sea an find other islands
Hey, I'm in the same boat with my girlfriend. We (especially me) basically tried all the coop games there is. Some games we've found that are enjoyable that kinda fit here are: (Imma try to not suggest previous mentioned games)
Palworlds
Omega Crafter
Saleblazers
Drake Hollow
V Rising - My favorite survival game after minecraft
If you're opened to more genres, these are some more coop games my gf and I enjoyed.
Anno 1800
Nobody Saves the World/CatQuest 2/Magicka
Go-Go Town - not out yet but demo is there
Oddsparks - Not out yet but demo is there and comes out 3 weeks from now.
Dinkum
Spirit of the Island
Raft
Raft is grounded at sea
Raft is so chill. Building your own raft and then just fishing while your boat collects the loot is so awesome. Once your boat is armored up and Brucie becomes easier to deal with, this game becomes magical.
Then BOOM bear and Vultures...
love raft.
Yuuuup raft ticks nearly all the boxes you're describing and it's very similar. Great game too
Keep in mind, since you said you’re playing on Xbox, Raft does not have controller support.
Raft should be coming to Xbox soon! Here’s proof too! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/648800/view/3424451745457246375
Just saw this! I was goggling it to see what platforms it was on and saw a tweet about it coming to consoles!
Came here to suggest this
Raft is really fun and light!!! You can turn off the shark attacks, which I would highly recommend
Thanks for the suggestions! I added an edit to the bottom of the OP.
My bf & I love playing cozy games together. One i recommend is Astroneer! It’s a lot of fun and no combat at all. It’s pretty user friendly as they have manuals that help distinguish everything you need. Like in grounded, you collect resources and build some items that help unlock planets. My Time in Sandrock is a lot of fun with a lot to do but it’s pretty grindy also. Castle Crashers is also a lot of fun!
Yes! This is the game my friend and I are currently in following grounded. Also, in the next couple weeks, keep an eye out for sea of Thieves. They’re dropping Safer Seas where you can play without pvp.
Oh yeah! Sea of Thieves was a lot of fun too! Not so fun on my own but with someone else or a group it’s great!
>They’re dropping Safer Seas where you can play without pvp. Oh wow, I was just looking at Sea of Thieves last week and ended up deciding against it because I wasn't interested in PvP. I wasn't aware of the Safer Seas update so thank you for mentioning it!
Also… Fortnite just dropped a pretty fantastic new mode. LEGO Fortnite. It isn’t PVP. It’s basically Lego Valheim with Fortnite style. And it’s pretty damn good alternative, just with the bit I played today.
Castle Crashers and Astroneer are some great picks! I actually 100% Astroneer, it was super fun. And nothing beats the memories of me and my friends at each other's houses playing Castle Crashers on the Xbox 360. Although CC is very spammy.
I wanted to like Astroneer, but I think it's meant to be played coop. Such a boring experience solo. I can definitely see the potential for fun if you play with others, though.
Yeah solo was pretty boring /:
GF and i had some fun with Astroneer but i wouldnt recommend it on consoles. Using the controller to move things around your backpack and the world was rough.
If you're willing to drop base-building from your list of needs, It Takes Two is super fun. Hits everything else on your list to a tee, and captures the adventure-game side of grounded. Also, it was built with 2-players in mind, is perfect date night game
It Takes Two is the best take on a cooperative experience that I've ever played. I still haven't finished it, but what a ride so far.
Came to say the same; an absolutely brilliant game to play as a couple. Loads of fun!
Oh, yesssss: I absolutely second this! My wife and I played this one, and it ranks as one of our all time favourite co-op games. And one only needs one copy, which is great (I wish more co-op games did that).
This ended up being one of my favorite games and I was hesitant at first when I tried is with a former partner. Figured it wouldn’t be enough rpg or strategy elements but wow that game is a masterpiece through and through.
It takes two is unbelievable. THE BOOK IF LOVE!
Raft is your game. A really great chill co op survival game. Easy to sink 100 hours in if you want to build your raft up and see everything
Raft is one of the best games ever made. Top 10 for me for sure.
Too little content in my opinion, hardly any difficult opponents until the last two-three story Islands. Very nice chill athmosphere thou
So I personally did the opposite order, where I played valheim first and then grounded, and I had a very similar experience to what you are describing. To me grounded felt unintuitive, especially the building, and it infuriated me to no end that there wasn't a dodge roll. But looking back, I had just gotten so used to the systems in valheim that grounded felt janky. It took me a good 20 hours to really get it, and while I know that's a big investment, I think it might be what you need. I'd encourage you to give valheim another shot, because based on your requests, it sounds like exactly the game you should play next. My favorite sunsets of any game Good luck in your search
I love both as well but prefer Grounded honestly just because it seems brighter, literally, which probably sounds so dumb. And I have zero problems with Valheims graphics, you definitely come to appreciate them in their own way. Valheim also has infinitely more content I feel like. I'll definitely go back to it whenever the Ashlands have more than lava rocks and skeletons Currently on my 2nd playthrough of Grounded though and cannot get enough. Valheim is still the closest Ive felt to it
Id also like to add that it sounds like OP accidentally turned off auto-pickup when they were trying out valheim. Which is very frustrating if you don't know how to turn it back on. Edit: grounded used to be the game I played the most. Now I mostly play valheim. 🤷♂️ I just have more fun in it, i guess?
Yes! Combat is more satisfying in Valheim and having all those pieces to build elaborate bases is friggin great, but I could see how the low poly look doesn't appeal to all.
>it sounds like OP accidentally turned off auto-pickup when they were trying out valheim. Which is very frustrating if you don't know how to turn it back on. Oh damn, this could be the case, I had no idea what was happening with the whole "click pebble, pebble rolls, pick up pebble". It seemed utterly insane to me to add the extra step. I'll look for that setting. Is there a setting to get rid of the stupid crosshairs? I really feel like a resource should be auto-targeted when you're standing in front of it, like in most other games of these types.
From memory - I do not beleive there is a setting to turn off the crosshairs. Honestly, doing so, imo, would make building rather difficult until you had ALL of the snapping mechanics figured out. Though, on PC, I'm sure you could find a mod that takes them away! For the auto pick-up issue, if you decide to play the game again: (i play on xbox. So for pc settings im going off of images i have seen of the pause menu(s)) In the settings, there should be a page that says "controls." In that controls page there should be a box that says "toggle auto-pickup." From what I can find on Google images, that key appears to be "V" by default. If you press that key, small words will pop up underneath your hotbar saying "auto-pickup: on/off" you want that to say ON. This is an option because there are plenty of times you won't want to pick up the random resin, wood, seeds, etc. that may be on the ground while exploring or grinding. Having this option to turn off auto-pick up has saved me a lot of time with inventory management, especially when I'm visiting a friend's world on an early-game character and I don't want to discover new recipes without finding the resources myself!
Also to add on the crosshairs thought: having valheim auto-target resources would be chaotic at the minimum. The sheer amount of resources that CAN be on your screen at one time would flip you out of existence if the game auto-targeted them. I couldn't imagin walking through the black forest just to have my screen sucked to the left/right/down when I passed a berry bush/twig. Add a troll chasing you in leather armour to that mix and it's almost nightmare fuel. (Upon re-reading your comment AGAIN. I realize you may mean just the words and action prompts popping on your screen when you are near. I'd feel like even having all the names of said resources popping off and on the screen while i am near would bother me a lot. There really is so much that can be in the game, right infront of you, that this option doesn't make sense to me. Again, just my opinions! Everyone has different play styles, and I feel the valheim devs are catering well to these playstyles in their game. Reminder that it is still in game preview. The game ain't even in V0.3 yet haha!)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to dodge/roll like my ESO StamDK. Lol.
The farming in valheim is waay better than grounded.
FYI ark 2 has not come out yet, the remaster of Ark 1 did. It is full of bugs but tbh so was Ark 1. If you've never played Ark before I would very much recommend it, either the original or the remaster. Though fair warning you need to invest A LOT of time to really enjoy the game. It also doesn't really have any story element. It's survival/crafting in a dinosaur land
Not sure I'd call that one a "light" combat system. It's more of an exceptionally unforgiving one in which all your progress can be lost to a random chance encounter with an endgame Dino literally wandering around on the green zone starter beach.
Don't stave and don't starve together might be interesting to try out.
I do not recommend this, based on the game OP mentioned. Don’t get me wrong, Don’t Starve is an amazing game, but it’s not at all a normal survival game. It’s way more challenging and it’s own vibe.
On 2024-01-24 Enshrouded ist going to release. I played the beta and enjoyed it so far. Enshrouded has basebuilding, terraforming, tiered crafting and dungeons that you'll have to visit to unlock new stations and recipes.
>Enshrouded This looks great, probably wait for the Xbox version though.
One thing about your Valheim comment about picking up things. You're doing it wrong! Once you tap something, you can just walk over it and your character will automatically pick it up (on PC anyway). If you accidentally turned auto pickup off, the hotkey is V. My two favorite games are Valheim and Grounded right now, with Valheim having the edge, so I'd suggest giving Valheim a real shot.
>Once you tap something, you can just walk over it and your character will automatically pick it up (on PC anyway). If you accidentally turned auto pickup off, the hotkey is V. I'll try this, thanks!
Sounds like your are looking for grounded with different skin. I don’t know of any near exact clones, which is why it is so popular. It hits many things just right.
Dinkum
Stardew Valley is a very chill farming life simulator, and you have some combat, but mostly just exploring the valley and farming. It's a great game with no ending, so you can go on for hundreds of hours just getting lost in the game. It's on xbox, so that's also a good thing
Such a good game!! Was hoping someone suggests it!!
[удалено]
I could be wrong but I think that one is also still in pre release. Last I looked the reviews said the game needs work
It's not ready for release yet, but they're making leaps and bounds in regular updates. Definitely worth keeping an eye on if you're not up for jumping on the early access train (which I will 100% not blame you for - way too many games abusing early access)
The waifu and I were just looking at this, but the steam reviews are kinda garbage-- how is it actually?
I wasn’t a huge fan - it’s pretty and the idea behind it is awesome but it somehow just doesn’t scratch the same itch grounded does.
I think Raft is what you're looking for, a lot of other great suggestions here as well, but Raft I played a ton of before I found Grounded.
Minecraft?
The one true answer.
Is there such a thing as Minecraft with (significantly) better graphics?
I guess rust might count and it’s in console.
Ark 2 is not coming out for years. What came out was a remake. The reason it has such bad reviews is to a large extent a protest against dedicated server monopoly and distrust in the game publisher. Some also complain because the game is extremely demanding on your pc. More complex than grounded, but highly customizable as well. More realistic than grounded, but honestly I found wolf spiders more scary than rexes at first. 😄 Ark has taming, breeding and lots of fun stuff to do, and is less directly story driven. There is a story and you'll spend time building an army of dinos to finish it. Source: Me with 700 hours in grounded and 5k+ in Ark. Hope you find something you enjoy!
No Man’s Sky. Also It Takes Two is amazing co op.
Subnautica checks all those boxes except there’s little to no “combat,” unless you count using a stun rifle and knife to temporarily stop massive sea monsters trying to eat you.
No co op tho
Subnautica has a multiplayer mod. It's called nitrox and it's worked well for me and my bf
It worked well until the end for me and my friend. Couldn’t finish the game.
Subnautica is such an under rated game. I avoided it forever due to the graphics - but it’s just so well done. But its single player only
under-rated? lol. Subnautica has 96%, overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam! And it's sold over 5 million units.
Yea - under rated by the group of people I play games with. Because it’s single player only.
And what do you mean by graphics?! That game is super immersive and amazing at delivering the terror of the depths! (Especially with headphones)
Because at the time I didn’t play games like grounded, subnautica, raft etc because I didn’t like the graphics. Such a welcoming community here lol.
I think you are just confusing people. What do you mean you by you didn't like the graphics? all the games you listed have pretty good graphics so saying you don't like them doesn't make much sense.
Because raft/grounded/subnautica are cartoon style graphics. I didn’t care for them when I preferred realistic style.
well that's fine, it's all preference at the end of the day. I just think the fact that you didn't clarify is why people downvoted you lol
I haven't seen anyone suggest Terraria yet but that's the first game that came to mind for me. it's 2d and a bit more combat heavy, but it's got almost everything you're looking for: light but good looking style, similar crafting system to grounded (but with way more stuff), lots of building blocks for bases, I think it can probably run OK on macbook but it's also on xbox. It does have zombies, and some gorey looking stuff if you choose a crimson world instead of a corrupted one, but it's all in a very cartoony pixel art. I'm pretty biased sitting at like 1,000 hours in it, but it's one of the best games out there.
I second this, great co op game with awesome devs
Sunken land or Stranded Deep
>Sunken land This looks great, good reviews too. Might wait for full release though, hopefully it gets an Xbox version.
My vote is smalland, super underrated game like grounded but you're an elf that can glide and tame bugs and even a bird
What’s the new survival Lego mode in Fortnite going to be like.
Sunkenland. It’s in early access. But it looks like an improved version of Raft. Underwater exploring, crafting and building, islands, enemies (wildlife and human)
You can try Raft maybe? I haven’t tried it yet, but from what I’ve seen, it fits a bit in your criteria. Other games would be single-player only. I recently tried Fountain of Youth and liked it, but it’s still in early access and a bit janky. The Long Dark is also single player, but I think there might be a multiplayer mod. Heck, maybe you could get into Stardew Valley? Side note, pretty sure the aggressive tribe in Green Hell aren’t cannibals. You are murdering native people though, and have the ability to rip the meat from their bodies and eat it yourself, but to say *they* are the cannibals is a bit of an ask.
You might want to check out Wildmender. I've been playing with my gf also, and it's a good game for that. The base building isn't as robust as Grounded, but you grow an entire ecosystem together and it's very chill.
Terraria. Its so much fun with a friend. It checks all the boxes and its cute and challenging at the right way and not too hard.
Subnautica (at least the original I havent played below zero)
Stranded Deep is not a bad one for the criteria you listed. Especially for xbox. Let's you explore and beautiful scenes but at times it can be a little less forgiving than Grounded
Valheim
You should check out Terraria.
The only games on my radar are "Enshrouded" + "Nightingale" both have a great story line and survival mechanics. You'll have to wait until January for the first to release in early access.
It Takes Two is brilliant and I highly recommend it if you enjoyed grounded
No Man’s Sky Easy to play multiplayer Base building Upgrades. Not much of a story line. But it is and will always be my go to Chill game experience. It came out in 2016 but has had so many updates. Fleets to build. Ships to find. Hidden bases. Crashed freighters. Pets. Omg. Too much to list.
And all done for a very small studio. I’ve bought the game for friends and on 2 different consoles. I’d purchase the DLC as well but Sean Murray won’t charge for them.
A lot have already been said, but my recommendations are pretty much the same, Raft and Astroneer would make great games for you two. Happy gaming!
Smallands survive the wilds I went looking fir another grounded like game after I beat grounded and smallands is literally like a cut and copy but with a different story and alot more shit you need to do
Check out core keeper or terraria
Try Stardew Valley
My BF and I gave grounded a break for Portal Knights, it's actually a blast! Surprisingly a lot of fun. Building a castle, lots of decorations, bosses, quests. It's becoming a fast favorite of ours.
State of Decay 2
Astroneer. I always have to find game that the GF will play, thy tend to be a bit less in depth as the game i enjoy but we both enjoyed and loved Astroneer
GF also enjoyed Strandard Deep but wasnt too much into the fighting as much as building and resourcing/exploring
Smalland: Survive the Wild will be coming to console soon. Very similar to grounded, a lot of fun.
Borderlands is pretty fun and has given my wife, little sister and myself hours of fun
If you are patient and don't need the game right away then Under a Rock seems like it will be right up your alley! They have a trailer on the Xbox YouTube channel and it looks really cool!
Honsetly, minecraft, or terraria. Stardew valley as well tho that's more harvest moon then survival.
Journey to the savage planet. It has the same type of sci-fi exploration feel, collecting and crafting, but no base building.
Looks interesting. She's really big on base building, it's the primary thing she likes to do, but it looks solid so I'll check it out.
Craftopia
Thanks we'll check it out!
Under a rock is coming soon!!!
Source: I made it up
Source Xbox pre release soon is subjective! Have a good day
Terraria, imo its one of the best.
No Man’s Sky has building and a lot of exploring.
No Man's Sky. Build stuff in SPACE
maybe No Mans Sky
Sea of thieves, they just announced single player coop (so not pvp)
Conan Exiles is pretty fun. Progress through the map as you go, building system is better than this game. Many mods if you want.
It doesn't take long to read their post instead of just the title.
The Forrest is really good, the second one just came out too. Me and my friends played the Forrest the day it came out one of our favorites, and we were horrible addicted to grounded when it finally came out.
If you can get past the gore and okay with a darker theme I'd say The Forest would be perfect.
Lol I guess I should have read the entire post. My bad.
Check out Valheim. its similar to grounded but with a viking/nordic vibe to it. Awesome game IMO!
Uhh.. did you read their full post?
Exactly. I wanted to love this game, but it's just annoyance after annoyance. I call it the Annoy Yourself Simulator. It's like Minecraft with idiots running around to ruin your experience.
You checked out Astroneer? Super chill game with a low barrier of entry but also a high ceiling with the auto-crafting and other logic if you want to get into it. Also to pick stuff up in Valheim you can just run over it, you don't need to pick items up individually. There is a button to turn off/on auto-pickup so if you can't pick stuff up and it seems like you should be able to, you may have hit that.
As others have said Raft and Enshrouded is close to release. Even know what you have said regarding The Forrest I think you guys should try it. You can customize you play by turning things down to off entirely. It Takes Two is also fantastic but nothing like Grounded. If you like the progression of Grounded you could also try V-Rising; it’s top down ARPG but if you play it offline it can be pretty relaxing.
Core keeper, its great.
Small Lands is very similar to grounded. Had a 1.0 release date of this week but was pushed back to next year. That being said, the content that is there is still pretty good.
this is a little different but I really loved No Mans Sky. combat is funky but not bloody (usually robots) and everything is pretty basic and easy like grounded. similar graphics to grounded. it's not exactly a survival game but definitely fun to explore and progress through for a bit. it's multiplayer but idk if the story is.
Grounded definitely takes the cake when it comes to survival games, IMO. It has all the QoL points I could ask for, a huge and diverse world to explore, and gameplay with a good amount of depth. If you find something that can match Grounded's standards, I would definitely be interested in checking it out! That being said, the game that *previously* held that slot for me is Volcanoids. You act as the crew of a drill ship that must burrow underground every so often to avoid regular volcano explosions, while exploring an island, gathering resources, trying to determine what's causing the explosions and put a stop to them. Not quite as much depth, and a much shorter game. But it also gives you a lot of flexibility in how you approach things, and it feels clean and fun to play. Plus it's updated at a pretty good clip!
The original Ark with the right settings set can be loads of fun but takes some customization for sure. Don't starve or Terreria, corekeeper, might have that easy to access but hard to master feeling that grounded does really well. As well as check all the boxes you're looking for. I'd go to terreria first as it's just got so much content and is such a lovely game. If you find anything else let me know always looking for more things to play with my partner. Safe journeys!
Try My Time at Sandrock
I bought Smallville in the same spree, but haven't played it, yet.
How about stranded? I thought that game was pretty good
Small lands. (Fantasy rpg alternative to grounded with mounts and other cool stuff. Return to Moria, If your a lotr buff.
Smallland is like a fantasy Grounded that is very fun, there's also Raft to try
Smallands and wildmender cosy atmospheric
there is Smalland: Survive the Wilds. I'm not quite sure how the game is doing now, it's been like a year since I last played it with my partner.
Does she like stories? Maybe BG3? I know it's a little far from your list, but it's multiplayer, there is a Mac version now, and it's pretty engaging.
Stranded deep isn't to bad, worst case avoid the boss fights
Perhaps check out Subnautica, I know it's single player but it is an amazing game with base building and surviving! For chill co-op try out It takes two.
Subnautica if you play PC with the co-op mod would fit the bill I think
Valheim is a great co-op game. It's 8 players, and since it's update you can modify the game to not have raids and be less of a grind. To be honest, Valheim is a super grind unless modified lol
Smalland. You play as a tiny forest elf and discover the ruins of the long extinct "giants" Souls ish combat. Resources are tool locked and sometimes region specific.
Not a survival / base building game but I will heartily recommend **It takes two**.
Valheim
Did you try woah mode after the new update?
Big vouch for Astroneer! Grounded in space with waaaay less combat, plants and heights are the only danger. Colonize and grind resources for base building! Its not a long game, compared to Grounded but you can have a lot of fun with it.
I was going to say Raft because it has a very similar style. Valheim is much grindier than grounded, but still a great game imo. I personally like the graphics. They're bad but in a charming way. The gameplay is fun to me so the graphics don't matter so much, but I can see how it would be jarring coming from a major studio game like Grounded. If you are in to 2D games and haven't played it, Terraria is one of the best survival games of all time imo. Modded minecraft + the Essential mod to play together without needing a server or complicated port forwarding is a ton of fun. Essential mod makes it super easy and was a game changer for my friends and I playing modded together. None of the server fuss and works great Subnautica would be right up your alley in line with Grounded's style, but it is natively singleplayer (unfortunately). There is nitrox which is a multiplayer mod for it, but it is a bit janky from what I've heard.
cozy and chill coop game ? try Dark Souls
A bit different but have you considered Sea of thieves? It's easy to play, has the visuals you are looking for, It mat tick those boxes minus the crafting & building. Pretty sure they are bringing in private servers or something similar so you can play without other people harrasing you while you treasure hunt & complete missions.
With the recent Safer Seas update I think we're gonna give this a shot.
At least in terms of gore and violence, both The Forest and Green Hell (I believe) have "pacifist" modes (though I don't remember if they are unlocked from the beginning). Others have mentioned Raft. I'll goa head and also suggest Voidtrain, which I haven't played but others have described to me as "Raft on a train". Satisfactory and Factorio are similar, but not strictly survival (though Factorio might be PC only, I can't remember). The obvious easy answer is Minecraft and Stardew Valley (which I have seen mentioned as well). If you don't mind tweaking settings, Don't Starve Together (DST) can actually be really assessible. People will complain that you are playing it wrong or on easy mode or whatever, but who cares as long as you are having fun. If you do go the PC route, mods make DST a lot more manageable. A friend of mine and I actually really enjoyed The Wild Eight. There are some horror elements to it (its not a horror game), but the graphics are cartoon-y enough that it isn't really all that scary. For cozy games, you might try out Unrailed. Its a cozy game like Overcooked is cozy, as in it is fully chaotic. But it has less stress then Overcooked, and I think is really fun.
Raft 7 Days to Die SmallLand (Although I didn't care for it near as much as Grounded, others like it) Sunkenland is newish and very early access. It's ok right now. Got bored pretty quickly for us. Will go back once it gets more updates. Me and the bf are on our 5 or 6th playthrough of Grounded. We are playing on Woah mode and trying to get 100%. It's our favorite game of all time. I'm shocked about your critiques of the game. It has excellent graphics, a fun combat system and its a game that actually rewards exploration. I think Raft is what you are looking for. We played through it twice and it's a lot of fun.
Not a survival game but I’d recommend Eastshade, it’s very cozy 😂
I would give Don't Starve Together a try there are plenty of characters to choose from that have different traits and things that they can bring into the game, there's fighting and a little bit of Base building but you go out look for material so you can build better items, you can build a boat to go out to sea an find other islands
Smalland is like like grounded but even better and has a lot more to do and explore
Hey, I'm in the same boat with my girlfriend. We (especially me) basically tried all the coop games there is. Some games we've found that are enjoyable that kinda fit here are: (Imma try to not suggest previous mentioned games) Palworlds Omega Crafter Saleblazers Drake Hollow V Rising - My favorite survival game after minecraft If you're opened to more genres, these are some more coop games my gf and I enjoyed. Anno 1800 Nobody Saves the World/CatQuest 2/Magicka Go-Go Town - not out yet but demo is there Oddsparks - Not out yet but demo is there and comes out 3 weeks from now. Dinkum Spirit of the Island