10 Scariest Hidden Encounters In Open World Games

8. Wolf Spiders - Grounded

metro exodus
Obsidian

Grounded is a small game with a novel motif ripped right out of a Rick Moranis film from 30 years ago. Made by the tiny independent studio known as... wait, Obsidian made this game?

That’s right - while most of the studio was working on the fantastic space RPG The Outer Worlds, a small team of about a dozen developers worked on Grounded.

Inspired by the films ‘A Bug’s Life’ and ‘Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’, Grounded sees a bunch of teenagers shrunk down to the size of a small insect. They must navigate the now gigantic world they’ve lived in and stepped over hundreds of times, thwart an evil corporation, and survive a horde of hostile insects, arachnids, and mind-controlled bugs.

Oh, did I mention the arachnids? You have to fight some scary spiders - of the Orb Weaver variety, and that’s pretty bad. But the yard you are navigating also has gigantic (to you, at least) Wolf Spiders.

The Wolf Spiders are extra terrifying because they’re stronger, faster, larger, and their bites cause a poison effect. Oh, they can also leap out of the grass from beyond where you can see them and land on top of you, almost silently. Surprise!

Contributor
Contributor

Author of Escort (Eternal Press, 2015), co-founder of Nic3Ntertainment, and developer behind The Sickle Upon Sekigahara (2020). Currently freelancing as a game developer and history consultant. Also tends to travel the eastern U.S. doing courses on History, Writing, and Japanese Poetry. You can find his portfolio at www.richardcshaffer.com.