Grounded 2is here and with a fury to bring all manner of new bug-themed experiences to its players. For this sequel,Obsidian Entertainmenthas partnered with Eidos Montreal in hopes of creating something even greater than its predecessor. Obsidian, widely known for its incredible game worlds, along with Eidos, renowned for its stories and popular franchises like Tomb Raider, collaborate to combine the best aspects of their skill sets, creating something truly magical. The only question is whether it succeeds in surpassing its predecessor or falls short of the finish line.
I was a pretty bigGroundedfan when I first got my hands on it back in 2020, about five years ago now. It struck a cord with me by combining elements I enjoyed of story-based games with a survival world that gave me plenty to do, well, not at first, but eventually. That was certainly a thought I had while preparing to review this game. Will this be the same game I play come next year? While I can’t say for certain, I went into this review with an open mind and expecting something more akin to what we got when Grounded first released all those years ago.
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Once I got going, I noticed a pretty large number of similarities between Grounded 2 and Grounded. That struck me as a bit odd at first, but as I invested more time into the game, it became obvious thatGrounded 2was a more expanded version of Grounded in every way. From quality of life changes to new kinds of interactions and enemies, everything seems to be bigger and better in Grounded 2, but it certainly isn’t without its problems.
Playing in the Park
Grounded 2 has left the backyard behind in favor of something much grander, Brookhollow Park.The park is massive, being roughly three times the size of the original backyard in total.Although it’ll be a while before you get to see a majority of the park, what’s there now is still roughly the same size as the original map.
The park opens up a world of new possibilities for exploration. For instance, the toppled-over ice cream cart creates a sort of makeshift ice biome for you to explore. From things like fire pits to picnic tables, there’s already a lot of exploring to be done, but I’m sure in the future, there will be even more tantalizing locales to visit.
Brookhollow Park feels more alive than the backyard.
While I can’t comment specifically on what the future may hold for Grounded 2, what I can say is that the park is a substantial improvement over the backyard in many ways, but also comes with some new struggles. I’ll try and break this down as simply as I can, but keep in mind these praises and complaints are from my perspective and may not be an issue for some.
Brookhollow Park feels more alive than the backyard thanks to the increased number of Ominent facilities scattered about, combined with the number of bugs in the park.There’s always something to discover on the map, a new kind of resource, a hidden milk molar, or one of the Masked Strangers' hidden secret stashes.
With all of that, there certainly isn’t a shortage of things to do. It does create a sort of strange new problem where parts of the areas can feel a bit disjointed in terms of difficulty. For instance, when you first emerge from the facility, you’ll immediately find a Ranger Station, the new version of Field Stations from Grounded. Just behind this station are several Orbweaver spiders that patrol rather close to the station itself, and to get many of the starting resources, you’ll need you’ll end up fighting them much sooner than you normally would, at least in reference to the original.
Because of that, it can be difficult to get the hang of when you’re first starting, and, unlike in the original, the map isn’t sectioned out by difficulty, so you’ll constantly be bombarded by enemies of all difficulties while just exploring. You can mostly run past them on your Buggie, so it isn’t some unsolvable problem, but it does mean thatyou will encounter stronger critters on any leg of your journey.This leads into the next big topic for discussion: combat.
Small but Mighty
Combat is, by and large, the same. You still have two kinds of attacks: a regular and heavy attack, although the latter has been improved from the original to now have an animation and deal a greater amount of damage. While I can’t offer a complex breakdown, there seems to be more of a need to mix and match your attacks depending on your playstyle, which brings more choice to player agency.
There are more ways for players to express themselves in combat with the changes, and with some new enemies, like the scorpions, there are new kinds of armor and weapons to craft. Armor and weapons work just a bit differently from how they used to. Now, armor is more class-based rather than simply being stat-based. Each armor set corresponds to a traditional RPG class, such as fighter, rogue, archer, and mage.
Basically, what this boils down to is your armor will give bonuses that lean more heavily into certain play styles, but that doesn’t mean you have to adhere to them.There is a lot of freedom in how you want to tackle a problem in Grounded 2.Want to sneak around and stab people with knives? you’re able to do that. Would you prefer using a massive club to thwack people while sneaking instead? You can do that too. There isn’t any sort of limitation to what you can and can’t do in combat, in terms of your loadout and setup.
Combat is even more fun when you have your bug companion by your side. They’ll fight with you and even die for you. Well, not literally, but you get the idea. If you’re someone going it alone in the park, or you’re just out exploring away from your crew, you’ll always have someone to draw some aggro and help you do some damage. They can be the difference between victory and defeat in some cases, but they’re for more than just combat, much more.
Riding Bugs? Yes, Please
This is truly what we all came here for. Riding bugs is truly a treat and one that will always be enjoyable by every standard. Buggies are brand new to Grounded 2 and arguably one of the biggest hallmarks that garners the need for that two. They aren’t just your vehicles, they’re your companions that will go with you almost anywhere and will stay by your side until they meet their squishy end, and then respawn.
Buggies are incredible by every standard. Not only do they serve as vehicles, but they also seem to have different “jobs” that they’ll be good at.Red Antsare excellent for hauling and construction, while Orbweavers are much more suited to travel. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but luckily, you’re able to always switch out your Buggie on the fly with virtually no issues.
Right now, though, the Buggies create a strange new problem for Grounded 2. Since you can move so quickly from one location to another, are you spending time exploring? In a way, no, you aren’t. This is a large fundamental difference from the original Grounded, and until there’s more park to explore, no one can say for certain how it will affect the game as a whole. For now, it’s a bit of a negative.
Since you may move so quickly from one location to another, are you spending time exploring?
In my playthrough, I often found myself simply jumping on my Buggie and heading toward whatever resource or quest marker I needed to. It cuts down the need for exploration, since you can just run wherever you want without needing to stop for combat. This means that exploration, in a way, takes a backseat in this game, at least when you’re first starting out.
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There’s just no real need to explore every nook and cranny unless that’s something you enjoy.In my opinion, with the current map size, the speed at which you may travel means there is less of a reason to go anywhere and do anything. This will likely change in the future as the park increases in size. This may come off as a bit counterintuitive since moving faster means exploration should be faster and easier, right? Well, in a way, that is true, but due to how the story is set up and the way unlocking things seems to work, it doesn’t turn out the best.
A Focus on Storytelling
The story for Grounded 2 is much more front and center than in the original. It isn’t something that exists as an option or something you can sort of do; it is something you’ll have to do to find certain resources and unlock certain aspects of the game. I won’t focus too heavily on the contents of the story in this section, but rather on how it’s integrated into the game.
Each story quest serves a purpose, not only to forward the narrative, but to force players to engage in various game mechanics. This is similar to how the labs worked in Grounded, but those felt more like guidelines to give you a sense of direction. These are actual quests that will send you to specific locations throughout the park to do different things. You cannot progress forward to get certain unlockables without completing elements of the story.
This was an interesting change from the original, where there was much more freedom in how you could approach the backyard. The heavy focus on story is a welcome change, but locking progression behind these story beats could cause some issues. For instance, I was able to find a blueberry orchard by simply running around rather than through the story beat like I should have. Players who prefer exploration over story won’t be at a disadvantage, but you’ll often have to backtrack when focusing on the story.
It wasn’t an issue I found pressing, but it was something that came to mind when I was playing the game.The focus on storytelling is overall good, but based on how it worked in the first “act” of the game, I’m unsure of how that will hold up for the future. It would seem particular unlocks, such as the Orbweaver Buggie, are tied directly to completing story missions.Although these only seem to make up a small portion of the unlockable craftables, there may be future updates that lock the most powerful gear behind story beats.
New Friends and New Enemies
Now, let’s talk about the story of Grounded 2. In all honesty, it’s much better than the original. Even just from a beginning standpoint, the game gives you a much clearer objective and provides you with enough of a mystery that you’ll want to solve. There isn’t much story yet, but what is there sets the stage for some interesting developments down the line. What is there is just enough to be intriguing and gives you enough information to make some speculations.
I’ll try to keep this spoiler-free, but if you don’t want any spoilers at all, I recommend you skip to the next section. Again, there isn’t much in the way of story, and if you focus on completing the story rather than exploration, you can have it done in roughly five or so hours, depending on your skill level. It isn’t difficult, especially when you just run straight to objectives. Now, let’s go over the actual content of the story.
You awake in an Ominent facility, curious about how you got there and trying to remember what exactly happened. As you work your way through the facility, you’ll begin to remember the events that transpired leading up to you becoming small again, but you won’t be able to remember exactly why or how you became small again. The biggest thing you remember is Dr. Tully going crazy and ripping the head off a BURG.L. Now you’re only objective is to figure out what happened and how you’re going to help your robotic friend.
The story does feel a bit more active and like you’re more important to it.
Unlike in the original, it seems like Ominent is here to help, at least for now. You’ll eventually receive a call from the new director of Ominent, Sloane. She’ll fill you in on some things and help you locate BURG.L’s head once you’ve got some more of Ominent’s tech up and running. She’s surprisingly nice and will have some unique dialogue choices for each of the teens. This will be the main source of how you progress through the story. You’ll go out and complete whatever you need to and then return to Sloane to have a quick discussion about it.
This is similar to how Grounded worked, where you would go out and get the disks from the labs and return them to BURG.L, but for now, at least, there aren’t any cutscenes you get while you sleep. In this way, the story does feel a bit more active and like you’re more important to it. The other big change is that now there is a singular individual who is trying to test you, theMasked Stranger. They talk to you once they feel you’ve proven yourself, and the rest of the story is you versus them.
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Base buildingis even more important in this game. While at the beginning, you can write it off a bit, you’ll eventually need to sit down and build something worthwhile. Luckily, this is made much easier once you have your first Buggie to do the cutting and hauling of grass and stems.
It honestly feels mostly the same as the original. There aren’t any defense systems to try out, as the only two I was able to find were the Acorn Turret and the Spike Trap. There are some new types of building materials you can use that give more overall variance in what you can make, looks-wise.
Although there are some improvements, there still isn’t anything major in the building category that makes a significant difference one way or the other.If you enjoyed building in Grounded, chances are you’ll like it here as well. I wish there was more to say on this front, but it seems like for the building, they kept the scope relatively small. It wasn’t a hassle or anything of the sort, but it didn’t bring anything to the table that felt like a major improvement.
Not the Good Kind of Bugs
Before I dive into this, it is important to remember that the game is in a pre-release state, meaning that anything I list here as an issue will likely be fixed sooner rather than later. A lot of the bugs I encountered were frustrating, but nothing that made me stop and put the game down. With that out of the way, let’s go over some of the less fun bugs I ran into during my time in Brookhollow Park.There are a lot, and I mean a lot, of issues with things falling through the ground.From critters to items, everything can fall through the ground and potentially become unreachable. Critter parts and weapons seem especially prone to this. While it can be annoying, it doesn’t happen every time, but just often enough to notice.
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Critters will fall through the map but still be able to attack you, which can make for some really strange interactions. Some will get stuck in the air or stuck on plants and become untouchable. There seems to be a number of clipping and collision detection issues. It wasn’t a dealbreaker or anything, but annoying nonetheless. I would lose all kinds of things to this bug: weapons, item drops, even myself on one occasion.
This isn’t the only issue I ran into, but it was by far the most apparent and the one that happened the most often. I would also throw items that would fly off in all kinds of directions. Some critters became invisible or appeared at totally random times. There’s definitely a lot of jank in this game, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a huge problem given that this is Early Access.
A Breath of Fresh Air
Now that I’ve covered some of the jank, I want to go over some of the aspects this game really improved on. There are a number of quality-of-life improvements that make this sequel a great step up from the original. While it isn’t without issue, these changes make the game more digestible and easier to get into.
One of the better changes is that you now have an Omni-Tool.This replaces all the original tools like the axe, shovel, hammer, and wrench.You can still upgrade these to better versions at any of the Ranger Outposts in the park. They free up a bunch of slots so you can focus on your weapons and healing items instead.
There’s also the change to how resource finders work.Instead of having to hunt one down at the various Field Stations, you’re able to just open up your map, press a few buttons, and they’ll show up.It made finding resources a breeze, especially given the increased number of resources available.
These, combined with some much-needed UI changes, really bring the game into the future.The UI is sleeker and updated, plus it seems they’ve opted for something more minimalist, so you’ll have significantly more of your screen than before. At first, I wasn’t sold on this, but after some time, I came to appreciate how it wasn’t just in my face the whole time. And if that isn’t enough, you may also freely swap between first and third person at any time by simply pausing the game and pressing a button.
Closing Comments
Overall, so far Grounded 2 is not only a worthy successor but one that will eventually become far superior to the original. From the number of upgrades to the number of new enemies, Grounded 2 sets itself up for success early on. While it’s still early in the development cycle, Grounded 2 has at a minimum found a good starting place to improve upon. There’s a lot of good here, more than I had imagined there would be. It isn’t perfect by any means, with the bugs and issues it has right now, but all of those are fixable. If you enjoyed Grounded, you’ll enjoy Grounded 2 because it’s just Grounded, too. No one can say where the next few years of the game will take it, but I have the greatest faith that the team behind Grounded 2 will be able to make this another incredible title with an uncountable number of playable hours.
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