To say I reacted normally whenGrounded 2was revealed at Summer Game Fest wouldn’t be entirely truthful. The original is one of my favourite survival games ever made, having utterly devoured my free time when I finally went back to the full release early last year.
I never expected Grounded 2 to happen, and yet there I was, kicking my feet like a schoolgirl as The Offspring accompanied our introduction to Brookhollow Community Park. Having now survived there myself for about 24 hours, it’s safe to say that Grounded 2 is already far more than the sum of its small, small parts.
The Obsidian Treatment
Set two years after the first game, the original cast of kids made up of Max, Pete, Willow, and Hoops are now somewhat local celebrities. Shrinking technology is public knowledge, and the Ominent corporation is trying to fix its image by unveiling a new statue dedicated to Dr. Tully (now fully de-raisined, confirming the good ending of the first game) and Burgl.
But after an explosion rocks the park, whichever teen you picked wakes up inside a new Ominent facility, once again shrunk down to the size of an ant. This time, your goal is to seemingly work with Ominent to investigate the mysterious stranger who orchestrated the attack, and put a stop to their insect-controlling schemes.
Straight off the bat, it’s clear to see Grounded 2 has more of that Obsidian special sauce than its predecessor. The first was a huge departure for the studio, ditching a lot of its storytelling in exchange for a focus on survival mechanics, but the sequel frontloads you with story. Before you’re even out of the tutorial area you’ve been introduced to Ominent’s new CEO, a whole research team shrunk down and working in secret in the park, and, of course, the Masked Stranger, whose ORC insects serve as your primary enemies for at least the first act.
But there’s a nice balance here. The dialogue’s snappy and the world of Grounded is being expanded with every encounter, but it never gets in the way of you building your base or exploring the landmarks of the park at your own speed. This is still the Honey I Shrunk The Kids survival fantasy that drew me to the first game, just with a more mature sense of storytelling.
It’s A Small, Small World
Obsidian has already confirmed the park of Grounded 2 will be about three times bigger than the yard of the first game. The initial early access launch only has about a quarter of the map available, and even that has tons to see. The hot dog stand serves as your main point of navigation, and from there you can already venture off to a busted-up picnic table, an overflowing bin, or an upturned ice cream cart.
Each area has its own challenges, even if so far most of them are just rehashing things we tackled in the original: the bin needs a gas mask, the ant-hill is full of ants, the bush is full of spiders, that kind of thing. The exception to this is the ice cream cart, which introduces frozen tundras to the park, requiring you to wear thicker thermal layers to survive within it. I hope we’ll see more new threats like it as the remainder of the park is introduced.
Unlike the first game, there’s no big tree in the middle to serve as the obvious best point for your base. It encourages a bit more experimentation in where you settle down, which is neat. I build mine underneath the hot dog stand, where it’s nice and safe.
Smush And Grub
It’s not just the environment that’s deadly, of course. The park is practically infested with all manner of larvae, mosquitos, and arachnids. Returning faces often have new attacks, like wolf spiders now using venom or orb weavers making better use of their webs, but the real stars are the brand-new minibeasts that patrol the park.
While spiders were the big threat of the first game, here they’re more of a mid-tier enemy. Scorpions, praying mantes, and cockroaches stalk the undergrowth, while caterpillars and butterflies hang up top in the grassy canopy.
Cockroaches are the single most horrifying enemy in Grounded history, and the first time I fought one was the most freaked out I’ve ever been in Grounded. Fortunately, they’re largely passive unless you invade their space.
It’s when going up against these enemies that we can see Grounded 2 isn’t just following the same beats as the original. Each put the new combat system through its paces, as dodging and parrying become more important than ever. The loosey-goosey class system also comes into play, with the equipment you wear or mutations you pick specialising you as either a Fighter, Mage, Ranger, or Rogue.
I largely went with a Fighter build, using a big warhammer to crush carapaces and chew bubblegum. This worked great on scorpions and cockroaches, but I found butterflies needed a different approach thanks to their chilly elemental blasts and flying just out of range. So I multiclassed, swapping enough of my kit with mage gear to be able to resist the cold and hit it from a distance.
The sudden inclusion of fantasy classes might seem odd, but it’s merely building on ideas the first game introduced. It has elements of fantasy RPG to it, but they weren’t as baked in to the overall design of specialising your character as it is here.
But it never feels forced, with each class’s abilities feeling consistent with the setting – mages, for instance, replace their ‘magic’ with sweet flavourings like spicy, sour, and minty. You’re also never locked in to one build or another; changing your equipment and maybe a mutation is all you need to fill a different role in your team.
Eight-Legged Drive
But, of course, the big new addition for Grounded 2 are buggies. Buggies, as the adorable name might clue you in on, are mounts, with you being able to tame either a Red Ant Soldier or an Orb Weaver spider at early access launch. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses – spiders are offensive powerhouses, but ants are far more helpful when building a base – and much of your time will likely be spent tracking down eggs and the materials needed to hatch your new companion.
There’s been a lot of discussion in the community surrounding the decision to not include ziplines in the initial early access release. Despite being one of the most useful things you could build in the first game, they’ve been left out here to force you to make the most of buggies, and, in all honesty, I wouldn’t especially care if they never came back at all.
Buggies feel so natural for Grounded. You can hurtle through the Park and avoid combat encounters just as you could on a zipline, but they do far more on top of that: they help you out in combat, they have their own inventory slots, and they can help you access areas you’d otherwise never see. They even add some emotion to your time in the park, as I quickly became attached to my buggy pals.
Yes, you can pet your buggies, and the orb weaver is nearly cute as it bounces around like a puppy. I would vastly prefer a first-person camera mode for buggies, though.
While I have spent over two dozen hours exploring the park, it’s still very clear this is early access. Everywhere you look there are glimpses of things not-quite finished, or vast stretches of undetailed land cordoned off with Work-in-Progress tape.
From building your base to fighting off an endless horde of ladybird larvae, Grounded 2 is very much more Grounded, and some will likely question why this is a sequel and not an expansion to the original. But if you look beyond the superficial similarities, you’ll see a sequel that’s far more confident in itself. This isn’t an experiment for Obsidian anymore, it’s a full-blown project that’s getting the care and attention it deserves, with a bigger story, bigger enemies, and a bigger world to explore. We may be small, but I have very big expectations for Grounded 2.
