Summary
I often watch the annual summer game showcases in a Discord call with TheGamer’s news team; they’re all busy working, while I’m usually there for the vibes and to be a delightful distraction. My go-to joke in the first half of the Xbox Showcase was how every new game being shown off wasn’t Grounded 2. No matter how much I’d want it, I assumed that Grounded 2 was never going to happen, so it felt like a fun, safe goof. And then they revealedGrounded 2.
Once I was done hyperventilating and kicking my legs under my chair like a toddler, my brain finally clicked into gear and I realised one thing: the setting feels wrong. Grounded 2 moves from the backyard of an eccentric scientist to the local park, in a move that feels like the only miss in my otherwise dream game reveal.
I adore Groundedand its colourful-yet-terrifying take on teeny, tiny survival. I’d tinkered with it ever since it first hit early access in 2020, before it utterly consumed my life in early 2024. Hundreds of hours later I’d bested every optional boss, explored every blade of grass in the yard, and built a base circling all the way around the central tree. I even went into the then-recentNew Game+ updateand did it all again.
So, it’s safe to say that Grounded 2 has immediately shot up to become my most-anticipated game of the year. I can’t wait to shrink back down and face off against new bugs of the park, and then ride them all as buggies (yes, that’s what mounts are called. Isn’t it delightful?!). I’m fully prepared to lose days and days to this sequel, but one thing sticks in my craw: where’s the house?
I think someone on the Grounded team pitched the sequel purely to make the pun of calling insect mounts ‘buggies’.
Domestic Bliss?
The original Grounded took place in a backyard, with the far edge of the map dominated by the decking of a colossal house. It was a dead space in the map, with a huge, flat area with nothing to do on it, bar building things. You could venture under it for some spiders and stink bugs, but other than that, your nearest landmarks were the sandbox on one end of the yard and the hedge on the other.
But the house was still full of potential. It served as a key way to centre yourself when navigating, and everybody who played more than a few hours of Grounded eventually made the pilgrimage to the front door, just to see what was there.
While we were never going to go into the house in Grounded, interior biomes were initially planned. The shed was meant to be explorable (as seen ina leaked developer build), but, allegedly, the Xbox Series S put the kibosh on that. The little millstone hanging around Xbox’s neck wasn’t up to the task of rendering the cluttered interior spaces, and the plans were scrapped. Instead, we got the much smaller, much more wasp-infested Brawny Boy Bin.
Grounded 2 could’ve been the ideal time to finally take us behind the front door and into the house. It could’ve been the Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves to Grounded’s Honey, I Shrunk The Kids – with toys to navigate, cockroaches to fight, and environmental challenges in every room.
More Of The Same
Instead, Grounded 2 looks like it’s playing it safer with the park. It can reuse assets from the first game, and systems like chopping down grass to build structures don’t have to be reworked for the great indoors. While Obsidian hasn’t confirmed it, I wouldn’t be too surprised if our old pal the Series S is to blame again.
There’s no way inside the house wasn’t discussed as a setting in the early days of development, and the little console that very much couldn’t was likely the reason for the trip over to the local park instead.
Of course, this is a minor complaint in a game I’m otherwise almost overwhelmingly excited to play. Obsidian has already confirmed the map is about three times bigger than the yard, so I don’t doubt for a second the park will be fun to explore and full of things to discover and/or be eaten by. We’ve already seen a new frosty area in an upturned ice-cream van, and the birds-eye view in the trailer teases a more expanded aquatic area than the first game’s pond.
I’m going to spend the next six weeks fantasising about all the things Grounded 2 will give me, but it’s hard not to feel a little bit bummed that the sequel is sticking to long grass and gardens over really exploring what the shrunken setting could have offered. It’s by no means enough to put me off playing, but it doesbugme a little.
