The first Grounded game took the survival crafting formula and shrunk it down “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” style by pitting you against ants and spiders, instead of dragons and golems. It was a successful Early Access title, and is looked upon fondly now. Now, we are doing it all again with Grounded 2, but is there enough here to warrant a whole new game?
Sometimes all it takes to change a whole world is a little bit of reframing. Grounded does a fantastic job of doing that by making the things that are under your feet in everyday life terrifying or sprawling. An anthill is no longer something you dodge at the last second while walking; it’s a giant, dark dungeon full of fearsome ants that might hide something you wouldn’t expect. The morning dew on the grass goes from something in a pretty picture to an important source of water. Trash littering the ground hides tunnels and resources; sometimes, the trash itself can be the resource.
Grounded 2 brings most of the survival crafting genre staples to the table, with you managing your health, thirst, and hunger to stay alive, while you collect various materials to craft new ways to progress in the game. It doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel in terms of that cycle the genre is no stranger to, but Grounded 2 continues to add nice quality of life changes to the genre that I wish some other ones would add already (Dune: Awakening, why can’t I name chests?). The first one had plenty, but I’m glad to say I continue to find little ways the game respects my time in the sequel without exactly sanding off any edge from it.
The story feels a bit unfortunate because the game starts up with “Oh no, the characters have grown up to teenagers and inexplicably shrunk again with amnesia!”. I really wish there was something to spice up that opening a bit, but this could very well be something that Early Access will end up addressing in at least by changing up the framework a little bit. The evil corporation is still doing evil things, and you find yourself having to work together with the spokesperson for the company to find out what went wrong here, and find out more about your mysterious pursuer that is sending controlled insects after you.
I quickly learned that you have to keep your eyes to the sky occasionally, just because of the scale of the game being different. Different kinds of plants, landmarks, and more dot the land that, if you don’t look up at it, you might not even notice they exist. I found myself seeking our natural vantage points often to get a lay of the land and check out some more of this huge landscape that is just a small part of a local park. Beyond the first bit of progression, I honestly found myself often having problems finding the next step in progression or a new item.
Grounded 2’s Exploration Needs More Direction
You can scan items at safe houses that dot the land, which will unlock more items based on the item, as well as award some Brainpower that will also level up to give you more crafting recipes. At first, it leads to a really nice loop that makes finding a new item exciting, but I found that after the game opens up some more, it starts to lack a little too much direction. I can’t stress how much time I spend trying to find certain key progression items that should have had some kind of gentle nudge toward in the story that I hope will be added.
A big addition in the sequel is Buggys, which allow you to tame and ride certain insect types, which will let you ride them, fight alongside them, and more. I really enjoyed this one, especially because it made traversal across the map a lot quicker, and it was good to have something else on your side in combat if you aren’t doing a co-op playthrough. More of these will be one of the main things that perk my ears up in regards to coming back for more Early Access updates, they are just that fun to interact with that I wish there was more than they have at launch.
The combat is fun enough, but it isn’t going to win any awards; attacking with weapons is responsive, as is trying to block enemies’ attacks for parries. The game makes a point to define some combat roles with armor passives so most players can find a style of combat that suits them and possibly their co-op party. I enjoy a lot of the equipment design since it is cobbled together from scraps of the environment, so there are a lot of unique designs. The music score is good, but never really stood out. The main theme is good, even if it doesn’t do too much to invoke what the game is about, but it’s still the one I mainly remember. A good photo mode always gets a point from me as well, so that was a good surprise to come across.
The thing is that the vast majority of what I’ve mentioned so far, besides the new Buggy system, I could also say about the first game. Between the narrative feeling pretty thrown together to put the same characters through a similar scenario, and so few other changes, it makes me wonder if this couldn’t have easily just been an expansion or something. Is an entire new Early Access period really necessary for this one? $29.99 still isn’t that bad a price for the EA period, though. I just find myself wishing there was a bit more difference for a full-on sequel to the first game.
Grounded 2 releases on Steam Early Access and Game Pass on July 29th.
