Obsidian Leisure has been an extremely versatile sport developer through the years, even venturing exterior its RPG consolation zone with the unique Grounded. As a survival journey sport the place you are shrunken down and discover the hidden, huge world of a yard, it grew to become a well-loved hit, and it developed even additional all through its early entry interval. However now, the builders have massive plans for Grounded 2, which has new options and a bigger scope that was too massive for the unique to include.
Shortly after the reveal throughout the latest Xbox Video games Showcase alongside Summer time Recreation Fest 2025, I bought to play the opening of the sequel, which sees the acquainted crew of teenage scavengers, now somewhat older and wiser, shrunken down as soon as once more to outlive a brand new small world hidden within the city’s park. At the same time as a brand new iteration of a well-recognized premise, which is basically the survival gameplay of Rust by the use of the whimsical Honey, I Shrunk the Children, Grounded 2 is already exhibiting some promise as the larger and higher sequel.
Grounded 2, which may also launch in early entry, already seems like a much bigger sport, even from the confines of the tutorial zone. For starters, there is a bigger give attention to build up the expertise of the 4 teenage scavengers and the way they match into the bigger story. It isn’t fairly Yellowjackets in the case of teen drama, however the crew exploring the small world of the park have colourful language and quips at their disposal. There is a typically stronger sense of persona in Grounded 2, which is bolstered by some extra character-driven writing and alternatives to soak up the lore of the corporate accountable for the experiments on the town.
The expertise of enjoying Grounded 2, very similar to the unique and different survival video games, is all about gathering assets from the land and buying information to remain alive. Together with accumulating supplies to construct weapons, armor and constructions, you will additionally need to maintain your characters fed and hydrated. You will additionally have to defend your self towards the assorted critters roaming about, such because the ants and the spiders. Additionally returning is the arachnophobia accessibility choice to make them seem much less disturbing for gamers. Fortunately, now you can use a dodge to keep away from assaults – a primary for the collection – and fight is mostly extra responsive and honest.
Grounded 2 seems like a extra well-rounded and refined tackle the unique, which is a stable sport in its personal proper. One welcome addition that I bought to play with was the brand new ant mount, or buggy, because the devs name it. You can experience on prime of a pleasant ant that may assault enemies, transfer sooner all through the world, and even accumulate materials much more shortly than the human scavengers.
Shortly after my hands-on expertise, I sat in on a roundtable dialogue with sport director Chris Parker and producer Miles Winzeler from Obsidian Leisure, who defined how early entry suggestions from gamers helped convey the sport to its present state. As a way to absolutely implement their imaginative and prescient for Grounded, although, they would want a brand new sport.
“Virtually all the things in Grounded 2 comes from suggestions from the neighborhood that we had gathered from the primary sport,” Parker stated. “We had to take a look at what was vital to work on with the sequel. Individuals at all times need extra stuff to do. They wished to have the buggies, which was an enormous one and our primary most requested function from out the gate on Grounded 1. We then needed to work on new creatures, armor and weapons, amongst different issues. How can we additional develop our development techniques? So these had been all of the issues that we took on from the start for Grounded 2.”
Grounded 2 felt like a extra absolutely realized sport, which leveraged years of labor on the unique. Together with a extra developed story marketing campaign specializing in serving to the children survive the portion of Brookhollow Park they need to discover – which is greater than 3 times the dimensions of the unique’s map – The sport may also launch with artistic mode, which was a preferred function that permit gamers give attention to exploring and build up constructions at their leisure.
“We’re at all times making an attempt to problem scale and the way we are able to create a way of awe and thriller by having one thing that is presupposed to be regular however is now this gigantic factor,” Parker stated. “That is at all times the enjoyable when making this sport.”
I actually took to the added scope of Grounded 2. Not simply as a shrunken particular person trapped on the grounds of a park but in addition for the brand new options and concepts at work for the sequel. With the sport popping out in July for early entry, Grounded 2 has already bought me invested in making a return go to to this small world with massive ambitions.
Grounded 2 will launch in early entry on July 29 for Xbox Sequence X|S and PC, and will likely be obtainable for Recreation Cross subscribers.
