I’ll be honest, I never jumped on the Grounded bandwagon when it first released nearly 5 years ago. I was under the impression it was a kids’ game, and after the first “shit” came out of Hoop’s mouth in Grounded 2 I knew I was sorely mistaken. The Xbox Games Showcase dropped a ton of announcements during the Summer Game Fest weekend, but Grounded 2 has a passionate community behind it, and I was excited to dive in.
I took the tutorial route since I wasn’t familiar with the gameplay yet. We had four characters to choose from: Max, Willow, Pete, or Hoops. After making the obvious choice, I grabbed Hoops and we started our adventure. Hoops wakes up having been shrunk again and not really knowing what is going on. The tutorial plays out like an employee training session for the company Ominent, and after an event I won’t spoil, you are off on a mission in the massive new area of Brookhollow Park.
I was pleasantly surprised by the visual fidelity of Grounded 2. The world is lush and bright, filled with things to harvest and collect, which is a crafter and hoarder’s dream. I was given a quick crafting tutorial, learning to build some basic tools, bandages, work tables, etc. As I explored the area, I came across tree roots, grass, dried grass, clovers, sap, rocks, and more. The world is also littered with “big” people stuff, like trash strewn about the park, pieces of building materials, and, though I didn’t see it, the press photos included some really innovative scenes like a melted ice cream wonderland.
When speaking to Grounded 2’s executive producer, Marcus Morgan, in a group interview after my playthrough, I asked about the things Obsidian Entertainment (with the help of Eidos-Montréal) wanted to carry forward from the original, and it seems the look and feel were vital to the new game. “First and foremost was the charm, right? The quirky nostalgia is the setting that really brings that game to life. And how does it really stand out? And so that’s a piece that we absolutely didn’t want to lose, just the charm of the late 80s, now, early 90s, putting you really in that setting, because it’s such a good, fun, nostalgic feeling.”
“Moving around on my new friend was fast and fluid, and I think buggies will add something special to Grounded 2.”
Here is the thing I think most people are going to be excited about: “buggies” are the new mount mechanic coming to Grounded 2, and I have to say, it’s pretty fun. In terms of the preview, I was spoiled with a magic button to spawn an ant mount I could ride into battle, use to smash walls, or even harvest materials. Judging from the crafting mechanics, it will take some time to build up to your new mount, between researching different materials and gathering them. Moving around on my new friend was fast and fluid, and I think buggies will add something special to Grounded 2.
In the tail end of the trailer, we see that there will be spider mounts, and I am genuinely excited to see what else they may come up with. That being said, a question from MMORPG had Morgan explain that Arachnophobia Safe Mode will still be available and will affect buggies as well, which is good to see.
When talking to Morgan, he really drove home the importance of their community. I asked him what they did to both honour their current community while trying to usher in new players, “When you walk in there, everything should feel like Grounded 1. If you played Grounded 1, you are immediately brought back into that world. But one dimension that we did kind of want to address with this, we didn’t move two years forward just because that’s how the story progressed. We also wanted to age the game up a little bit.”
He went on to explain that not only have the in-game characters changed, but so has the player base, “Five years ago, if you were 12 and you played Grounded, you’re 17 now. So your tastes are different, the vibe you want is different. So, that’s a big piece to I think us aging it up, stepping up that dimension of things, adding a little bit of more of a darker tint to it.”
If you think you’re heading into Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with Grounded 2, you are in for a surprise. You’re fighting adorable bugs, sure, but you’re also searching bodies and fighting for survival. Obsidian has absolutely mastered the charm they were hoping for, and I am looking forward to seeing more of the story to find out just how dark it goes.
I do have some smaller concerns with combat. During my playthrough, I found that aiming and using my spear was very inconsistent. Where my crosshairs would aim was regularly slightly higher than where I would hit, which took some getting used to. That being said, there are plenty of weapons to come, so this absolutely could have been a spear issue or a user issue on my end. I found the map markers equally difficult to understand, which could be a pre-build problem. Several looked the same, and I couldn’t identify which marker corresponded to which quest, leaving me running in circles for a length of time.
Grounded 2 will be launching into early access on July 29, 2025. Obsidian had a busy showcase, with this and The Outer Worlds 2, plus they just recently released their content roadmap for Avowed. I had to ask, what makes now the right time for Grounded 2? “The game’s ready, that’s really why. We are ready to release this because the game is ready,” he told me with utter confidence. And I have to say, I agree.
Grounded 2 played well and looked beautiful, so why wait? Plus, he also made note that this will be 2661300launching nearly five years to the day from the original Grounded. It seems like the perfect launch. Grounded 2 will be here soon, on July 29, 2025, for Xbox, Xbox PC, and Steam.
