Credit: Obsidian Entertainment, with Eidos-Montréal
review
Grounded 2 already feels like a bigger, nastier backyard adventure
June 4, 2026·7 min read
Grounded 2 is still unfinished, but it already understands why the first game worked. It takes the simple childhood nightmare of being tiny in a world full of insects and makes it broader, faster, and more confident. Brookhollow Park is not just a bigger space to survive in. It feels like a place built to make every blade of grass, tunnel, picnic table, and shadow feel slightly unsafe.
That is the best thing about it right now. Grounded 2 does not feel like a sequel chasing size for its own sake. It feels like Obsidian looking at what made the original special and finding ways to make exploration more dangerous and more playful at the same time. The early access limits are obvious, especially in performance and content gaps, but the core adventure already has a strong grip.
Brookhollow Park gives the sequel room to breathe
Moving from the backyard to Brookhollow Park gives Grounded 2 a much stronger sense of scale. The first game already made ordinary spaces feel huge, but the sequel has more room to build contrast. Open grassland, human-made structures, food stands, tunnels, nests, and insect routes all make the park feel like a place with its own logic.
That helps exploration feel more exciting. I was not just moving from one resource patch to another. I was watching the environment for threats, looking for safe routes, and trying to work out which landmarks might hide something useful. The park is bright and colorful at a glance, but that friendliness drops fast when a bug twice my size appears where I thought I was safe.
The world also has a stronger sense of adventure than most survival games manage early on. It invites detours without making every detour feel like a checklist. A strange path, a distant object, or a patch of movement in the grass can be enough to pull me away from whatever I was supposed to be doing.
Survival is friendlier without losing its bite
Grounded 2 is easier to understand than many survival games, and that helps it immediately. The basic loop of gathering, crafting, eating, drinking, building, and upgrading is clear without feeling empty. I rarely felt buried under menus before the game had earned my attention.
The Omni-Tool is one of the smarter changes. Folding multiple tool functions into one system cuts down on survival-game clutter without making progression feel flat. I spent less time worrying about whether I had the right basic object in my hand and more time thinking about what I needed to build, repair, or reach next.
That streamlining does not remove danger. Bugs still hit hard, the world still punishes careless trips, and going out underprepared can turn a simple resource run into a scramble back home. The game is more welcoming, but it has not become soft. It still knows that survival needs a little fear to stay interesting.
The buggies change how the world feels
Rideable bugs are the sequel’s best new idea so far. They make the world feel larger without making travel tedious, and they add a playful layer that fits Grounded perfectly. Riding across the park on an insect companion sounds silly, but in practice it changes how I think about distance, danger, and exploration.
The buggies are not just mounts. They make the park feel more alive. A good survival game needs tools that change how I relate to the world, and these do exactly that. A route that once felt risky can become manageable. A resource run can become faster. A fight can shift when movement is no longer only on foot.
They also give the game more personality. Grounded 2 still has horror under the surface, but it never loses its playful side. The buggies sit right in that balance. They are useful, funny, and slightly unnerving in the way only this series can manage.
Related Article
newsBreaking
Kingdom Come studio confirms its rumored Lord of the Rings RPG is real
May 21, 20263 min read
Combat is tense when the bugs feel too big
Combat is strongest when it reminds me how small I am. A fight against an insect should not feel like a normal RPG encounter with a bug-shaped enemy. It should feel unfair at first. Grounded 2 gets that feeling often. Enemies are readable enough to learn, but large and aggressive enough to make mistakes hurt.
The sense of scale does a lot of work. Even a familiar insect can become stressful when it towers over the player, blocks a path, or interrupts a quiet scavenging trip. The best fights have a scrappy rhythm: block, strike, reposition, panic, heal, and hope the plan does not fall apart because something else has wandered too close.
The combat still has rough edges. Some encounters feel messy, and early access balance can make certain fights swing between exciting and irritating. But the foundation is strong. The game makes danger feel physical, and that is more important than perfect polish at this stage.
Co-op brings out the chaos
Grounded 2 is fun alone, but co-op gives it a better pulse. Survival games often become more interesting when plans are shared, and this one is built for those little arguments that happen when everyone thinks they are helping. Someone wants to build. Someone wants to explore. Someone wanders too far. Someone screams because a bug appeared out of nowhere.
That social mess suits the tone. The game is funny, tense, and occasionally disgusting, and those reactions land harder with other people around. A simple trip for materials can become a story because one player took a bad route or picked a fight the group was not ready for.
Solo play still works because the world has enough pull on its own. But the sequel’s best moments feel designed to be retold. The park is more entertaining when someone else is there to see the mistake happen.
Early access roughness is hard to ignore
The biggest warning is that Grounded 2 is still early access. That matters. Performance issues, bugs, unfinished systems, and content limits are part of the current experience. The game already has a lot to do, but it is not a finished sequel yet, and it should not be judged as one.
That unfinished state affects the recommendation. If you want a complete survival campaign with the full arc, full polish, and final balance, waiting makes sense. The first Grounded grew into something much stronger over time, and this sequel looks built for the same kind of long road.
But early access also suits this series better than most. The core is already enjoyable, and the world is strong enough to make the missing pieces feel like promise rather than emptiness. I noticed the roughness, but I also kept wanting to go back out into the park.
Grounded 2 is already worth watching closely
Grounded 2 is not finished, and that should shape every recommendation. It needs more polish, more content, better performance, and time for its systems to settle. Players who want the final version should wait rather than treat early access as the full sequel.
Even now, though, it is easy to see the strength of it. Brookhollow Park is exciting to explore, the survival loop is cleaner, the buggies add a smart new layer, and the sense of being tiny in a dangerous world still feels fantastic. Grounded 2 is rough in the way early access games often are, but its best ideas are already working. For players willing to accept the unfinished state, this is a strong start to what could become one of the best survival sequels around.
Grounded 2
Xbox Series X|SPC (Microsoft Windows)
Released
July 29, 2025
Developer
Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher
Xbox Game Studios
Systems
Xbox Series X|S
PC (Microsoft Windows)