While the first Grounded game feels like it was just yesterday, Obsidian Games has released Grounded 2 into early access for Steam. Grounded 2 is a survival open-world game where you have to survive hunger, thirst, and bugs, both in-game and the game’s bugs. Let’s take a look at the new installation of Obsidian’s work.

Grounded 2 Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs!

Now, if you are new to this game series, Grounded 2 is a survival game, one where you are fighting against the elements, between hunger and thirst, to make a life. In the first game, it was in the backyard of a deranged scientist, and this one is in the city’s park. You play one of four teenagers, who have admittedly grown up since the first, and you find yourself shrunk down, again, and basically captured. Hoops, Pete, Max, and Willow are your four protagonists you can choose from, each with their own personality.

You start to find your way out into the park to confirm you have been shrunk and have to find your way through the lab through a tutorial made for the employees in-game. It’s when you make a weapon that you find the real enemies of the game, bugs. Yes, instead of the wild elements of a harsh region, which I am sure this game will have, you will be fighting bugs. You will be fighting them to craft items, food, and eventually tame them to ride them.

Now, to this game’s famous enemies, bugs. This game has a variety of bugs that have been added from the previous game and are new to Grounded 2. The bugs prove to be a challenge as they tend to be exact copies of their real-life counterparts and use the same tactics as they would in real life. There are various bugs ranging from the little gnats you would see to spiders and even scorpions that you can see from the trailer. You will see some bosses and others as being a menace to your society that you are trying to build.

Grounded 2 Early Access

Now, when you think of early access, you will think of an incomplete game, which, to argue, is the case here. They did the same with the first Grounded, and it would make sense to follow suit with this one, as the player feedback allowed them to craft a near-perfect game with the first one. While in early access, that does mean the game will come with its fair share of issues.

There have been reports of FPS dropping, aka stability issues, invisible bugs, or even building and save issues. Which is safe to say, buy the game at your own risk. As one Reddit comment says, it’s a “paid closed beta,” and they are not wrong. But as a lover of the series, I was more than happy to play it. Obsidian Games has been good in the past at taking care of bugs and stomping them out, no pun intended. So I have no doubt they will take care of Grounded 2 as well.

Personally, I haven’t had major issues so far, with only a couple of hours into the game, compared to others. Some of which I have run into are stability issues, building seems to be an issue as it doesn’t want to build in third-person only first-person, and that’s about it. But like always, buying an early access game brings the hope that the game doesn’t make itself unplayable. With that, the game is sitting at ‘Mostly Positive’ on Steam with over 7,000 reviews, as of this writing.

Regardless, I am looking forward to playing this game and getting my hands dirty on some new things they have brought out with Grounded 2. Grounded 2 is available on Steam in Early Access and Xbox Game Pass for an early sneak peek.