Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
---

Title: Obsidian Entertainment has big ambitions for Grounded 2's small world

Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:30:27 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/obsidian...

Obsidian Entertainment has been an incredibly versatile game developer over
the years, even venturing outside its RPG comfort zone with the original
Grounded. As a survival adventure game where you're shrunken down and explore
the hidden, vast world of a backyard, it became a well-loved hit, and it
evolved even further throughout its early access period. But now, the
developers have big plans for Grounded 2, which has new features and a larger
scope that was too big for the original to contain.

Shortly after the reveal during the recent Xbox Games Showcase alongside
Summer Game Fest 2025, I got to play the opening of the sequel, which sees
the familiar crew of teenage scavengers, now a little older and wiser,
shrunken down once again to survive a new small world hidden in the town's
park. Even as a new iteration of a familiar premise, which is essentially the
survival gameplay of Rust by way of the whimsical Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,
Grounded 2 is already showing some promise as the bigger and better sequel.

Grounded 2, which will also launch in early access, already feels like a
bigger game, even from the confines of the tutorial zone. For starters,
there's a larger focus on building up the experience of the four teenage
scavengers and how they fit into the larger story. It's not quite
Yellowjackets when it comes to teen drama, but the crew exploring the small
world of the park have colorful language and quips at their disposal. There's
a generally stronger sense of personality in Grounded 2, which is bolstered
by some more character-driven writing and opportunities to take in the lore
of the company responsible for the experiments in town.

The experience of playing Grounded 2, much like the original and other
survival games, is all about gathering resources from the land and acquiring
knowledge to stay alive. Along with collecting materials to build weapons,
armor and structures, you'll also have to keep your characters fed and
hydrated. You'll also need to defend yourself against the various critters
roaming about, such as the ants and the spiders. Also returning is the
arachnophobia accessibility option to make them appear less disturbing for
players. Thankfully, you can now use a dodge to avoid attacks ΓÇô a first for
the series ΓÇô and combat is generally more responsive and fair.

Grounded 2 feels like a more well-rounded and refined take on the original,
which is a solid game in its own right. One great addition that I got to play
with was the new ant mount, or buggy, as the devs call it. You'll be able to
ride on top of a friendly ant that can attack enemies, move faster throughout
the world, and even collect material far more quickly than the human
scavengers.

Obsidian Entertainment

Shortly after my hands-on experience, I sat in on a roundtable discussion
with game director Chris Parker and producer Miles Winzeler from Obsidian
Entertainment, who explained how early access feedback from players helped
bring the game to its current state. In order to fully implement their vision
for Grounded, though, they would need a new game.

"Almost everything in Grounded 2 comes from feedback from the community that
we had gathered from the first game," Parker said. "We had to look at what
was important to work on with the sequel. People always want more stuff to
do. They wanted to have the buggies, which was a huge one and our number one
most requested feature from out the gate on Grounded 1. We then had to work
on new creatures, armor and weapons, among other things. How can we further
develop our progression systems? So those were all the things that we took on
from the beginning for Grounded 2."

Grounded 2 felt like a more fully realized game, which leveraged years of
work on the original. Along with a more developed story campaign focusing on
helping the kids survive the portion of Brookhollow Park they have to explore
ΓÇô which is more than three times the size of the original's map ΓÇô The
game will also launch with creative mode, which was a popular feature that
let players focus on exploring and building up structures at their leisure.

Obsidian Entertainment

"We're always trying to challenge scale and how we can create a sense of awe
and mystery by having something that's supposed to be normal but is now this
gigantic thing," Parker said. "That's always the fun when making this game."

I really took to the added scope of Grounded 2. Not just as a shrunken person
trapped on the grounds of a park but also for the new features and ideas at
work for the sequel. With the game coming out in July for early access,
Grounded 2 has already got me invested in making a return visit to this small
world with big ambitions.

Grounded 2 will release in early access on July 29 for Xbox Series X and
PC, and will be available for Game Pass subscribers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/obsidian...
for-grounded-2s-small-world-173027415.html?src=rss

---
VRSS v2.1.180528