When friends love a game, you learn about it through osmosis. They discuss the campaign’s challenges, its failings and the reasons they keep on playing despite the frustrations. That’s how I absorbed everything about “Grounded” before wholeheartedly jumping in.
My brother played it religiously and regaled me about his adventures in the shed and the sandbox. He talked about it so much that I spent a week adventuring with him, and getting the hang of the original. What impressed me most was how he knew where everything was in a miniature world that seemed enormous with its hidden labs and secret caves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0HQNOtg1WITHE STORY SO FARThat experience offered a baseline for my experience with “Grounded 2,” the follow-up to the novel open-world survival game. In the sequel, players take on the role of the same four teenagers who survived the foray Dr. Wendell Tully’s backyard. At Brookhollow Park, they were celebrated for their exploits in the previous game, when the scientist who invented the shrinking device called the SPAC.R goes crazy and beheads BURG.L, the robot that helps the teens in the first game. A larger explosion followed.
When they wake up, the youths are again Lilliputian, but they’re in a vastly larger space of a public park. They also find out they’re in the middle of an Ominent internal war. The company that stole Dr. Tully’s research was actually using the park as an experimental zone when a rogue employee took matters into their own hands.
NEW GAME, NEW ABILITIESPlayers have to delve into the mystery and figure out the story behind Ominent and rogue faction. Players quickly learn that despite being an early access game, this sequel is more polished than what the original was at the same time of their existence. “Grounded 2” speeds players through the basics of scavenging, crafting and hunting creatures.
One of the bigger improvements is the Omnitool that players acquire early. It is an indestructible tool that can change into a shovel, axe, wrench and hammer. It eliminates the tedious elements of the original, when players had to craft specific tools and switch between them. They also don’t have to repair it when they wear down. It allows players to focus on combat and survival, especially when exploring ant hills and other locales.
“Grounded 2” does a good job of guiding players from key scenario to the next. If they follow the mission waypoints, they’ll advance to the next major improvement and a critical story beat — rideable bugs. Players will need certain eggs and a special structure called a hatchery. Like all structures and gear in the campaign, it takes specific materials to build it.
That’s often the limiting factor to advancing. Players have to hunt for specific material, but thankfully, the teams at Eidos Montreal and Obsidian Entertainment added a scanner that will search parts of the map for needed resources, so players don’t have to wander aimlessly to find them.
RIDING ANTS AND CLASS-SPECIFIC GEARMeanwhile, having mounts makes traversing a bigger world easier. The first creature players can ride are red soldier ants, and they’re useful in exploring ant hills, and they can help players scale large obstacles such as a picnic table. They can harvest and carry materials to the base while also recruiting worker ants to follow them.
They also act as extra muscle in battle. Players can command the creature to attack smaller, more annoying foes such as mites, but when fighting bigger adversaries such as scorpions or orb weavers, players can hop off and the ant will attack and protect the rider. It acts as an essential partner.
Lastly, the developers changed how armor and weapons work in the game. They add more traditional role-playing game elements to the campaign. “Grounded 2” features archetypes of a warrior, rogue, ranger and mage.
To turn into these classes, players need to equip weapons and armor that are geared toward the archetype. When playing in a group, they each have a role. Warriors are front-line fighters who have plenty of health. Rangers attack from a distance with bows. Meanwhile, rogues’ daggers deal heavy damage when ambushing foes with a flurry of stamina-draining attacks. Mages have some of the tougher equipment to find, but it deals elemental damage.
Players can maximize the traits of their gear by activating certain mutations. These complement the gear, so that players can benefit more from the playstyle. With the rogue, I exhausted myself enough times to unlock an ability where my stamina depleted more slowly so that I could dodge and attack more often.
My brother and I did plenty of exploring in “Grounded 2,” and the addition of classes helped make the co-op experience more enthralling. He was the tank and I did the damage. From what I played, it’s fantastic co-op experience just as long as you’re playing with an expert who knows the ins and outs from the prior game.
Unfortunately, because it was in early access, we ran through a lot of the content, and it left both of us wanting more. That’s a good sign for an early access game. This unfinished version of “Grounded 2” shows that it has the foundation for a larger, more satisfying adventure.