3 things I liked and 2 I didn't after 30 minutes with Grounded 2

I don't know if you've heard, but it's the year of Obsidian: Microsoft's fastest-working studio already has one 2025 RPG under its belt in Avowed, and it's putting out another one in October with The Outer Worlds 2. Completing the trifecta of 2025 Obsidian launches is Grounded 2, the odd duck of the portfolio. Not only is it a survival game rather than an RPG, but it's also the only Obsidian series that gets to release in early access.

Grounded 2 was one of the meatier demos I went hands-on with at Summer Game Fest. Microsoft let me loose at the beginning of the game with a timer, so I sped through the tutorial and made it to the new open world map ASAP—a city park that, when shrunk down to the size of an ant, looks like an alien planet.

I never got around to the original Grounded, so my impressions of the sequel might have some overlap with the first game. Below are a handful of likes and dislikes after 30 minutes with Grounded 2.

Cool ???? - Ant mounts

Mounts are new to Grounded 2, and they were by far the standout feature of my demo. Obsidian calls its rideable bugs "buggies", and they're a lot more than just a faster way to get around. The ant buggy I rode, which Obsidian spawned in since you don't usually get mounts so early in the game, could run, sprint, attack, and crucially, carry around stacks of huge grass blades for construction projects.

I got the sense that hatching your first buggy is a big moment in Grounded 2, like building a sub in Subnautica or hatching a dinosaur army in Ark. Once you have a buggy, you'll never be roaming alone again. Yes, you can pet them.

Meh ???? - Combat

Seeing the combat from the original Grounded in action is one of the reasons I never played it. Grounded 2 did not feel like a huge step up. Stabbing tiny ants with a makeshift spear was slow, janky, and lacked any satisfying feedback. Of course, I only messed with the weakest stuff in the tech tree, so maybe there's a sick plasma ray I can craft after 20 hours, but I don't think killing stuff will be the highlight of Grounded 2.

Cool ???? - The Omni-Tool

The first tool you pick up in Grounded 2 is also the last one you'll ever need. Like the Gerber multitool my dad kept clipped to his belt my entire childhood, the Omni-Tool is a shovel, axe, wrench, and hammer all in one. Unifying all the tools sounds like the sort of simplification that would annoy survival fans, but I think it's more about freeing up inventory space for less permanent resources. You still need to enhance each individual tool through an upgrade tree.

Meh ???? - Voice acting

Adults doing their best impressions of young teens ain't doing it for me. The nasally whine of the character I chose, Max Smalls, was so over-the-top that, 10 minutes in, I wondered if there'd be an option to turn off all dialogue in the final game.

Cool ???? - Brookhollow Park

Surely the whole "whoa, everything is big" trick will feel like any old day in the park for returning players, but I spent a lot of my demo time craning my neck up and admiring the scale of Obsidian's shrunken world. Chopping down grass "trees", slurping up individual dewdrops, and climbing random pieces of litter like they're mountains felt like stepping into a Bug's Life.

Obsidian says the opening area of Grounded 2 is the size of the entire Grounded 1 map, which is exciting. You'll definitely need more ground to cover with the speed boost of buggies. I didn't manage to reach the edge of the map before my demo was over, but I made it far enough to find what might be the chillest part of the map, a roughly 3ft by 5ft tunnel running under a couple of wooden boards.

Despite being revealed last, Grounded 2 is coming sooner than The Outer Worlds 2. Early access begins July 29 on all platforms (except PlayStation) with a large chunk of the final map (but not all of it) and the first chapter of its story.