Survival of the fittest is no joke. Whether it’s wild animals flourishing in cities, shockingly violent plant life, or the scariest bugs you’ve ever seen, the drive to thrive is everywhere. This is why the survival game genre continues to flourish. Video games give us a safe outlet to revisit the thrills of hunting and gathering, to see what we’re really made of when the stakes are at their highest. And the latest survival sensation on Game Pass brings us back to nature in a very big way.
Grounded 2 from developer Obsidian launched in early access on July 29, an Xbox exclusive follow-up to 2022’s smash hit. If you’ve ever seen Honey, I Shrunk The Kids then the premise is instantly recognizable. A group of teens are accidentally miniaturized in a science experiment gone awry and forced to fend for themselves in a suddenly treacherous suburban yard. Dandelion stalks tower like skyscrapers as players fight, gather, and craft their way through a familiar tale about unethical corporations run amok. It’s clear you’re a pawn in a bigger game, but that’s hard to focus on amidst all the gargantuan creepy-crawlies trying to eat you for lunch.
Grounded 2 takes place a few years after the events of the first game. If you’ve never played it, don’t worry. This isn’t Final Fantasy. There is a bit of carry-over intrigue as the mad scientist from the first game has appeared to go even madder during a ceremony commemorating the survivors. A mysterious explosion, the destruction of a beloved robot mascot, and an existing network of miniature research labs scattered across Brookhaven Park all point to something nefarious. But you won’t have time to unravel much of that after you get shrunk to the size of a pea. There’s too much surviving to do.
As a survival game, Grounded 2 checks the boxes. If you’re even vaguely familiar with the genre you’ll be right at home. You’ve got to manage hunger and thirst levels, which means evolving from mushrooms and puddle water to dewdrops and roasted grubs. Venturing forth into the wilds of untamed suburbia to scour for food inevitably means encountering predators out to do the same. A menagerie of insects and arachnids lurk in the tall weeds and discarded soda cans ready to make a meal out of you.
So what’s an intrepid lilliputian teen to do? Crafting, crafting, and more crafting. Grounded 2 leans hard into the survival trope of finding and grinding. It introduces a fantastic quality of life change from its predecessor. Instead of crafting individual tools for digging, chopping, etc., players carry an omni-tool that does it all and never needs to be replaced. This makes it easy to get your hands on the basics in Grounded 2. You won’t have trouble finding grass to build a hut or sap and pebbles to create rudimentary arms and armor. But the first time you run into an Orb Weaver spider it becomes clear you’ll need much more than that.
Crafting is centered around a resource scanner found in the science labs scattered across the map. Whenever you find new materials you can analyze them to learn more crafting recipes. And that’s when you’ll notice the things you can’t find. The things that seem to only come from killing something big or venturing somewhere dangerous. Grounded 2 excels in how it manages scarcity.
It’s a risk-reward dynamic that satisfies again and again. When I finally conquered enough red soldier ants to craft a level-two warhammer it became a literal game changer for me. Suddenly those spiders got less terrifying as I was able to defeat them with ease. Hubris is never far off though, and there’s always a bigger bug (with a better rare resource) waiting to test your limits again.
And if you’re like me and a bit spider-averse, a helpful arachnophobia slider lets you adjust their look from full-on eight-legged freak all the way down to a legless white orb with eyes. Well-placed musical cues alert you when something dangerous is nearby, which both heightens tension and makes navigation a little easier.
Not all bugs are bad though. Most of the ones you encounter in-game are neutral and won’t bother you unless you bother them. You’re also able to tame certain bugs, too, a new addition for the sequel. Creating a small ant-powered buggy is part of the early questline for a reason. In addition to making gathering resources much easier, your pet bugs will also defend you from incoming threats.
Despite being a literal walk in the park, Grounded 2 is anything but. Combat is incredibly challenging, especially early on. The good news is you can go at your own pace, and you quickly learn to avoid certain areas if you’re not looking for a fight. The bad news is you can’t run forever. You eventually have to go after those rare resources in service of both the story and your own attention span. A handy resource locator function on your map makes it easier, but only works for things you’ve already found. You will, inevitably, have to face the unknown.
That’s the essence of what Grounded 2 is doing so well. Alongside the fantastic writing and world-building you’d expect from Obsidian is a true sense of adventure. You don’t have to go it alone, either, as you can link up with friends online and play co-op. Although it is worth noting that the game is still very much an early access title, so weird glitches and crashes do still occur.
Regardless, it’s one of the most inventive titles in the genre and an absolute blast to play no matter what you’re looking for. Survival of the fittest has never been more fun.
