Grounded 2
Last updated: 2025-07-30
- Excellent sequel, highly enjoyable and polished
- Poor performance and optimization issues
- Broken multiplayer functionality
- Abundance of bugs and glitches
- Mount system is a game-changer
- Wait for game fixes and improvements
Emotions
Players are experiencing significant frustration primarily due to widespread technical issues, including poor optimization, frequent game crashes, low frame rates, and persistent multiplayer connectivity problems. These issues often prevent players from launching the game, playing with friends, or maintaining stable gameplay, leading to a highly unplayable experience for many.
Players express satisfaction with the game's improvements over its predecessor, new features like the mount system and expanded map, and overall content quality. Many feel the game meets or exceeds expectations for a sequel, offering an enjoyable and refined experience despite some minor issues.
Disappointment stems from the game's unpolished state, characterized by numerous bugs, poor optimization, and perceived lack of new content or innovation compared to the first game. Players feel the game was released prematurely, leading to an experience that falls short of their anticipation and expectations for a sequel.
Excitement is driven by the game's future potential, including anticipated updates, new features like mounts and a larger map, and the overall promising core gameplay. Players are eager for the game's continued development and the expansion of its world and mechanics.
Players express hope for future updates and fixes, particularly regarding performance optimization, bug resolution, and the addition of missing features like DLSS. There is a strong belief that the developers will address current issues and further improve the game's quality over time.
Verdict
Mixed
Summary
Positive 56% ¡ Negative 44%. Score: 44 / 100
Positives:
- The game is widely regarded as an excellent sequel, building upon the beloved mechanics and charm of the first game while introducing significant improvements, a larger world, and more content. Fans of the original will find it a natural and enhanced continuation.
- Players overwhelmingly praise the game's current state, finding it highly enjoyable, fun, and well-polished for an Early Access title. Many express excitement for its future development and consider it a strong contender for 'Game of the Year' quality.
- The new mount system, especially the ability to ride various bugs like ants, is a highly praised addition. Players find mounts incredibly useful for traversal, adding a fun new layer to exploration and even combat, making the world feel more alive.
- The Omni-Tool is a standout quality-of-life feature, praised for streamlining resource gathering, eliminating inventory clutter, and removing durability concerns. It significantly improves the flow of exploration and crafting.
- The new map is described as massive, well-designed, and full of content to explore, even in its Early Access state. Its size and detail contribute significantly to the sense of adventure and discovery.
Negatives:
- Players consistently report severe performance issues across various hardware configurations, including high-end PCs. This manifests as extremely low and unstable frame rates, frequent stuttering, and lag spikes, making the game nearly unplayable for many. The lack of detailed graphics settings and optimization options exacerbates these problems.
- Multiplayer functionality is largely broken, with players experiencing significant connection issues, inability to join friends, severe lag, disconnections, and crashes. Cross-platform play is particularly problematic, rendering the co-op experience unplayable for many.
- Many players feel the game is a downgrade from its predecessor, lacking features, polish, and content that were present in the first game. The UI, combat, and core mechanics are often perceived as worse or less refined, making the game feel more like a DLC or a step backward rather than a true sequel.
- The game is riddled with numerous bugs and glitches, ranging from minor visual annoyances to game-breaking issues. These bugs affect various aspects of gameplay, including creature behavior, item interactions, and overall stability, leading to frustration and hindering progress.
- The game is widely perceived as unfinished and unpolished, even for an early access title. Players report a lack of content, basic features, and overall polish, leading to disappointment and a feeling that the game was released prematurely.
Gameplay:
- The new Omni-Tool integrates multiple harvesting tools (axe, hammer, shovel) into a single, universal item that doesn't take up inventory space. While convenient, some players find its automatic activation and 'hold E' mechanic less intuitive or satisfying than the previous system, especially when accustomed to the first game.
- The game largely retains the core gameplay, mechanics, and systems from its predecessor, including combat, crafting, and progression. While it introduces new features and a different map, the overall experience is very familiar to players of the first game.
- The game introduces a variety of new bug types, such as scorpions and cockroaches, alongside returning ones. A significant new feature is the ability to tame and ride certain bugs, which expands gameplay possibilities and offers new ways to interact with the environment.
- The game features a significantly larger map compared to its predecessor, offering a vast world to explore. However, only a fraction (approximately one-third to one-quarter) of this massive map is accessible in the initial Early Access release.
- The game is currently in Early Access, meaning only a portion of the full map and story content is available. This release strategy allows developers to gather player feedback and refine the game over time, though it means the experience is incomplete at launch.
Performance:
- Player experiences with game performance are highly varied, ranging from smooth gameplay on older systems to significant struggles on high-end hardware. Many players report needing to adjust graphics settings, especially resolution scaling, to achieve playable frame rates, often around 60 FPS. There's a general sentiment that the game is demanding and not consistently optimized across different hardware configurations.
- While some players report smooth multiplayer experiences, others encounter noticeable lag, stutters, and occasional crashes, particularly in shared or online game sessions. This suggests potential issues with network optimization or specific multiplayer scenarios.
- A subset of players reports a completely smooth experience with no performance issues, crashes, or optimization problems. This contrasts sharply with other feedback, indicating that performance can be excellent for some users.
- The game is reported to be playable on Steam Deck, but often requires setting graphics to minimum to achieve a playable frame rate. Input methods like mouse and keyboard or external controllers work well on the device.
Recommendations:
- Many players strongly advise against purchasing the game in its current state, primarily due to significant performance issues and bugs. They recommend waiting for several patches, months, or even until the full release for a more stable and enjoyable experience.
- The game is highly recommended for fans of the first Grounded, as it builds upon its predecessor's strengths and offers a familiar yet expanded experience. However, some suggest new players start with the original for a more polished introduction to the series.
- Despite current issues, many players are optimistic about the game's future, recognizing its early access status. They anticipate significant improvements in performance and content through upcoming updates, believing it has the potential to become a great game.
- A significant number of players recommend the game, often highlighting its overall quality and potential. They believe it offers a worthwhile experience, especially for those who enjoy adventure and exploration.
- Many players believe the game is worth its current price, especially considering its early access status and future potential. They see it as a good investment, even with the existing issues.
Miscellaneous:
- Many players acknowledge that the game is in an Early Access state, which inherently implies the presence of bugs, performance issues, and unfinished content. While some express frustration over the 'Early Access' label appearing post-purchase, most understand that these issues are typical for a game in active development.
- Players are highly optimistic about the game's future, eagerly anticipating updates that will introduce new content, improve performance, and resolve existing issues. There's a strong belief that the developers will deliver on their roadmap and enhance the game significantly over time.
- Many reviewers are long-time fans of the first game, 'Grounded,' and express a deep appreciation for it. This history influences their expectations for the sequel, with some feeling that the current game feels more like a DLC than a full sequel, while others are confident it will eventually live up to the original's legacy.
