Grounded 2 Review & Feedback
I highly recommend Grounded 2 and fully support its continued development. The roadmap is exciting, and I look forward to the final product. This sequel has the potential to surpass the huge success of Grounded 1. My review focuses on issues I encountered, along with potential solutions for future updates.
Mounts
Mounts feel great and complement the original insect playstyles—e.g., ants acting as supportive, weight-carrying colony workers. This makes each mount feel valuable and unique while serving general travel and combat purposes.
Concerns & Solutions:
The current stat display (Crafting/Building/Battle/Agility) is unclear. Suggested change: Utility/Battle/Travel, which better reflects a mount’s uses.
Allow mount inventory to integrate with building—materials in a mount’s chest should be recognized just like player inventory or chests allowing materials in mounts inventory to contribute towards creating items in the workbench or creating build blueprints
Shields
Currently, blocking with a light shield feels too similar to blocking with a weapon. Shields should block all damage regardless of light or heavy and blocking a hit that is too big would drain your stamina completely and cause the player to “stagger” creating a window of time requiring the player to recover after some time leaving them vulnerable to attack. If an attack is too big it burns through stamina it will damage the durability of the shield proportional to the non blocked damage of the attack.
Proposed Rework:
Light shields drain more stamina when blocking but recover from stagger faster.
Heavy shields drain less stamina, absorb bigger hits, and are better for sustained blocking.
Perfect blocks should grant a temporary block stamina boost if the player holds block afterward.
Poor blocking damages shield durability, rewarding skillful play.
This separation makes light shields about precision and timing, and heavy shields about endurance.
Gear Roles
Gear feels roughly split into Warrior, Ranger, Mage, Rogue archetypes, which works—but melee gear currently lacks distinction between DPS and tank.
Suggestion:
Revive Grounded 1’s upgrade paths (Bulky for tank, Sleek for DPS or utility).
Alternatively, make some armor sets inherently tank (e.g., Ladybug) and others DPS (e.g., Black Ox), with hybrid sets like Roach representing balanced survivability.
Blueprint Sharing
Add a way to upload/download or copy building blueprints via the SCA.B or other tools.
Benefits:
Encourages community sharing of builds.
Simplifies relocation by showing exact resource needs.
Allows players to preview a structure in different environments.
Could be an unlockable shop upgrade to reward dedicated builders and progression.
Mutations
Mutations in Grounded 1 rewarded playstyles (e.g., Grass Master for grass cutting). This system should remain all-encompassing to replace traditional RPG leveling.
Suggestions:
Bring back mutations for non-combat activities like gathering and breaking rocks. (some already exist might already be a WIP)
Add in-game guidance for finding mutations without spoiling the mystery—e.g., in the mutations loadout screen, color-coded backdrops on “?” icons hinting at unlock methods:
Green backdrop for gathering mutations (Grass Master, Rock Cracker).
Skull icon for boss fight mutations.
Helps players who want discovery without relying on online guides.
Navigation
A minimap or compass would make on-the-go navigation easier, reducing the need to constantly open the map mid-combat.
Omnitool
While versatile, the Omnitool removes the feel and satisfaction of dedicated tools—especially axes.
Concerns:
Reduces combat tool variety.
Gathering feels less impactful with hold-to-gather instead of per-hit feedback.
Solution:
Make the Omnitool a mid- or late-game unlock tied to story progression.
High-level tools should still outperform it in gathering speed, making the Omnitool a convenience, not a default.
Multiplayer Scale
Grounded 1 excelled as a 4-player co-op game, but survival games often thrive with larger player counts (ARK 70, Conan 70, Rust 50+, Smalland 10).
Recommendation:
Expand beyond 4-player caps, at least in custom maps and PvP modes.
Target 8–16 players to support multiple 4-player groups competing, especially in Playground mode where PvP is already implemented.
Final Thoughts:
Grounded 2 is already shaping up to be a worthy successor. With refinement in mounts, shields, gear roles, building systems, mutation guidance, navigation tools, the Omnitool, and multiplayer scalability, it could become an all-time great in the survival genre.
