Good evening everyone!
MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!!!!
I have been following Obsidian and Grounded since the early release of the first game. I saw promise and enjoyment after playing even the bare bones of it, and I loved watching it evolve to the point it is at now. I see that same potential in Grounded 2. I am constantly impressed by and grateful for the Grounded developers for the amazing game series they've made. Normally, I observe but don't add my own opinion to the discussion, but I see some issues with Grounded 2 that did not exist in Grounded, and I hope they can be addressed. Before I continue, I'd like to point out that these are my own game experiences and my own thought process that may be different from yours when playing the game.
1. Game Progression (Berries)
My first time playing through the early access story for Grounded 2, I was playing on Mild with a controller. I had to get a new game system in order to play this version so I didn't want to be blown away by the insects being too challenging while I'm learning the system. That being said, I began the new game and everything was going smoothly until after I had received my buggy and the optical disk for base defenses. From that point forward, the game tells you to choose between two O.R.C Signal points to dismantle (Spoiler: I never did either of them so I don't yet know how they work). I ended up finding that to get to them, you needed to upgrade your equipment to be better suited for the hostile environments: either the gas mask for the haze or the chill armor for the picnic bench. The major problem is that you need berry leather to craft most of this gear. I was left to explore the rest of the map to discover the berry leather I needed. I found the lingonberry leather, but never found the blueberry leather. I ended up discovering the main hideout of the stranger before blueberry leather. If these berries are vital to the progression of the story, I believe they should be more easily available. The story should take us to the berries like it did in Grounded, or the blueberries should have small bushels that pop up around the map. I shouldn't have to find every other interesting landmark in the game because the berries are located only in one spot out of the way. It hurts the surprise factor for other aspects of the game later down the line. I understand that I can always look up online where to find certain things, but it takes the fun and surprise away from the game, and additionally, it is the job of the developers to guide players through their game. If any of this sounded harsh, I honestly do not mean to be; it's just how passionate I am about the game.
2. Game Progression (Stranger Hideout)
I mentioned before that I ended up finding the stranger's hideout before finding blueberries, and that created issues of its own. To start, entering the hideout requires you to kill some O.R.C guards, break through dead branches, and navigate some tree branches. Now I went through this whole process without even realizing what I was doing. I had no idea I was entering the final boss lab until I entered the main room and the stranger started talking about how I wasn't ready for this yet. I took that as a challenge. I cleared the rest of the lab with the crimson saber, the ladyguard, the northern shredders, and whatever heals I picked up along the way. I fully defeated the stranger and her pet wolf spider with tier 1 armor and a tier 1 weapon (with another tier 2 weapon and a tier 2 shield). I was disappointed that it was so easy, but I also understand I was playing on Mild. My problem with my progression is that due to a fluke find while looking for blueberries, I skipped the majority of the current story. I don't believe this should be possible. Looking at Grounded, there are progression blockers everywhere that help to keep the game pacing such as the Assistant Manager keycard and Dr. Tully to open the Moldorc lab doors. This is critical for game pacing and allowing for a satisfying conclusion. The fact that there was nothing stopping me from simply entering the stranger's lab and confronting her was disappointing and lackluster because I knew I had just skipped the entire story so far. I believe some sort of progression lock should be added to make sure no one meets the stranger too early.
3. Radials
Unrelated to the other issues, I have found that the radials could use some work. The construction radial is just as good as Grounded, so I'm happy there. I do find the blueprints hard to see when in direct sunlight so if we may be able to make them a darker shade of blue, it would help. Additionally, it becomes to difficult to build roofs now that you need to hold the button to cancel blueprints on controller instead of just pressing it like in Grounded. My major issue, though, with Grounded 2 radials is that there isn't a radial for mutation loadouts anymore (at least not for controllers). I've gone into the controller button mapping to see if I just didn't have it mapped, but I couldn't find one. This makes it difficult in combat for when I want to perform my best against different creatures at once. For instance, fighting the stranger and then Bandit after I used two different weapon combos and different mutations, but not having a radial for the fight meant getting hit once or twice just to allot time to switch my mutation loadout. Finally, and this might be a problem I have a solution to, it is difficult to setup my hot bar in the inventory menu because I don't have a hot bar there. I loved the presets in Grounded because I could always have smoothies available even if I ran out of a certain type. In Grounded 2, I can't setup presets because I can only access the hot bar radial by pinning an item to it.
Final Notes.
I am still going through everything the game has to offer so there may be other items I might want to comment on, but I know fixing at least these issues would make a major improvement to the game. If anyone from the fanbase has solutions to these issues too, especially the radial one, that I don't know about, I'd love to hear it. As I go through the game on Medium difficulty, I'll relay any continuous issues about insect difficulty, game progression, and game mechanics.
Thanks for listening to my concerns, it is greatly appreciated to know I am being heard and valued as a longstanding supporter of this game series.
