Few design issues and problems I have with the game so far.

[DahrAmahr]

Greetings fellow shinkers. I've been playing grounded 1 for quite a while... like alot. It's my #1 survival game out there. In terms of time played only Don't Starve Together wins by comparison (with around 800ish hours played). I hopped in Grounded 2 yesterday with my buddy and after 2 hours I have some opinions. I'll try to keep this spoiler free as much as possible. I enjoy new enviroment. It gave me the refresh I needed after long hours of Grounded 1, where I knew every spawn of every wolfspider, black widow, or bombardier beetle. However stright from the get go I got hit in the face by few issues that might not be a problem for some (as some "journalists reviews" prove).

1: new inventory UI - this is terrible design choice. Looks way too plain and simplistic and actually this seems to me more of a placeholder graphics untill we get the real one. Get the one from Grounded 1 for the time being it was perfect. Don't try to fix what aint broken. - I don't mean the character model on the right with slots, that bit is fine and it's a welcome change from grounded 1 (alhough the slots look awful just the way backpack does).
2: Omni-tool - I hate the idea. Well maybe not the idea it self but execution. I understand that the logic behind it was to safe some inventory / hotbar slots free for weapons and consumables? (or at least I hope that's the reason behind it), but the execution is rather lacking. The fact that I need to walk up to interactable object and ONLY then I need to hold "E" to be able to use omni-tool is in my opinion a huuuge step backwards from Grounded 1. Axe was not only my cutting tool but also my top 3 favourite weapon untill tier 3 2H swords came in. The fact that I was able to run around freely swinging my axe and cut down grass WHILE fighting a wolfspider at the same time gave me that Ninja Scroll moment during a fight in a bamboo forest... (what happens when there are 2 different objects very close to each other and each requires a different omni-tool to extract?) 
My solution to this - make Omni-Tool an existing item. Put it in a slot and alow it to be equipable. Give it a toggle option (like press a designated button to cicle back and forth which omni-tool mode you wish to use) but alow the omni tool to be used with atk button not "interact" button. This will STILL reduce the space it takes up in our inventories, but makes the gameplay smoother.
3: visual cues - Charged attacks and perfect parry animations - There is no need for all the sparklings and shiny effects when I charge my weapon for heavy attacks. Frankly it looks ridiculous and is very annoying. This wasn't a thing in Grounded 1 and I see no reason whatsoever why it should be in Grounded 2
4: The bug ability to block attacks is a nice touch thou, but the visuals are also a little bit too extravagant. For refernce see how hitting a roly poly that has been tuckered down felt like. No one had any doubts that attacks have close to none effect, by the sound and feeling. Do that instead of strange knock back (that sometimes sends my little kid up into air) and visual impact animation that is way over the top.
5: animation glitches - I have no idea if Grounded 2 uses new or the same engine as Grounded 1. Mosquitos for example look and feel almost exactly the same as those in Gr1 BUT in 1 it never happened to me that a mosquito that missed it's roundabound attack missed me ... then all of the sudden teleported near me and hit me despite the miss. It feels like there is something off with hit boxes or that the displayed attack animation missmatched actuall point of attack. The same thing can be said about mites for example. They jump where I was second ago... and yet the still hit despite the fact they shouldn't and sometimes they don;t hit me, when I feel/see they should have.

I know it's a post full of negativity but it's only because I'm saying about things that don't sit well with me. I can't praise everything I feel is better because it'd be a MASSIVE post.

TLDR - make it more Grounded 1 with new enviroment and bugs xD

P.S. the voice acting is top knotch. The corporate lady does an AMAZING job so far.

[Kochi.Mochi]

Signed up for an account just now to say that I fully agree with all of the QoL/design arguments after having player for a few hours now.

Hopefully parroting your thoughts will give more visibility to the these items as I think they are REALLY important for Obsidian to nail down before doing anything else. If the core aspects of the game are not enjoyable/smooth then it's really going to make simply exploring the world a hassle. Which 
 

[reapurrreeb]

they gave us the omni-tool then removed two whole hotbars like... why??

[Matt__AsA__Hatter]

The game does have a lot of great things going on for it but I do agree with many of your critiques. 

Some parts of the UI are nice others are major downgrades.  I like the changes made to the mutation menu by putting them into categories.  But the UI of the food/water/life/stamina is all much worse, along with the radar system for tracking nearby items.  The first game did those just fine, no need to mess with what works.  The menu at the shop for the omni-tool looks messy, the right side looks good but the left side doesnt mirror it and the busting isnt in a line, just mirror the right side to the left.  

I also hate the omni tool, there was a note within the game where they said it felt like the soul had been sucked out by the corporation.  That's how i feel about the omni-tool.  Sure its great QoL for never needing to think about resources but it also makes you never care about what type they are.  You stop even caring if something is 'busting' or 'smashing' or 'digging' they all blur together into 'harvestable' and 'not harvestable' and once your tool maxes you wont even think about that anymore.  It really oversimplifies the game and removes some of the really cool elements.  The items you made with your hands made the survival feel real and immersive.  Throwing that away for some shiny tool feels really lame and boring.  It doesn't even change its appearance as you improve it, instead there is one way to alter its look offered at 2 different locations, as if its just some costume you're putting on. There's an easy solution: blunt weapons bust, slashing weapons cut, and stabbing digs.  Give the power back to the items and make switching them actually matter again.

Charged attacks and blocking are tedious.  It's one of those concepts that feels fun for a bit then after a long while it feels like a burden.  It's only been about 100 hours for me so far and I'm already starting to roll my eyes when I see an enemy begin to block.  Same with the snail hiding in his shell.  I can 2 shot the big ones, but you still end up standing there waiting for 5-10 seconds to do it.  Given how necessary they are for bandages they are something the player will always be spending time to farm.  It should be fun to farm not feel like a burden.  

Which reminds me of how useless bandages feel now.  The old ones gave us back 75 life and continued to work if we took damage.  The new ones only give back at most 50 (33% less) and stop working entirely if you take even a tickle from a mite.   Even the blue ones only heal 70 and cost a lot more time and effort to make.  If you're going to farm berries it might as well be the purple ones and the snails.  So that's what everyone will be doing.  Instead of building sap catcher farms and ways to farm fiber.  Assuming the pattern continues we will also have T4 and T5 bandages.  Shifting the farm to whatever those cost to produce.

The world created seems really cool and I'd love to spend hundreds to thousands of hours exploring.  But I do also have concerns that the changes to the design of the game will limit my ability to fully enjoy this wonderful space.