Thoughts on the first few hours of the game.

[Doomer1122]

I played a ton of Grounded 1, mostly solo. I started in the Early access days, and played since then. I also played a couple games of multiplayer with a friend of mine. 

I hold Grounded 1 as the bar when it comes to survival crafting games. Interesting world, concept, and mechanics that feel really well designed and thought out on all fronts. 

While I know Grounded 2 is in early access. I feel I would like to weigh in on a few things where I feel the design of the game clashes with other aspects, or is feeling off. Feel free to correct me on any of these if you feel as if I have misunderstood anything in the game.

• Omnitool is a fantastic edition however it has a handful of weird design choices I feel don't work too well.
  • Not having it as an inventory item is weird. Since now its all contextual use. The trigger zone for all these things wildly off. I want to drink a chunk of water off a blade of grass, but I end up drinking it AND swinging my axe because the actions are bound to the same key.
    • As such, having any collectable item near something with contextual use makes the tool take priority. Tried to pick up stuff around a blade of grass, and had to cut down the whole thing before I was able to. A bug died on a spot with buried treasure (I'm assuming? I had a shovel prompt) before I had a shovel. Couldn't loot the bug because the treasure took priority.
    • I would bring it back to a usable item on my tool bar that would just change based on what I'm trying to do, or a hot key to swap modes. Not sure how the hotkey would work with console/controller considerations. So perhaps it auto swaps based on what you're doing. Unfortunately I don't have a solution for this, but I know that in its current iteration its a bit off. 
    • As such this also removes it possibility as a back up weapon. Which this may be intentional, and its not a take away, but it is something that does fundamentally change with this new system.
  • Thematically it makes sense to have a multitool. I've seen complaints that it ruins the immersion since you aren't making the tools from bugs. It made sense in the first game as you were dropped into a yard with zero assistance and understanding of things. This second game opens up with Ominent having made several advancements over the years, and it would make sense to use the tools they have since now the new person is leading you in this story (so far)
    • What doesn't make sense is the use of bug parts to upgrade the tool. I feel that's just gamification but Ultimately I don't care enough to really complain about it. Perhaps we need a specific Ominent made resources that we find, but then we're locking upgrades behind certain portions of the world. I don't feel it needs a change, but it is kind of weird that this "high tech" tool is powered by "ant butts and berries" 

 

• My biggest thing I have noticed thus far is that the bug Placement is reaaaaally weird to me in this game. Back in the first game you had several "Biomes" or zones. The swampy area and large bodies of water had mosquitos, spiders were under rocks, planks, in small corners, the hedge biome, near the small posts by the pond, etc. Bee's were all over buy centralized by hives near a tree stump as well the picnic table for the food. So far in Grounded 2 they just seem to be anywhere they want to be. In the first game I could go "oh this is a small crevasse there's probably a spider" or go "Oh I need antlion parts, I just have to go to the sandbox because that would thematically make sense for bugs to be there" Replace this with almost every bug in Grounded 1 and you'll see the thought behind it all. Having mosquitos near resting water, or stink bugs in dead brush/grass makes perfect sense. So far in the second game, just in the area near the camera landmark, and all the way up to the Burg.L body, I have found Mosquitos, Soldier ants, Larva, Mini Orb weavers, spiderlings, ****roachs, Lady bugs, Slugs, and stink bugs. While yes, bug can go anywhere, I understand that, however it just feels super unpredictable and very annoying to traverse when I have a mixture of Tier 2 bugs mixed in with Tier 1s wandering around. Fighting soldier ants only to get taken out by a singular Mosquito that aggro'd, and a stink bug charging at you feels really unbalanced. I'm sure this will change the more I use the buggy system, but my limited usage of it right now hasn't changed this much.
• Spiders just seem to be everywhere. Wandering around the camera area they are just out in the open walking around in the day light or sleeping just in the open field. It just doesn't make sense. Spiders being hidden in caves, under logs, etc; then wandering around at night I feel fit far more.

 

• Gathering building materials are starting to get tedious. Originally in the first game cutting grass or dandelions would take a handful of hits. Now they are painstakingly taking almost double, if not more hits. A tier 1 axe in grounded 1 could fall a grass blade in 2-4 hits, where now I'm reaching upwards of 6. Dandelions taking well over 8-9 hits compared to the 4-5 it used to be. Sounds like small changes, but adds up especially in the beginning when you can only hold 5 large items at a time. Building time for my base severely tanks.
• There's a handful of random bug with lighting (At night if you hold a torch and look around the lighting gets darker or light depending on the direction you look), spiders flying in air at me, the slug is a little glitchy with its animations (It seems to get stuck on geometry and strech during animations), performance issues for people (I haven't been hit as hard? 32:9, 5120x1440 resolution, maxed settings about 45-50FPS. Turning to 75% render gets me over 100FPS. Game runs amazingly well on linux out of the box.)
• The increase from 3-4 researches before cool down is nice, however the game doesn't focus much on explaining raw science to you still for unlocks. Unless you've played the first game, the small blurb they mention about it in the help bubbles that pop up aren't enough to really inform you. I've already unlocked tons of recipes for things I can't even make for quite some time. Making unlocks earned WAY too fast. I haven't even seen or fought a handful of the bugs I have crafts for now.
  • The bubbles that pop up and teach you I feel aren't incredibly helpful as they appear for only a small window of time, before you have a chance to even realize it, then disappear. While I don't want the game to hold your hand, I also think if you're going to explain mechanics, small blurbs about major things aren't really the answer. If you're coming from the first game, you should be familiar with MOST systems.

Excited to see where the game goes as I really enjoy it. Can't wait to see what else is in store.