First 4 hours feedback

[Fishtick]

I have been playing Grounded non-stop for the past month or so and wanted to try out Grounded 2.  Here are my initial reactions. Dropping notes here since I'm sure many are already known. Happy to write up full bug reports for anything below with screenshots.

PROS:

LOVE the Omni tool. Thank you! 

Love being able to hold X to harvest.

Excited to see the new possibilities with a park map.

Having different menus for crafting different things (workbook, hand crafting, omnitool thingy, etc) took some getting used to but I think it's more intuitive this way and will be better in the long run.

 

CONS

White (default) trail marker label is yellow. I thought I was going crazy so I switched to yellow and it looks the same. Had my GF verify I wasn't seeing things.

Grounded had the most unique UI I've ever seen. It took a long time to get used to it. And now I have to relearn everything it feels like.

Hate having to hold x to drop things. Also holding x doesn't work with only one. So you have to go back and forth between holding and pressing X depending on how many you have.

Able to get the Omni tool popup without being able to swing it. Usually when it is interrupted, you have to walk away and come back to get it to work again.

Hitbox too sensitive, swinging clover often get stuck mid swing. Often when trying to pickup things you have to be pixel perfect with the cursor. Which is annoying on console 

Mutation quest doesn't start counting until you leave the lab. Specifically the kills with a spear was still 0 after killing the first mite in the tutorial.

Same as the dropping stacks. Can't super build with one item left. My default is to just hold it down to super build but if only one item is still needed, it's not an option.

Dandelion drop rate is way too low. I thought it was too high at first in Grounded, but soon realized you really need that many with how much platforming there is in a game not designed for platforming. (Not a complaint just an observation)

New items: I was hoping Grounded 2 would solve this problem, not exasperate it.  When you have new items in the crafting menu (!) you have to scroll down to find them. But the only way to scroll is by going through them all so you highlight them before you see the (!). In the first game you could get around this by scrolling to the bottom of the viewable list, moving the cursor over to the ingredients and then back to the list and it would push the list down another 3-4 items. This way you could see an item before you highlight it. You can't even do that now.

[Fishtick]

One more issue I found was the thumbnail on the auto save can appear to not load all assets

[Fishtick]

Got the thumbnail issue again. It appears to happen when I'm at the first ranger station by spawn/snack bar.

 

Some more notes

 

Unable to hot swap just the stuff I want. It's all or nothing. I hate that because you can't have a torch in a box, for example, because then every time it will hot deposit every torch. Or bandages. Or any other supplies you might want to keep on you at all times.

(X) Attack instead of dig/chop for seed/spider web - Should show the RT button

Disabling sprint every time you run out of stamina. This is so annoying early game. 

Creature cards resistance and weakness is swapped. Was doing the opposite of what I should because I was just thinking the cards and assumed the top was weakness and the bottom was resistant.

Showing the store on the main menu goes straight to the MM&M pack checkout screen. No store page or details at all. 

Settings: you explain what gamma is but not chromatic abberation

Randomly crashed hand crafting crude rope

[Fishtick]

I take it back, I hate the new crafting system. I never know where to go to craft what. And how is it possible that I can craft less stuff in a workbench than I can by hand?

Miss being able to go to an ingredient's page from the recipe to make sure I don't need it for something else. Only possible in one menu, and not for everything.

When controller loses battery and reconnects you have to pair the controller to the profile every time. Which was not the case in Grounded 1.

Crashed twice crafting rope, once manually the other using the spinning. Not sure what's causing it.

Can't sort while over an item (conflicting controls)

1 out of 10 - when manually stacking spoiled meat, I picked up one and placed it on another one. The original slot still showed a spoiled meat AND the second slot now showed 2. When I move the stack back to the first slot it disappeared and there were only 2 again.

[Fishtick]

I've been playing for roughly 10 hours now and have crashed 3 times. Seems my MTTF is around 3 hours. All three involved opening the menu or being in the menu.

 

1 - while hand crafting crude rope

2 - while using the spinning wheel

3 - while sprinting across the map, I opened the inventory guide

 

Also I noticed there are no Buddy controls in the controller section of the Options. Would be a good addition.

[Fishtick]

Right on schedule, crash number 4. Was just sitting around in my base but he snack bar ranger station (same spot as the first two crashes and where the save thumbnail is corrupt) and was in the crafting menu (not in a workbench)

[Fishtick]

I have a couple videos of weirdness too.

1. I had a stack of grass planks on the ground (20ish?) and my ant buddy couldn't drop any more. It would immediately disappear and then the inventory would go back to full (12). I had to move away from the pile before it would let me drop any.

 

2. Pebblet foundation pack I purchased and then at some point (not sure if a crash happened in between or not) it just showed up again in the store. Even though it's still available on my crafting wheel and I have some in my base.

3. I've seen multiple critters stuck inside geometry (usually large creatures and large rocks). And one butterfly stuck in the air unable to move. I used it to cheese an Orb Weaver, which backfired because it dropped my arrows inside the rock when it died.

4. At sunset the volumetric lighting is broken. Everywhere you look is the same silhouette effect in all directions around you.

[Fishtick]

On 8/20/2025 at 1:20 PM, Fishtick said:

Mutation quest doesn't start counting until you leave the lab. Specifically the kills with a spear was still 0 after killing the first mite in the tutorial.

So turns out this mechanic is just broken. I've got multiple examples, using multiple creatures and multiple weapons and it just doesn't always count the kills.  Some times it seems like it gets it right less often than it misses.

Omni tool description is the same for each tier. Would be helpful to include what kind of stuff each upgrade unlocks.

Spiders don't react to bugs caught in their webs. Was this way in the first one too. 

Ant nest and hatchery can be placed on top of each other. They only overlap at the very center of both. 

You can walk all around and on a landmark and not "discover" it. (Cap gun, headless BURG.L). Haven't figured out exactly what the unlock condition is. But it's not a volume trigger and it's not based on camera angle/POV.

Multiple times I've tried to place a wall or something and got the obstructed error. But can't figure out what is obstructing it. It would be extremely helpful if the part that is blocked is a different color or stripped pattern or something.

Jerky racks when you open the UI it highlights any items that are possible to use. In grounded 1 as soon as the rack was full it would disable the rest of the items until a spot opened up. In 2 though it just stays lit up making it look like you can keep adding but you can't.

[Fishtick]

Oh yay, I am a real boy now and can edit posts. I'll start putting together a more organized list.

Also, realized I never mentioned I'm playing on Xbox Series X in Performance mode. Single player mostly. Using Hoops. 

[Fishtick]

DM me for gamertag/console id/serial if you want to look into the crashes. They continue every ~hours loading in/out of the crafting/inventory/etc menu. The [ [ ] ] button.

Recovery is latest (10.0.26100.5362)