GROUNDED 2

Welcome to the ant party

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When Grounded 2 finished downloading, it was pretty late. I lied to myself and pretended I'd just dip in for a minute, get my footing, and then call it a night. Seven hours later, I was picking fights with spiders atop my chitinous steed, fending off invading cyborg ants with my acorn turrets, and taking pictures of lovely butterflies—it's good to take breaks from all the murder.

This game is gonna be a nightmare for my desire to one day go to bed at a decent hour. It doesn't rock the boat too much, but the ways in which Obsidian is building on and tweaking the formula established in its first survival game—well, they're just so damn good. It's Grounded, but a much better Grounded.

ROOM TO GROW

Grounded 2 is absolutely gorgeous. The colorful cartoon aesthetic from the original game has been maintained, naturally, but benefits from greatly improved lighting and higher quality textures. It is a game of mundane park detritus transformed into stunning, surreal vistas, where a dirty old camera looks like a striking alien monument. There isn't another survival game out there that's better for sightseeing.

More than once I became spider chow because I was distracted by the sun peeking through towering blades of grass, or because I was enchanted by the incredible view of the park from atop its chaotic picnic table. It's almost like the beauty of the natural world is working with the critters, trying to hypnotize me, just in time for dinner.

I have come face to face with the grim specter of death many, many times during my stay in Brookhollow Park. The first Grounded was not an incredibly easy game to solo, but the sequel throws greater challenges at you early on, making a group even more of a boon. But you'll quickly start to feel tough once you befriend some bugs.

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