I really enjoyed Grounded. Never got to the end game, but probably because I didn't really try. I just had a lot of fun exploring and fighting bugs.

Same here for a long time, until I kinda forced myself to go through the different stages of the story. I wanted to progress and the only way to truly do that in the game is to go through the story to unlock all the labs and such and cool new tools, like the zipline. I'm excited to try this one, especially with the "buggies." Part of me wishes at least one could go on vertical surfaces, or maybe even a flying one ; and there is the build fly mode in the first game, so they could use those controls as a basis and add combat capabilities.

The story was really good, but the game just becomes an absolute grind fest towards the end. The survival parts of the game just completely fall apart and you have to spend so much time getting food, leveling up your armor, building defenses, and just doing the "tedious" parts of a survival game. A buddy and I finally forced ourselves to finish our playthrough in March. I'm really glad we did because the story was genuinely good, the early survival parts were really good, and its really pretty. I just don't think I could force myself through that again.

Let's gooo! I'm hyped, I love the first one for its unique approach to survival games, especially for having a map that was designed and not procedural. A new one with a bigger backyard and more features will be very welcomed.