Whereas on the bottom at Summer season Recreation Fest 2025, I obtained to play a little bit little bit of Grounded 2 after which had a fast chat afterwards with sport director Chris Parker. Within the transient time I had with the sport, which is a sequel that continues the survival sport story of youngsters shrunk right down to itty-bitty dimension, I obtained to struggle off some creepy little multi-legged mites with a spear I’d usual from twigs, pebbles, and cord. And as I fought off these bugs, regardless that they weren’t fairly spiders, I thought of how they might nonetheless set off any person’s arachnophobia (fortunately, not a difficulty for yours really).
I’ve excellent news for these of you who hate eight-legged freaks: Grounded 2 can even have an arachnophobia mode.
“I feel the Grounded workforce — the Grounded 1 workforce — did a very good job in tackling this drawback,” Parker mentioned. “I imply, regardless that you’re principally combating what appears like balloon animals” — that’s how the spiders find yourself trying with the arachnophobia mode turned on — “that basis made it simple for the Grounded 2 workforce to construct on that.
“However we definitely have extra challenges,” he mentioned, referring to the brand new rideable bugs in Grounded 2 (the primary sport didn’t have mounts). There’s a giant pink ant that you could trip, which I obtained to strive for myself within the demo, however what I didn’t know was what Parker informed me subsequent: There’s additionally going to be a rideable spider within the full sport.
“And so now we have to respect arachnophobia mode for that as nicely, which has been a little bit bit extra difficult,” he went on. “We have now to calculate toes, and issues like that, so you’ll be able to actually perceive what’s occurring, and the way to run that factor world wide, and the way the world goes to work together again with it. It’s difficult, however it’s most likely not as difficult as you suppose. We actually simply go onto the skeleton and put cute-looking spheres the place claws and eyeballs and abdomens was once. And so long as we take it far sufficient away from that eight-legged insect, that appears to work for individuals. So yeah, it’s not all that loopy.”
After all, there are additionally gamers who’re only a little bit terrified of spiders however who don’t essentially need to flip off the choice to see them solely. Creating the best steadiness between scary and enjoyable, notably in a sport that’s meant to be family-friendly, has additionally been an entertaining problem for the workforce. In Grounded 2, the characters have aged up a little bit bit, as a while has handed for the reason that first Grounded, and in addition, the younger gamers who tried the primary sport have grown up a little bit bit, too. So, I needed to ask: How scary is simply too scary?
“There are some wholesome debates about this, truly,” mentioned Parker. “So I feel typically, we attempt to simply push that as exhausting as we are able to, and sooner or later we go, ‘Oh, I feel we pushed this too far.’ And we do stumble upon sure property that we’ve created the place we’re like, ‘Nicely… I don’t actually know. Let’s take that out.’ Or, ‘Let’s put it in there, and see what person analysis has to say about it.’ Now that we’re lastly capable of discuss concerning the sport and we’re going into early entry, we are able to discuss to the group about it. However these are the sort of conversations that we need to have with the group on the market, see what they need to say about it too.”
To be particular, Grounded 2 can be obtainable in early entry on July 29 for Home windows PC and Xbox Sequence X, in addition to on Recreation Move. And also you heard them — if it’s too scary, Obsidian Leisure needs you to say so.