I can't stop staring at the grass in Lawn Mowing Simulator 2. Maybe it's because it's been a long week and I'm tired to the point of practically being in a trance. Maybe it's because the sun came in the UK for the first time all year this week, and my desire to go outside and touch, look at, pick up or other Adventure Game Verb grass has never been stronger. Or maybe it's just because it's really good virtual grass. Whatever it is, I'm totally grass-pilled, as the kids say.
Lawn Mowing Simulator 2 is, you'll be shocked to hear, the sequel to Lawn Mowing Simulator, which is undoubtedly the best game about trimming virtual lawns. You might think I'm being sarcastic, because surely it's also the only game about trimming virtual lawns, right? Wrong! You clearly forgot about Lawn Care Simulator. Welcome to gaming in 2026, where if you can imagine it, you can probably play it. Twice!
Anyhow, developer Skyhook Games revealed Lawn Mowing Simulator 2's fancy new grass tech as part of the launch of its Kickstarter campaign, which is already surpassed its modest (in game budget terms) goal of £15,000. The sequel, which is set in the USA, expands your gardening capabilities through the addition of strimmers and leaf blowers.
But it's the grass that really caught my attention. Skyhook published a handy comparison video to show the difference. Lawn Mower Simulator grass is impressively dense, but it's also highly uniform. Lawn Mower Simulator 2 adds flowers and weeds into your lawn, while also infusing greater texture to the grass. Blades curl in different directions, vary in colours depending on their exposure to the sun, and it all just looks a bit less like you'd be impaled if you fell over on it.
I think it might just be the lushest virtual grass I've ever seen. There is of course, some stiff competition. Literally in the case of Grounded, which features grass that looks and feels more like trees from your diminutive perspective. Red Dead Redemption 2 has some fantastic grassy plains too, as you'd expect given Rockstar's preposterous attention to detail.
As for when we'll find out whether Lawn Mowing Simulator 2's grass can cut it, there's no firm release date as yet. However, the Steam page says it's coming out some time in 2026, and even taking the Kickstarter into account, the game seems pretty far along already.
