Is Graveyard Keeper 2 worth the pre-order?
Short version: if you finished Graveyard Keeper and wanted more, the reviews say you got it — 89% positive across 1,055 Steam reviews two days in. You're paying $24.99 now; the pre-order discount and the sauna bonus both expired with the launch on Sep 22. If you've never touched the series, the free demo that used to answer this is gone from Steam (the 5075680 app was delisted — checked September 26, 2026), so the original Graveyard Keeper or an hour of footage is your pre-purchase research.
The case for buying now
- The reviews are in, and they're good. 1,055 reviews and 89% positive two days after launch, "Very Positive" overall. That's a strong number for a cult sim sequel, and the positive reviews read like GK1 fans getting exactly the loop they asked for.
- The pre-order extras are gone (probably for good). The sauna building and exclusive outfit were pre-order only, and that window closed at launch. The sauna isn't cosmetic dressing — it's a functional building in a game where stamina rules everything, so it stings a little. Pre-order extras like this usually resurface as paid DLC eventually; nobody at Lazy Bear or tinyBuild has said either way.
- It's more of the game you already love. Everything announced points to the GK1 loop with more automation, a town project and zombie army combat on top. GK1 players have been asking for most of this since 2019.
- The audience is proven. When the sequel was announced, the studio gave the first game away free and it still pulled over $250K on Steam that week — the goodwill run is real, and the sequel is riding it.
The case for waiting
- GK1's rough edges didn't get sanded off. The negative reviews aren't about crashes or a broken build — they're about grind, unexplained systems and progression bugs. One 113-vote review calls it "the most tedious I've ever played"; another reports a crematorium bug that can lock progression until a restart. That's the GK1 experience, continued.
- GK1 is a divisive game, and the demo is the real test. People either sink 100 hours in or bounce off the sheer amount of systems with zero hand-holding. tinyBuild put out a free Graveyard Keeper 2 Demo on September 14 for exactly this reason — an hour in it tells you which camp you're in, at no cost.
- There's an art argument you should know about. The most-upvoted negative review (127 helpful votes) accuses the game of shipping undisclosed AI-generated assets, and four more reviews say the same about the cutscenes and portraits, with 26 to 126 votes each. Nothing on the Steam page addresses it. If undisclosed AI art is a dealbreaker for you, this is the one item on this page I can't decide for you.
- Waiting now costs nothing but time. The old case for pre-ordering was the $5 and the sauna. Both are gone. There's no launch discount, so gaming the price is off the table — you lose nothing by playing the demo first and buying next week if it clicks, except the season-long wait for the first real sale.
The honest verdict
GK1 veteran: the reviews say you'll be happy — 89% of 1,055 buyers agree with you, and the grind that puts other people off is the thing you signed up for. The pre-order discount is water under the bridge; you're paying $24.99 like everyone else. New to the series: the demo is gone, so the cheapest test left is the original Graveyard Keeper (it goes on sale often) — the loop you have to like is the same one. If the AI-art complaint in the negative reviews matters to you, read those first — they're the most helpful reviews on the page for a reason.