All pictures are screenshots I took in the game.
I played this game for a very long time, in fact 33 hours, when I play it now, I think of my old traumas and the horror of discovery ahahha. Subnautica is really a groundbreaking game in its field.
Here is the short story: there is a spaceship and it crashes. You don't know why and you are a guest on the planet where you crashed. You don't know if you are hunter or prey. Is everywhere surrounded by various fish like paradise? Or is there another danger at every depth? Were there aliens living here before you came? Are there various relics and ruins?
If you like looking for answers to questions like these, this game is for you. A game that excites you as you explore and makes you go deeper with each discovery!
Exploration, Survival And Tension!
Building New Equipment by Finding New Resources and Nanotechnology
In the game, after the spaceship crashes on this planet, you are the only one left alive and now you have to find a way to escape or adjust yourself a life here.
You have a station that allows you to build new things using nanotechnology. Thanks to this station, you can make new items using various materials and resources in the environment. You can also build new equipment and dive into places with rarer resources and stuff like that.
For example, if you don't have an oxygen tank, you need to build it first so you can dive deeper and find more advanced materials.
However, as you explore, you realize how friendly and loving this planet is (!). At the end of this blog post you will see ahhahahah not so much! It is dangerous actually. Because it wouldn't be a very good game if we could just wander around, would it?
What's really enjoyable about the game: Exploration and Construction are Integrated
In many survival games, when you find some resource, it's like you've finished the game. Done. Easy. Now just make some other thing using same wood.
The first thing that distinguishes Subnautica from them is searching for these resources underwater. Diving into the depths of the sea and learning what's what with your scanner device. To learn lore about this planet. You also need to build something while you are exploring.
For example, you want to dive deep and collect a new resource. It's not very wise to just do it straight away. First you need to build a base in a safe place near this resource.
You also need to solve the energy problem for this base ahhaha because you can't use solar panels in the depths where sunlight doesn't reach! If you can use heat, that's perfect because the volcanic activity at the bottom of the sea never ends.
So as you discover things like that and you build a new base, you start to take ownership of it. Once you've built the equipment that you're aiming for, you can move on to the depths that you've wanted to dive to before and explore them this time. But now you need to build a new base there because we need the resources there too!
If Only This Game Had Multiplayer
Unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately... we have to play this game alone. This is actually not a big problem. If I could play this game with a friend, then yes, it would be less scary and we could collect materials faster.
We'd build a huge base, we'd build a lot of watercraft, but that doesn't happen when you're alone.
In this kind of survival games like "The Forest", even though there are dangers in nature, when you're alone, you get scared. To feel that element of fear, yes, it's important to play alone. When I play dungeons and dragons, if I am going to play a horror-themed game, I try not to have more than 4 people in my group, because when there is a crowd, people really trust each other and think like a stronger group against the environment.
Still, even if it's not multiplayer, I wish they would at least make it 2-player coop.
Water and Animal Graphics Very Good
Creatures and Fishes, they give the feeling they meant to give
In some games there is a very scary creature, but the graphics are so irrelevant and bad that you are not impressed. There are some games that have beautiful animals like angels, but the graphics are so bad that you only see light and stuff like that.
Subnautica manages to stand out from both of these categories and the reason for this is obvious: Stylized Graphics.
If a game can't give you one hundred percent realistic graphics, the best thing it can offer is to make you accept this universe with graphics in its own style.
That's why you don't care if the fish are realistic. When you look at and approach seabed plants, you don't question whether they look like real-life seaweed. They already more or less look and behave like seaweed. They look like seaweed, but it doesn't bother you because the game has its own graphic style.
Plus the lighting! Light is really important in the game, especially as you go deeper and deeper into the game, as you can see, the light doesn't reach. Just like in real life! Even if the sun is shining overhead, if you're too deep, you won't see any light! You have to bring your own light. One thing that interested me was that sometimes the creatures in the depths can react to these lights. That was amazing!
I quickly remembered what I was afraid of in the game ahahahaha
Leviathan
No question! This creature is truly terrifying.
I'm like oh what a nice place to set up base, now I'm going to gather resources and continue exploring in a nice way.
There are some ruins nearby and I'm going to find them and I'm going to learn new information... But! BAM! Leviathan!
If Cyclops is not there (submarine that we can built), they can kill you easily. Try to run as soon as you see them ! Yes, you can watch it to learn a little bit about its movements, but still, if it sees you... Get well soon... You're probably gonna die. It's really frightening to see a creature at the bottom of the sea that's much stronger and much scarier than us...
It's not nice to risk dying when you least expect it :D
4/5 or 8/10
The light reflections, the sense of exploration, the dangers in the depths, and the desire to understand this planet are what make this game so beautiful.
What it lacks is multiplayer.
And also the fact that we can't attack against the creatures on the planets. That's a very nice touch. You can't use damaging weapons.
There has to be something else negative, right? You can't deduct points just for multiplayer. Which, yes, there is. And that's the difficulty of finding your way around the map. You want to go deep, but it can be a pain to find where to go!
You want to discover minerals, but finding out where they are can be a completely different problem. And even if you've found it before, you have to remember where it is. Actually, mining is not difficult once you get used to it. But it could still be more enjoyable with an easier map system and marking areas to dive deeper.
Yes. I do highly recommend this game, but to whom? For sure this game is not for everyone.
- If you like survival games.
- If you want to live on your own on a dangerous but visually stunning planet.
- If you want to discover more and more as you build new equipment and upgrade your items.
- If you are curious about what might be in the depths of the sea.
I recommend this game to you! Thank you very much for reading! See you next Monday!
That's all I have to write for now. See you every Monday with a new game review or first 1 hour impression post. Take care of yourselves. Enjoy!