I have a real fear of the ocean. The shallows of a beach is about all I can handle. Subnautica was designed to truly kill me.

It is the best survival/crafting game I've ever played. It gets everything just right. Lovely feeling of progression as you explore and get a bit better at living in this hellish wet place. A bit braver each time you head out with new equipment. Places that were once the scariest thing you'd ever seen now paddled through nonchalantly because you killed the big threat there by freezing it in place and dropping thirty farts on its head. Less "bending the land to your will" and more "becoming confident and tooled up enough to make it".

It's actually got a great story too, not the usual thing where you're stranded with some baddies and maybe you find a couple of diaries/audio logs. It ramps things up so well to such a satisfying payoff and feels like you discovered it all organically.

I cannot believe how much I enjoyed it. A game I rightfully should have played ten minutes of, then got too scared and deleted. I'm putting this on the All-Timers list, easily. Most survival games aren't fit to swim in Subnautica's wake.

Subnautica puts a few too many ingredients into the mechanics blender imo, or maybe I’m just not a big fan of survival games. Thankfully you can turn the surivival mechanics off and the game is much more fun and no less complete without them.

Despite the gameplay feeling like a derivative buffet calculated to please everyone (the generic maleness of the protagonist, which serves no narrative purpose, likewise feels like pandering to an imagined audience), Subnautica ends up being really good, thanks to its world just being so damn cool. The alien ocean of Subnautica feels more real to me, more alive and vibrant, than almost any other gaming environment, and the atmosphere strikes a perfect seesaw balance between horror and wonder. This is not only one of the best exploration games out there but maybe the game that comes closest to capturing the spirit of classic science fiction, with its mixture of reverence and terror regarding nature and the unknown. Even the story is good, which I wasn’t expecting at all!

Jogo bom demais, joguei no early access há muitos anos atrás, amei demais mas nunca voltei pra jogar o jogo completo. Resolvi pegar agora pra fazer 100% do zero e que experiência boa.
A história é bem legal, e a forma que você vai desenrolando ela é bem interessante, impressionante pra um jogo indie. Gameplay bem simples e funcional, e o jogo vai liberando aos poucos novas camadas de gameplay pro jogador. Gráfico é bom pra época, da pra ver que é antigo mas ainda é bem bonito. No geral um dos melhores jogos de sobrevivência até hoje, rumores que vão lançar um "Subnautica 3" ainda em 2025, quero só ver...

Arguably one of the best classical survival games out there, perfectly applying the looting/crafting/building mechanics into an ocean planet with insanely atmospheric and deep waters to explore. I’ve not experienced anything quite like it, exploring the depths of an ocean is beautiful and scary at the same time. There was also enough story and mystery going on, to keep me engaged until I reached the 100%. I will definitely play below zero at some point. Oh, and how does this game still look so good after all these years?!

I hate big bodies of water and the "nothingness". This game knows exactly how to scare the shit out of me. I had an unfortunate encounter with a mesmer at 3 AM that made me turn off my PS5. I've also never run faster than after stepping into the Void and hearing the PDA go "Are you certain what you are doing is worth it?". I really love the eerie feeling this game has, especially on the earlier hours of a playthrough. Sadly, this kinda starts to fade away when you get some upgrades (and with that I mean the prawn suit). Game isn't as creepy when I can punch a Reaper Leviathan on the mouth, but it's still fun nonetheless.

There's some things about it I dislike (clunky menus, not being able to pin recipes, etc) but I'm pretty sure they were fixed on the sequel. I remember it having loads of bugs and performance issues on the PC, but it runs surprisingly well on the PS5. Overall, it was a really enjoyable experience.

Subnautica is the second of two games I played in 2022 via Xbox Game Pass when it was gifted to me that holiday season (the first being Hades). My friend had played it long before I did, and spoke very highly of its ability to scare the living daylights out of him. Needless to say, I was interested. And boy, did this game deliver on that front. But aside from that, it was an incredibly beautiful game with ””relaxing”” gameplay (when massive sea monsters weren’t terrorizing me) and even a pretty solid narrative carried by its environmental storytelling. My most recent playthrough, I tried to do things a little differently to experience more of the game. It’s hard to top the feeling of your first playthrough of a game, but in some respects I had even more fun replaying this game the second time. It’s got a fair bit of jank, but overall it's a fantastic experience. Just don’t play if you have thalassophobia.

Pros:

- All of the biomes in Subnautica are just flat out amazing. Some of the most visually interesting and dynamic environments of any of the games I ever played. Every area has its own distinct atmosphere with different types of flora and fauna that all look variously comforting or disconcerting based on how deep you’ve descended. The designs and behavior of sea creatures are pretty interesting; I really like seeing Stalkers fight over metal scrap and Ampeels make electric drive-bys on unsuspecting fish.

- Speaking of “how deep”, while there are some issues with the progression I’ll mention in the cons section, I really enjoyed how Subnautica’s progression is directly tied to how deep you can dive into the ocean. Players unlock greater oxygen capacities, stronger dive suits, faster means of transportation, and eventually, vehicles that can resist the crushing pressure and horrific crimes against nature that exist in the depths.

- The sense of exploration is really strong with this game. Once you get the ability to move around faster and deeper, you really get the urge to push your limits in the hope of securing some valuable resource or exploring a new environment. I don’t play exploration games very often but Subnautica had me throwing caution to the wind just trying to see some new cool thing even if it meant drowning or dying horrifically.

- The vehicles in Subnautica are really fun to pilot. The Seamoth (nimble little craft) is super smooth and REALLY responsive to your controls, and the Cyclops submarine makes you feel utterly badass piloting your own gargantuan vessel (plus it has a lot of cool features). The Prawn suit feels a little weird to use with how awkward its movement is, but more utilitarian than anything so that’s not a big deal.

- The habitat construction in Subnautica is also insanely cool, although it has a few glaring flaws that I’ll mention later in my review. You can literally just plunk a base down wherever you want. You’ll have to contend with whatever conditions are down there though, which I also think is pretty cool. You might need lights to attract predators away from your base, or choose between solar or thermal power depending on how deep you’ve built. Interior customization is also pretty fun but a tad bit limited in scope. I really liked the alien containment, mostly because you can raise a Cuddlefish and that mf is adorable as HELL

- I’ve avoided talking about it long enough: Subnautica is scary as FUCK sometimes. The deeper you go, the scarier it gets. Everything gets more dangerous, from the biome to the creatures. The sound design is on POINT—Simon Chylinski (the soundtrack composer) needs a damn medal because Subnautica’s OST is super atmospheric and really conveys the utter isolation and hostility of the alien planet you’re on.

- The Leviathans are the obvious thing that comes to mind when I think about how scary Subnautica is. Encountering them for the first time was harrowing, but I actually think most of them were scarier the second time because I knew what was coming if I wasn’t careful. Swimming about in open water, its pitch black, and then your PDA assistant tells you “Multiple leviathan class lifeforms detected. Are you sure whatever you’re doing is worth it?” Like, excuse me PDA lady, I didn’t ask you. And then a Ghost Leviathan bullrushes you and you throw your controller into your TV screen. Amazing experience all around. Seeing the shadow of a Reaper Leviathan before I saw one was utterly horrifying and I wanted to pause the game and just curl up into a ball.

- The horror of this game coupled with the foreignness of some of the things you find makes Subnautica a great example of environmental storytelling done right. All of the “story” events are random triggers you get from just exploring and progressing, and each cutscene you experience and alien artifact you find just gets you deeper and deeper into the mystery of what exactly is going on in this planet. The resolution to the story (I won’t spoil) honestly got me a little emotional.

- Two more little pros before I get into the cons. First, I really appreciate whoever wrote the databank entries. They are really informative (as in, some of them will actually tell you information you can use to progress in the game) and I loved reading the entries on the flora and fauna. (bonus points for: “If you can hear it, the reaper can see you”) Second, I love the ability to make a time capsule when you [redacted for spoilers] that can then be found by other players. I put a nice message in mine with some resources I thought would be useful to other people that were once in my position. Very introspective. I still have a screenshot of my message.

Cons:

- At times, it can be very unclear what the player is meant to do to progress in Subnautica. I get that this was to encourage exploration, but the first time I played, there were a lot of times I had to ask a friend for help because I truly had no clue what was supposed to happen next. Going into the Aurora is a good example of this; while radio messages imply it, it’s never overtly stated. I think a good way to rectify this would be to have the PDA give occasional pushes in the right direction. My advice to anyone that struggles: go deeper.

- Habitat construction is very entertaining in this game but my god can it be so frustrating at times. Placement restrictions are really weird for some rooms. Sometimes you won’t be able to place a room just because it's too close to something else, even if the models don’t overlap at all. I had a lot of trouble with the “Large Room” piece and its dividers—you can’t place anything on a wall that also has a divider corner attached to it; sometimes picture frames clip into the wall and you can’t see them; doorways and dividers don’t match up—and that’s just scratching the surface. You can’t sit in chairs that clearly have enough space for a person, ladders in connectors block the walkway, vertical connectors just…don’t connect? There’s a lot of tiny annoyances that just built up as I played. Subnautica has a lot of great concepts for base building but I can’t lie, it’s far from perfect.

- This next con is definitely something that can be forgiven since it’s a swimming-based game, but movement on dry land (islands and in habitats) is super awkward. The sound effects grate on you since walk cycles repeat the same few sounds, jumping is super clunky, and the Prawn suit has the gravity of water on land. It just doesn’t feel nice at all.

- I also think the mid-game grind for blueprints and resources is a bit of a slog. There are some blueprints that are essential to completing the game (like the moonpool and Cyclops), and if you go into the game not knowing where to find them, it can take a long-ass time to locate them when you’d rather be exploring or progressing. Plus, that time between building a moonpool and building a Prawn suit is mostly just breaking limestone chunks hoping you’ll get copper and titanium. That part certainly isn’t fun either, but it doesn’t last long enough to completely kill your drive.

Objective rating: 4 stars
Subjective rating: 5 stars

The terror of open water. The panic of caves. Always this tethering, to surface, to Seamoth, any pocket of air. I drink fields of color. I dive into the wreck. And I float here in space, this alien lightness, like I once did in pools, to hide my thick body. Dawn breaks just above, on the underside of waves, a sea-wrinkled sky.

For forty hours I hold my breath. I’m overwhelmed, transfixed, in perpetual disbelief. Water is so intimate, the way it envelops you, holds you. And tries to get in. It’s hypnotic but treacherous. And it is this exact combination of trance and threat that makes Subnautica not only exactly a videogame but the most beautiful game of the year.

How long can you last in this suffocating beauty? You’re always in danger of overextending yourself, and complete absorption will kill you. So you plan, you calculate, you hone your OCD and cultivate your humility. Because you will never dominate this ocean world. You’ll barely get a foothold. Forty hours in, it never stopped being mysterious or terrifying to me. I never tired of gazing out the viewing window I built just below the surface. I never stopped feeling vulnerable to it all.

What’s shocking is that a game this beautiful and intimidating also makes so much sense. And not just videogame sense. It has a natural logic and coherence throughout that is incredibly rare. From initial crash to progression via wreckage and fabrication to the revealed geography of its alien world, the game does not cheat. It makes a commitment to materiality and storage and all the struggles of liquid space. And it binds this vigilance to the most basic player motivation: the desire to explore. You make new tools not because the game forces you to but because each tool will help you see more. And you always want to see more. This focus is so compelling, and so completely realized, that even a few serious technical issues cannot detract from the final experience.

None of these qualities capture the quiet of this game, though. The stillness it draws out of me. Some nights I couldn’t play it because I didn’t have the calm. Driving my Cyclops submarine through Lost River and into the lowest depths required my complete preparation and attention. Extracting myself and all my materials afterwards somehow required even more. It was an ordeal, like any real journey, and it weighed on me. Floating there in the deep, so far from the surface, I would often think of the end of Jane Campion’s The Piano, one of my favorite movies. I would think of the ocean’s weird lullaby, of the buried selves floating below, of how part of me wanted to stay “in the cold grave — under the deep, deep sea.” Not death overcome, as in most videogames, but death contemplated and dwelled in. My usual voices hushed. This silence in me.

I’m back now, but like with any powerful experience, part of me is still anchored there. Still floating in the silence below. My speaking voice here on the surface, though, wants others to know: Subnautica is not only the greatest deep, deep sea game I’ve ever played, not only the greatest survival and exploration game I’ve experienced, it’s one of the greatest videogames of this generation.

I HATE THE OCEAN
THIS PLACE IS BEAUTIFUL.....BUT I HATE IT....

looks down and sees nothing
Hears nearby roaring

I HATE THE OCEAN...I HATE THOSE WHO INHABIT IT.

Soul game

Easily one of the best survival games available. The cycle of finding new materials and blueprints and bringing them back to base to build something better to go exploring with provides a constant stream of good chemicals in the brain. Only issue may be the lack of direction near the mid-late period as well as the repeated back tracking when descending deeper. But when I look at the stars I'm reminded of God's infinite love and beauty extends to the high heavens, not just Earth. Can a sinner be welcome to Heaven? I can has eternal salvation? Is for me?

Subnautica is one of the most immersive, addictive and rewarding open-world survival games of all time, which allows players to forge their own unique goals and get lost in a stunningly beautiful, hand-crafted underwater world but is sadly held back from perfection by a disappointing endgame, a lacklustre story and severe technical and performance issues.

8/10
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Contains Spoilers!

"Minecraft but underwater." That was how I first had this game described to me. Make no mistake, there is a similar feeling of being utterly lost and having no idea of what to do at first. But Subnautica is different. I can confidently say that Unknown Worlds have crafted my favourite ocean-based game, as well as my favourite survival game in general.

With Minecraft, it's always the same; I start up a new save, do the typical early game routine, eventually build a half decent starting base and inevitably get bored and aimless. But not here. Even within the first few hours Subnautica unmistakably makes clear what kind of a difference a purposefully designed map, a much tighter gameplay loop and - most importantly - an ever present goal in the form of the vast depth of the ocean before you make in creating a truly unique experience that manages to draw you in for potentially weeks of your life.

The beauty here lies in how expertly the progression system is built around the core principle of absolute freedom, gated only by certain technology and the knowledge of how to obtain it. In that way, the rhythm of progress feels oddly similar to that of certain Metroidvania-games. But of course, it's not just about progressing to the finish line. That would be only half the fun.

Subnautica is one of those rare examples of open world design where ignoring the main quest for a good chunk of your playtime is not only ok, it's almost as if the game expects you to. And I'm fine with that. It's not spoon-fed to the player at all and gives you ample opportunity to figure out where it's all going by feeding you little clues one piece at a time.

It's because all of the non-story relevant stuff, the things you could theoretically go completely without and still be able to beat the game, is still really fun and rewarding. I don't think I ever had so much fun building a virtual house since the old days of playing Minecraft with your friends. Or, find out what happened to all the other people who crashed alongside you. Find out who or what else might have been trying to set up camp here. Find all the really interesting and surprisingly un-intrusive voice logs of other survivors. Or most obviously: descend into the dark, deep ocean on this strange planet, and find out what beauty and horror lies beyond the black. Find and categorise all the various species making this place their home, and observe their painstakingly programmed survival patterns, watch them eat and prey on each other and form little ecosystems.

It also needs to be explicitly mentioned just how beautiful this game is. And I don't mean just the map - although it very much IS amazingly detailed, incredibly varied and expertly designed - I also mean the way light breaks in the water and the ocean seamlessly goes from sunbathed paradise to endless abyss the deeper you go, the design on the various fauna and the trippy, fluorescent flora, the different moods of each environment differentiating them from one another... simply breathtaking.

And it's not just the visuals either. The sound design - especially on the different creatures - is among some of the best I've ever heard in a video game. From the muffled atmosphere of being underwater, the metallic clanking of footsteps through your base, the mechanical whirring of the Seamoth or the blood-curdling roars of the Reaper Leviathans as they come to claim their prey. It really makes this world come alive in a way that would be infinitely less enjoyable without it.

Sadly, as you may have gleamed from the summary at the start of this reviews, this game has some issues. But let's start slowly.

As far as the game's story goes; its only real flaw is the relative lack of a proper climax and the rather unfortunate amount of contrivances and unlikely coincidences this game's story relies on to get all the individual elements where they need to be. This anticlimactic turn also extends to gameplay to an extent, where the rate of unlocking new tools or resources grinds to an absolute snail's pace, and the very final area of the game feeling almost shockingly underwhelming.

There are some other, minor annoyances. The act of using the PRAWN-Suit's drill arm to mine ores is mind-numbingly boring. The on-land visuals look jarringly bad and all controls where you are not in water are seriously wonky. The selection of items/segments to build your base with is a bit lacklustre. Menu navigation and storage systems are tedious and inefficiently designed. There are some other very minor nitpicks i can't think of right now but other than that I can't really find that much wrong with the core game design of Subnautica. As far as the conceptual and artistic aspects go, and even considering the fairly disappointing last leg, this is a phenomenal game.

It's unfortunate then, that this game's real, game-breaking flaw lies in it's performance. To be frank, it's a bit of a buggy mess.

It heavily suffers from various technical issues and glitches that are, luckily, most of the time fairly harmless. But other times include such frustrating issues as:
Constant and MASSIVE frame-drops, occasional no-clipping through walls, swimming through air and walking underwater, infinite hunger/thirst/air meters that won't deplete (until they randomly do), straight up crashes, fish floating around inside my base for some reason, my seamoth clipping through and permanently getting stuck in the floor, objects or creatures not spawning correctly (i.e. in walls or beneath the floor), my first base indefinitely pretending to be flooded even though there is no leak in the base, repair tool not working even though it's fully charged etc.

I could go on but we'd be here all day. I'll just say this:

Subnautica has serious issues on the technical front, and it's unacceptable that this game runs as poorly as it does on a PS5 in perfect condition - specifically the PS5 version, no less. The fact that the vast majority of these issues haven't been patched out at this point is unbelievable and it's quite sad to see devs abandoning a fantastic title that spent so many years in early access so shortly after its release.

In either case, even though the technical issues are considerable it is still a one of a kind gaming experience, and I haven't played something this relaxing and rewarding (and sometimes also terrifying) for a long time.

A beautiful meditation on the awe inspiring majesty of the sea.

8/10

Até onde vai o seu medo? E quanto ele pode ser explorado?
Pois é, nessa review falaremos de Subnautica. Um jogo incrível com dinâmicas de exploração surreais.

Começando pela ambientação de jogo.
O jogo é altamente imersivo desde o início. Subnautica eleva o quesito exploração em alta escala. Biomas ricos em personalidade e ambientação, acompanhados de trilha sonora excelente e imersiva.

Tudo isso sendo possível, muitas vezes, por meio do recurso: medo.
O medo que você tem do que pode estar escondido ali no fundo. O que pode aparecer atrás daquela rocha? Será que alguma criatura irá me matar? Podem parecer perguntas bobas... mas Subnautica faz isso de forma GENIAL.

Pra começar a falar sobre como Subnautica amplia esse recurso MEDO.
Vou esclarecer que eu NÃO tenho medo de mar e oceanos, mas o que esse jogo faz você pirar é loucura.

O que incrementa ainda mais o medo são os famosos Leviathan. Criaturas com design único, amedrontador e com presença forte. Eles são o horror do jogo e o que você deve manter distância. Essas famosas criaturas ficam escondidas no mais profundo abismo do mar ou até mesmo do seu lado, o que torna a experiência amedrontadora.

Com a trilha sonora épica e criaturas intrigantes, o jogo cumpre o papel de biomas e exploração excelentemente.
A ambientação do jogo é absurda.

A história também é agradável, misteriosa e cheia de explorações.
O jogo mostra algumas opções de sandbox, como criar bases livremente e decorá-las. O jogo é bem livre no quesito de fazer o que quer.

Eu como um grande apreciador de mistérios do oceano e do espaço, amei a proposta do jogo logo de início. Então eu recomendo a todos que possuem esse mesmo apreço a testarem o jogo!

Subnautica won't work for everyone. I think this is the one game that stresses how important having a certain niche as an audience is. Tiresome, tedious survival busywork and backtracking turn into nightmarish romps through the alien and the unknown as you plunge deeper into the abyss... but this relies on something, doesn't it? If someone playing Subnautica doesn't have thalassophobia (and it's not like it's marketed as a horror game) all they'll get is an extremely straightforward relaxed game with basically no real challenge to it. Hours I spent fighting against myself to go deeper into one of the richest video game ecosystems ever made just to find out what happened and get resources I needed to actually escape this planet would be meaningless without a pre-existing sense of horror, because Subnautica isn't hard. Even the funny face eels aren't programmed to wreck your shit, they're programmed to stalk and ambush at the most vulnerable moment. Perfectly serviceable and commendable AI as far as making a convincing alien creature that echolocates prey, and it's genius for creating an unending sense of pure terror without letting you get used to the games tricks, but that just goes back to the start, doesn't it? Subnautica, a game about diving into an alien ocean that doesn't market itself as horror, is a game I can only describe as "extremely fucking good" to people who really, really, really don't want to dive into an alien ocean.

This isn't addressing late-game issues like grinding, some poor storytelling choices and the actual instability of the game which all do come to actually bite it in the ass later on, especially when getting the resources for the biggest step of the journey involves going into safe, boring zones where my thalassophobia was quenched by how routine it became. In spite of all this negativity however, it's worth stating that I think if you're someone as scared shitless of both the sea and scary space things as I am, I think you could get endless worth out of Subnautica. It stands as one of the most interesting and memorable games I've ever played, where, to progress through extremely solid exploration infused with your bog-standard survival game elements, I'd have to regularly fight my fears and cartoonishly gulp as I found my way into new territory, daring not to look down. The dread and atmosphere of Subnautica is unmatched, but your enjoyment will lay squarely on if you think the premise is interesting, and if it scares you. I'm never going back to the ecological dead zone ever again personally.

The survival parts (thirst/hunger) feel a bit tacked on. Pretty quickly that entire system transforms into occasionally hoarding a few resources and cooking now and then, and health/oxygen already felt like they were doing enough for the survival aspect.

Exploration is fun - but scavenging for materials quickly grows tedious. The scavenging is fine when entering a new biome, but on the 3rd or 4th trip to go find Silver to craft some thing or another it's not that interesting. I like the idea of base building, but when I know it's predicated by walking around the ocean floor for an hour picking up scrap metal, it's hard to want to engage with.

The game is kind of relaxing otherwise. I think when you strip away all the excess you have a creative take on the metroidvania, dividing up an open sea into biomes feels really organic and neat. The dangerous sea animals worked well for a more tense atmosphere.

Overall it feels kind of bloated. Which maybe makes sense if it's been having updates for almost 10 years..? I know Early Access is a great marketing move, but I can't help but feel like when you let players design games you end up with bloated experiences (as the game starts to become a container for multiple peoples' desires rather than just a few designers).

Ultimamente, estive muito interessado em talassofobia, é só você perguntar pra qualquer perfil do discord que me conheça e eles provavelmente dirão: "ah não, de novo isso maluco!". Sendo assim, vou evitar esse termo por um tempo, para que ninguém coloque uma recompensa pela minha cabeça.

Arrisco dizer que Subnautica é atualmente a melhor experiência de jogo que retrata o fundo do mar, mesmo que não seja voltado para o realismo. A liberdade criativa do jogo permite a criação de uma fauna e flora espetaculares, com direito a criaturas gigantes pacificas e não pacificas.

Os veículos estabelecem uma conexão forte com o jogador que se desenvolve a cada novo upgrade, devido ao ecossistema perigoso e assustador do jogo. Eles possibilitam explorar ainda mais profundamente o oceano, oferecendo um certo nível de proteção. Sinceramente, eu amei cada um deles. Talvez veículos sejam exatamente o que estava faltando em Grounded, um outro jogo de sobrevivência.

A história é muito interessante e realmente instiga o jogador a querer avançar. No final, a conclusão é surpreendentemente fofa, algo que eu não esperava.

A única coisa que não gostei em Subnautica foram dois bugs. Um deles estava relacionado ao meu veículo chamado Traje P.R.A.W.N., que às vezes travava em lugares muito específicos (que não posso mencionar para evitar spoilers). O outro bug era mais grave (difícil de acontecer), pois fazia com que meus veículos fossem engolidos para o limbo, e se eu salvasse o jogo, eles eram perdidos, obrigando-me a construí-los novamente do zero. Talvez esses sejam bugs específicos da versão do jogo que eu joguei, que infelizmente era uma versão "caribenha", devido à minha situação financeira.

Até que seja lançado um jogo desse nível baseado na fauna e flora reais dos oceanos, Subnautica permanecerá entre os meus favoritos, pois proporciona uma experiência única que até o momento só ele foi capaz de oferecer.

Subnautica: "Do you have thalassophobia"

Everyone: "No"

Subnautica: "Would you like to?"

I've tried twice on PC and now twice on console and I just can't get into this game. I guess it's the added layer of another dimension; having to do all of this survival game busywork while also having to deal with floating and how resources can be located anywhere in a full sphere around you. It just makes everything feel like that much of a chore. It doesn't help that all the cool discoveries in this game are far away and it feels like there's nothing especially cool to find in the vicinity of your pod. Just a load of survival busywork of having to constantly gather up Bladderfish to drink and hauling metal scrap back and forth. I usually like that in a lot of these games, but here it all feels like too much of a chore for me and add the fact that the game doesn't offer an in-game map for some unfathomable reason and I'm going to go ahead and peace out for the final time.

Under the sea
Under the sea
Come get eaten
By a finned cretin
Under the sea!

Subnautica is a pretty amazing survival game built into some of the foundations of System Shock's immersive sim mechanics. It has a hauntingly beautiful world filled with plenty of biomes along with the creatures and flora that inhibit it. The story unfolds in the Metroid Prime/System Shock logbook system and the game lets you play at your own pace, never needing to rush. You can build your base, tend your garden, upgrade your equipment, and brace yourself to go deep in the very hostile ocean world.

There are some annoyances with how it handles the survival mechanics though. Finding resources to craft your equipment can get a little too grindy, and I also feel that the thirst meter drains far too quickly, giving me the notion that no one dies of thirst far quicker than the player character. Granted, the game does give you options on how to balance it out if you are able to find the blueprints for it.

It had a pretty drawn out end game as well. Without giving too much away, you are required to build something that requires a lot of resources and backtracking, some of which I think was pretty dumb with how it was handled. Throughout the game I chose to not build the Cyclops submarine because I felt I was getting through the game just fine without it, and I felt it was too big for many of the passageways and caves I came across.

However, It turns out the sub is a necessity for the endgame, because it has its own fabricator that crafts one of the ingredients needed to build the final part to get you home.

Despite this, the annoyances aren't enough to bring down such an amazing world to experience and explore. Sometimes I wish I could forget some of the areas in the game just to experience the dread and anxiety of coming across them again. The uncertainty of whether or not you should push further and then succeeding in doing so is super satisfying.

It took me awhile to finish this game, and it's kind of bittersweet that I did. There aren't many games of this genre that capture the feelings I've experienced playing this game. I'm sad that I won't be able to experience them again now that I know what to expect playing this in the future.