I had a lot of fun with Subnautica: Below Zero. It is a similar experience to the original, but BZ is a bit smoother in terms of progression and the crafting tech tree felt more satisfying to me. The leviathans in BZ were, however, much less horrifying to me.
I like the exploration in this game quite a bit. The movement upgrades all feel good and the environments are varied and interesting and act as a good reward for making your way through the game. The Seatruck as a half-step between the Seamoth and the Cyclops works for me, though I do wish the Seamoth made an appearance in this game. The addition of more in-depth land environments is pretty cool and mixes things up just enough.
Ben Prunty's soundtrack is mysterious and atmospheric and is the perfect style for this game.
The narrative is a bit scattered. There are basically two separate plot threads that run through the game, but both make sense, justify your presence on the planet and have somewhat meaningful conclusions.
Progression is guided based on events which happen sort of randomly based on exploring the right areas. This is my main complaint with the game (it affects crafting progression as well) -- if you miss triggering specific narrative or crafting progression, the game starts to feel aimless, since there isn't a clear indication of what you need to do next a lot of the time. It worked out better than the first game did for me, but it is still a level of unnecessary frustration that could be solved with a bit more tracking of high level goals.
I would recommend this if you really liked the first one or haven't played either. Play it with food/water turned off and it is a pretty chill exploration game with cool environments and only a few horrifying monsters.
I like the exploration in this game quite a bit. The movement upgrades all feel good and the environments are varied and interesting and act as a good reward for making your way through the game. The Seatruck as a half-step between the Seamoth and the Cyclops works for me, though I do wish the Seamoth made an appearance in this game. The addition of more in-depth land environments is pretty cool and mixes things up just enough.
Ben Prunty's soundtrack is mysterious and atmospheric and is the perfect style for this game.
The narrative is a bit scattered. There are basically two separate plot threads that run through the game, but both make sense, justify your presence on the planet and have somewhat meaningful conclusions.
Progression is guided based on events which happen sort of randomly based on exploring the right areas. This is my main complaint with the game (it affects crafting progression as well) -- if you miss triggering specific narrative or crafting progression, the game starts to feel aimless, since there isn't a clear indication of what you need to do next a lot of the time. It worked out better than the first game did for me, but it is still a level of unnecessary frustration that could be solved with a bit more tracking of high level goals.
I would recommend this if you really liked the first one or haven't played either. Play it with food/water turned off and it is a pretty chill exploration game with cool environments and only a few horrifying monsters.