Subnautica: Released (SPOILER WARNING past Post #1)

[Sranchammer]

I REFUSE to play as a GIRL!

 

[Country_Gravy]

I REFUSE to play as a GIRL!

 

[Jaedar]

Had a look at Below Zero. It doesn't interest me as much as the original, for various reasons.

Tbh, the original basically exhausted most of the design space for this kind of game. Probably this is why it gets quite bad towards the end, as it devolves into fetch/gathering quests. I don't think anyone has figured out how to do a proper endgame for exploration based games.

 

[Ezeekiel]

The main char's voice acting is... Out of place. She's so bright and chirpy /nonchalant while looking straight at her base getting buried under an avalanche... Co-worker missing... Freezing temperatures outside with deadly exposure within 4 mins or whatever it was (she doesn't even wear gloves lol).

Does the voice actress know what's going on in the game, like, at all?

She'd be great in some other, appropriate role, but not in this one imo.



More importantly, my first experience with the early access version was to walk outside of the research base and fall right through the snow into the water below the island. Then I somehow managed to glitch out into the open ocean, but because I missed the quest triggers on the island everything failed to load in etc.
Swam back towards the island through the cave and then some stuff suddenly activated and the MC says "I'm in the open ocean" to her sister in orbit. I was in a fucking cave, but whatever. Lying to your sister... Tsk, tsk.
Couldn't get up the ladder onto the island anymore (ladder didn't work on release, does now) so tried to load a save.

Saving once at the start of the game (note: has since been patched, it seems) also seemingly took forever... So I hit escape and was right back in the game, with a "saving" message in a corner of the screen playing forever.
After the glitch-fest when I tried to reload, it turned out that of course the thing didn't *actually* save. It just pretended to or something.

A restart fixed almost everything, thankfully.



Content-wise it's absolutely not worth buying yet, just so you know. This isn't an early access game so much as a genuine alpha version with most of the content missing and loads of issues. Not even a beta test.
So only buy if you want to help them fix bugs or something.


The steam forums are hilarious. It's all either a 4chan op, or 9 out of 10 subnautica players are terminally retarded.




I hope the devs don't fuck up the optimization this time around... Last time they kept saying "we'll do it later, that makes more sense" until suddenly it was "can't do it, it's impossible now, fuck off".
At least don't put a mushroom forest in if you don't have the technical know-how to make it work properly.


Considering the state of the game right now, I wonder what they were doing in-between the release of the last one and the month before the current one's early access release. Demonstrating against gun violence and capitalism, probably.





EDIT: Voice acting has been changed along with a bunch of other stuff, my criticism above may be completely outdated now (haven't played the newer versions yet, though).

 

[Demo.Graph]

Had a look at Below Zero. It doesn't interest me as much as the original, for various reasons.

Tbh, the original basically exhausted most of the design space for this kind of game. Probably this is why it gets quite bad towards the end, as it devolves into fetch/gathering quests. I don't think anyone has figured out how to do a proper endgame for exploration based games.

The Witness does it beautifully. It even has that hour-long achievement for an additional kick.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Well.. despite my earlier statements I did sit down and have a better look at S:BZ while it's still in Early Access. At least I can use the chance to give a sit-rep to others on the game's current status.

(tl;dr version: Wishlist it, wait for full release. It's not as bad as it looked in my prior post)

# At least some of my previous points of criticisms seem to have been shared by others and voiced loudly enough, as the devs have re-written some of the early game conversations, which is why the voice acting is disabled in the current Stable version. It's still enabled in the latest Experimental version, but due to reasons they couldn't get the original voice actress for the protagonist to re-record her lines, and people are conflicted on the prowess of her replacement. The good point to take away from this is that not even the chit-chat between characters has been set in stone, and the writing seems to have improved somewhat in the meantime, so that's .

# While the game does hold the player's hand more firmly than in the previous game, it does seem to let go at one point and leave the player to fend for themselves. Unfortunately the current iteration of this does so in a manner that leaves the player floundering about, as no clues or suggestions are given as to how to procure an essential item needed to advance the plot, save that you need to find it from a ship wreck. To make matters worse, said ship wreck is camouflaged so that it blends into the surrounding scenery, so the only clue players have in regards to actually realizing that it's a ship wreck is that parts of it are angled somewhat too neatly to be a natural occurance. Good luck finding that vague a clue at the sea bed on an ocean planet. So what did the devs do? They took a large sea critter and placed it up in the air, directly above the wreck, so that anyone that pokes their head above water will spot it a mile away and come investigate. Early Access placeholders FTW.

# Seemingly in an effort to speed up the early game for seasoned Subnautica players, many item blueprints are now handed out at convenient plot moments. For someone unused to Subnautica this may not seem to be a problem, but for returning players this feels a little silly. Again, a transition moment happens in the game where the player will have to start scrounging for the blueprints themselves, but even I felt a little weird about how it's handled.

# On the topic of blueprints there's a very iffy method currently in place to let the player find some of them: Scanning creature nests. I scanned them the first time and unlocked the Mobile Vehicle Bay for some reason. Later on I scanned some more and unlocked the Laser Cutter. Hopefully this is a placeholder and something more sensible will be used.

# My earlier point about feeling confined in the early game has been (fortunately) addressed somewhat. The first steps of the game are scripted, but once you reach the point where a lifepod is dropped for the player some genuine Subnautica gameplay emerges. Still, it's unlike what one should be used to. The opening area is walled off by scenery to the North and East, and opens only slightly up to the West. That leaves the South (and Down) as the only open areas at this point in the game, and the game does push the point that eventually the player will have to advance in both of these directions. BUT, that changes once that progress has been made. A large area opens to the East, while the plot actually tasks the player to Go West (life is NOT peaceful there).

# Two rather huge differences from Subnautica is how S:BZ handles surface areas. In the original these were few and far between, but still contained essential gameplay elements. This seems to have struck a chord with the devs, as they've made surface areas more elaborate while simultaneously imposed a restriction upon them: Speed. You see, hypothermia is a factor now, meaning that staying out in the cold will create visual effects simulating how the player is about to die from the cold, beginning with vapor breath, then ice forming the corners of the screen, then a heartbeat starting to thump that then slows down. All very elaborate. But in the version I'm playing this does not result in death (even after standing out in the cold soaked to the bone like a moron for ten minutes) but everything points to this being a fatal effort in future releases. This means that all above-water travel will have to be carefully planned and plotted. The game is very lenient in regards to combating the cold; not only is there a species of plant that acts like a heater, but there are also several foodstuffs than combat the cold. Yes, the Mr. Coffee-machine is actually useful now!

(Strangely enough hypothermia is NOT an issue underwater, to the point that the best course of action when dying from the cold is to jump into the water to thaw out. Never mind the fact that this game takes place in an arctic region. Never mind the fact that some areas in the game have a water temperature of 1-6°C, which will kill anyone in 5-10 minutes. Needless to say, work is needed here.)

# It doesn't stop there when it comes to surface areas. At my current point in the game I've not only unlocked a surface-based vehicle, but also a remote-controlled vehicle to be deployed on the surface to access hard-to-reach areas. I shall not reveal the nature of this vehicle, as I felt that it was fucking hilarious. This tells me that the devs are actually somewhat daring in experimenting with the monstrosity that is Subnautica, and its legacy.

# I mentioned earlier that the topic of loneliness and isolation has been abandoned in this game. This still holds true. There is always someone to talk to. What I was NOT expecting is that Subnautica has upgraded in this regard: There are now cutscenes involving face-to-face conversations with other humans. The first one (and only one so far) even rocked me: It's with someone who has survived on 4546B far longer than anyone was supposed to...

# Previously I mentioned that there's little-to-no information gathering of the local flora? This still holds true up to a point. It has been greatly diminished, but it's still there. Granted it's mostly based on placeholders from the first game, but hopefully this demonstrates a will of the developers to retain this particular status quo from the first game. Let's see how that goes.

# The fauna has seen some interesting upgrades: Some species like Peepers and Bladderfish make a return appearance, but other returners only serve as temporary placeholders. The new critters that are currently on display are a rather interesting bunch: Pengwings may look like harmless, slightly deformed penguins, but if you pick up one of their young you're in for a world of hurt. There's no Leviathan Reaper here to contend with, but there's a similar replacement who's (fortunately) several shades dumber, so at best you're only gonna get hit once for being dumb enough to get too close. There's also a friendly Leviathan-class critter that you can ride on if you feel like it! The current debate however seems to revolve around the Sea Monkeys who, as one could surmise from their names, love to monkey around. What that means is that they will steal from you whatever items you're holding in your hands while near them, and good luck getting it back. While an interesting mechanic, this also means that various discussions threads on "official forums" tend to accrue a lot of negative feedback when it comes to the Sea Monkeys. As for me, I learned my lesson the first time, when kept a wary eye and ear out and haven't suffered at all since then.

# Another interesting departure from "standard" Subnautica gameplay is how extreme depths are handled early on: The game can be quite generous with oxygen. There's a plot-essential Precursor (now called 'Architects") site in the early game that's hard to reach due to its depth and length. Fear not, brave traveller! There are now oxygen plants that you can "use" to get an extra boost to your oxygen tank! In the opening area they are conveniently located to allow even the most inequipped player to journey beyond his standard reach. And in the case you're running out of oxygen 'in the open' there's a solution for you: A species of fish called the Titan Fish Donut Fish somehow managed to gather oxygen in its inner circle for others to peruse. Just watch out for the symbiote fish that claim that particular piece of real estate as their own!

# Base building has seen several upgrades. One of the points I raised for the Subnautica devs was the need for a statistical readout of every base. They listened, and now we have the Control Room, a one-stop data gathering site for every base builder in the quadrant, complete with energy input/output, a mini-map of the station and the option to disable certain sections of it for reasons. Games should be about options, this is a large Plus for me, at least.

# Another upgrade is the additon of a Large Room, a larger space than the Multipurpose Room. (Appearance-wise it may seem strangely familiar to Breathedge players, but odds are good that the Subnautica team beat the Russians to the punch on this front.)

# The standard vehicle assortment of Subnautica is mostly gone. The Seaglide is still there to push along daring divers, and the P.R.A.W.N. is here as well, but the Seamoth is gone for good. In its place is the Seatruck, a somewhat clunky and innocuous-looking vehicle until one learns its true nature: It's a modular pick-up truck with room in the back! You want a fabricator, a place to sleep, a cargo hold, a mobile aquarium or even a fancy-smancy teleportation device to return to? The Seatruck has all that (and more) at the ready! (No word on a possible Cyclops replacement, but I wouldn't be surprised if they'd drop it, considering the troubles it caused them in the past.)

# Weather is a new addition to the game, but it's become a curse: The benefits of a surface perspective are greatly diminished by rapidly-changing weather patterns that go a long way towards blinding players. This seems to be a push to keep players underwater, who will stare up at the water and see a clear and sunny sky, only to surface and find the Great Big Fog of Death has arrived to literally blind players for ungodly-long amounts of time.

Overall, at this point? The devs are clearly going with the same-old of Subnautica, but also trying a few new things to streamline the gameplay. I for one believe that those new things warrant giving this game a second look, once they're done with it and release it to the public. But right now I have a hard time stating that it's worth people's attention, unless you actually like fixing bug-ridden messes created by others.

EDIT: Cleaned up text.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

There's an upside to playing Early Access titles, if you're up for it - breaking games in humorous ways.

Case in point: In S:BZ there's a surface area called the Glacial Basin, a closed-off valley full of twisting passages, ugly furry predators and enormous ice worms that take their cues from Shai-Hulud and Graboids - they'll stalk and attack things that walk upon their turf.

No, really, the devs got this coded correctly - take a few footsteps while on ice worm territory and watch and feel as something burrows through the ice to eat you! It's really cool to experience... even though it's from the perspective of the worm's next meal.

There's only one way into the Glacial Basin, via a narrow tunnel underneath that then winds its way up to surface level. The designers clearly intended for this passage to be a cut-off point, meaning vehicles from the rest of the game can't get into the Glacial Basin, and alternate solutions will have to be found to traverse and survive there. One of these solutions is a hoverbike, and another is a thumper. (I would have preferred to have Burt Gummer with me, though.)

And as mentioned in my last post, hypothermia is a (fatal) factor into the equation. So as I find the entrance to this area, I examine it a little closer. The player can easily fit through, but the Seatruck seems to have problems... but what about the P.R.A.W.N.? And then it hit me: If the P.R.A.W.N. fits through then all my problems are solved! I'm protected from the cold, I'm protected from the wildlife, I have extra storage space AND I can fight back! So off I went to try this...

... 25 minutes later a fully-armed and operational P.R.A.W.N. shoots out of the water and makes landfall with a sickening crunch. Life in the basin is about to change.

But that's not the best part! The best part is how I really broke the game by doing this.

After stomping about in my P.R.A.W.N. I come across an interesting site, and exit the mech to get a better look. It's only then that I get my first wormsign, and it takes me a minute to figure out what's going on. And then I realize... I had waded through ice worm-territory in my P.R.A.W.N. to get here, without attracting the worm... that means, that ice worms aren't programmed to "hear" the P.R.A.W.N.... and what is supposed to be a harrowing and nerve-wracking part of the game (dodging ice worms) suddenly became easy-peasy as I tip-toped through the section without a care in the world!

Two final points:

Welcome to Subnautica Logic 101: The fur on those furry bastards is a crafting item, but I can't just walk up to one of them, kill it with my mighty-mecha hands (or knife) and then take the fur off of its bludgeoned body. Oh no, that would be too easy, and violent! We all know what pussies the Subnautica devs are. So how to get the fur? Get this: You have to craft a remote-controlled drone, disguised to appear harmless. You then have to pilot the drone towards a furry bastard and take the fur from it while it's still alive. Because that makes so much more sense than violence.

Remember the Sea Emperor from the first game, and how it was the biggest critter in the game? There's a critter in S:BZ that's more than twice its size. I'll leave it up to daring players to discover it themselves.

 

[Ivan]

is there a reaper equivalent...

 

[Lord Commissar Alexer]

I think thats the shark-octopus or that worm thing...

 

[Fedora Master]

But can I not be a nigger in the game?

 

[HoboForEternity]

have been playign vaninlla subnautica for the past weeks while i wait for disco elysium. it really exceeded beyond my expectations. exploration is fun, building stuff is cool, and the fact that there is a goal and a story makes it better. i am almost 30 hours in, and built a second base in lost river. had my prawn, cyclops built and depth module mk 1. the next goal is 1400 m deep. i need to get mk2 depth module first.

the prawn suit also fell into the ground because the damn game probably load slower than my suit is falling, so i had to cheat and use console to spawn new suit and upgrades. i also downloaded a mod to enable back achievement after using console. that aside the game is fantastic

 

[Demo.Graph]

But can I not be a nigger in the game?

No, because devs are obviously closet racists. I would really like to experience Subnautica from the perspective of a manchurian eunuch and all I got is that chick. Sad!

 

[dextermorgan]

I just discovered there's a holiday sale coupon in the amount of 10 euro (or whatever) active on the store everyone loves to hate, which means you can pick Below Zero up for 6.79.

 

[polo]

I bought both games in a bundle really cheap. Finished subnautica but still wanted more, so im now playing BZ Eaccess, and its quite good.
I never felt scared for the reapers, leviatans and shit, actually found all of those creatures quite underwhelming. I did feel the opression of lack of O2 in early game, it was quite nice, but then u get better equipment and that sense of constant doom and depression goes away. I would like the game to be a litle more terryfing. Once you "know" how the game plays its really hard to die, i never did in BZ yet.

Unkillable Cat i too broke the game using the prawn in the arctic spires , actually was to lazy to fix the bridge so i just used the prawn to cross it, and didnt quite understand what was going on with the snow worm lmao.

 

[HoboForEternity]

what is going on with BZ? i haven't been actively following it but why does it take this long?

 

[dextermorgan]

HoboForEternity they sacked the storywriter and are redoing the story, and also the voice acting. Both good decisions if you ask me.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Thanks! Well they can take their time as long it isas enjoyable as subnautica. I honestly wasn't expecting anything but turned out i enjoyed this game so much it was one of my personal goty last year ( i know it's released years ago, but i played it last year so yea)

 

[Zombra]

I read a review of Below Zero talking about how the vehicles are crap and they make you use the overpowered, clunky Prawn Suit for everything. Like that reviewer, I disliked the Prawn in the original game. Those who've tried Early Access, is this a fair complaint?

 

[polo]

The seatruck starts as a seamoth but you can add containers to the back at the cost of speed. It goes slow as fuck. The bike is only for snow.
I only use prawn with grappling arm (which i had to console), since its the fastest way to move, same as in the first game, but even moreso here.

 

[JDR13]

I really need to give Subnautica a try. I've had it in my Steam library for well over a year now.

It looks like something I'd like too. That backlog though...

 

[Sranchammer]

Thanks! Well they can take their time as long it isas enjoyable as subnautica. I honestly wasn't expecting anything but turned out i enjoyed this game so much it was one of my personal goty last year ( i know it's released years ago, but i played it last year so yea)

I'd say I spent the most time on that game last year as well

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I really need to give Subnautica a try. I've had it in my Steam library for well over a year now.

It looks like something I'd like too. That backlog though...

I'm sure you've got a big backlog, but there's probably nothing in it that you'll enjoy more than Subnautica.

 

[orcinator]

I don't think anyone has figured out how to do a proper endgame for exploration based games.

You could just make the last area really dangerous but you need actual gameplay besides "look around the place".
Subnautica's problem is that there are 0 threats in the game, just a bunch of inconveniences that you can easily solve or avoid. I managed to almost finish it but once I saw that the endgame was just "collect plants" then "collect lots of shit for the rocket" I just went NOPE and uninstalled.

 

[polo]

The whole game is collect plants and shits for the rocket/base/transport/suit... Its kind of what the game is about, not just the ending.

 

[orcinator]

The whole game is collect plants and shits for the rocket/base/transport/suit... Its kind of what the game is about, not just the ending.

Yeah but before there was a hope that the game would finally throw something dangerous at you, once you see that it doesn't then why even bother?

I assume the snow expansion will have the same problem.