Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Jan 14, 2022

  Below Zero was a truly wonderful experience for me after Subnautica, but you may want to be prepared for some differences. Without going into spoilers, I think the important ones are: 1. The story is very different. Do not go into BZ expecting the same emotions as Sub. As an analogy, Alien (1979) was a horror film, but Aliens (1986) was an action film. Both are exquisite, just not the same genre of story. BZ is not "action" to Sub's "horror", but the stories are very different energies like that. 2. The setting and technology is not the same. BZ is not just another story in the same setting. It is the same planet, and there are a lot of familiar elements, as a result, but the location and technology are different in many ways. I won't give specifics, just don't expect to navigate the map in the same ways, or experience the same kinds of dangers. With that said, I want to talk about some of the other reviews and address many of their criticisms for folks who haven't played the game yet, to give you some context. I feel that many other reviewers are unreasonably expecting a sequel to magically recreate an experience that was dependent on everything being new. If you played Sub, then you already know so much about the setting. BZ fundamentally cannot be the same experience, but that does not mean it can't be incredible in its own way. That said, many of those other reviewers sound like they really power gamed or min/maxed Sub, and if you're that kind of player then their reviews may actually be helpful for you. But if you are in it for the story, and aren't trying to unlock literally everything before completing the game, then my comments may be helpful. My points above already address several criticisms, but here are some more specific ones (very mild spoilers): 1. "These vehicles suck. Sub vehicles were better." -- for Sub vehicles, I can't think of a single bad thing about the seamoth, it was wonderful, but the cyclops and prawn suit were pretty awkward and restrictive. But I didn't even care. They were just what they were. I loved my cyclops and prawn suit. I lived with the awkwardness and embraced what was wonderful about them. BZ vehicles are no different. There are good things and bad things about them. I don't think their shortcomings are any different than Sub vehicles, they're just different. 2. "The map was so much more confusing, and important stuff was harder to find or more hidden." -- I literally had to look up a guide to finish Sub because I couldn't find a key item. In BZ not one single blueprint or item that I actually acquired was as hard to find. They weren't just sitting in the open, but it wasn't in some secret cave I wasn't going to find without a scanner room. Both games do have an element of randomness in the form of how much you actually just explore your environments. I got stuck a couple times in BZ looking for some blueprints, but I just went to the places I knew I hadn't explored yet and easily stumbled across the blueprints. Same as in Sub. But hey, you can also just use scanner rooms to find stuff. That's what they're for. 3. "The story is a mess." -- I truly have no idea how people can say this. Maybe they played an earlier build that was different (if early builds were even that different), but the story I experienced in the first 2 weeks of Jan 2022 was perfectly coherent, understandable, and enjoyable. Not everyone is going to like every story, that is incredibly valid, but I think the story is far from a mess. Sub's story was incredible, and I was really affected by the end. Well I loved BZ's story and how it ended, too. As I mentioned above, it's a very different story, so you may not like it, but I think it's wonderful in its own way. 4. "The world isn't as spooky/scary" -- I think there's a minor element of truth to this, but I also think folks are taking for granted that they learned to deal with a lot of scary elements by playing Sub. First time going to many areas in BZ were real scary to me, but once I realized what the dangers were, and got to see all the creatures, I quickly fell into late stage Sub energy, where I could travel around pretty freely without worry. Sub just taught me how to handle those fears. The only exception is the big leviathan you have to contend with late game, which I always treated with a healthy amount of extreme caution. Hope this helps someone.
• gamedeal user

  May 1, 2022

  If you loved the original Subnautica, you'll at least like this game. I found that, throughout my entire play through, the whole experience didn't feel nearly as mysterious and terrifying as the first game. In BZ, they replaced the huge, open map with a small, almost linear one. While some may like that, I didn't personally; I loved the huge areas of purely dark water with no visible bottom (obviously excluding the void) and the excitement of exploring these uncharted waters. In BZ, however, since there was an entire team of scientists, engineers, etc. in the area to begin with, it feels like the entire map's already been explored, which discouraged me from exploring it. The biomes don't feel nearly as unique as they did in Subnautica; they almost blend together. The story is okay. It's nothing life changing. Now, the original's wasn't either, but it was at least different. There are two main story lines in BZ: the one regarding the death of Robin's sister and the one about helping AL-AN. The latter has an interesting ending, and goes into the Architects in greater detail, but the one with Sam is just boring. I didn't care at all about the Sam story line; I had no incentive to find out what happened to her. It was, frankly, boring. Overall, if you loved the original you should definitely try BZ; while it's not as good, it gives you more of the Subnautica experience, but in a different fashion. While the original is a 10/10, BZ is probably a 7/10 for me.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 9, 2022

  It's Diet Subnautica, not Subnautica 2. Had I not played the original Subnautica first, I would have thought this was a pretty great game, and likely wouldn't have had any issues with it at all. But I did play the original first, and that set the bar for my expectations -- especially given that the two games are the same price. It's gorgeous. The coding is tighter, the animations are smoother, it is WAY better optimized -- no more chugging and chunking while distant objects struggle to render. The weather effects are great, and the addition of temperature as a survival mechanic is neat. There is a lot of new lore (with an interesting cast of characters), plenty of new flora and fauna to scan, great new base building pieces, and a lot of new decor options. Now here comes the bad: The map is TINY compared to the original. And extremely shallow -- you can go almost everywhere that matters with the first depth module for the seatruck and a bit of free diving. The survival elements feel poorly balanced. I got the tank upgrades very quickly, and never felt concerned with hunger or thirst thanks to slightly overtuned edible plants being so easy to access, and food/water being in so many of the numerous crates scattered across the map. The progression curve feels flat compared to the first game -- the upgrades come too quickly, and don't feel as rewarding. The Cyclops allowed you to go DEEP. Well, there is no "deep" to explore, here. And no reason to do so anyway, as all the endgame crafting materials are very plentiful and are able to be picked up very early in. You unlock some things at weird times. Some too early (like the multipurpose room), some too late (like the decorative plant walls -- which you can only scan from one specific area, despite encountering them in more than one place). You are able to scan a lot of new plants, but the ones you can actually take seeds/samples from and grow for yourself are EXTREMELY limited. Why? Even if they were just decorative elements at your base, with no other use, that would still be SOMETHING. There aren't many creature eggs to find, either. It almost feels like the game was pushed out early, with less content than originally planned. Props from the first game are used as decor in the second game, but are unable to be scanned or picked up (all the lab equipment, many island plants). This makes no sense to me. The assets are already there, in use in the game world. Slap an inventory icon on it and let us use them! There aren't many uses for the spy pengling. At all. It could have added a lot of exploration value, but it's mostly a waste of inventory space. Same for the snowfox, which I used approximately once and then discarded -- it really needed to be able to hover on water, to make it worth zipping around on. There aren't as many leviathans, and they aren't as scary. The game in general isn't as scary. I never felt alone. I never got lost in an utterly black void, a cave system some 1000m down, unable to orient myself and running out of air, water, or flashlight battery. The player character legit sounds like she is edging a big fat orgasm when she eats (UNNHHHH, MMMMM, AAAHHH). There is no way someone didn't bring this up during playtesting. It is absolutely ridiculous. Overall, it's fun and polished enough (and I got it cheaply enough) for me to give it a thumbs up. But if you pay full price for this and expect it to be just like the first one, you're gonna be disappointed -- there just isn't enough of it. Once they finish backporting the building elements from this game into the original and fixing up the older code, I'll never touch this game again. tl;dr - Super pretty, but it feels like a DLC, not a sequel.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 21, 2022

  I have 291 hours in original game. I have 28 hours in this one. I'm not going to thumbs down the game... but I'll let you decide what I mean by the above.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 1, 2023

  In short - it's a great game, well worth your time, with a slightly different feel to the original. Please don't make the mistake of comparing it to the first game. It's fair to say that most everyone interested in this one will have tried the first one. If you're not played either, it's definitely better to start with the first Subnautica. The reason is, and this is why there are alot of thumbs up reviews here that are "disappointed" in this follow up - there is no way you will ever recapture the feeling of awe and wonderment at being dumped into the middle of a hostile mysterious world and left to fend for yourself. You've had it in the first game (and if not, go experience it) and you will not get it back - there is nothing the devs could have done short of wiping your memory, so they decided to try something a little different. And the game is better for it. The core of the gameplay is the same as the predecessor - you're violently thrust into a world you know nothing about, with nothing to your name but a waypoint to a pod which will be your first home. From there you explore, collect, craft and thrive. Your exploration is limited only to oxygen capacity for yourself, crush depth for your vehicle and fear of the unknown (or known). So what's changed? One change is apparent from the get go - your character isn't a mute, she has a voice and opinions. She has her own goals to accomplish - which you can ignore if you want. There are also now humanoid NPC's you can interact with. Audio logs usually have character portraits. All contribute to make you the player feel somewhat less isolated that before. Another change is more emphasis on land exploration, complete with monsters and terrible weather that will make short work of you if you're unprepared. There's a lengthy section, mandatory for story completion, that will make you dream of diving back into the water - remeniscent of being stuck in a blizzard surrounded by bears. Which is by no means a bad thing, I enjoyed that part exactly because I didn't know where I was - I was making progress - and I was under-equipped and close to being overwhelmed by the hostile terrain. Upon reaching my goal I realised I now had to go back the way I came which was annoying to contemplate and exhilirating to execute, as I had no means of defence against the monsters and had to outwit them. Which brings me to another fine point - you are very free to attack this hostile terrain however you want. Careful observation and diligent exploration can make you pretty much untouchable. The monsters I mentioned? There are two ways you can discover to deal with them that will make them a non issue. But you don't have to - buy the time I found those two ways, I never had to deal with them again. And it was tricky, and it was fun. There are so many tools at your disposal, it's sometimes easy to forget that some can be used to solve problems in very creative ways. Some reviewers mentioned the size of the game as a negative, compared to the first. I disagree. It's not as big, but it doesn't matter. It's the right size for the story it's telling. The different biomes felt unique and fantastical with a shade of real world basis for all of them. Having completed the game it didn't feel like there should have been more for the sake of it - it's a complete package, and it works. The first game achieved a sense of vast isolation with the massive, mostly empty landscapes in about a third of it's biomes, which contributed to the creepiness factor. That's gone - and it wouldn't have worked here. You'd have to go back to a mute protagonist and tone down the story, and everyone would say it was too much like the predecessor but not as good anyway. By the way, the biomes, with the audio cues, are sometimes jaw dropping. So what sucks? Well most of my problems were tied to navigation. The first part of the game is spot on, no problems there. You explore, you get waypoints, you figure stuff out, great. But later on you don't get no waypoint. Fair enough, you have to listen, remember, figure stuff out. You can find at least 2 maps ingame that help. So let's take a particular section, one of the outdoor icy ones, a section they drew you a map for. Just like the other blizzard bit described above, I was well unprepared, making it by the skin of my teeth. Except this bit wasn't facing in one direction. It was twisty, full of caves, full of bears I had no way to deal with (that i knew), hailstones dropping every 30 secs and snow fog. Was there something at the end? Dunno, I was circling around for ages in the foggy blizzard and had no idea where I was or where the end was. It was one of two times I looked up a wiki - it was confusing and frustrating - so very unlike the worm one, that one was fun because i was making progress. Another example - in the main plot you're asked to find 3 mcguffins. Two get a waypoint. One doesn't. I was in that area, with two leviathans biting at my bumbags, for absolute aeons, and were it not for the wiki I believe I'd still be there, circling, gently weeping. So that's 2. Not too shabby, because the rest of the game I was just stumbling around exploring and managed to hit pretty much all the story beats organically. And it was a fantastic experience. Oh and for those saying the main characters' motivations are swept by the wayside as the main plot opens up, which makes it redundant, i'd disagree. It's not forced on you, which is a good thing, and as some have mentioned they didn't much care for it anyway. But it is important enough to be acknowledged at the end, so treat it as an optional main plot thread, rather than a main quest turned into side quest. So there it is, don't listen to the critics, I thought I was going to hate the talky protagonist and the reduced world size, and I have to admit I was wrong - it works! Don't think of it as a sequel - it's not. Think of it more like a different flavoured "Tales of Subnautica" parallel game, go in with an open mind, and enjoy, I did
• gamedeal user

  Aug 7, 2023

  Better than the Original? Not even close. A worthy sequel? Barely. A pretty good game? Absolutely. Do I recommend if you enjoyed the first one? Yes. Do I recommend getting this one over the first one. No, play the Original first.
• |+|Capt. Meow Meow

  Aug 8, 2023

  Did not really enjoy my experience, just made me miss playing the original game. Still the great deep-ocean adventure gameplay with more land element, but it's far more narrative-heavy, the new Sea Truck felt pretty meh, maps are far smaller, and I can kinda see why some are saying it's 'woke' Got bored with it and lost motivation midway; gonna uninstall and maybe pick it back up later 4/10
• Rasputia Latimore

  Aug 16, 2023

  Got a cat here. Friends passing by can touch her and click Like to pet her once. Award for good luck, Take My Points for infinite pets :) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ＿＿ 　　　　　／＞　　フ 　　　　　| 　_　 _ l 　 　　　／` ミ＿xノ 　　 　 /　　　 　 | 　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ 　 　 │　　|　|　| 　／￣|　　 |　|　| 　| (￣ヽ＿ヽ)__) 　＼二つ  
• Rovaen

  Aug 21, 2023

  Misses the mark of what made the first special. ◘Breathing plants everywhere that constantly respawn - no risk of drowning ever ◘Way more small caves and way less open areas, which limits mystery/fear of the unknown ◘horrendous amount of land based gameplay, which is not only terrible to control but also misses the whole point of it being an underwater game ◘MC talks, which fully takes you out of the experience. Any tension is gone as she marvel quips her way through the world ◘Story was rewritten and is still pretty weak. If you liked Sub1 for it's atmosphere, mystery, and underwater-spooky-ness, do not play Sub2.
• BobbleFTW

  Aug 21, 2023

  Cool game, need to finish. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯