What's the difference between SUBNAUTICA and other horror games?
Story! Which is... "optional".
You are thrown onto an alien planet, 4546B, which is essencially a sea planet, and tasked with surviving The Horrors of it.
There are a lot of things I love about the game, but most of them can be attributed to just how immersive it is and how good the atmosphere is.
It has a great design philosophy overall, not being a jumpscarefest type of horror game. The horror comes from the atmosphere, the pressure you feel being in an alien world, not knowing what could be the next threat.
It's fun even as the other genre it entails, survival! The rare times you're simply scavenging with no threat present still feel immersive, with the movement being "fluid" (get it, water? the sea?) and the fauna being gorgeously challenging.
There are probably better horror games, though. It was an inventor at the time (mixing horror, open world and story), but I could've played a lot of other games.
Like... Five Nights At Freddy's, Sonic.EXE (i'm actually an EXE larper as i've never played an EXE game but thats for the sonic page) or other such Giants.
I got attached. It's actually pretty cozy when you're exploring familiar areas. Without, you know, giant hundred-meter beasts trying to end you.
I sunk (get iiiiit?) a lot of hours into it, I even had a favorite fish. Bladderfish. Useful little fellow. I made a 4-story aquarium full of them, then remembering I have a water filtration machine so that wasn't really prompted.
That WAS on my old computer though, so I bought the game and made a save file on my new laptop (Where I develop this site mostly).
The glory of the 4-story aquarium was too great for me. I had to save up and only get a 2-story aquarium.
I still play the game sometimes, actually! Right now, I have footage for one of two videos on the game. The second will be recorded when I actually get around to edit the video. It's... Not going at the best pace. But I don't want to upload any more practically unedited videos. They're so EMBARRASING!
I also had a "Grand quest" on my savefile at home. It was to kill every Leviathan (i even killed the Sea Dragon by deploying Stink Tactics!), and go out descending into the void. I almost had it. Right when I was about to start my descent into the void, I had to go. Move countries. Not be able to use that computer. Safe to say, that Ryley never got a satisfactory ending. I hope to come back home one day and it'll be one of the first things I'd do after reuniting with my buddies.
Now, you'd think when I heard that Below Zero released I'd be estatic. I was. Not really. It released right when I fell out of love with Subnautica, just because I was grinding the HELL out of my Hollow Knight save in Godhome. (I still didn't beat P5!!!) And so, BZ went unnoticed for me. I still kept up with Subnautica, but only the original one. Like, the modding scene, or just fun content (I didn't watch Markiplier's playthrough, actually. I watched a russian youtuber's playthrough. I'm still trying to find the youtuber again to this day. He used to also have a GTA5 and ARK Survival Evolved series, along with other content. Those were the FIRE though. His name was something like Eugene??? I can't recall; but if someone knows him, please tell me the name of his channel!!!).
Cut to modern day. A bit before SB2 releases. But this time, I was actually excited for the sequel! I'd just been watching the Red Plague mod recently, so Subnautica was fresh on my mind. And, seeing how it was the last of the games I used to play as a kid to get a proper sequel (i know, BZ, but i'm getting there), I budged, not budgeting.
About... a day, before release? I bought the franchise bundle (when I "officially" obtained subnautica for the first time, lol!), and I thought: "Might as well check out BZ while I wait for the game to release". And so I did! It's actually very fun. I'm still playing through it, but I think I reached the ending. I want to do the Grand Quest again! I killed a few of the creatures and they appear ABSOLUTE PUSHOVERS. Rock Puncher? 4-5 knife hits. That dark otter-crocodile creature? Falls just as quick.
I'll probably also make a video on it. It's fun, that's sort of all the reason I need to make something.
But then, the main event! Subnautica 2! The new golden child of the franchise!
...I can't run it. It runs at 6 FPS peak performance, making it unplayable.
I'm just as devastated as you are at how anticlimactic that is. I spent a bit over 40 euro for a game bundle that has only one game I can play (anew). And I could've bought it for like. 7.
I tried to refund it, but first:
1. They only viewed my refund request AFTER the sale was over
2. They didn't refund the game because I had 14 hours on BZ and just BZ
Scummy!!! But I'm still hoping I'll be able to play SB2 after it gets optimized. I heard the EULA and other agreements are atrocious; I read them and they ARE bad, but some things the community said about it seem to be lies for the sake of lying. Which, I understand... UNKNOWN WORLDS isn't the best at managing its employees...
I don't think I can grade it "clearly". I played it a loooong time ago (the original one), and the first expeirience is ALWAYS best for horror games. But I will grade it over how fond I am of it! (the entire franchise as I played it)(not subnautica 2 I couldn't play it)
It's fun! It's scary! It knows what it wants to be! There are some things I don't like (For example, the stasis rifle... it trivializes the entire game. Not fun! Or scary!), but no game can be perfect. It can try to be, though! And Subnautica tries its best. Overall, if you never played it, I would reccomend it! Just... get it on a sale. It's really expensive, actually. But most games nowadays are.
That's basically it! If you want to read more, you can go back to the directory, and go find something fun from there! See you!