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.