Subnautica

You’ve probably played a survival game before, but have you played one entirely underwater? Oh boy do I have a game for you. This game about exploration, gathering supplies, crafting, and trying to understand what happened before the game begins, is all built around the major twist of being underwater. This allows for a unique gameplay that involves both horizontal and vertical travel.

Story

Taking place in the distant future after a virus broke out. You’re sent off to different worlds to work on a cure. Unfortunately for you, your ship crashes. You’re left with almost nothing and use a small submarine pod as a base while you begin your journey in building bigger submarines and weapons, among other things. The story is simple but it’s best when as the player you discover left behind voice recordings and notes in the ocean.

I will mention that the game features amazing voice acting to deliver the story, much better than I expected and even better than some AAA games. Unlike most popular survival games like Ark Survival Evolved, Subnautica does feature a full story to discover and learn from other characters. However, as far as I know, you’ll never meet the characters.

Graphics and gameplay

The gameplay is surprisingly smooth and very nice, nearly AAA quality. The art style doesn’t try to be too realistic and instead keeps things a tad more on the simple side keeping things easy on the eyes, and it will likely age well. Unlike many other survival games that will look very dated only a few years from now. The game does have an issue with pop-in textures and other geometry detail. To optimize the game it has a very short render distance that you can’t adjust. This mostly works fine since you’re underwater and can’t see that far anyway, but occasionally it completely breaks the immersion and can throw you off when something so close suddenly appears, only for it to be a boulder.

Features

Much like most survival games, it has the same style of crafting, exploration, and wildlife who pose a threat. As you can imagine, it plays out a bit differently when you’re underwater all the time. The game of course features a day-night cycle and it’s terrifying. Roaming the ocean in the dead of night changes the game from an adventure to a thriller. You’re being hunted by creatures that you have little hope of surviving any encounter with them, but now at night time, you can’t even see them until it’s probably too late.

Audio design

Not often is audio such a highlight of a videogame. It’s often an overlooked aspect of what can make or break a game. Subnautica has some of the best audio design I’ve ever played. Everything from the major and minor sound effects of muffled movement underwater and the way noise echos slowly with heavy bass. It never lets you forget that you are underwater and that your suit and submarine are the only things keeping you alive and not letting the water pressure crush you into a tin can.

Thanks to the great audio design, your sense of hearing is also an essential tool for the player to identify creatures around you and locate them, oftentimes saving your life, or striking you with fear.

Conclusion

This game has it all, it’s a great adventure game that can be played however you’d like to play it. No matter what, you’ll still have a great time. Its only major flaw is the pop-in textures and someone simpler survival mechanics, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It still features all the survival mechanics in order for it to be a full survival game.

Pros

• Amazing audio design
• Good graphics
• Good gameplay
• On par or better survival mechanics
• A simple story well told with great voice acting
• Can be both relaxing and thrilling

Cons

• Pop-in textures
• The odd optimization hiccup