Subnautica

Mostly PC, but console and mobile too
Post Reply
Leisher
Site Admin
Posts: 65253
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 9:17 pm
Contact:

Subnautica

Post by Leisher »

Got this one for free in the Epic Games "sell us your soul" giveaway.

Picture Rust or The Forest or The Long Dark, but it's strictly solo, is story driven, and takes place on an alien planet composed mostly of water. It's fun and really interesting.

Your ship crash landed and you survived. Now you need to find other survivors, as well as, find tech and other materials to survive and escape.

The game has base building, exploration, crafting, and so on. There's also lots of story line things going on involving why you crashed, other survivors, ruins you find, and so on.

There's also an expansion coming: Takes place in the arctic of the alien planet.

I enjoy the game so much that I'm honestly considering buying it on Steam. In fact, I know I will during the next sale. Epic isn't giving the expansion away for free anytime soon and I want to play it. Plus, fuck Epic.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
Leisher
Site Admin
Posts: 65253
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 9:17 pm
Contact:

Subnautica

Post by Leisher »

Finally finished this game last night. What a phenomenal journey.

Troy pay attention because if I remember our discussion about The Long Dark properly, this is the game we were hoping for there. (And may now exist there after their massive patch and recreation of that game.)

The story is extremely well done (despite me thinking there might have been some red herrings thrown in there). It's very light because YOUR actions and imagination are the story. There are PDAs and incoming messages and stuff that happens, but they're all just to trigger you towards exploring, building, etc. Point being, the bullet points of the story are given to you, but you fill in the rest. Do whatever you want! Play like you need to get off this rock in the next 48 hours. Play like you can take your time and establish the mother of all bases. The world is your oyster!

You start off in a shitty, not dire, situation. From that point your goal is to be saved, but things take place that make that rather difficult. So while you're focusing on surviving, you're also trying to solve a puzzle. By the end of the game you will understand everything. The area you are dropped within has a reason for being, and it's all such a fragile ecosystem. An ecosystem that your actions affect.

FYI, this game is an FPS, but not an on the rails shooter. This is The Forest in the water with better pacing and a more robust building system. It's Rust without the multi. It's The Long Dark without the extremely limited resources that make it more like Tetris than a survival game. This isn't a thrill a minute joy ride with bullets flying everywhere. This is about exploring, surviving, and solving a beautifully crafted world/story filled with beauty and danger.

Want to be nuts? Turn on the realism mode. Die and your game is over. Do it the first time you play through the game. That'll add a fuckton of anxiety to your story because this world is NOT safe. Not to mention your needs for oxygen, water, and food. *Next sentence redacted to avoid spoilers*

Let me stop at this point and say that for maximum enjoyment, you should stop reading now. You really want to go in fresh and without anyone else telling you what to do or anything like that. So my summary is: Subnautica is highly, highly recommended.

Oh, and for your achievement folks, all of them are easily gained by simply beating the game. No bullshit achievements here.

This game is all about carving your own path, learning what works and what doesn't, and figuring it out on your own.



Ok, onto more detailed stuff...

The ecosystem is alive and functions properly. I, literally, over fished a species to the point that I wasn't seeing them anymore. This caused great concern for me as I needed that fish. Then I discovered a tech to replace it and by the end of the game that fish's population had returned to normal levels.

You die a lot. Mostly from not being prepared. You're never properly prepared. You can't carry everything, so planning is required and all of this taking place underwater means your margin for error is low. Everything has limits, the environment has dangers, and there is hostile fauna.

I beat the game without using a bunch of the stuff I learned to craft. That's proof that you can essentially play it however you want.

Fuck, I could talk about this game endlessly. If it looks even remotely interesting, buy it in the next Steam sale. It's fucking awesome.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
User avatar
Troy
Posts: 7156
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 8:00 am

Subnautica

Post by Troy »

Heard good things and now again from you.

Spent some random internet time on a wiki with crafting info for this game a few weeks ago. No idea why! Didn’t retain much but I know there’s some interesting things down in the depths.

Will add it to my list after I finish up the Battle Brothers and Stellaris DLC.
Leisher
Site Admin
Posts: 65253
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 9:17 pm
Contact:

Subnautica

Post by Leisher »

Insanely accurate:

Image
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
GORDON
Site Admin
Posts: 54397
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 10:43 pm
Location: DTManistan
Contact:

Subnautica

Post by GORDON »

Sheeeeeit. If I were in scuba gear, I'd be finning closer.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Leisher
Site Admin
Posts: 65253
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 9:17 pm
Contact:

Subnautica

Post by Leisher »

The sequel to Subnautica, one of the best games EVAH, just left early access today. Maybe I'll stream that tonight if I'm not killing zombies...
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
Post Reply