Subnautica Review

After four years in the works, Subnautica is finally out of Early Access and enjoying the shiny light of being sold as a full game. And at the very beginning of this review, I can easily say with no hyperbole that this is one of the few examples of a good game to come out of Early Access.

Ignore that song. You better fear the Reaper. (No cowbells here, only nightmares.)

While I did not play it from the very beginning, only since May of last year, from what I’ve seen since I started playing was very well done. I’ve seen them go through different stages of the Cyclops (everyone’s favorite sub) from being too tough to too weak to the current “just right” feeling if gives you and since you need that to go almost anywhere, it needs to feel right.

I can tell you some stories of what’s happened to me during Early Access, falling through the map, forever being stuck in something that I had to wait until I ran out of air to respawn, but you’re not here for that. You’re here for the review of the game as it is now.

Base building is what you need in the end.

Start off with the basics. It’s your typical open world survival game, get food, water, etc. to stay alive, get materials to craft, make better equipment, so on and so on. From what I’ve seen about your open world and/or survival games is that it’s more/less endless. Theirs no real story when it comes to those types of games other than “live the longest” but Subnautica does have a story to follow of which I won’t spoil the details here. Put simply, you’re a survivor from the crashed science ship Aurora, and you need to survive until you’re rescued. Dealing with the local population of aquatic life from friendly Peepers to aggressive hunters such as Reaper Leviathans. As well as finding out about other survivors from the wreck, you find that there was once people here that crashed long time ago and they had discovered something on the planet from thousands of years ago.

That’s the most you’ll get from me about the story as this game is properly about exploration and it feels very well done and it does pay off the explore. New equipment, new tech, etc. It feels worth it to explore.

Base building is a bit simple, considering you have to find more required tech in order to start building a basic base. But in the end, like any base builder, you get to make the base you want. Stack your habitats 3 building high like an underwater skyscraper or build wide with glass walkways so you can always see what’s happening outside. Build right new where the game starts, in the Safe Shallows, where you only have to deal with is Stalkers and their love of wreckage to play with. Plenty of sun to power your base and enough stored up to keep it running until the sun comes up again. Or build in the deep, dark, no sunlight, find other ways to keep the power running and try and keep the bigger creatures away.

Very quick and simple crafting system.

How ever you wish to build, you’ll need to plenty of resources and like any survival game, it does tend to get a bit tedious when you finally build that thing you really need only to find out you just need ONE MORE resource to build the next thing and have to go out and get just ONE MORE.
I believe that is just the nature of this type of game, it’s going to happen whether you like it or not. The plus side is one of the vehicles you can unlock is the Prawn Suit (Mech) and if you find the blueprint to install the Drill Arm on it, instead of having to go from rock to rock to find one piece of a particular resource, you can just drill a mine-able node and easily fill up your storage full of what you need. Keep in mind it’s not just “mine the world and find it,” it’s certain rocks and mine-able nodes that stick out of the ocean floor that you can mine. Don’t expect to dig to the other side of the planet or anything.

Reefbacks, the whales of this ocean and can give resources from barnacles on its back.

The one thing I have to say overall, if you’re afraid of the ocean or afraid of sharks or any kind of that kind of fear of water, well I gotta say this: BE PREPARED TO BE SCARED.
All the animals in this game are so actualized with there look, there “personalities” and such that a lot of these animals I wish there were real. The small sweet ones that is, not the HORRIFYING ones like the Reaper. (Shudders) Even when I’m in my big Cyclops, hearing a Reaper roar off in the distance still gives me chills. And yes they’re so big, your small Seamoth (personal sub) and Prawn suit can be picked up and tossed around like a toy by them. Stay clear of them if you can, I cannot stress that enough.

Biomes unique with unique fish (good and bad.)

Speaking of the big and scary’s, if you’re expecting “give me a harpoon, I’ll hunt ‘em down and kill ‘em. Yarg.” Sorry, this game isn’t about killing. Their technically only two weapons in the game, the personal knife and the Seamoth and Prawn Suit can equip be equipped with “poison” torpedoes which if the target stays in the cloud will die but 99/100 times any animal that gets hurt will immediately run away so it’s quite hard to kill anything with them. This game is strictly about survival and “living” with all it’s creatures.

Safe shallows, you’ll start out here. It’s not TOTALLY safe mind you.

Overall this game is fantastic. As said in the beginning, this is one of the few examples of Early Access done right. They seems to have worked with the community to make a game but weren’t afraid of trying something that might annoy them because of a change to this or that.
It’s not flawless though but their minor enough that most likely you can overlook it. Late in the game the frame rate is high but tends to fluctuate depending on what you’re doing. I only run at 1080 at 60fps resolutions so I don’t know for you people who run at 4K, 144hrz, VR, and the like but it might be noticeable to those who do. One of my last saves (which may have something to do with the problem because the save was made before launch) as I was making **** (redacted for spoiler reasons) and hunting for resources sometimes my frame rate would drop into the low 40’s. Another thing I seem to be experiencing still is every time I exit the game (properly mind you) that Window says it crashed which is strange but not horrible as long as it doesn’t corrupt the game or saves which it hasn’t so far.  Also sometimes there is “pop in” loading issues with things.  Most the time it doesn’t occur but then you’ll easily notice it happen when it does and it tears away from the immersive of the game.  Most the time it’s just to do with the ground and features on it (ex: Mushroom Trees) but rarely it does happen with creatures suddenly appearing 5 feet away from you.

Unless you’re afraid of the water, aliens sharks and the like I would suggest getting this game. If you’re not up for the main story you can switch to “Build Everything” mode which lets you build with no gathering and everything unlocked. And if you really want a challenge try “Hardcore” mode in which you get ONE life and no alerts for air. Haven’t tried this mode but maybe someday.

Don’t mess with a Reaper, even with a Cyclops, even near your base. This could be you.

Written by: Ozzy

Dreamer, optimist, sci-fi lover, Trekkie, caring supporter, loves GOOD music, loves a good story, laid back, has a thing for Aussie accents, and an avid gamer for fun.