Subnautica Review: The Greatest Underwater Survival Game Ever Made

Back in 2014, Subnautica was released in an Early Access state, and since then has made tremendous strides toward a full game. Its planned full release date is September of 2017, And let me tell you why it's a purchase you should consider.

The game starts you off in a life pod after your ship, The Aurora, crashes down onto an all-water world.

What you do from here is entirely up to you. Of course, this is a survival game, so gathering food and water becomes one of the first tasks the player must learn to do as the game eases you into its world, with your starting biome being the 'safe shallows'

Subnautica certainly has a learning curve to it, and I found myself retreating to the wiki at times to spare myself some aggravation as the game itself doesn't provide much guidance. Soon enough, after collecting some blueprints and materials, the player can start to build a base of operations, where the player can get as creative as he/she wants.

The Biomes

Subnautica contains a multitude of biomes, each featuring their own unique resources, predators, and land formations. Here are some of the most notable ones with pictures, since words alone simply don't do them justice.

Grassy Plateaus

Kelp Forest

Mushroom Forest

Or, one of the deeper, more dangerous biomes, such as the Blood Kelp Zone

In subnautica, you're always busy, trying to stockpile as many resources as possible while trying to discover all of the unique fauna and flora subnautica has to offer. Scattered throughout Subnautica, are 'wrecks', which contain scannable fragments of modules you need in order to fully research them, allowing you to build them for yourself, which I'll give a few examples of later on.

The further from the safe shallows the player travels, the more dangerous, yet rewarding it gets. The game has one of the most spectacular systems of progression I've ever seen, keeping the game fresh as you feel rewarded for all of the work you've done through the new technology you can now utilize. For example, there are currently four vehicles, starting with the Seaglide, providing basic transportation with a constant need for a battery replacement, up to vehicles such as the Cyclops, a massive submarine (that can be customized) that takes around 10+ hours of play to finally unlock, allowing the player explore areas that were previously too dangerous or deep.

There is so much content in this game I can't fully explain in an effort to summarize, but here's a few examples:

Other life pods which contain PDAs with stories as to what occurred, adding to the atmosphere and mysterious mood that is constant throughout the game.

Mountain Island, a landform that rests on top of the sea, with its own mysteries.

The vast amount of unique fauna and flora, which I actually took an interest in learning about their traits, as the developers spent ample time making everything as believable as possible. Here are a few fauna that want to kill you:

Biter

Sand Shark

Reaper Leviathan

I'll try my best to bring everything together.

Conclusion

The variety and attention to detail in Subnautica's world make it the greatest (and one of the only) underwater survival experience in existence that deserves the same amount of attention as the biggest names in the genre. Its tense atmosphere through sound design and incredible animations sets a tone that keeps the player immersed while exploring, which is crucial in this grenre. It does such a great job at keeping the player hooked all the way up to the end-game, which other survival games can struggle to do. Containing almost everything you could possibly expect, it will be a long time before another game can even be compared to Subnautica as it stands alone in its genre. The only disappointment is the unfortunate lack of multiplayer support in the forseeable future. Once the game is fully released, I would absolutely recommend you give it a try.

If you've played the game before, I'm interested to know what you think of it.