Subnautica

[dirkac]

In the 22nd century, humanity is beginning to colonize space.
Before colony ships arrive, habitation vessels are appointed terraforming missions.
The Aurora was one such vessel.

During its descent, the Aurora was struck by a mysterious energy pule resulting in catastrophic hull failure.
A single life pod jettisoned prior to impact.
You were in that life pod.

Subnautica is a first-person, underwater crafting game currently in Early Access, being in development by Unknown Worlds. If that doesn't mean anything to you, think Minecraft underwater. It plays similar to other crafting games, including inventory management, resource collecting, etc. The actual crafting of stuff is simplified a lot, but its not necessarily a bad thing. Though there is a plot, it is incredibly small and really only present at the start and a few optional areas later; the rest either doesn't exist, is for fanon from some easter eggs put in the game, or to be included in future updates.

The game currently has four game modes; Survival, in which you need to keep check on HP, Oxygen, Hydration, and Hunger. Then there's Hardcore, which is Survival with perma-death. Then there's Freedom, which is Survival without Hunger or Hydration, and finally Creative, which is basically godmode as you're totally invincible. (I've played through the first three and tbh I have to say that I wnjoy Survival the most, although its mainly because its so easy to die as of now; the caves in the very first area has exploding fishes which can OHKO you, and Freedom just completely nerfs the need for fish and a few pieces of equipment)

Anyway, I downloaded the game off of Steam a week or three ago, and I've been enjoying this game a lot. Despite still being in a very Early Access, the game already plays out very polished. Though there are still a lot of creatires and biomes and the such being added to the game, it already feels very, idk, vibrant? The areas of the world are very diverse and both flora and fauna present are interesting and visually appealling. The fact that button inputs can be changed is a nice thing, and the way they're used (swimming, the crafting system) feels very intuitive and natural.

One of this game's main selling points, though, are the asthetics. The world frankly looks gorgeous. And it isn't just the scenery that's pretty but the creatures too, and of course the two together. Not spoiling because it is literally somrthing that needs to be seen to be believed. Its not procedurally generated, but rather made by hand, which I think really allows the areas of the game to come alive.


So yeah, even if you don't want to pick it up (but I do recommend picking it up, especially because Early Access will be treated as Special Edition once the full game comes out with a few extra dtuff the regular game doesn't have), at least go watch a LP of the game or something, just to go look at the game a bit because tbh this game really needs to at least be looked at.