Subnautica

I’m scared of the ocean. Well, that’s not quite true, I’m scared of what might live there; Sharks, jellyfish, those creepy fish with the big mouths and lights on their heads, makes me glad I live on land with the cats and cute bunny rabbits. This fear has never really left me and would manifest itself in my gaming life as well. Any vast underwater level would always create some semblance of anxiety if I knew there were monsters or creatures with large enough mouths to gobble me up. Jolly Roger Bay and the giant eel in Mario64 was the first example of this and whilst this aversion has lessened over time Subnautica was an experience that brought me right back to those early days of near paralysing undersea terror.

Yes there is land to explore and of course the aquatic world can be, and is, breathtakingly beautiful, but fuck me the ocean can be scary. Even in the calm of the bright shallows I’ll hear this roar or moan that induces spasms of mild panic. So when faced with the vast black abyss beyond it's hard not to stop, turn off the game and get some ice cream to calm me down.

Fortunately the game is also like getting dry socks in the trenches of World War I and propelled even a craven softie like me through its aquatic no man’s land to the end of Unknown World’s grand ocean odyssey. Having crash landed on an alien world you are forced to try and survive whilst looking for a way off the planet. Doing so will demand that you explore and Subnautica handles exploration deftly with a combination of breadcrumb guidance and free form discovery.

The extent and scope of your search however is dictated by your equipment and resources so survival and self-sufficiency is paramount to progression. You will need to manage your health, hunger, thirst for both the short and long term so much time will be spent crafting a habitat and outfitting it with the means to keep you fed and watered for the duration of your adventure.

All of this follows an identifiable gameplay loop where you explore an area, harvest it for materials and blueprints then return to put your new found gains to use in crafting equipment and resources for further, deeper and more dangerous expeditions. What Subnautica does so well is in how it cradles the process with this intricate, multi-layered environment which produces no small amount of awe.

Discovering new areas never gets old; the weird and wonderful plants and creatures, the unique geography and the many hidden secrets make the ocean a joy to navigate. There are mysteries to unravel and narrative threads to follow taking you ever deeper into its maw which is enough to drive experience in and of itself. That it is coupled with survival and crafting element only heightens the sense of satisfaction that comes from reaching new depths and overcoming the often hostile environment.

Even if you do struggle and happen to perish then you aren’t punished too harshly for it, you simply drop whatever you’re carrying which can be collected later and all your other creations remain unaffected when you return. This is welcome as death can come swiftly and there is no shortage of diners at the player character buffet. You very much get this sense of being an extremely small fish in an extremely large pond where even the protection of your subs and habitats don’t really mitigate a sense of vulnerability.

You do have means of fighting back but the effect is more keeping hostile creatures at bay than ending the threat permanently. Your greatest weapon is stealth and evasion as conflict doesn’t really yield much benefit and it’s always more satisfying to sneak up on dangerous creature for a clandestine scan than for an annoying bout of happy slaps.

Away from exploring you can build elaborate undersea habitats, 40 foot submarines and nuclear reactors, you can cultivate many different species of fish and plant life, not forgetting all the little customisation touches such as posters, beds and other decorations. It’s not as extensive as some of its contemporaries but Subnautica’s world, for all its size, is handcrafted and favours keeping a stronger narrative focus over having an out and out sandbox to play in.

Gathering materials as you might imagine plays a major role and to the game’s credit it’s never too much of a grind. Normal exploration will yield pretty much everything you need to make progress and the lure of the deep keeps things enticing. There is almost always a degree of utility to the things you can find and make so it never feels like you’re just collecting junk as even the most basic of crafting materials are needed for the later stage developments.

Visually it’s all very bright and makes excellent use of lighting and colour. Sunsets are suitably lovely and the darkness of the deep is all present and correct. It’s not cutting edge in any way but impressive given the modest budget and development resources available for a relatively ambitious project.

On the technical front things are mostly fine; having played after a number of patches I cannot say I was aware of any major issues other than one occasion where my submarine went flying across the map and I was then propelled from the sub and landed thousands of metres from anywhere approaching the normal play area. Besides that and some occasional clipping issues there wasn’t much to really spoil the experience. Performance as you might imagine varies given the number of effects and objects; at 1440p with a 980ti at near high settings it was perfectly playable and enjoyable but it was clear that at times some strain was being put on the system during transitions and a fair degree of pop in can bite at the immersion at times.

All that being said it’s great to see a long time early access title emerge to be as impressive as Subnautica is. Few experiences capture so beautifully the wonder and alien nature of the ocean; fewer still manage to imbue that wonder with meaningful exploration and a well structured story. Apparently only 5% of the earth’s waters are mapped and after having playing Subnautica for many hours it’s hard not to hope that the remaining 95% be this exciting.