Rating: Good/Great
Really great standalone expansion. Improves on a lot from Subnautica but also is a much smaller game. The air bladder going from being basically useless in the first game to an essential item early-mid game item in Below Zero is one of the best examples of the improvements this game makes. Base building is also expanded upon and I love the new additions, the majority of my playtime was spent perfecting my base and I might continue tweaking it even after finishing the game. This game is also incredibly buggy which is strange because it was in early access and a lot of this bugs are pretty noticeable.
This one is far more story driven and the game doesn't really justify this direction. I thought the story in the first game was far more compelling on top of it having a silent protagonist. The mystery this game sets up with your sister is pretty anti-climactic, and the mystery involving what happened to the precursor race ends the game on a cliffhanger ending. I hate cliffhanger endings.
This game has some incredibly frustrating sections like the part with the Ice Worm and Shadow Leviathans.
The end game area is the worst part of the game which is incredibly disappointing considering the best part of the first game was preparing and making the trip to the final area; it really felt like an adventure. The final area in this game is easily accessible and not nearly as visually interesting as the Ghost Forest from the first game and the last little section that houses the Fabricator Base is basically the same thing but instead of the crystals being blue they are now red.
I encountered a particularly infuriating moment when I arrived at the Fabricator Base only to find out that I had to go back to the surface and gather materials all over the map and then make the trip all the way back down just so I could finish the game. On top of that, for some reason you aren't allowed to take your Prawn Suit inside the facility which means I had to keep it parked outside. In my absence, the Shadow Leviathan outside destroyed it which meant I had to swim all the way back to my Seatruck. At that point I just used console commands to teleport all the materials I needed into my inventory and then teleport myself back into my Seatruck. I don't understand how something like this could get past play testing, especially when the Subnatuica team takes player feedback extremely seriously.
One final note is that I thought the temperature mechanic was pretty shallow. It's really just the same thing as an oxygen meter for land, only it depletes faster when there is bad weather which might I add is constant. The storms are extremely low visibility, which is awesome, but it wears out its welcome when they roll in every six minutes. It's really strange that you can't get cold when you are in the water, and the temperature makes no sense either. Apparently 6 degrees Celsius is enough to give you hypothermia on land but 1 degree Celsius at the bottom of the ocean is nice and toasty.
As glaring as the issues are, they don't last very long. It's not as good as the first game but it is still worth playing. I had fun with it, but I hope the team moves on from Subnautica before the formula gets too stale.
Really great standalone expansion. Improves on a lot from Subnautica but also is a much smaller game. The air bladder going from being basically useless in the first game to an essential item early-mid game item in Below Zero is one of the best examples of the improvements this game makes. Base building is also expanded upon and I love the new additions, the majority of my playtime was spent perfecting my base and I might continue tweaking it even after finishing the game. This game is also incredibly buggy which is strange because it was in early access and a lot of this bugs are pretty noticeable.
This one is far more story driven and the game doesn't really justify this direction. I thought the story in the first game was far more compelling on top of it having a silent protagonist. The mystery this game sets up with your sister is pretty anti-climactic, and the mystery involving what happened to the precursor race ends the game on a cliffhanger ending. I hate cliffhanger endings.
This game has some incredibly frustrating sections like the part with the Ice Worm and Shadow Leviathans.
The end game area is the worst part of the game which is incredibly disappointing considering the best part of the first game was preparing and making the trip to the final area; it really felt like an adventure. The final area in this game is easily accessible and not nearly as visually interesting as the Ghost Forest from the first game and the last little section that houses the Fabricator Base is basically the same thing but instead of the crystals being blue they are now red.
I encountered a particularly infuriating moment when I arrived at the Fabricator Base only to find out that I had to go back to the surface and gather materials all over the map and then make the trip all the way back down just so I could finish the game. On top of that, for some reason you aren't allowed to take your Prawn Suit inside the facility which means I had to keep it parked outside. In my absence, the Shadow Leviathan outside destroyed it which meant I had to swim all the way back to my Seatruck. At that point I just used console commands to teleport all the materials I needed into my inventory and then teleport myself back into my Seatruck. I don't understand how something like this could get past play testing, especially when the Subnatuica team takes player feedback extremely seriously.
One final note is that I thought the temperature mechanic was pretty shallow. It's really just the same thing as an oxygen meter for land, only it depletes faster when there is bad weather which might I add is constant. The storms are extremely low visibility, which is awesome, but it wears out its welcome when they roll in every six minutes. It's really strange that you can't get cold when you are in the water, and the temperature makes no sense either. Apparently 6 degrees Celsius is enough to give you hypothermia on land but 1 degree Celsius at the bottom of the ocean is nice and toasty.
As glaring as the issues are, they don't last very long. It's not as good as the first game but it is still worth playing. I had fun with it, but I hope the team moves on from Subnautica before the formula gets too stale.