I know others love these things, but no, it’s not for me. It’s the kind of place I actually wouldn’t mind living in myself – being under the sea and free of people and all – but the sheer busy work to gather everything up is not my idea of a good time. The bulk of and survival title’s loop is “collect X of resource Y to craft Z which will help you explore further, making it easier to collect resource A and look! Here’s blueprints B, C, and D that you can craft once you’ve got enough A.” You start out with a tiny pod, storage box and crafting bench being your entire world, but as you collect more resources and start crafting materials, you end up making a pretty nice little home for yourself. On the other hand… lord are survival games exhausting. The developers have delivered exactly what they were looking to with this game, and that’s laudable. The environment itself is the lead character and much of the game’s emergent narrative-heavy experience is in interacting with it and learning about it.

Not everything is friendly and most areas in the world are anything but safe, but every new sight and creature is fascinatingly exotic, and there’s a strong sense of place and being to Subnautica’s world. As far as the good is concerned, Sabnautica: Below Zero offers an ethereal exploration experience, with exotic worlds to explore (both above and below the ocean), and a true sense of wonder as you do so.

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