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I’ve started writing this, but I’m still not sure where I’m going to put Subnautica, tier-wise. It’s certainly good – my initial opinion wasn’t too far off the mark. Still, my mind kept making comparisons to FarSky even though it’s been three and a half years since I played either of these games. In most ways, Subnautica is just a prettier, longer, and more complete version of FarSky. The trouble is that that includes the flaws as well.
That being said, it’s hard to beat Subnautica on first impressions – even the first impressions you get 3/4 of the way through the game. Each zone is incredibly pretty and filled with its own biological niche, and up until that point the things you discover are all pieces of a intriguing puzzle. Your traversal options get gradually more liberating until you’re spending all of your time under the sea and barely worrying about oxygen (and only occasionally worrying about storage space). I restarted partway through to play on Freedom mode since the Survival hunger/thirst mechanics were more annoyances than difficulties (tying up valuable inventory slots with incredibly common materials). Still, the progression was preserved without these mechanics – which is either a tribute to the efforts of the developers or an indication of the vestigial nature of hunger/thirst mechanics.
The only real trouble I had up to that point was with an incredible amount of pop-in. I was able to fix it with a json tweak at the cost of turning my desktop computer into a remarkably effective room heater.
And here, I must warn you of SPOILERS BELOW since my remaining comments must talk about the last 1/4 of the game as well as technical difficulties that began arising therein. They will only be light spoilers, but be forewarned nevertheless.
Starting with the technical issues: as my game wore on and my clicking became more efficient, I started having the worst time with the user interface. If I clicked too quickly, menus would pop up only to disappear and storage containers would close only to leave me unable to move or click on anything. In some areas, walls would disappear and I would end up on the wrong side of geometry. Fish can often be seen swimming through air or through airless caverns. The Prawn suit would get stuck on geometry and require warping away and back again to fix. And it goes on. Strangely, these issues seemed to be most prevalent in end-game areas and with end-game equipment (i.e. the Prawn suit) – which makes me wonder if it was simply a QA thing.
But let’s talk about the Prawn Suit (and for that matter, the Cyclops). When you first construct the Prawn Suit, your PDA warns you not to fall into the trap of feeling invincible in power armor. The thing is: I hated the Prawn Suit from the moment I started using it, primarily because movement is so very clunky and prone to getting stuck on the smallest items. The only reason I used it was because the Seamoth cannot be reinforced for beyond 900m (versus 1700m in the Prawn Suit). The Cyclops – your late-game sub – has limitations as well, but these are understandable (except for the ridiculous steering) as you are crewing a three person vehicle alone and the effort is generally rewarded with several advantages over the Seamoth. All this was clearly intentional, but forcing players to use annoying transportation just made me spend as little time as possible in the end game areas, and not because of the deep sea leviathans attacking you.
And yes: the deep sea leviathans are another problem. Rather, they aren’t much of a problem, which is the problem. Yes, they are incredibly scary the first few times you encounter them (as are most hostile creatures), but the Seamoth can outrun/outmaneuver them and the Cyclops can withstand the beating long enough to get out of range (which is also true of most hostile creatures). When the leeches that stick to your hull and drain your battery are a bigger problem than the 100-foot long reaper leviathan, your difficulty curve might need adjustment. There is a caveat to this, I suppose: you can fabricate very few offensive weapons and there are no real secrets to avoiding them (other than the standard “be quiet,” which works about 50% of the time), so your ability to combat these leviathans is limited – a true threat could easily make the game almost impossible. Even with that, however, the “final” enemy you meet is so poorly controlled that I actually thought it was neutral/friendly (I had a good reason to believe that) for a good 5-10 minutes before suddenly dying.
The final comment I have on the experience is about solving the grand mystery (don’t worry, I won’t get specific) and the final areas. The setup for the three main mysteries is quite good and maintains a good pace until about the time you finish exploring the wreck of the Aurora and the islands. Shortly after, one of the mysteries (involving a previous human presence) just ends with a predictable conclusion – no grand realization like the fate of the Nomai of Outer Wilds. Once your human touchstone is gone, you are left without much direction or investment in a story – just diving deeper because that’s where the minerals are. Indeed, I stumbled across three late-game alien areas mentioned in the log that came without directions before I found even one of the locations with directions. Then when I finally packed up my Cyclops and deployed my forward operating base – anticipating a need to survive long-term deep underground – I quickly found the last area of the game by accident and realized I was already at the end of my journey. Worse, the last mission is a fetch quest: I expected needing a grand tour of the area armed with newfound knowledge and perspective, not a quick warp to a location or two for a random item. Perhaps my expectations have been ruined by Outer Wilds.
That’s it – SPOILERS END HERE.
All that being said, most of the game is a fun survival exercise with beautiful environments, new things to discover (even if I wish blueprints scanning didn’t stick around for quite as long as it did), aquatic ecology that makes you want to stay and study it for just a little while longer, and a good (though not quite great) mystery to solve. I think I will still put Subnautica in Tier One – lower in the tier than my first impression would have been, but Tier One nonetheless. And, perhaps it would have stayed high had I not played Outer Wilds before finishing.
