Subnautica: Below Zero (2021)

It's like the first one, but instead of building more good things on top of the good things they had going in the first game, they did some trading.

Cons: There being so much land removes that unique sensation of "lost at sea" that made the first one so special from the beginning. The caves and ruins are worse, a lot less interesting than the ones in the first game. The land section is too convoluted for a game with no map or compass (well, there IS a map of this lands, you have to find it first, it's not detailed at all and there's nothing pointing out your location). The truck is too powerful for a vehicle that you get so early in the game, as soon as you discover that you can run over big enemies and they permanently die on the spot, causing you nearly no damage , the game stops having you on your toes 80% of the time. There's a survival mode, but resources are too abundant everywhere, which turns survival into a chore instead of a challenge, my recommendation is to play without the survival stuff. The prawn suit is uselss and the submarine is gone and there's nothing to replace it, it was hella cool :(

Pros: exploration is still fun, they allow you to see some things that look dangerous, and avoid them for a while, and then at some point, without telling you textually, you come to realize that you have to face this dangers head-on, a great approach that got carried over from the first game. The land vehicle is a lot of fun, it was a great idea making it pocketable, considering how convoluded the terrain is. The story is decent, the ending is WILD, good shit, but you MUST play the first game before this one to enjoy it best.

Overall worse than the first game, but still good. I give it a 4.1/5

I played the latest steam release.

P.S.: i hate that the spiral plant is so small and nondescript, it made me miss it and i ended up having to backtrack the entire final cave bc i thought it had to be at the deepest point since i didn't find it anywhere else and it's requiered for the last step in finishing the game. Turns out it's not at the end of the cave, it's at the entrance, it just looks useless like the rest of the enviromental decoration plants that are next to it.

I enjoyed Subnautica: Below Zero immediately when I started playing it as it was, surprising no one, "more Subnautica." And I loved Subnautica, and wanted more of it to play! I enjoyed feeling like I had immediate mastery of the systems, and was able to jump right in with the standard gather-research-build loop. But the progression and story for Below Zero are both a holey mess, with gaps lacking clear direction of what to do next and misfires in PC and NPC empathy. By the end of the game, I didn't like the absent-hero character Sam at all, which left the remaining NPC and PC characters untethered from clear motivation. The game contradicts the theming and events of the first game, and even contradicts itself.

It's not a bad game, and fair enough: it's only "bad" in comparison to the fantastic original. But it is, as is often the case with such "more of the thing you like" sequels, a disappointment, where the original was a beautiful surprise.

An excellent sequel to the original, it has the same satisfying open-world survival/exploration mechanics with some welcome updates/additions and polish. The player is still on the aquatic world of 4546B but on the frigid pole, so there are all new biomes to explore, with new scenery, new flora and fauna to discover, and even new creature types with new kinds of behaviors to be surprised by.

The plot is all-new and as compelling as the original if not moreso, with a new (and more fleshed-out/involved) protagonist whose adventure is all its own, but with references to the first game's story that give some continuity and tie up some of the loose ends from the past.

I loved the original Subnautica, and I also really enjoyed this iteration. The lovely, vibrant life of the deep meshed beautifully with the crafting and exploration.

I did feel that the land-based exploration was somewhat of a chore, though. I found it easy to get lost on land, and my go-to solution in the deep of "when in doubt, go up" doesn't work there. The land areas were also less interesting and colorful than the ocean floor and I missed the importance of the Pengling Research and so found myself stuck there for quite a while. I also wasted a lot of time exploring cruising around searching for some of the alien bit and pieces since it wasn't well-telegraphed that the area I explored to find one site also contained another. So for me the eak spots in this sequel, like much in the first game, were getting lost and wandering aimlessly after finding most of what there was to find and/or develop.

Still, I liked the story as it was, and the telling through snippets. I wish they'd do more of everything (environments, life forms, story, crafting) in the future. Recommended, especially with good music or podcasts to listen to while swimming around.