Subnautica

A single-player adventure in a vast open world, with a first-person view, survival elements, and sandbox features. Playing the game will evoke feelings that arise from exploring the unknown, a sense that you are studying an untouched, pristine world and do not know how far and deep you can go.

You will be able to develop equipment and submarines capable of taking you to the most remote and unreachable corners of the world. Your gear, the presence of a deep-sea vehicle or spacesuit will affect the speed of progression, the level of danger, and interaction with living creatures. They are such that you have never seen even in your dreams.

The action of Subnautica takes place on the fictional planet 4546B, which is almost an ideal resort world in the imagination of a science fiction writer: a vast blue ocean with small islands and sunny beaches. All around, there is a life that is unlike anything on Earth. In addition to fauna, there is also unusual flora, such as huge glowing mushrooms.

The world of Subnautica is very large and therefore divided into biomes, each with its unique characteristics, inhabitants, and resources. While the initial locations are safe, bathed in light, and the picturesque underwater world is pleasing to the eye, later on, players are forced to visit places suitable for horror — it’s dark all around, there are periodic moans, screams, and other frightening sounds, and you must also avoid encounters with large, extremely dangerous creatures.

Thanks to high-quality models of wildlife, a well-filled and detailed game world, realistic water implementation, changes in lighting, refraction, distortion, and various effects of light and shadow, immersion in the world of Subnautica will feel almost real.

However, the first hours can be quite boring, which, as we noted in the review, is normal — all the enjoyment of the game will unfold later. From the initial guide , you can learn how to level up quickly and not die from huge creatures.

And although Subnautica is a sandbox with survival elements, the developers added a well-thought-out plot, even if it is presented as text on the screen. Following it is quite interesting if you do not forget to explore the game world. You cannot ignore the campaign and do your own thing here.

The story begins on the spaceship "Aurora," when Riley Robinson — the main character and head of secondary support systems — jumps into the ship's escape pod and urgently evacuates. This pod will be home throughout the game, and it can be upgraded.

During the game, an artificial intelligence guides the player, suggesting what to do and what to focus on. The first period is spent on adaptation, after which the character decides to repair the damaged ship and fly off the planet.

All of this will have to be done alone, as the other inhabitants of the ship did not survive long — they died in other pods or were eaten by predatory fish. Ten years before the events of Subnautica, a ship of colonists was sent to the planet, but the mission failed for some strange reason.

The player can discover the reasons for the failure, as well as learn many interesting facts about the world of Subnautica during the gameplay.

As usual, at the beginning of the game, the hero has nothing but a knife, a couple of medkits, a 3D printer, and a non-working radio. Everything else must be created independently, using that very 3D printer and resources hidden in the depths of the ocean.

There are many resources, divided into types: minerals (aluminum, gold, titanium, uranium, etc.), organic compounds (corals and all fauna), and fish of various shapes and sizes. All living organisms have their own character and behavior, and their habitat is defined. As a result, one can immediately understand where herbivores are, where predators are, and how to behave in different situations.

The developers skillfully balanced the difficulty. On one hand, the protagonist has four main characteristics: food, health, air supply, and thirst. All of these need to be satisfied as needed, otherwise, the character will die. There is also no fast travel, powerful guns, power armor — the character is an ordinary, fragile person.

On the other hand, the physical model does not take into account water pressure, and resource gathering is simplified to a minimum of actions. Cooking food, processing minerals into ore, and creating complex items is handled by just one workbench, and all recipes and current production capabilities of any component can always be checked in the player's PDA.

However, one should not expect any special action or intense dynamics from Subnautica. You swim in different places, find interesting things, discover unusual items, and enjoy all of it.