The continuation of the amazing Subnautica causes mixed impressions during playthrough and a very nasty aftertaste in the end.
Almost everything good that is in this game migrated from the first part.
Of the really nice innovations, I can only highlight little things in the form of indicators of battery charge and food freshness on the icons of these things in the inventory. Finally, you can switch the map and the flashlight on the glider separately. And in general that's all.
The main character has been added to the game. In the sense that they added him as a person. Appearance, chatter, etc. And this stupid sheep is ruining all immersiveness. She doesn't say anything particularly smart. Attitudes towards her range from indifference to fierce hatred.
The map has lost a lot in scale and depth. And yes, land appeared, the attitude towards which is approximately the same as towards the main character. There is nothing interesting or beautiful on it. 80% of the time there is bad weather, due to which the character quickly freezes and sees absolutely nothing.
Due to the reduced scale of everything in the game, vehicles have been redesigned. They removed the Cyclops because there was nowhere to swim on it. And instead of a moth we now have a sailor. And despite the amazing idea, this is terrible crap. Essentially, this is a steam locomotive to which you can attach carriages with different functionality. But in the end, without carriages, it is a slow and clumsy little moth. With the carriages, it is an undercyclops that can barely crawl, has absolutely no control and is constantly bumping into something. A hovering sushi motorcycle has appeared, the use of which is to get from point A to point B and forget about it, as well as about land. The crab costume has been preserved, which even seemed to have a couple of new tricks, but which I did not build due to its absolute uselessness. And because of all this bullshit with transport and the size of the map, there is no longer this foray for resources, when you sailed God knows where on a Cyclops, went down on a crab and dug for minerals, then sawed back. The need for resources is now much weaker. It seemed to me that there were fewer of them needed + everything was at hand, so to speak. The game was also slightly enhanced by the ability to replenish oxygen directly underwater with the help of fish and plants. Due to the small number of biomes and their poor diversity, exploration also suffered greatly.
Added a plot. Well, as they added... He was in the first part, only now the narrative is more standard or something. And this is a complete failure on all fronts. Further spoilers. The incurable disease from the first part turns out to be afraid of the cold! From the diaries it becomes clear that she was on this planet, but disappeared. And definitely no one treated her. According to the plot, we find a medicine that was invented by the DRUM ROLL sister of the main character, who is generally a fucking technician! Probably superminds in the form of aliens are too smart for all this and are too far from mortal existence and don’t care that they are almost extinct. Did I already mention that the main character is talking nonsense and a lot of it? So, 90% of the magazines from the Alterrans are the same nonsense, and there are also noticeably more of them. They even managed to add references to homosexuals and lesbians. By the way, the main character is black, looking for a black relative, and the only NPC in the game is an incredibly strong and independent Amazon woman. And anyway, I don’t know what it is.
Despite all of the above, Below Zero is still a good game. It’s never great, much less a masterpiece, but good. But it's a bad Subnautica and just a terrible sequel. With a minimum number of innovations, with exactly the same graphics, with a bunch of interior elements, crafting, etc. carried over from the first part, but costing the same money. This is hack work. And there is no particular point in playing it until the next part comes out, because then it will at least act as a connecting link. Maybe...