Subnautica is game that makes an excellent first impresssion.

Following a very brief cinematic you spend a moment repairing your lifepod and collecting some tools. Once you exit your lifepod, the game greets you with sweeping vista of its vast ocean, with an omninous space ship in the distance and other landmarks (cleverly obscured by fog to enhance the mystery). There are no cutscenes, no NPCs telling you what to do (aside from a passive AI) and no waypoints telling you where to go. You are free to go wherever you want, whenever you want. It's a powerful moment very reminiscent of stepping out into the wasteland in Fallout 3 and while the game will guide you with simple on-screen prompts to harvest minerals or catch fish, you are free to ignore all of them.

Depending on your gamemode however, you won't be able to ignore them forever. Every gamemode has some common aspects of gameplay: Exploring the environment, learning more about the creatures & their habitats and creating bases and technology. In Survival players are tasked with managing resources, health, hunger, thirst and of course avoiding death by one of Subnautica's many hazards. I recommend playing Survival the first time you play as it provides an excellent balance between discovery and staying alive. Exploring a dark trench at night, managing your Oxygen and avoiding hostile creatures is a tense experience. For those who want a more passive and easier experience, Creative will allow you to explore without hesitation and freely experiment with the games base building. There is also a Hardcore mode thats will delete your save upon death, a feature that is much more frustrating than exciting given the cheap deaths you can suffer, especially to the games one-hit kill enemies.

The games environments do an excellent job of gradually introducing you to Subnautica's alien world. You will start off within a colourful reef where the safety of the surface is only a short swim away but as you keep playing you will find yourself delving ever deeper, discovering strange alien landscapes such as forests of giant plants, cave networks with purple mushrooms, deep trenches and more.

The game gives you incentive to visit these locations with rare minerals and blueprints required to create the games high level technology. The deeper you go, the more dangerous the game becomes with oxygen harder to come by and hostile creatures patrolling relentlessly for a chance to get a bite out of you. This creates a brilliant risk/reward system for exploration that even extends into inventory management.

All this exploration wouldn't mean much if players weren't being rewarded for it and just about anything you collect in Subnautica can be used to create awesome bases, technology and vehicles. The Base Components range from simple rooms for storing your materials, hallways and observation spheres to more advanced components such as a dock for your submersible, aquariums and a recently added scanning room. Building a base is simple with components easily snapping to each other and the game essentially allows you to create a base ANYWHERE in the game world, which is very empowering. The Technology and Equipment you create take advantage of the far-future setting with gadgets such as Stasis rifles, Gravity guns, Material fabricators, Flashlights, Diving gliders, scanners and more. Almost everything in game has a pupose and you may be surprised to find new uses for some equipment you may not have thought of at first such as using a current generator as an elevator or a Gravity gun to catch fish.

Of course, getting around in a game set underwater would be difficult in Subnautica's expansive world, so you have three Submersibles to get you around the world. The agile Seamoth is ideal for quickly getting around the world and can be fitted with several modules to add storage, defence or navigation properties. By comparison, the slow moving Cyclops may not seem that useful but serves as an excellent mobile base and housing for your Seamoth. Finally you have the PRAWN suit, a versatile mech suit that travels along the sea floor instead of freely through the water. This powerful mech suit is essential for deep sea expeditions and effecient resource collection.

Subnautica is a beautiful game. The lighting and water physics are some of the best I have seen and the environments burst with life and colour. Despite being set within an ocean, the world feels alien and mysterious with flora and fauna ranging from adorable to utterly terrifying. The audio is equally powerful from the suitably Sci-Fi sounding audio cues for tools, bases and vehicles to screeching roars of distance creatures. The soundtack seamlessly transitions into the background and compliments the alien and sci-fi theme of the world. Special mention should also go out to the AI voicework, with their many repeated cues never getting old thanks to their soothing digitised voices.

The games biggest flaw is it's lack of replayabilty. Don't let my 200 hours of playtime deceive you, these hours consist of multiple replays whenever a new update was added during it's Early Access period. Achieving the games current end goal will only take you roughly 20 - 30 hours, depending on how much time you want to spend on exploring and base buidling. Upon exploring all biomes and creating all the technology, you will have little reason to continue playing other than to try out a different game mode or build bases in new locations. Combat with the games hostiles is barebones, simple strafing or retreating is enough to avoid most creatures and creatures can only be stunned as stated before. The games has a 'story' of sorts to guide you to the end goal but it's rather weak and lacks significance to your overall experience. It's more of an excuse to guide you towards specific (though interesting) locations in the world. The games optimisation was improved considerably towards the end of its Early Access period. Running the game on my M.2 SSD, there are still minor hitches as you move quickly throught the world but overall the game performance is much improved.

I was very satisfied to have purchased Subnautica back in 2015 and the game has improved significantly since that time. This is a game with the freedom to do as you please and submerged in atmosphere. You won't regret taking a dive into Subnautica.

Subnautica is game that makes an excellent first impresssion. Following a very brief cinematic you spend a moment repairing your lifepod and collecting some tools. Once you exit your lifepod, the game greets you with sweeping vista of its vast ocean, with an omninous space ship in the distance and other landmarks (cleverly obscured by fog to enhance the mystery). There are no cutscenes, no NPCs telling you what to do (aside from a passive AI) and no waypoints telling you where to go. You are free to go wherever you want, whenever you want. It's a powerful moment very reminiscent of stepping out into the wasteland in Fallout 3 and while the game will guide you with simple on-screen prompts to harvest minerals or catch fish, you are free to ignore all of them. Depending on your gamemode however, you won't be able to ignore them forever. Every gamemode has some common aspects of gameplay: Exploring the environment, learning more about the creatures & their habitats and creating bases and technology. In [b] Survival [/b] players are tasked with managing resources, health, hunger, thirst and of course avoiding death by one of Subnautica's many hazards. I recommend playing Survival the first time you play as it provides an excellent balance between discovery and staying alive. Exploring a dark trench at night, managing your Oxygen and avoiding hostile creatures is a tense experience. For those who want a more passive and easier experience, [b] Creative [/b] will allow you to explore without hesitation and freely experiment with the games base building. There is also a [b] Hardcore [/b] mode thats will delete your save upon death, a feature that is much more frustrating than exciting given the cheap deaths you can suffer, especially to the games one-hit kill enemies. The games environments do an excellent job of gradually introducing you to Subnautica's alien world. You will start off within a colourful reef where the safety of the surface is only a short swim away but as you keep playing you will find yourself delving ever deeper, discovering strange alien landscapes such as forests of giant plants, cave networks with purple mushrooms, deep trenches and more. The game gives you incentive to visit these locations with rare minerals and blueprints required to create the games high level technology. The deeper you go, the more dangerous the game becomes with oxygen harder to come by and hostile creatures patrolling relentlessly for a chance to get a bite out of you. This creates a brilliant risk/reward system for exploration that even extends into inventory management. All this exploration wouldn't mean much if players weren't being rewarded for it and just about anything you collect in Subnautica can be used to create awesome bases, technology and vehicles. The [b] Base Components [/b] range from simple rooms for storing your materials, hallways and observation spheres to more advanced components such as a dock for your submersible, aquariums and a recently added scanning room. Building a base is simple with components easily snapping to each other and the game essentially allows you to create a base ANYWHERE in the game world, which is very empowering. The [b] Technology and Equipment [/b] you create take advantage of the far-future setting with gadgets such as Stasis rifles, Gravity guns, Material fabricators, Flashlights, Diving gliders, scanners and more. Almost everything in game has a pupose and you may be surprised to find new uses for some equipment you may not have thought of at first such as using a current generator as an elevator or a Gravity gun to catch fish. Of course, getting around in a game set underwater would be difficult in Subnautica's expansive world, so you have three Submersibles to get you around the world. The agile [b] Seamoth [/b] is ideal for quickly getting around the world and can be fitted with several modules to add storage, defence or navigation properties. By comparison, the slow moving [b] Cyclops [/b] may not seem that useful but serves as an excellent mobile base and housing for your Seamoth. Finally you have the [b] PRAWN [/b] suit, a versatile mech suit that travels along the sea floor instead of freely through the water. This powerful mech suit is essential for deep sea expeditions and effecient resource collection. Subnautica is a beautiful game. The lighting and water physics are some of the best I have seen and the environments burst with life and colour. Despite being set within an ocean, the world feels alien and mysterious with flora and fauna ranging from adorable to utterly terrifying. The audio is equally powerful from the suitably Sci-Fi sounding audio cues for tools, bases and vehicles to screeching roars of distance creatures. The soundtack seamlessly transitions into the background and compliments the alien and sci-fi theme of the world. Special mention should also go out to the AI voicework, with their many repeated cues never getting old thanks to their soothing digitised voices. The games biggest flaw is it's lack of replayabilty. Don't let my 200 hours of playtime deceive you, these hours consist of multiple replays whenever a new update was added during it's Early Access period. Achieving the games current end goal will only take you roughly 20 - 30 hours, depending on how much time you want to spend on exploring and base buidling. Upon exploring all biomes and creating all the technology, you will have little reason to continue playing other than to try out a different game mode or build bases in new locations. Combat with the games hostiles is barebones, simple strafing or retreating is enough to avoid most creatures and creatures can only be stunned as stated before. The games has a 'story' of sorts to guide you to the end goal but it's rather weak and lacks significance to your overall experience. It's more of an excuse to guide you towards specific (though interesting) locations in the world. The games optimisation was improved considerably towards the end of its Early Access period. Running the game on my M.2 SSD, there are still minor hitches as you move quickly throught the world but overall the game performance is much improved. I was very satisfied to have purchased Subnautica back in 2015 and the game has improved significantly since that time. This is a game with the freedom to do as you please and submerged in atmosphere. You won't regret taking a dive into Subnautica.