Title: Subnautica
Developer: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Publisher: Unknown Worlds Entertainment *guessing*
Early Access Release: December 16th, 2014 / Full Release: N/A
Game Engine: Unity
Number of Players: Single Player
Genre: Open World Survival (Horror)
I’m sure most of you have played Bioshock by now. Crash-landing near a strange lighthouse, going into it, and heading down to Rapture. But have you ever pondered “Wow… I wish I could create an underwater city, too!”. If you have, then my friend…, this is your game. Because you can do this and so much more.
This Early Access game has limitless potential, and it will only get bigger.
Starting the game up and doing a new game, the player is greeted with the game mode screen. There are currently four game modes, each having its own set of rules;
-“Survival”: The true mode for survival lovers. The player must manage Health/Food/Thirst, and Oxygen.
-“Freedom”: A ‘dumbed down’ Survival mode. The player only has to worry about their Health and Oxygen. Food and Thirst aren’t a concern.
-“Hardcore”: The “manly men” mode. No warning of running out of oxygen, and has permadeath.
-“Creative”: No worries whatsoever. No need to craft things. Just build and have fun.
After the player picks an option, the game will load. This takes about a minute. Soon the player will find themself in an escape pod.
The game explains the current story;
It’s the late 22nd century, and the human race is colonizing other worlds. The player takes the role of being on the ill-fated Aurora. During its descent towards an unknown water-based planet, the vessel is hit by an unknown plasma blast that causes catastrophic damage to the ship’s engines.
Unable to get away from the planet’s gravitational pull, it crash-lands. The player however manages to escape from the ship and finds themself in a damaged (but still powered) escape pod (where the game eventually shows the game screen).
Three things to mention here. First, the controls. If the player comes up to something that has a hand icon, either the player can left click or have to use a tool(like a knife). Right clicking with a tool in hand will toggle the tool(be it the flashlight/knife/whatever.
Second thing to mention is the Escape Pod’s interior. There’s four POIs inside. Two are ladders. One goes up, and the other goes into the water. Another one is a machine to the right of the ladders, called the Fabricator. This is basically the player’s ‘Crafting Table’. Everytime the player makes something, it drains 5 units of power from the three self-charging power cells. These will eventually charge back.
The 4th and final POI of the Escape Pod, is the front of the pod. Opening this (left mouse) and then left mouse again will pull up the player’s inventory (Tab key by default). This is the escape pod’s only accessible storage compartment. There, either the player can drag things from their inventory and into the storage, or Shift+Left click will instantly place the item in and out.
Note that certain items in the player’s inventory (such as a scuba tank) can take multiple slots in the player’s inventory. The player must keep this to mind when searching for useful things on the sea floor.
One of those useful things is Scrap Metal, blown off from the Aurora crash. Each one can give the player 4 Titanium each(regardless of the size of the metal. Though this may change in a later build). This metal is the base metal for the game(such as Iron is for most other Survival games).
The 3rd and final thing to talk about, is the Aurora. If the player exits the escape pod and looks infront of them, they’ll see the doomed ship. Over time, the ship starts to get more and more unstable as the dark matter drive core eventually gets breached.
By Day 3, the Aurora will get so unstable as its dark matter core reaches a super critical state, to the point the ship eventually explodes in a powerful shockwave fireball. As long as the player is near the radius of the Escape Pod, they will not be injured by the blast. but now the player is pretty much stranded on this water world.
After the ship explodes, harmful radiation is released into the water near it. If the player ventures close to the ship without making a radiation suit, the player will eventually die from prolonged exposure to radiation. The player can avoid death by either moving out of the radiation, or by making the mentioned radiation suit.
At the time I write this review, the radiation will not move from its radius. This may change in future builds to add more of a rushed feeling of the player to quickly make the radiation suit.
The player can also stop the radiation when they feel they’re ready, by heading to the ship from either the front or the left side (near the front) and head down to the very chamber that blew; the Generator Room. Here, the player (if equipped with a Welder), can seal all 11 breaches. Once done, the radiation radius will disappear in 3 days and 10 hours(ingame time). This will allow areas that were covered in radiation to be accessible (without the need for the suit).. but will also make the suit, pointless.
With this all said and done, the player (in the current build), can make submarines and seabases. But a word of caution. Ocean life isn’t safe. There are nasties in pretty much every biome, from Stalkers to Sharks. But larger, scarier hostiles will be coming in future builds.. some even larger than the Reaper Leviathan.
So yeah, this game can literally turn into a horror game in a matter of moments. Especially if the player is in the open ocean and hears horrible ear-piercing sounds in the distance, yet not see the thing that made it…
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Before I venture deep, deep down into the ocean depths to where the planet’s sun cannot shine in my Cyclops, it’s time for my final review;
Good:
-Nice futuristic crafting system, compared to most Survival aspect games I’ve played.
-The player has a player model, and can even see their feet! The player isn’t a floating pair of hands.
-The developers WANT the player’s feedback to make their game better, even having a ‘Give feedback’ option in the pause menu (and even an achievement for submitting feedback).
-Having a ‘Freedom mode’ option for a dumbed down Survival aspect. Best. Thing. Ever (for me).
-The game can turn from “this is cool” to “Uhhhh.. what was that noise?!” when in open waters, with the player unable to see the sea floor.
-In some areas of the ocean, the seabed may not be visible for over 1,000m, giving the “Pit to Hell” feel.
-Peepers (big eyeball fish) are cool and you should love them. 🙂
Bad:
-The only ‘bad’ I’ll list that needs to be said, is the player will not know what to make next(the progression system is vague at best). The player must rely on the wiki, but this could change in a later build.
What I would like to see added:
-Being able to stop the Aurora from exploding in three ingame days. Then the player can salvage the ship for parts.
-New player tutorial system instead of having to use the wiki (that also uses what game mode the player takes).
-Being able to kill Reaper Leviathans.
-More powerful weapons than just the Survival Knife.
-The Seamoth to have a robotic arm upgrade, that can grab stuff that the player can when in deep sea scenarios. Of course the Exosuit would trump this.
-The player being able to craft self-charging power cells for their Seabase/Cyclops.
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Final Review: This is pretty awesome for an Early Access game. It has a great setup, and I feel it’s only going to get greater.
Do yourself a favor and buy this game. Unlike the last game, the devs care about new players (and want to get their feedback). The $15 is well-deserving for this quality of commitment from the developers.