Subnautica: A perfect sci-fi world

Intro

Subnautica is a 2018 survival game set on an ocean world, made by unknown worlds entertainment, It is a perfect example of a survival game done right, even though the genre is very bland most of the time filled with repetitive content, Subnautica has managed to escape the trap of the genre and rise to classic status. Subnautica went into early access in 2014, and had slow updates, the big twist with the game compared to most survival games is the lack of weapons, leaving you entirely defenseless! And with how big and terrifying the creatures in this game made it horrific!

The world and the pros

The best thing about Subnautica is the world it is set in, the environments, Iconic creatures, and the story it tells, which can be highly emotional and fascinating. at the beginning it seems like a simple survival story where you have to escape the planet, but it keeps getting built upon! In Subnautica there are other crashed life pod's which are all destroyed, they all have pda's with haunting audio logs or even just data logs, which tells the story of what happened to them, some just died from the impact with the surface, some had the life pods deploy wrong so it did not float properly, and some had the life pod forcefully ripped open by some sort of creature.

The creatures in this game are interesting as they aren't monsters, they are animals trying to survive, they will hunt you and other creatures, they will run, or some even have unique mechanisms to survive, for example, one of the smaller creatures in the game, the peeper, has a big yellow glowing eye, and while running away it will close the eye and go into a darker area so it will be harder to find it! there is a lot more to this game, I will not spoil most of it. I do recommend playing it.

Cons

The biggest issue with Subnautica is a double edged sword, Around half of the worlds width is used for 3 biomes, The dunes, mountains, and crash zone, these biomes are different from the rest as they are murky and dark, and honestly really scary, BUT the issue is how it spawns a big creature called a Reaper leviathan, Which is the scariest creature in the game, on one hand, It makes exploring the world constantly scary, but There is no reason to go to the dunes, or any of the 3, no unique items, except for the crash zone which you have to go into 1 time and spend most of the time on land away from the danger, which means a big chunk of the map is basically just meant to scare the player, The area overall is less than 50% considering the underground areas, but overall I think to much of the map is used for the dunes.

Verdict

Subnautica has a beautiful and horrific world, which is one of the best areas I have gotten to explore in any game, the lore and the world with the unique mechanics makes me consider Subnautica a masterpiece.

9 funny fish out of 10

Sam Randolph is a Junior at Poudre High School and in her first year at the Poudre Press.