Subnautica Review

Game: Subnautica
Genre: Adventure, Survival, Indie
System: Nintendo Switch (also on iOS)
Developers | Publishers: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Age Rating: US E10+ | EU 7+
Price: US $29.99 | UK £24.49 | EU €29,99
Release Date: May 14, 2021

Many thanks for the review code kindly provided by Unknown Worlds Entertainment.

Have you ever stared out at the ocean and wished you could just swim around underneath the waves and see what’s there? Well, in Subnautica you can do just that. In fact, you must! Your very survival depends on what you can catch and scavenge in this underwater survival game. How am I liking it so far? Let’s find out…

Story

Your escape pod crash lands on a watery world. You are alone, separated from any other potential survivors, surrounded by water on an alien world. Your spaceship is in flames in the distance, and you can’t approach it due to radiation levels. What do you do? Start swimming!

Gameplay and Menus

A friend described this game style as “survival management.” I understood that to mean that you need to carefully manage limited resources in order to advance. You swim around, catch fish, scavenge metals and collect broken ship parts, take them back to your pod and create what you need. But keep in mind you have limited storage space. So be careful what you take with you, or you’ll run out of room for the resources you find out in the ocean. Don’t take enough, and you may not have food, water, or oxygen when you need it most. Carefully watch your stats, or you won’t make it. Frankly, I’ve died a LOT in this game. Don’t drop me on an alien water planet!

There’s a handy device that allows you to check what you’re carrying, see how to build different survival items, and (after you create a scanner) read about the items and creatures that you’ve scanned. You’ll be checking this a lot, as there isn’t much to go on when you first wake up in your crashed ship. It’s very helpful to read about what you encounter, especially as the story progresses and the mysteries deepen.

This is a challenge!

I will fully admit: Although I adore and try to play any swimming games that I get my hands on, I started Subnautica very much in the deep end. I am still not very far along in the story, because although I’ve played quite a few hours, it’s taken me a while to really get a handle on how to progress. Resetting my brain to think of this title as a type of management game really helped, and I am slowly swimming along. But am I ever enjoying the journey!

Graphics and Music

The music sets the scene for exploring an alien world. It really amps of the creepiness of the murky waters. The world you’re exploring could either have colourful fish to catch and coral tubes to explore, be a dim forest of alien seaweed, or the deep ocean with creatures, caves and rocks looming out of the deep. The music needs to reflect this mystery, and I think it does. It sounds very retro science fiction, which is a good match for this title.

And that leads us to the graphics: I love, love, LOVE the design of this world. It makes me nervous swimming into new areas, as it really gives the impression of both alienness and depth. Creatures really do come into view from the deep as if you were swimming through a murky sea. It is beautiful, unsettling, and it keeps me coming back for more. I’ve never really understood the draw of renting out a movie theatre to play a video game. I get it now. It would be incredible to see this world on a big screen.

Creative Mode

If you’re intrigued but think this game may be too hard for you, fear not! There are several different difficulty levels, including a Creative mode where everything is available. You can explore the environment at your leisure and build anything you want as you go! And this mode is available right away, so you don’t have to play the story if you don’t feel like it.

Any Issues?

The load time is long, but once it’s set up all is well. I do have some issues with solid objects disappearing. I’ve heard this described as a glitch in the game’s invisible wall. For instance, I’ve drowned a few times because I thought I saw a way out of a cave, but it was just the ceiling of the cage glitching out.

This is not an issue, but if you, like me, are used to fairly straightforward storylines, just be aware that this one doesn’t hold your hand. You need to do a lot of exploring and trying to figure out what’s going on. I am not finding that it moves quickly from one point to the next. Perhaps it will accelerate as I progress, which leads me to…

Conclusion and Announcement!

Subnautica is a challenging and gorgeous game. I love finding new creatures, and they even change with the in-game “seasons”. Frankly, I can’t see how this game could possibly get boring since I am enjoying myself so much, and because I have a lot of story and environment left to discover,

I have decided to do a short series of articles as I continue playing through this title. Look for upcoming “Summer in Subnautica” articles if you want to follow my underwater journey!

Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot