Subnautica: Below Zero

[PlanktonSideburns]

got it!

alas the

Spoiler alert

seamonkeys

[close]

are on my side now, so i cant in good concience hit and run em

[PlanktonSideburns]

ALL ABOARD THE SEA BUS FUCKERS

[Blue Jam]

One thing I love about both Subnautica games is the way they don't feel like you're playing "on rails" at all. There's no map, no quests, no markers, and when you do get a signal from a beacon, a distress call etc, it may be marked but it still may not be obvious how you even get to it. It's so refreshing to have a real challenge, a game that lets you wander about aimlessly and explore where other games would have an NPC telling you to get a move on hinting that maybe you should try looking under that rock etc.

[PlanktonSideburns]

true that! starting to get a sense of a sise of this map, and the fear of giant things is setting in again. got my truck leviathaned for the first time, seen some proper 'there is no god' size glaciers, loving this

[jobotic]

Would you enjoy it if you were ten years old or shit your pants? Son likes the sound of it but says he heard it was a horror game.

Sorry, will stop asking questions soon.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I dunno, some people seem to not be so scared by it, it's more the atmosphere than horrific stuff happening, got 12 year old nephew on it and he wasn't too phased, but scared of some of the big fish but in a wholesome way. Kids seem to just rinse the grind elements like it's roblox

[Blue Jam]

Would you enjoy it if you were ten years old or shit your pants? Son likes the sound of it but says he heard it was a horror game.

Sorry, will stop asking questions soon.

Ask away, I could talk about this game all day!

To answer your question, I'll put it this way: I like my horror games, but the original Subnautica remains the only game that has ever made me scream like Homer Simpson. Not even Alien: Isolation had that effect on me.

;) I can't speak for your son though. I would only ever play this game in Survival Mode but I imagine Creative Mode is a different experience entirely. The grindy, crafty, base-buildy bits might be fun if he's into Minecraft (and it's a hell of a lot better-looking than Minecraft). You can also build a big aquarium in this and put fish and their eggs in it, could be cute to have a few Sea Monkeys and Pengwings about the place.

Then again, you might want to consider this and this. And no fucking way would I ever play it in VR...

This is all praise btw, the original remains my second favourite game after Prey. It's truly remarkable how it veers between being a chilled experience and a terrifying one, how it can go from being claustrophobic to agoraphobic, but the play mode makes a huge difference here.

[jobotic]

Oh rights, that's useful to know, thanks. yeah he does like Minecraft - I hadn't realised there was a creative mode. Like the sound of the aquarium. Reckon I'll get this after payday then!

[evilcommiedictator]

A bit more progress but it seems like I'm a bit behind you all, got

Spoiler alert

a gift of

[close]

Lithium so I was happy, seems to be the rarest early element for me, and I really enjoyed finding gold and diamond, really cool idea!
Stumbled upon some of the first big quest items, which is one big thing I think everyone can agree on, this is good game design, where even if you're wandering about doing nothing, you'll find something cool.
Now I've got two uses for Ion cubes, but I fear I'm going to have to go deeper, where

Spoiler alert

I've already been hugged by the tiny

[close]

Spoiler alert

Leviathian

[close]

One crash so far too, game stopped rendering things, couldn't save, luckily only lost about 15 minutes.

[BeardFaceMan]

Ah bollocks, I hate this point in the game, I've wandered everywhere, followed every signal and now I'm stuck. No idea where to go or what to do next so I've just been pimping out my base.

[Blue Jam]

Found the

Spoiler alert

psychic mindfuck acid trip fish

[close]

. Also

Spoiler alert

Madam Get Off Mah Laaaand and her big scary dog

[close]

.

[BeardFaceMan]

I never bothered collecting that much quartz on my travels, I need loads of it now though, my base is a big, glass mess. Just spending my time collecting that and titanium now. I think I've found where to go to finish things off but you need to complete 3 things first and I've only done one. Bugger.

[Blue Jam]

I never bothered collecting that much quartz on my travels, I need loads of it now though, my base is a big, glass mess. Just spending my time collecting that and titanium now.

Has your base sprung a leak yet? Mine did after I put the glass dome on top. Had to collect a load of titanium to build hull reinforcements. Worth it though, love watching the aurora borealis (or is it australis? Which pole are we at? It's the one with Pengwings so I'd assume it's the south) from my Alterra-branded double bed. Check out one of 4546B's moons passing in front of the other one here:

I think I've found where to go to finish things off but you need to complete 3 things first and I've only done one. Bugger.

I'm at the stage where I've found

Spoiler alert

the planet's only other human inhabitant in her underwater base and she won't help me until I shut off the sattelite dish, and while I've got the blueprint for the thing that does it I need to scan more things and find more ingredients before I can fabricate it

[close]

. Still nowhere near the end of the game, am I?

I've just got myself a P.R.A.W.N. suit and upgraded my sub so it can reach a depth of 650m, just need to know where to look now!

[BeardFaceMan]

Has your base sprung a leak yet? Mine did after I put the glass dome on top. Had to collect a load of titanium to build hull reinforcements.

Yeah, metal scrap doesn't seem to be as plentiful as it was in the first game and titanium is another one of those things you keep dropping to make room in your inventory because you don't need it all, right up until you need lots of it. I have the

Spoiler alert

scanner room

[close]

upgrade now so that makes looking for the essentials easier.

I'm at the stage where I've found

Spoiler alert

the planet's only other human inhabitant in her underwater base and she won't help me until I shut off the sattelite dish, and while I've got the blueprint for the thing that does it I need to scan more things and find more ingredients before I can fabricate it

[close]

. Still nowhere near the end of the game, am I?

I've just got myself a P.R.A.W.N. suit and upgraded my sub so it can reach a depth of 650m, just need to know where to look now!

I'm not much further ahead of you, I've upgraded my sub to 1000m and prawn to 1100m and have no idea where to take them (really loving the upgrade that allows you to

Spoiler alert

carry the Prawn on the back of the truck

[close]

). I'm about 20 hours in, I think, but most of that has been spent just wandering around aimlessly trying to avoid things having sex with my vehicle.

[Blue Jam]

got it!

alas the

Spoiler alert

seamonkeys

[close]

are on my side now, so i cant in good concience hit and run em

I realised I missed a bit in the

Spoiler alert

Willie Thorne cave

[close]

earlier. Now

Spoiler alert

Willie Thorne's consciousness

[close]

has been uploaded to my brain

Spoiler alert

the sea monkeys keep bringing me little presents, and I don't mean monkey tods

[close]

so I too feel a bit bad about twatting them with my truck now.

Also been able to explore all the massive

Spoiler alert

shipwrecks

[close]

I couldn't get into earlier now I have a

Spoiler alert

laser cutter

[close]

. Finally found the blueprint for the alien aquarium too, got some massive creature egg to put in it and I really hope I end up with a friendly pet Leviathan once it hatches.

I also met that Leviathan that's on the loading screen. I won't say where or how I got to it. Fucker bit me and then I got in my sub and zapped it. Yeah, take that, Goliath.

[Blue Jam]

Spoiler alert

The alien isn't actually called Willie Thorne, but "Alan" is probably the next best name for it. Fucking brilliant.

[close]

[BeardFaceMan]

Finally completed this, took me about 28 hours, got all the cheevos too which I haven't done with an xbox game for a while. Great fun/terrifying/fucking maddening in equal measure, lovely stuff.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I realised I missed a bit in the

Spoiler alert

Willie Thorne cave

[close]

earlier. Now

Spoiler alert

Willie Thorne's consciousness

[close]

has been uploaded to my brain

Spoiler alert

the sea monkeys keep bringing me little presents, and I don't mean monkey tods

[close]

so I too feel a bit bad about twatting them with my truck now.

Also been able to explore all the massive

Spoiler alert

shipwrecks

[close]

I couldn't get into earlier now I have a

Spoiler alert

laser cutter

[close]

. Finally found the blueprint for the alien aquarium too, got some massive creature egg to put in it and I really hope I end up with a friendly pet Leviathan once it hatches.

I also met that Leviathan that's on the loading screen. I won't say where or how I got to it. Fucker bit me and then I got in my sub and zapped it. Yeah, take that, Goliath.

i was worried thats how it was going to play out with you! didnt want to spoil it for you

[Blue Jam]

Came back to this after a break and just built a

Spoiler alert

Spy Pengling

[close]

! Just need to work out what it actually does now!

Bit lost again. Found two parts of

Spoiler alert

Alan's body

[close]

, got no quest marker for the third. Not sure if the game is borked or if I'm just being dumb here.

[BeardFaceMan]

No, I got to that point too, I got 2 done and there was no marker for the third. I was wandering everywhere, I think the only clues you get are those pillars that glow green when you get near them, they lead a path to where you need to go, but finding one of them just involves wandering around for ages and hoping you happen across one. It was the only part of the game I used a guide for in the end, I just couldn't find it. It was either that or spend hours wandering around in circles trying to find it, you could literally be there all day doing that and still miss what you need to find. And you'll have big fishys trying to have sex with you a lot.

[Neomod]

I was watching someone playing this (I'm still on the original) and they were saying that the sense of threat is nowhere near as bad as the first one. Have any of you lot found this to be the case?

[Blue Jam]

I was watching someone playing this (I'm still on the original) and they were saying that the sense of threat is nowhere near as bad as the first one. Have any of you lot found this to be the case?

Yes! Resources are fewer and farther between and the crafting is harder but apart from a couple of hairy moments with a Leviathan and an

Spoiler alert

alien polar bear

[close]

it's been nowhere near as scary. The main dangers in this one seem to be drowning (as before) and hypothermia, but they're challenging rather than scary.

Also as you

Spoiler alert

have a bit of company

[close]

this time the game doesn't inspire that same feeling of dread at the thought of being totally, helplessly alone.

I'm still loving it, especially the sense of exploration and some really beautiful locations, but I like my horror survival games so I preferred the first one.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Yea the sense of almost lovecraftian dead inst in this one, which I felt was a shame at first, but actually i think it was probably a good way to play it, creating a new mood rather than trying to capture a previous games one. Feels a bit like alien 2 in that respect

[Blue Jam]

Spoiler alert

Spiky Traps are WANKERS

[close]

[Mobius]

I've never played Subnautica, would you recommend I get the original or this new Below Zero game? I'll be playing on PS4 if it makes any difference.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I recon doing them in order is the best bet

[Blue Jam]

Finished this a couple of nights ago. Really liked the ending,

Spoiler alert

I had become quite attached to ALAN and wanted to hang out with him at his home planet for a bit

[close]

. I also liked the twist of

Spoiler alert

allegedly brilliant scientist ALAN turning out to be his species answer to HENNIMORE!!!

[close]

, not unlike like

Spoiler alert

your dumbass sister

[close]

.

I enjoyed this but felt it wasted a lot of potential. It was a bit frustrating to have built a

Spoiler alert

P.R.A.W.N. suit with a drill arm

[close]

only to find I actually didn't need it at all- the only material I had wanted it for was kyanite, and there seemed to be plenty of small crystals of that littered about the gaff.

The only module I built for the Seatruck was the one for docking with the P.R.A.W.N. suit, the map just wasn't big enough for me to need any of the others, and I had a feeling that adding more would only have made it as cumbersome as the Cyclops in the first game had been. Nah, fuck that I wanted to keep it as fun to pilot as the Seamoth.

The

Spoiler alert

Snowfox

[close]

was also fun to pilot but I only really needed it for one biome and one part of the story and again it didn't feel like it was worth upgrading.

Didn't need the

Spoiler alert

Cold Suit

[close]

or the

Spoiler alert

Stillsuit

[close]

either. Never felt exposed enough to be in danger of dying, there were too many

Spoiler alert

oxygen plants, solar lillies, lantern fruit, caves to shelter in etc

[close]

scattered about. Didn't even need the high-capacity tank by the time I found the blueprint.

Didn't need to build a

Spoiler alert

quantum locker

[close]

or use a

Spoiler alert

teleporter

[close]

either- again, the map was too small and easy to get around. Only built one extra base come to think of it, and I barely used it. Didn't need to build a base anywhere dark or warm where a nuclear reactor or thermal plant might have come in handy.

Reaching the

Spoiler alert

alien fabricators to build Alan's body

[close]

was a bit too easy- yes, there were some

Spoiler alert

Leviathans

[close]

about but they were also a bit too easy to zap with the perimeter defence system.

I don't want to knock this too much, I still enjoyed it immensely and the world of Below Zero is one that is very beautiful and fun to explore, but it has a very different feel from the first game. This one felt more about exploration and chancing upon things than crafting, and it was a lot less scary. That said I enjoyed building my main base immensely, loved the new gadgets like an

Spoiler alert

executive toy

[close]

and a

Spoiler alert

fucking jukebox

[close]

. I didn't build a scanner room but that's only because I was having fun with the handheld metal detector thing.

Not quite up there with the original but it was lovely to revisit Subnautica. Hope there's a third installment.

[Blue Jam]

Also reading about the plot since finishing the game I realised I didn't

Spoiler alert

fabricate some Kha'raa antidote and put it in that little machine by the frozen Leviathan

[close]

. I remember seeing the

Spoiler alert

machine

[close]

and hovering over it and seeing a prompt to

Spoiler alert

fabricate and insert a container of antidote

[close]

but I just thought "Hmmm, that's interesting" and forgot about it for the remainder of the game, even when ALAN urged me to complete "any unfinished business" on the planet before

Spoiler alert

leaving with him

[close]

. Didn't affect the outcome of the game, plus

Spoiler alert

that dead-ass Leviathan ain't gonna be coming back to life, antidote or no antidote

[close]

. I also don't remember getting a quest marker for the blueprint or whatever.

I've also just remembered how nice the Crystal Caves soundtrack was- bit Radiophonic Workshop for Doctor Who this, innit? Lovely:

https://youtu.be/NlLctTZCykk

[BeardFaceMan]

That was a pretty good summing up of the game, it's not like it's a bad game, it just pales a bit compared to the first one. Way too much stuff you can build that you have absolutely zero use for, could do with some reasons to use that stuff. But yeah, definitely on board with a third installment.

[Blue Jam]

It's also hard to believe it was available on PC for a couple of years before it came to consoles- was that really not enough time to gather a bit of feedback and make a few changes? Just chucking in a few quest markers and having some resources only available by crafting machines would have been enough. I know the developers already made quite a few more major changes.

I feel bad knocking this game though. I still enjoyed it immensely, I think I was just spoiled by the first game being so great, my expectations were unfairly high.

Some DLC that forces you to make use of the Spy Penglings and focken' P.R.A.W.N. would be nice. And I would deffo buy a third instalment.