Revisiting Subnautica

A couple of years ago, I played Subnautica for the first time, and it blew my damn mind. I hesitate to call something an "all-time favourite" after one playthrough, instead letting it stew for a couple of years, then replaying and contemplating it.

This year, I finally replayed Subnautica. And yes, I can confirm, this is indeed an all-time favourite.

There have been games since Subnautica that have offered a similar level of freedom and story discovery - a global trend, rather than inspiration, as I've covered in my recent blog post. Subnautica still feels completely fresh and unique right from the start.

The game starts with you crashing into an oceanic alien planet. Soon, you realize you're the sole survivor, and it's up to you to survive. You have a PDA which gives you some hints, but by and large, there are no markers, no logs, no maps, no obvious hand-holding. You are left entirely to your own devices. At the same time, it's not completely vague and confusing - you have plenty of tools to craft that'll help you with your exploration.

Subnautica is all about exploration and building. The game loop consists of exploring, finding new places. Each new place will offer you plans to create new equipment, and offer you knowledge about the story, which in turn will help you dive deeper. Literally. While that sounds pretty utilitarian, the real joy and beauty of Subnautica is in the world itself. It's wondrous, gorgeous, and awe-inspiring. You forget that you're collecting plans and material, the joy of exploring these incredible spaces is reward enough.

Yet, on a second playthrough, the tedium of scavenging and building felt stronger than I remembered. It might be because I was already familiar with the places. Granted, I still found myself awed at some of them. This is not necessarily a negative, as building in Subnautica is definitely a lot of fun. Indeed, I focused more on building this time around, and created pretty interesting bases. During my first playthrough, I was definitely roleplaying more, and the goal was always survival rather than building fancy structures.

As a result, my overall reaction to the game is somewhat different, though no less positive. Knowing the entire story also added valuable insights to some of the early game, and made some of the encounters all the more tragic. The off-hands, purely discovery oriented storytelling is a brilliant match for Subnautica's game and world design. Tom Jubert's writing still holds up as top notch science-fiction, but it's the incredible sense of atmosphere that really sells the narrative.

Finally, I also note that some of the glitches, bugs and performance issues I experienced in 2018 are largely mitigated. Subnautica was made on a shoe-string budget by an indie studio, Unknown Worlds. It's since been a huge success, grossing over $60 million, and it's good to see they have poured some of that money back into improving and enhancing the game.

Subnautica remains one of my favourite games of all time, and one of the top 5 games of this generation. A masterclass in game exploration and immersion. Can't wait for Below Zero!