Subnautica: Below Zero Critique - A Misguided Sequel

A critique detailing the many problems I had with Subnautica: Below Zero.
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If you're interested in my Subnautica 1 critique, it can be found here - • Subnautica Critique - ...
I think Below Zero is both too different and too similar to it's predecessor - it rehashes many of it's ideas while also coming up with new systems that detract from the overall experience. I can't say I know which direction the franchise should go in, but I'm confident in saying that Below Zero is a misstep.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
02:22 - A Problematic Protagonist
06:46 - Unfocused Storytelling
17:38 - Examining Sector Zero
27:33 - Where Below Zero Failed to Improve
33:10 - 7.8/10 Too Much Land
40:41 - Conclusion

[@Toksyuryel]

Sounds like this should have stayed a DLC instead of being promoted to a full-on sequel.

[@kv-2thekingofderp866]

One of the issues is also the lack of proper orientation in the world. First game had the Aurora wreck that you could use as a reference for any location you're in and know where each biomes are as you explore. It helped build a natural sense of mental map for your surroundings. In Below Zero there are no visible landmarks to build a sense of direction because the air is constantly covered in fog and snow.

[@VGMatthew]

Very good point. I wonder if that could be construed as something that was lost in the transition to a smaller world, maybe they thought there was less need to have such an obvious point of reference. Bit of a sad loss if that is the case because it made navigation in Subnautica 1 a lot more interesting.

[@DynamiteRaven]

@@VGMatthew Late to the party but I would like to point out that in the original version of the game, early early access (back when the intro was fun), there was a space station visible in the sky. Now, this is a while back and it's hard to find info on this version to confirm my memory but I *think* Sam was on the station but you couldn't talk to her because of the meteor storm. Or it got hit and the comm relay was out, something like that. You could see it up there but you weren't sure if she was still okay and you had to survive on your own until communications could be restored. I have distinct memories of surfacing after a long risky dive and spinning the camera around to look for the station. Much like the Aurora, it served as a navigation point and an anchor to the adventure. I don't think I ever fully forgave them for taking out the station, lol. I honestly think I would have enjoyed the release version of the game more if I hadn't played early access because I found the original version to be far more fun. I kind of wish they would somehow release the incomplete initial build for people who had early access at the time, because I'd rather play that half-finished version over the release. Though, it is hard to imagine that the released above ground section is the *simplified* version of that map, it used to be much worse.

[@TheReaper569]

Get good navigating

[@ComradeMaryFromMars]

​@@TheReaper569 Good better bait lines

[@TheReaper569]

@@ComradeMaryFromMars its good enough for you

[@aborikin2764]

Honeslty the thing that I miss the most about og game is the lonliness. It makes it so much scarier entering the blood kelp biome for example.

[@Espartanica]

Al-An: "Detecting increased adrenaline in your system. Are you... excited?" Sam: "No, I'm anxious" Al-An: "Why are you anxious?" Sam: "It's dark here, and we're pretty deep down. That tends to worry people." Al-an: Your people worry about darkness?" And so on. That's how it would go in Below Zero

[@Reippa]

@@Espartanica Yea. I hate that

[@andrewhiggins43]

I like how in Subnautica 1, you didn't really have a story to follow, you just had to survive and escape eventually. Any interesting story elements were to do with previous inhabitants of the planet. That's strangely more interesting than your own story.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

Here's the difference: Imagine the in-universe Wikipedia article about 4546b. Riley Robinson is going to get a paragraph in it, right? There will be a section on the architects and the bacteria. Then a couple short sections about the Mercury and Degasi. Then a fairly big section on the Aurora, with a large section about Riley and his journey of discovering the bacteria, discovering the ancient alien structures, curing the bacteria, shutting off the enforcement platform and escaping on a rocket he built. Then a small section about the Sector Zero team, and that the project was temporarily or permanently abandoned after Sam Ayou went all suicide bomber for some reason. Does Robyn Ayou even warrant a bullet point? She flew down to the site, looked around for awhile, met a guy, looked at some stuff with him, and then went off to his home world, presumably never to be seen by humans again. Especially if she doesn't put the cure in the fossil, her part in the story is almost entirely inconsequential to the overall story.

[@brynntall6811]

Well i feel like in the first game the story is the gameplay if that makes sense. The actions the player takes are the story. Though the other stories are really nice, the story of tge player is the best

[@pagatryx5451]

Finally. I remember voicing my problems with the story focused direction of this sequel (and its lack of content) all the way back when the game released. Yet everybody was singing its praises back then. There's just too much constant dialogue that it gets in the way of the experience. I'm always amazed by how many game studios/developers fail to realise what made their original games successful. You'd think it was fairly obvious that Subnautica's success wasn't down to its story.

[@VGMatthew]

Yeah, it kind of goes back to the whole "UWE must not've had a lot of new ideas" thing. I think Subnautica was unique enough that they _must_ have known what made it special - players certainly did given how successful it was. It's as if the best parts of Subnautica were tossed out the window on purpose. It's as interesting as it is frustrating.

[@DinoMeat-qw4lg]

You either love it or you hate it but I disagree I don't think the story is bad even though some bits of it perhaps should have been improved.

[@MallyMcAlli]

I don't think it was a bad idea for them to try a different way to make a Subnautica. I don't think the idea of more voice acting is a bad one I just don't think that they did a great job. If they wanted to focus more on story they should have gone a lot harder into it. I really think their first iteration of the story had a lot more potential and I wonder what made them change it for this current one.

[@WhatWillYouFind]

@@VGMatthew I honestly WAS drawn into subnautica by the horror exploration vibe and trying to piece together the world and it's lore. BZ actually did fairly well in having a story and not having it fall flat by the end. The problem amounted to, I was finished within 15 hours and there was literally NOTHING else to see. I'd gotten almost all the cosmetic and research parts, explored the pitiful 4 wrecks, gone through all of the biomes dozens of times due to their small size, and found myself fatiguing because I didn't have a reason to continue after seeing the ending. Subnautica 1 had flaws, none of them are even worth mentioning unless you played through multiple alpha releases and then launch day. The flaws with 1 were growing pains, compared to the ELEPHANT of a problem BZ has where once you find out how big the world actually is and that YES, you've seen all of it by the time you find the in-game map scan. It was too small, too condensed, and there was NOT ENOUGH STUFF IN THE WORLD TO JUSTIFY THE TIME. The fauna was beautiful in both games, far more creative in the 2nd . . . but the original's fauna were SCARY due to more carefully placed spawn triggers as opposed to "enter this biome and they show up in packs." Below Zero is a GREAT GAME if you want a cheerful and extremely casual builder type of game, because they nearly perfected the system for the sequel. One was far more compelling as a whole because of FEAR, there is none in the 2nd game. The joy of going into the black abyss and finding wrecks which could kill you because of getting caught inside or the extremely limited leviathan spawns giving you REAL jump scares into dread knowing they will murder you just wasnt there. The joy of finding base pieces, to collect the fish and plants "which felt limited in the sequel" felt far less rewarding because finding those pieces in places that are already not threatening makes it moot. Do you want recharge and base capabilities, there isn't a gloom shroom biome to greet and possibly kill you when you try to get things out of it. It was too easy to just play the game because of the life pod and drop location decisions. It just fell flat. UWE also played politics for no reason firing their main sound designer and then had a major shake up during the sequels development which caused a lot of the game direction to get flipped on its head. I hope they don't repeat the same mistakes if 3 is made. STORY was always good, just give us the damn horror survival game with MEANINGFUL base building and gear to do things inside the game world without hand holding us like the 2nd game did.

[@SunsetEnvy]

If the main character was silent BZ would've been 90% more pleasant

[@SirPanikalot778]

The only good part of the writing in this game was the characterisation of fred. He's just a relatable day to day worker who just does his job, getting into so many unfortunate situations which help show the harshness of this planet, and really put a smile on my face when I listened to the seatruck logs. I would like them to bring him back, but his entire character is about his insignificance.

[@moondrop3855]

I didn't mind Parvan either. He also seemed pretty average and probably quite a funny guy. Plus I think he had a daughter which was pretty nice but sad since he ends up dying

[@masteroak9724]

I've just played and finished Bellow Zero. In my humble opinion, the voiced character isn't the problem with the game, but rather the narrative direction killed it. What I say with this is how every dialogue has Robin act so uninterested with the environment and creatures around her, focused only into a convoluted narrative that goes nowhere and such ends up passing on to the player. Also I didn't liked the more condensed map. Yes it have more to do and less empty spaces but IMO those big empty spaces did have it's own charm.

[@szymonzuberycki7525]

The map still has a huge chunks of nothing. Just look at underwater arctic zones. There literaly is nothing on the ground

[@moondrop3855]

@@szymonzuberycki7525 Yeah but the map is too small in my opinion you can mostly see every creature in the game in about 2 hours and most areas look the exact same and any interesting areas don't have any interesting creatures to make me want to stay there at all. Plus all the caves are way too small and makes going through them anooying then anything.

[@szymonzuberycki7525]

@@moondrop3855 i meant that in below zero arctic zones are just flat and empty, while in subnautica you at least got some caves and plants hiere and there

[@moondrop3855]

@@szymonzuberycki7525 ah I get what you mean now. I thought you meant that there being nothing was a good thing. Sorry

[@agamemnon4055]

Was talking about this Yesterday, played SN1, was amazing and after finishing, i startet SN below Zero... After 2 days playing, i said i feel like im absolutely guided what to do next, got most parts without really looking for it, world is small and the conversations and her attitude was unfitting. I didn't liked the " Main char " behavior/acting. Moral phrases and how humans are or should be. It wasnt chatching, interesting, or impactfull for the storyline. The land section is where i stopped right now, with the glider and landworm . i believe i'm close to the frozen Leviathan, from the looks of this Video. I started to get the feeling, that i am close to the end of the story, so i wanted to take a look at some videos about it. Sadly it looks like my unfinished game experience is nearly finished, i was hoping i missed story or stuff. Sadly not. But was still a good time, just not what i was hoping for. It gives more like a "main hero charakter" feeling, fear of nothing and there because she wanted to, schooling aliens about moral and feelings, instead of survival and exploring. Lets see If SN 3 can bring back the thalassophobia from Subnautica 1 :) and im hoping for multiplayer for pc, 5 people max, or 3 and its all fine :)

[@FlareFritz]

I really prefer the direction the story was going before the major re-write. The one we ended up with is just so boring when the rogue Alterra agent idea was more interesting to me.

[@ACE_16_O_8]

I wish you'd be on the planet as a banishment not your own choice so that way it'd feel more inescapable

[@Juan_V_Herrera]

Greetings, everyone. Following your idea on 6:05 timestamp, the silent protagonist, in my opinion, is what brings the feeling of immersion, as if you really were the person taking action in the game. The same thing occurred in Half-Life. It's like being the main character in a movie. Every time the protagonist in Below Zero open the mouth (or the voice actor, to be more precise) it takes away the immersion factor.

[@lolohnah]

also doesn’t help that most people don't just babble out loud what they’re thinking at any given moment like spoken playable characters seem to always want to do

[@jakeforgey5378]

I forced myself to beat BZ after around 7 hours... went back to basic Subnautica and found it far more interesting and attention grabbing just due to the fact that alone with nothing else but your thoughts... you end up picturing yourself as the character which makes any Reaper Jumpscares... (Or Ghosty Jumpscares in the glowing blue ball (skyrim eye of magnus orb thingy) biome... was piloting a Cyclops and suddenly i hear a screech and the sub drifts to the right and a change of camera has me starin in the mouth of a Ghosty.... i panic rose and had to repair The Grimm Tides near the South Floating Island...) extremly terrifying and panic inducing...

[@belly990]

Not to mention it becomes your story when you leave for the first time and you get to put a time capsule that is the icing on the cake the full. You get to, for a moment, tell your story about how you survived and how it went but the protagonist in this one doesn't even add much considering how two-dimensional she feels.

[@belly990]

@@jakeforgey5378 I feel that sometimes I lose myself in my work in sub1 because it's my work it's the goals I'm trying to achieve to get the fuck out. Everything was tailored to fit the player in Sub1 even down to the roadblocks because they compounded on each other. First, get out, Cant space laser, Okay turn the laser off, Cant Infected, Okay find a cure, Cant gotta go deeper... Then it's time I got a foothold on this planet and tried to achieve the goals. That is just a perfect formula that they decided to throw away by babying you and coxing you at every point possible to do the next thing. Things that in the end don't even matter because Alan's story is what ends the game.

[@pumpkinjack7265]

Theres these things called the 3 gordon rules 1.the protagonist stays silent 2.the game always stays in first person 3.cutscenes dont interrupt gameplay(to clarify they dont change perspective and stuff like that) They exist because of half life and they exist not to break immersion

[@codytachi]

Imagine how much the underwater experience could have been improved or expanded if they didn't spend so much time on land content. The Snowfox, Spy Penguin, the ice worms, huge islands, the earthquake beacon thing, the dedicated land exploration gear... So much development effort into an aspect that no one plays Subnautica for.

[@lovelightstarboy]

I think land could have worked. There were just too many nuisances that made traveling on land a chore. There was land in the original subnautica, islands filled with fruits and weird little crab things that attacked you, but over all it was a safe haven. It seemed like what they wanted to do was to make land MORE dangerous to traverse than in water, because you are used to water. But they failed at that because almost every aspect of danger or fear in this game is extremely toned down in favor of…’story’…

[@SuperCosmicChaos]

All the land stuff was more a chore than fun, i hated it.

[@brynntall6811]

​@lovelightstarboy i think it also that land in the first game was very rare so it felt extremely special to find or even be on

[@Reippa]

@@SuperCosmicChaos That was when i quit. Honestly didnt like it at all. And imo main character was annoying

[@martine5604]

The worst thing about Sam's story, for me, is that there is no evidence that they were experimenting on the virus for malicious purposes. It was actually Sam's girlfriend who was working with the virus and she expresses excitement for its possible applications in the medical field in one of the PDA's. Sam, who admitted to not being a biologist or doctor of any kind just made some sort of leap that the virus could mutate and get out of control without having any evidence for it and basically told her girlfriend 'you might be the expert but I know better'. She also just made the cure super easy even though that was the entire goal of the first game so that's another indication she actually has nothing to worry about, and then got herself and an innocent coworker killed trying to blow up the entrance for some reason. So her death being due to personal negligence was actually true.

[@cathygrandstaff1957]

I feel like that relies on the player having knowledge of Natural Selection 2, a game implied to take place in the same world as Subnautica where the kharaa bacterium has mutated and become a threat to the human race. That being said it’s established in Subnautica that kharaa had taken hold on many of the architect occupied worlds and there’s no evidence the mutant strain came from 4546B.

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

I don't think Sams concerns were Alterra being malicious. It seems it was the virus mutating into something that can't be cured or terrorists (or something equally as bad) somehow getting there hands on it. Or at least it seemed that way to me

[@bipstymcbipste5641]

@@insertedgynamehere___969 I'm pretty sure her thought was "big corpo bad, Robin say corpo bad. Virus could be weapon, me destroy". I just find it incredibly strange that she was just gonna cure the leviathan and that'd be it but she goes to Marg to help destroy all facilities and Marg convinces Sam to blow up the leviathan cave cause she hates authority or something and this leads to Sam's death. Robin has literally NO reaction to this

[@anaveragegamingchannel1843]

I don't have a problem with Sam easily synthesizing a cure, since at this point, the Sea Emperors have spread across the planet again so their enzyme should be easily accessible. Hell, the original story had Robin track down an Emperor to get some enzyme herself. I just feel like a bit of the story should've been devoted to Robin coming to terms with the fact that her sister didn't die because of shady Alterra but actually for the given reason of negligence.

[@moondrop3855]

@@anaveragegamingchannel1843 I do agree with this. I find it stupid tho that you don't have to even find out what happened to Sam. I think it was a bad story since there lost the old one.

[@sonofkabisch]

Love that transition in the editing at 0:30...very smooth

[@Thedoctorr5]

I feel like this is the first time I've found a channel this polished this young. If you can keep this quality up regularly this channel will be very successful. Good job

[@johnnybensonitis7853]

They are out there, my KZbin brethren! I've been finding them all over throughout the past few months, and it really kinda blew my mind to see a few channels at 1k-2k subs already have refined their style to such a degree.

[@tudorg22]

this one is a gem as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hl6kiHmgd7SBppo

[@commonsense-og1gz]

a few things to mention here: 1. the original story line didn't need to be changed. i don't care for the change from characters that the original beta had. i think that starting at the outpost in the northeast was already a good. 2. titanium isn't that much of a problem, since the fragments give two per scan, and there are large numbers of fragments all over the surface. 3. keep in mind the pathfinder tool is found in a cave near the western outpost. you can use this tool to mark passages, even on land.

[@Wolfways]

I hated the maze-like caves and wrecks. Getting lost was so annoying.

[@herbertschulz4313]

Skill issue (having a sense of orientation is an important life skill)

[@Wolfways]

@@herbertschulz4313 I play games for fun, not to pretend that being good at them makes me special.

[@celticdash]

Literally if they had just made the underwater biomes a lot bigger with more poi's like the original with all they had added I would have loved it even more. My favorite biome being the very last one the red crystal caverns it was utterly dissapointing to learn just how small it was and it being bigger and also having a portion like the Al an body part of the purple crystal caverns with the crystals everywhere I would have much further enjoyed it. The biomes are beautiful tho

[@asedcopf]

how bout at least one enemy that was creepy or scary?

[@ezramiller8936]

@Halfarsed Productions I don't know about that. I don't find the majority of the leviathans from the first game to be all that scary or threatening, and below zero basically just has reskinned AI.

[@paulgibbon5991]

@@asedcopf Personally, I'd rate the Deep Bridges and the trap plants as the scariest thing in either game, especially if you go in without a vehicle, and you HAVE to keep moving around to get oxygen, but also have to be paranoid about spotting the horrible death plants that look nearly identical to the harmless plants. Would have loved to see more stuff like that in either game.

[@moondrop3855]

@@ezramiller8936 But I mean in this game there literally run away from you. At least the repears would try and actively kill you and stay on you as much as there can.

[@RastaRC]

I definitely agree with you on the land part, it was just pain moving through it. What saved it partially for me was the prawn suit. You can use its grapple hook to basically fly around the landscape, which isnt realistic at all, but at least was a little fun to do.

[@markozagar]

My pet peeve from Subnautica that Below Zero didn't fix was the toolbar. Even just adding one, single, solitary slot would have saved me so much of that "Oh, I need a repair tool. [TAB]. Add repair tool to toolbar. [TAB] [4]" only to replace it back to laser cutter about three minutes later.

[@ga8r13l]

Fun fact the only reason why Margaret survived was that the devs were originally going to give her the key to open the final door so you had to do her quest and at the very end she was going to save the player in a cutscense when Altera was going to doing something to Robin (I forget what) But in the end they removed that and made her useless. I'll be honest I much prefer the original storyline I payed for in early access and it got so bad that I didn't even bother finishing the game because I disliked it so much. Back in EA1, EA2 etc it had potential to be better than The OG game and I quite enjoyed it but once they changed it so much from the original plan, it completely ruined the experience.

[@AzureTheAvian]

Outer Wilds did log storytelling much better by having a mind map you could refer to at any point, and automatically updated with every discovery. Helps a ton.

[@mr.p215]

Honestly, I wouldn't even compare the masterpiece that is OW to BZ, OW was an amazing story oriented open world game, BZ was a worse version of the original with better building than it's predecessor.

[@FoxDragon]

I feel like a lot of the strength of Subnautica was that it set out to be a survival game, and accidentally became a horror game along the way. Below Zero's weakness is that it tried to be that same survival/horror combo and accidentally became a fairly standard hero quest instead.

[@hunterdramora]

apparently the devs were actively trying to shy away from the horror aspect

[@moondrop3855]

@@hunterdramora Yeah I found that stupid since it's a survival game. If it's a survival game on a alien planet I would find most of the creatures and area's probably scary. Plus it gave it nice natural feel to all the creature's in the water making random sounds in the distance

[@Thegreatercheese]

Shadow Leviathans were cool and scary until you realise how disgustingly easy they are to deal with. Here's my step by step guide; 1.Get the perimiter defense system upgrade. 2. Get the afterburner upgrade. 3. When the Shadow Leviathan locks you into its attack animation shock it and move away quickly. 4. Repeat this as many times as necessary when traversing the crystal/fabricator caverns. Trust me it doesn't even take up that much power and by this point in the game you're probably swimming in spare power cells and even then ion powercells make it even more of a joke. The problem with not having the cyclops is that because they cyclops is so big there's no real easy way to defend/ maneuver around large creatures. The seatruck on the other hand is small enough for that, so at points while navigating dangerous areas Below Zero loses a lot of the tension that was present when using the cyclops, strategically engaging shields/deploying decoys etc. Also the docking animation for the cyclops was much cooler than the prawn suit dock module for the seatruck.

[@Vaguer_Weevil]

You don't even need all that, if you have other modules connected, which you most likely will, just back out of the cockpit and they'll ignore you. They only aggro if you're in the seat, and immediately give up even in the middle of charging at you just by standing up.

[@moondrop3855]

I only really need the shock and max depth on the sea truck to win to be honest. The shadows leave long enough to reload the shock on it so get the shock thing from Marguerite and get depth 3 and you win. The only points that are anooying is the worm thing on land

[@mundorf8171]

Just wanted to say the cut at 5:30 was very well done and blended nicely with the transition back to talking about Subnautica 1

[@dg6246]

I 100% didn't resolve Sam's story my first run. I had to load my last save to see what happened and I still have no idea what happened to the rest of everyone else.

[@DatDirtyDog]

I believe the staff evacuated because of an incomming meteor storm, the same one you ride in on at the start of the game.

[@moondrop3855]

@@DatDirtyDog I think the only one who didn't leave was Parvan the guy guarding the bacteria. Sam appearntly blows both of them up while trying to seal the cave off which doesn't even work since you can walk inside there still.

[@DatDirtyDog]

@@moondrop3855 No, the game starts with a message on your pda from a woman saying Sam died, if it happened in the evacuation no one would be around to report it

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

Did you know you can just kinda ignore everything on land if you use the P.R.A.W.N. Even the ice worms. It honestly just turns the land sections into: *_go on land, get lost because blizzards, find place, do the thing, leave."_* I didn't even bother building the snow fox because of this, well at least until I discovered driving one unlocked a Trophy/Achievement. The prawn suit even provides heat Lile why even build a snow fox when the Prawn suit mostly trivializes the land sections.

[@moondrop3855]

I mean if you do Marguerites side quest you can get the plant from her green house and then get the hot pepper plants and grow both of them in you're house you can make the best food in the game that gives you 100% heat and food and drink and since you grow the plants you can pretty much make hundreds of them making food water and heat worthless

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

@@moondrop3855 yeah, your right. It's kinda broken when you think about it

[@herbertschulz4313]

The prawnsuit was kinda op in subnautica 1 aswelm tbh

[@Hammerheadcruiser]

I heard a pretty good idea for the third game. Be the test pilot for a new deep sea prawn suit when your ship crashes, but unlike subnautica 1 where you end up in the nice cosy shallows, you end up stuck on the seafloor in the void. The game consisting of traveling between pockets of light and life, leaving trails of lights like breadcrumbs through the darkness between.

[@DatDirtyDog]

I recently played subnautica blind and enjoyed it so much I imediately went in to below zero. Below zero felt really underwhelming, the story was weaker, the voiced character was anoying and felt like I wasn't making my own choices. The land was tedius, in Subnautica it was a pleasant suprise, in Below zero it was dreaded. And the cure... In subnautica involved you bringing back an almost extinct species and in below zero.. was a bit of plant and pepper. That somehow stumped an advanced alien civilization and may have possibly wiped them out.

[@LurkerPurker]

You remind me so much of Joseph Anderson. Love your reviews. Keep them up. I will watch every one your videos if I get the free time!!!

[@Crimson350]

Just stay away from the Witcher franchise for your own sanity lol

[@bigboydancannon4325]

What a backhanded compliment

[@asedcopf]

"don't think of it as Subnautica 2 - think of it as a Subnautica story...just not a very good one."

[@ChunkyChungus]

I did like AL-AN. It's just the overall problem with the voice acting taking away the atmosphere of Subnautica. I think its nice that we learn more about the precursors. Maybe he could have taken a role like the Emperor. He talks 2-3 times with the player in some way through some kind of precursor device etc. Throughout the game you find the body parts in facilities or searching grounds and then you need to build the body like you did the enzyme. Then you have the big talk with AL-AN in which he'll tell you the important things he told you in the game.

[@moondrop3855]

I feel like the writing between Robin and Alan are bad in genral. I hate how he acts like a machine and Robin basically just argues that anything human have done is correct and what he thinks is wrong

[@ChunkyChungus]

@@moondrop3855 after listening to the conversations again, Alan many times disapproves with his own statements. Like the hive mind. He once says, "I'm part of the collective" but another time he says "I'm not part of the collective". It's very weird... I really have hopes for Subnautica 2

[@moondrop3855]

@@ChunkyChungus Yeah I like subnatica so I'll probably still play this game at points anyway tho I do think it went alot more downhill when there had to get rid of the original story. The writing of the characters and story and a bit of gameplay are very much lacking compared to the first one. But yeah hopefully subnatica 2 is much better!

[@Phillibetrus]

What do you mean that finding Leviathans in Below zero is less common? I rarely ran into them in the first game and largely learned to avoid their zones. They are completely unavoidable in BZ and that killed all suspension.

[@MinosML]

Yeah, for me it means I had the complete opposite experience than him, and found them more of a chore rather than "oh shit I f*cked up" moment that they are in the original after you accidentaly wonder into their territories. The Shadow Leviathan was more of a bothersome punching bag for my PRAWN any time I had to go the crystal caves tbh

[@moondrop3855]

Just get the shock module for the seatruck and there can't even touch you

[@Phillibetrus]

@@moondrop3855 It isn't a matter of them posing a challenge. It is more of an over exposure ruined the suspense and immersion by teaching me not to fear them.

[@moondrop3855]

@@Phillibetrus Yeah that makes sense. Seeing the same creature 50 times probably doesn't help. I was also stating tho that having something that makes them not be able to even touch you also kinda ruins the idea in my opinion

[@cerysmayporter854]

I think a better plot would be something like - you're playing as a random altura employee who's staying at a place that somehow gets destroyed, you're unconscious for a bit and presumed dead by the company who are forced to pause work in 4546B due to lawsuits from the explosion and all your friends also dying on the planet. You could that way sort of work in Sam's plot (touching it up slightly so that it doesn't have as many plot holes) and even the precursor plot (but making Alan less incessant and annoying). I think if it was like that it would embrace some more of the strengths that Subnautica 1 had. Just some ramblings based on what you've said! (Great video by the way!)

[@nicnicvis]

I hated the snowfox so much that I just used the prawn suit when on land.

[@ebonhawken574]

I was really disappointed in Below Zero, glad to see I wasn’t the only one.

[@trickerino]

One aspect that I feel is lacking in the original game compared to Below Zero is the fact that Below Zero has much more cutscenes for the aggressive fish attacking you. Those are the types of scares that get me the most. As well as Below Zero has so many QoL changes that just make the gameplay itself much more comfortable

[@moondrop3855]

Yeah but when there grab you if you have the shock module you can get rid of them in seconds which includes the big one's like the shadows

[@basilfilatov7013]

and another problem is the plot. It had 3 versions. The first 2 were similar, 3 were completely different. The players expressed their dissatisfaction with the first 2 stories. The interaction between Robin and Al-An was more serious, but as characters they were no good. They could scatter philosophical terms, but they had no arch, no growing relationship. It was better with the sister of the main character, but people did not like the lack of an atmosphere of loneliness. Well, the most important dissatisfaction was in a clear sequence of actions for progression. You had a linear intro, then you had to download Al-An, come to the island, float into the wreckage of mercury, return to the island, meet Meida, fix the tower and re-establish contact with your sister. Then get 3 quests, in water lilies, in the glacial basin and at the frozen leviathan. At the same time, you were also given a quest to find 3 body parts. Then you had to meet the maida a second time, swim and create a body for the al-an, get another quest, meet with the maida for the third time, then return to the fabricator cavern and go to the final game from them. Actually, people had 3 main problems. Lack of interesting characters and relationships with them. Linearity. No sense of isolation. And uknown world decided to fix this by completely rewriting the plot, which was stupid, because the map was built specifically for all these quests. Yes, now your sister is dead and you are almost alone on the planet, and the content with quests has become completely optional, but the relationship between the story and its logic has been completely lost. The original story approach, where everything was optional, just didn't fit below zero. The original plot was also not good, but it had a clear sequence and logic. However, we have what we have.

[@amaro6603]

I didn't find the player inventory limit annoying, but the storage sure is. Just being able to see what in the dam GLASS locker would have been great.

[@danytalksmusic]

This might be the best critique on the game I've heard so far. I think you really hit on all the key issues that I experienced but couldn't quite put into words. I personally only made it halfway through the game and felt guilty for not being compelled enough to finish it, but after watching this review and seeing how much worse the game gets towards the end, I'm actually relieved that I didn't waste any more time trying to complete this ludicrous story line.

[@damienk777]

Small nitpick though at 36:25 She said she was about 1km WEST from Delta island, not north. Although I did have to re-listen to her radio log manually a few times, so It's easy to miss.

[@JakobEkvall]

Great videos as always! Can't wait for new stuff from you

[@belly990]

All I wanted to do was go deeper but even that was taken from me for "Land exploration"

[@maximos5748]

Aboslutely love your channel! Your arguments are really thought of, followed by your pleasant voice :) I know already that you will tackle Bloodborne, and I just cannot wait!

[@jaydead64]

It always disappointed me in the first Subnautica how the predators in the game didn't really live up to their initial encounters or overall presentation. The designs are so cool and daunting at first (especially the sound design, as mentioned in this critique), but the AI and how they actually interact with the player and environment felt very shallow. I guess this hasn't really improved in Below Zero based on this critique. I like how the shadow leviathan footage shown is menacing at first, and then it swims into a stalactite for 30 seconds... I found myself equally disappointed with the Alien AI in Alien: Isolation. Is there any game that really does "scary" AI well?

[@VGMatthew]

Yeah, I was very underwhelmed when it got stuck on a crystal in my very first encounter with it. I don't play tons of horror games but every one that I can think of has relatively standard AI, so no stand-out examples in my memory. I suppose it's easier to achieve the horror element through atmosphere, visuals, sound, etc. instead of more "technical" components like enemy behavior. I've watched a friend play Alien: Isolation a bit and it actually seemed pretty good on this front? Haven't played it myself though.

[@amaro6603]

My friend played Alien and praised the monster AI, but said the normal enemy's sucked. I think deviating from psychological horror and going in the "monster chase you" direction is always going to a challenge not to make campy, corny or straight up hilarious. This game dabbles more on the scripted side than AI, but 'poppy playtime' is genuinely doing great stuff. It's a hard game to praise tho, a lot of shady stuff going on the backend.

[@jerrodshack7610]

I haven't played Isolation but I have always heard the Alien AI is excellent

[@Slabfish]

@@jerrodshack7610 The AI is good, but due to run time of the game the illusion is slowly overturned and it becomes very gamey, easy to trick, glitchy and unfun in places. Same with all horror games imo

[@overmused]

I flat out never used the snow fox. For the Glacial Basin I ran around inside of a Prawn Suit and it made it almost too easy (outside of constantly getting lost). The grabble let you run across the ground really fast, you were safe from storms and really even bad guys. A few areas were harder to "get through" with it but almost all of them were achievable (or had alternate routes). The biggest issue was relying too much on the jet boost and running out of energy...but once I realized that I was easily able to backtrack and get more.

[@delivererofdarknessshoguno1133]

Funniest thing is that Sam didn't even have any evidence beyond watching the movie Aliens that Alterra was planning on militarizing the alien infection, she was just paranoid, decided to commit terrorism and accidentally killed herself, and if memory serves me right, someone else, while achieving absolutely nothing. Literally the most useless plot imaginable. Also this means that corporation wasn't hiding anything aboout Sam from MC as she did die due to her own incompetence.

[@Pbotsfordslayer5]

i think one of the things that I hated the most about Below Zero was the fact that they really took away the ambiguity of the Architects/precursors i like the whole mystery behind it to keep everyone guessing to really draw in people and make people hypothesize on what they thought the precursors looked like there was no real answer in the original subnautica of what they might've looked like which is what kept it interesting because people guessed, it would've been ok it maybe oh they left like an arm or a leg of the architects or even a partial skeleton or like the statue that is found in the mine under the island in BZ. something else is the weather, originally the weather was too strong and you couldn't see litterally anything infront of you when going above water in the early access of BZ, even though they did tweak it its still really disorientating and it can get annoying very quickly. The other thing is the Void, theres not really much of a difference between the Chelicerate and the Ghost leviathan being the Boundary creature, I'd love it if they thought of some other cool way to deter New players from going out in the void, they didn't even put a different creature and there's not even a backstory to where the Chelicerates come from, its just that they're there, the whole story for the ghost leviathans is that the cove tree was where they were born and as they grew they moved out more and more of the Lost River and slowly into the Grand reef or blood kelp forest and eventually to the void. everything just felt so placed and didn't feel natural like the original game.

[@Crazed3raser337]

Personally I don't think stackable resources is necessary. My problem with the limited inventory space isn't gathering stuff, but rather using it up when I want to start building. Only being able to carry like 2 segments worth of materials at once, then constantly having to go back in and out of your base, remember which locker the stuff you need is at is the biggest gripe I have with the inventory system. One mod I find absolutely essential for any Subnautica playthrough now is easycraft, which automatically takes the materials you need from nearby lockers if they have the materials. It massively streamlines the crafting process and should really be in the game by default. In fact, I think pretty much every survival crafting game should do that.

[@unknownpack5717]

0:32 smooth transition, both in editing and commentary!!!

[@km099]

Agree 100%. I'm a bit late to the party as I've only recently picked the game up on Steam. Initially I was very invested in the game and loved it, because it reminded me so much of the original Subnautica. I also wondered where the story was going, but the more you learn about the story and the longer the land sequences dragged on, the more I lost interest. I only finished it to see the ending, which was pretty "meh". Let's hope Subnautica 3 gets it right, because the franchise has so much potential.

[@Narko_Marko]

I think that oxygen plants remove all tension in wrecks and tight caves. I have never even come close to running out of oxygen in BZ but have died in wrecks several times because of that in Subnautica 1.

[@ArvosCrusader]

I was not expecting something this soon after the sekiro review! Damn keep up the work man

[@brianbommarito3376]

Here’s the biggest plot hole, to my mind. Maida and Al-An have been on the planet alone for many years, in the same sector, which is small in comparison to the sector in the first game. They are apparently unfamiliar with each other’s presence until Robin arrives and is caught in the middle of their unrelated stories. I think it’s far more likely that Maida would have found Al-An first.

[@moondrop3855]

Yeah but I don't think there thought of that considering there make Sam try and seal off the cave instead of just curing the bacteria since she had a cure already

[@MusicaX79]

The best solution for storage was the AutosortLockers, Resource Monitor, and EasyCraft mods for the first Subnautica. AutosortLockers has a pull from docked and stuff in lockers and resource monitor lets you cycle through all the resources in a base to find what you want. EasyCraft had a few issues with steps being skipped which didn't make it perfect but it is far better then the hours wasted standing infront of a fabricator as it makes 10 wire kits and computer chips to make 5 advanced wiring kits. When you have all the resources needed for an advanced wiring kit.

[@ja-nozreaper5865]

28:10 you can name storage, you can turn floting boxes into titanium thanks to recycl... whatever it was called, and you can get a base pretty eatly in the game

[@amaro6603]

I didn't hate AL-AN, but the dialog did indeed feel very corny, especially with the philosophical stuff. However, I did not like the shadow Leviathan, I felt it was very clunky. The area was hard to navigate and easy to get lost into, so I ended up bumping into him, escaping and fixing my vehicle over and over again. The first part sound like a positive for the fear factor, but the latter just felt annoying. I think if he was a one hit kill, or a two hit kill, with him pursuing you for the second one it would have been better. But maybe it would just have been more annoying...? Its hard to say. I think having the knowledge that you have to sneak through this area without alerting the big monster is cool tho. My biggest disappointment was the land section: I did not understand the way the worm worked (even tho I read dune, so maybe it really is just my fault) so I kept running with the bike, alerting the monster and getting knocked out of it, then fixing it. Again, just annoying, not scary. I think a similar solution would work: just make him a one hit kill or make it a chase sequence, that way you could actually use the bike in a wide open area. I think it would have been awesome. Again, this could just be a me problem, maybe I was just too stubborn this time.

[@amaro6603]

Also, the cold was such a missed opportunity. It could have been a great land obstacle, like oxygen is for the ocean.

[@VGMatthew]

I think you hit the nail on the head with everything here. One other thing I just thought about with respect to making Leviathans more threatening is that it wouldn't really mix well with how death and respawning works. On one hand, I like the idea of Leviathans being able to kill you really quickly to make them so much more threatening but on the other hand, imagine the Shadow Leviathan two-shotting you in the Crystal Caves and respawning at your base back at the surface 1000 meters away. If your vehicles were still stuck down there, you'd have to remake entirely new ones to get back to where you died Maybe respawn points aren't a bad idea? Maybe vehicles could respawn with you on death? I dunno, it's hard to find a clean implementation for it.

[@amaro6603]

​@@VGMatthew It really is difficult. The respawn points are an interesting idea, but for other parts of the game, in ruins a bit of the survivor tension. Not that Subnautica is a punishing game, whenever I died I never lost important stuff, but removing the illusion is a though choice to make. I also saw an interesting video about the fear factor that the leviathans generate by not killing you; because when you die, the tension ends. But I think that would have been preferable than the current state of worm.

[@Thedoctorr5]

Agree with all of this. Exactly my experience

[@hoverfishgod8802]

I heavily disagree with some points. The high number of reaper leviathans is what made the first game so much more scarier as there was no real way of escaping them if you found yourself in middle of the crash zone.The claustrophobic environment is scary but quickly loses it’s fear factor and becomes more annoying than anything.

[@absolutehuman951]

30:41 with the addition of the deconstructor (or how it is called) titanium at least stacks to five in exchange for having a crafting module on your seatruck. Copper and silver stacks to two. It's not ideal but it certainly helps. Scrap salvaging near the wrecks solved all the problems with titanium in my playthrough.

[@Ele441]

Incredible critique. Reminded me of Joseph Anderson. Your going places, keep it up!

[@imglidinhere]

The problem with BZ I found more than anything was yeah, the story wasn't worth the playthrough by the end and, even more disappointing, the sound design was inferior by far across the board. The first game's semi-horror aspect to 'what lies beyond the veil' was never recaptured with the sequel game. It's also worth looking up what the original story of BZ was originally going to be before the team scrapped it all and rewrote it to have the player be a 'strong female protagonist' who's only defining trait is that she is a 'strong female protagonist'. :/

[@emiletremblay1377]

man your videos are insanely good

[@prettygoodpootis5133]

Such a well made critique!

[@KaijuRhino]

This is gonna be a great video I can already tell

[@lozzi3510]

I agree a lot with this, and it was interesting to hear this critique in an organised manner. One point that I am stuck thinking on though is that personally I enjoyed the larger map of Subnautica one in comparison to the scaled down and full map of Subnautica Below Zero. Subnautica one heavily implies that you are alone from the very beginning of the storyline. By having such a large and empty body of water to explore really emphasised the solitude of which the protagonist was experiencing. It gave that eery effect of not being able to see anything but water from any angle you looked, and it also made the map feel less cramp and compact replicating how a typical water environment actually is (even though this is an alien planet).

[@szalyn8849]

Yo lessgo! I can't wait to watch the video! Ahhh, will edit when watched

[@szalyn8849]

Well, since edited comments lose their hearts, I won't edit the comment XD The editing in this video is creative from time to time, neat detail that I remember after watching is that moment when the games changed when jumping into the water. (I think there was also something else, but damn me because I can't remember it now) I went into the video completly not knowing a thing about Subnautica Below Zero (I've played a damn lot of the original Subnautica) and now after this video I have like negative desire to experience it. This game shouldn't be a sequel, in all honesty I think the Subnautica didn't need a sequel. When you asked something along the lines of "What should a sequel for Subnautica expand upon from the original formula" I literally felt that only one game was good enough. Sekiro doesn't need a sequel, Bloodborne doesn't need a sequel, Dark Souls doesn't need yet another entry and Elden Ring doesn't need a sequel too. They all reached a proper ending and explored everything they wanted. Subnautica on the other hand was finished in only one game, it didn't need any more. There was nothing more to add lore wise. Gameplay wise? Yeah maybe, but people didn't play Subnautica for the gameplay, they played for the feeling. Feeling that is the strongest first time playing. So actually, while writing this, I came to the conclusion that the best sequel to the Subnautica would be the one that focused heavily on the atmosphere the first game provided, subverting the expectations to reignite that feeling of fear of the unknown. tl;dr - Thank you, I will save my money and do something else instead of buying this game

[@VGMatthew]

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it. Glad you noticed the editing tricks, haha. Also glad you got something out of the video, even if they weren't exactly positive feelings. Working on this made me start to wonder the same - if Subnautica really did need a sequel - because I couldn't think of many answers to that question myself. A lot of problems in Subnautica 1 aren't really big enough to warrant entirely new games to address them. I'm starting to feel more like a spiritual sequel that reworks some of the core elements could be the way forward.

[@Yhorm]

this just goes to show what an OG charlie is, without his guidance the ship just sunk. Im not saying this was the main cause but i think it had a big impact

[@Sruf.]

And somehow, Marguerite returned.

[@pixelstorm3957]

Great vid! I personally wanted a Subnautica sequel to delve into a scary new planet

[@majorzbombasu21]

A water one?

[@pixelstorm3957]

@@majorzbombasu21 Yeah a water one. Completely new creatures. Leviathans so big you gotta build some seismic tracker to avoid their migration paths. Stuff like that. Just feels cheap when its on the same planet with lots of the same creatures and biomes.

[@majorzbombasu21]

@@pixelstorm3957 idk, i think the planet is one of those things that should stay the same. If this new planet is supposed to be a water one, why not just make it another region on 4546b?

[@pixelstorm3957]

@@majorzbombasu21 Personally I think that the Alterra factor should stay the same, but I feel like we've explored enough of the mysteries of the current planet regarding the precursors and the whole bacteria thing and the sort of base creatures to expect. A new slate would feel so good as a player, like the first time you played the orginal Subnautica and had zero idea what to expect. That's just me, but from what I heard they are working on something different than Subnautica now

[@scrappy2boot]

I love how many of the reasons you think it's weaker for, are the very reasons I play it more than the first game. I think that's really cool

[@benjaminfenn3700]

My mind's unfiltered, childish reaction to being asked to consider the idea "Subnautica is receiving a sequel, what would you like to be in it" in a vacuum: - Scarier & More Bizarre Hostile Creatures - Scarier & More Bizarre Leviathans - More Alien Biomes w/ Unique Gameplay Features - More Cool Contraptions (i.e. Bizarre new weaponry, and bigger and more outrageous vehicles) - The ability to raise every species in the game from birth to adulthood and make them fight or kill things for you Setting aside mangled execution, had Below Zero's additions all been written on a piece of paper and presented to me prior to the game's release, I imagine the only items that would've succeeded in somewhat aromatizing my almonds would've been: 1.) There is a shrimp leviathan. 2.) There is a leviathan on land, and it is a robust worm. 3.) Earth's seminal classic, the ocean sunfish, will be joining the roster. Most of the other additions, and design philosophy changes, frankly don't even need the bad execution to make them sound like shit. I also, unfortunately, have to disagree with your assessment of the leviathans in BZ as feeling "more prestigious." I appreciate the argument for the encounters carrying a greater sense of weight due to their diminished frequency, but I just can't shake the feeling that this is all but completely hamstrung by the leviathans' neutered capabilities and/or aggression, and the Shadow Leviathans in particular feel squandered, to me.

[@redmondmann3787]

Really enjoying your videos, I'll be glad to see more content from you. I've just seen your critique on Subnautica and Below Zero, and especially after hearing your thoughts at 9:30 about non-linear storytelling, I am curious if you've played Outer Wilds and what your thoughts would be. I suspect you may not like it after watching this video, but it also does a lot of things differently.

[@VGMatthew]

Thanks for the support. I have played Outer Wilds, I'm not _super_ crazy about it but I like it a lot. Both games have a similar exploration/discovery focus but I feel that Outer Wilds is more cohesively written and rewards your observation better. It's also purer in terms of mechanics to leave more room for the mystery & story aspects (all you really need to learn to actually play it is how to fly around), so in that sense it's more focused. It's a really peculiar game. I think it's definitely worth playing for the uniqueness alone.

[@Slabfish]

@@VGMatthew on the topic of similar games, how about In other waters? its focuses on flora and fauna similar to scanning in subnautica, which is my favourite aspect of the series

[@MG-do7yg]

Thank God Subnautica 2.0 came out today so I don't have to play Below Standard anymore just for better base building

[@atinchaos6289]

i love your videos so much man

[@andreas1416]

I agree to most of that, but I can't follow the complaints about the inventory. It's too small? Well, thats what the Sea Truck is for. Otherwise collecting resources would just be ridiculously easy. Yeah, it's grindy, but well, it's kinda the gameplay, esp. if you want to build large bases. Obviously, you use labeled wall lockers to know where your stuff is. The glass lockers are more decorative, but less practical. I think I used one waterproof locker for a short time because you could start building your base very early in BZ.

[@algroyp3r]

The wall lockers are too small to be practical. You will need at least one or two per main resource, plus a couple for misc. items. This will take up the entire base and is awkward to access. You can actually label the glass lockers with a sign item, it's kind of expensive with 2 copper cost. However most of this would be resolved if you could see the glass locker content.

[@MinosML]

In this game there is literally a de-fabricator so you could store most things in their condensed/advanced forms which makes most complaints about inventory pretty misguided. Quantum Lockers are also a thing. The map is quite a bit smaller so really long treks aren't an issue and saving a nutrient block or 2 and distilled water for the longer ones on land mostly suffices. The Seatruck storage module could use a bit more space yeah, but that's about it. It's not the game's fault if people play a survival game without any notion of inventory management.

[@CruelestChris]

@@MinosML The problem isn't that the management is difficult, it's that it's needlessly fiddly. Why do I have to unlock and build a machine just to break down stacks of five titanium? Why not just have it stack in 5s in the inventory? Why are there five tiny individual lockers in the Seatruck module instead of one big one?

[@calibratedape7044]

Great critique. Although the thing I strongly disagree is the opinion that claustrophobic spaces was an OK choice. First I would argue that large, open spaces was a critical part of what made the Subnautica great and without them the game is just too different to call it a true sequel. Second - even more important - is that the games have no map/minimap, and I love it, but add to this navigation in a 3D maze and it's too much. Half of the time I just didn't care what I can find in tunnels because I was so fed up on trying to figure out where I am and what parts I already explored.

[@Aquilus33]

Hey man, I'm loving your channel so far. Not sure if you were inspired by Joseph Anderson but I get a lot of his vibes from your stuff (and that's not a negative, I've been subbed to his channel for years). Hope you keep it up!

[@Zyantastic]

Loving your review, as I agree with most of it, except your take on SN and BZ Leviathans (SN = Subnautica; BZ = Below Zero). SN Leviathans were all very uniquely designed with different triggers to aggressive behavior and how that aggressiveness was executed. BZ Leviathans were all budget reaper clones. They didnt pose a threat, you got desensitized to the fear after just a few hours of gameplay because all of them have the same lame attack and all of them are just obnoxiously loud. At least the reaper had a very distinct and fear instilling roar that became so much more chilling if you managed to get a scan of a reaper, to read up on their lore. In both games you had access to the PDS ( Perimeter Defense System), but in the last areas of SN you werent able to bring the seamoth which meant no PDS. And while there was a stasis rifle it required you to even land your shot. But there was more to deal with than just sea dragons. Lost River and both LavaZones felt very vast and expansive, it was EXTREMELY dark in the lavazone, and the lost river felt like a maze with its many entrances and hard to navigate, getting lost was easy. If you arent an experienced player and didnt prep by bringing additional powercells you also could have risked getting stuck there due to running out of power in your cyclops and may not have progressed far enough to unlock various teleporters. In BZ you also had the PDS and no stasis rifle, but you also could bring your seatruck to the deepst parts of the game that you had to visit, which made Shadow Leviathans nothing but obnoxious very quickly. They just kept going for you and you would just block them with the PDS. It just stopped being scary after the 5th time, just like every other Leviathan in that game. even the Enlarged Void version of the Leviathans werent scary, compared to the void ghost leviathans in SN. I personally ignored the snow fox entirely after getting knocked off 3 consecutive times by the ice worm, i just turned around, grabbed my prawn suit and laughed at the ice worms ridiculous attempts to bother me. It felt so cheaty that I feel like they should have prevented me from using it for that part of land specifically lol. With that being said, for a game that isnt labelled or classified as horror Subnautica does horror extremely well: Unique creatures and dangers combined with really immersive music that felt very stressful and pressing at times especially in the deeper biomes, paired with the silent protagonist and a game that left us to uncover its story and form our opinions on it completely on our own. Whereas BZ serves it on a silver platter and holds your hand too much. I didnt enjoy the protagonist constantly dictating how i as a player had to feel based on how the character talked about the events of the game. Also BZ was very bright, it felt like daylight almost everywhere at all times, there was oxygen plants everywhere which meant oxygen was really not a threat anymore, and while the music was still great, it just didnt give me that same immersive "vibe". It was just.... music..it didnt feel like part of the world. I do hope Subnautica 3 will be able to make up for what it lacks in BZ. And while i dont exactly fancy having to deal with robin again, I sure would love to learn more about the precursor race. But i will admit i struggled associating AL-AN as one of the precursors from SN, the precursor bits in both games just felt so.... wildly different from one another.

[@thunderdrone9606]

I just finished this game and went to look for a review and this is very well made, and I agree with almost every point you make. The first game was amazing that had a narrative that was not only mysterious but personable as well. This game however did feel more like a dlc than a full fledged sequel and the new ideas implemented like a more character driven story and the land sequences weren't very good. I do have to disagree on the character interactions with Robin and everyone else....I think ALAN was fine, curious but dismissive which makes sense considering his backstory. I believe its Robin who sucked as a character because I found her unnecessarily hostile to ALAN'S worldview. Her dialogue screamed arrogance and hypocrisy and I just found her overall annoying.

[@a_tremereandsomeblood_just3642]

My exploring pretty much from the get go was 1st: filling my whole inventory and a little later the seatruck with the Fruits of the Horseshoe shrub. so before i could collect something i had to eat first. because of that i never got hungry or thirsty and it even replanished health. so when i ran out of fruits, my inventory instead was filled with resources. 2nd: Back to the base, store everything. Than fill up the inventory and the seatruck with fruits again and repeat. Before i even got started with the story i had found everything under water on my own. My Truck setup until the end was storage module+prawn suit with drill, depth and storage upgrades. i "cleared" the shadow leviathan cave with only the first depth module on the seatruck (which brings you 300m deep)and just "swam" in because the levithans are no threat in this game.

[@jerrodshack7610]

This one's gonna be good, I was super disappointed in this game

[@ReckSaber3664]

When you were talking about leviathans not doing enough damage; I watched a video where they were talking about how the devs did not want you to die. Because dying from creatures or even drowning ruins the creepiness or scare factor the game gives. If leviathans did more damage and killed you more often, they just wouldn’t be intimidating or scary anymore. While I do understand where your coming from, I do believe this was intended by the devs and I don’t think it’s a bad decision.

[@TheDraconicBard]

That's crazy lmao if you aren't dying, there's no threats and nothing to fear

[@ranun5973]

I was around when BZ had the first go around of the plot with the bacteria, rather than what we got. I enjoyed that a whole lot more than what we have now.

[@hanspeter-bj2um]

This is all absolutely correct and I would confirm it. For me, the biggest mistakes were - Lack of solitude - too much on land stuff throughout - not scary enought

[@MisoSanSoup]

Subnautica handles people with Thalassophobia SO well. it really pulls you in slowly (just like actual water lol). it reassures you at the beginning of the game like "heyyy don't worry little fella :) look! it's just like the beach! look at these pretty corals and cute fish! there's nothing to be scared of." the starter area really is pretty and it feels somewhat reassuring that all the fish are small and seem like you could be the one hunting them, plus there are no darker areas in sight. which for me warmed me up to the game and its definitely the reason why I could even play it. I can't tell you how many games I've tried playing that have water in them and i just never could. I'd freeze and alt+F4 :D

[@TheAgileFatman]

The PDAs went on forever, I felt like Charlie from Its always Sunny in Philadelphia whenever they kept droning on.

[@dillonahrens8112]

I always follow up a subnautica playthrough with a below zero playthrough. There is a stacking of sorts with the item deconstructor which i enjoy a lot. I hope the deconstructor and other bz items are added to the original game.

[@tobiasmyhre7888]

for me, the thing I love about the subnautica games is the flora/fauna design. its so creative and help the world feel alive. so I want bothered at BZ having story, land or "boring" creatures (although the bad AI is something I hope they improve in later games)

[@DS6Prophet]

I honestly love both games exactly for what they are! I really liked the fact that they didn't make BZ exactly as the first one was. It felt different in a good way for me. I still agree though that they added too many simultaneous things in BZ & it became too distracting. However, it still let's you be more creative with the variety of base compartments, which I feel should have been imported in the first game too. Anyway, I'm still excited to see where the 3rd installment takes us next!

[@ijneb1248]

5:28 that transition goes hard

[@fishstrats960]

Below Zero's biggest saving grace for me is the incredible environmental art, which was already really good in the first game. I constantly found myself in awe of how beautiful the world was, and wanted to explore every inch of it, which is all I can ask from a game like this. Enjoyable video and definitely agree with a lot of your points, here's hoping Unknown Worlds learns from what worked and didn't work in both games in the development of the next Subnautica project.

[@mcfeddle]

If I were to make a new Subnautica, I'd keep a similar structure to the original. Aspects from Below Zero like the old ship and Base Building are very cool, and should be included as well. There should be even deeper segments, more dark areas, but doubly more vibrant/safe areas. Expanding as the game goes on, but a familiar feel to the progression. Like the Act Man said, I'd class a good sequel as taking everything and making it at least 10% better. A bigger map could even encompass a multiplayer element, which is a big want for Subnautica.

[@jakobhinterholzer535]

Exceptional Video, love your clear and comprehensible writing style and structure!

[@voidcrusader908]

After completing the frozen leviathan quest, my first thought was: "Well, that was anti-climatic." Consequently the whole quest felt like a waste of time.

[@stormshadow7116]

To the question of what I would have expected in a Subnautica iteration is essentially fourfold: 1) Expansion on the base building mechanic. The addition of the control room and the large partition room was welcome, but I feel they could have added a few more modules into the game. People love building huge sprawling fortresses in Subnautica 1(I will be calling it Sub-1 now to save characters) and they could have implemented a lot more exterior aesthetics to the game to lean further into this. - I do agree that space management can be a problem in Subnautica and the Quantum Lockers were a *huge* disappointment. Inventory spaces should be more upgradable to allow the storage of more materials and locker identification should be more visually distinct. I've taken to pairing a normal wall locker with the large locker so I can label them, but the large ones should have their own labels to begin with. Or the ability to see the materials on the shelf like certain mod in Sub-1 does. - I would add that the ability to create items in bulk rather than having to wait for each item to craft so you can click the button again would be another welcome change. It's so frustratingly boring to collect a bunch of metal scrap and have to keep hitting the same button over and over again. This particular crafting element is taking time away from exploration and base building and can heavily cripple a person's interest in the later. 2) More emphasis on leviathans. These hulking creatures were the most interesting part of Sub-1 and I loved every tidbit of lore I could read on them. From the terrifying Reaper to the peaceful Reefback to the absolute mindboggling *terror* at the mere thought the Gargantuan Leviathan was once a living predator, these made your character feel like a small fish in a VERY big ocean. - And this is one of my personal biggest gripes about Below Zero(BZ for short). The Leviathans, to me, felt like an afterthought. Their artistic designs were certainly well done, but their log entries felt...lacking. Like the Void Chelicerate barely got a mention in the Chelicerate log. BZ's writers seem to think that the Void version wasn't worth even making its own log. But good lord did we get a ton of logs on lily pads. Not to mention that the Shadow Leviathan, while it had a good log, was severely hampered by the environment they put it in. It was clearly meant for larger spaces than the tight corridors they stuck it in and its inability to really navigate them shows it. - They had such potential with the Frozen Leviathan. It had such a cool model but we *barely* know anything about it. It wasn't expanded on at all...hell, it never even got a proper name! - The Ice Dragon would have been so damn cool to see. What a shame it never made it past the concept art phase. 3) Producing interesting biomes. The biggest appeal of Sub-1 is the exploration factor. Every Sub-1 player can tell you how they felt when they first entered the Lost River and saw some of the fossils or the inactive lava zone and ran into the Sea Dragon (I know some people don't think much of the dragon, but I think point 2 indicates clearly that I dearly love this thing. A bit wonky in gameplay, but pretty cool.) - Here is my next big gripe with BZ, but I will keep it short. It's not anything people haven't heard already. Some of the zones *are* interesting but are terribly small. Some zones are indistinct from others (and comes off as lazy). Others are just not good or are purely rehashes (Like the kelp zone. While Im not against rehashed biomes, they should be a bit more distinct from previous versions than just a couple of color swaps) - So I noticed VG Mathew mentioned he liked the claustrophobia of BZ. Personally? I *hated* it. It's excessively frustrating to navigate these tiny crevices with your ever expanding clunky sea truck and even if it's not hauling a load, it feels ridiculous that every zone requires you to bounce from wall to wall to get anywhere. It made me miss the big open oceans of Sub-1 the entire time I played it. I want to point out a very specific thing I am alluding to in this paragraph: they shrunk the ocean of 4546B. If that statement doesn't make you pause and wonder how the words 'shrunk' and 'ocean' (which is an expansive body of water. Emphasis on expansive) came together, then it should give you more concern. 4) Expand on the vehicle list. The Seamoth, the Cyclops, and the Prawn suit were all powerhouses in their respective ways in Sub-1. Building them in Sub-1 all felt like massive achievements in the game and felt like proof of progress. Especially the cyclops as it is payoff for the hard work of finding all nine of the necessary pieces and every Sub-1 player likely can recall the wonder of watching this massive sub be constructed for the first time. - BZ's Seatruck would have been a great addition to the Subnautica vehicle lineup....if they didn't use it to replace two of them. The truck is sluggish compared to the Seamoth even without components, cannot store nearly as much as the Cyclops in a reliable manner, and doesn't *nearly* give the same level of wonder as the cyclops when you begin building one. It's lackluster and BZ feels less like Sub-1 because it's missing one of the personal player milestone moments like the cyclops. - You don't even want to get me started on the buggy mess that is the Snow Fox. During my only playthrough of BZ, I had built three of them. One was lost simply because I was being dumb and didn't notice collisions with the environment was damaging it. Two were lost from the Ice Worm. I console-commanded another five in.....why? Because sometimes when you deployed the Snow fox, it falls through the ground and is unretrievable. After the fourth time this happened, I finally spawned in one more then immediately threw it into the recyclotron to get a refund and never used it again. Out of the eleven times I launched the snow fox from my inventory, it fell through the ground four times. That's nearly a 1 in 3 chance that your snow fox stupidly falls through the ground after you take it out of your inventory. And the funniest part? The Snow Fox is completely pointless! The prawn suit with the grapple arm is faster, safer, and more reliable than the snow fox. TLDR: I ranted a bit with this, I realize. But I think Subnautica needs to stick with the tenants from the first game and expand on what made it strong: Base building, Leviathans, Biomes, and *more* vehicles (not the same number or less).

[@RoseDragoness]

I didn't finish any of the story but I do not mind much of the PDA stories. What annoy me is every some minutes AL-AN or Sam comment on something before I get the feeling of being alone under the sea or get scared by possible leviathan encounters. Then, there isn't much leviathans encounter to begin with, by the time I go to crystal cave... the leviathan is more of annoying distraction due to infrequent attacks and trivial repair than 'get out of here!' When the game tells me I need to go to a big plot of land, I quit for the second time >.> . Sadly, even if I could disable all dialogues, this 'supposedly dlc' still going to be lacking to go through. I regret being late adopter of subnautica, I purchase below zero as fast as I can, now I regret as early adopter of below zero.

[@gold264]

Sam did not even know for sure that Alterra wanted to use the bacteria to do something bad...

[@bigmac137]

I had a thought about a method of stacking that could fix the issue of storage and not lose the core gameplay element that is tedious storage. You could combine stacks of 5 or 10 of the same item depending on rarity into a condensed form, in the same way you have to make plasteel ingots in Subnautica 1. Don’t make any expensive or integral crafting recipes with them, as that would just make the problem worse, but if you could like make a display object with one of the ingots into like a statue or something that would be cool. Gives you incentive to get a lot of the same resource, too. Since you either have a Cyclops or SeaTruck nearby depending on the game, you have a fabricator close to make them as to not make it excessively tedious to make, have and store them. Sort of like a less intense ore block from Minecraft like a diamond block being used for a beacon. Minecraft benefits from ease of obtaining items, though, so there’s a conversation to make items in Subnautica easier to obtain in bulk. Maybe more resources per resource chunk, or like small caves full of one or more resources that spawn deep below with a decently tough predator nearby to guard. Also, definitely agree on the blueprint search function. The items definitely do blur together in my head as I’m looking for a specific item-I spent somewhere between 3-5 minutes very consistently looking for a blueprint because the blue backgrounds and small white text that blends in to the blue as it moves makes it hard to see specific items. Could be my poor vision talking, but it happens with glasses and contacts on/in, too.

[@Ajlez]

"...that it almost seems like a joke" Yeah, that's what I thought and I accidentally read it before the game even released. (Marguerite's survival story....) Also stuff like, I assumed we were going to FINISH Sam's work, like, that seemed like the obvious conclusion right? She didn't have the full, correct cure ready, obviously we would need to make it complete... nope? :head tilt: I also remember the earlier version of the game having much more risk involved and big scares, which gave me a much different idea than what the end version became.

[@samanthaelliottbrody9613]

Would have been happy if this was DLC, I wasn't too happy that this cost the same as the original as I just don't think it was worth it, saying that - I would have actually been happy to pay more for the original since I enjoyed it so much 😊

[@AndrewThePoet]

Great video as always, I myself never played Subnautica for... reasons. I'm very curious what ye shall do next after this video, I really like your content! I also wonder if you could critique the PVP aspect of the Soulsborne genre, as it has great concept and execution (perhaps the exception of Elden Ring) and has terrible balancing.

[@VGMatthew]

Thanks for the support :) I'm not sure if I would be able to make a good Soulsborne PVP video unfortunately, I've never been into the multiplayer aspects all that much. I've only ever played them singleplayer with the occasional co-op with a friend (or for help with Malenia). Still definitely hoping to make other Soulsborne videos though!

[@AndrewThePoet]

@@VGMatthew I will look forward what ye will put! Thanks so much for what you have made and hopefully you have a great day!