Subnautica

I never found underwater levels in any game fun. They often share the same gameplay quirks: sluggish character movement, a diminishing oxygen meter and agile underwater enemies to keep you in constant motion. In fact, many games treat water as a deterrent to keep the player from wandering too far out of bounds. Subnautica is one of the few exceptions where I found the underwater traversal and exploration fun. Unfortunately the game is a massive time-sink and a buggy mess.

The premise of Subnautica is that you are a survivor of the spaceship Aurora, that has crash landed on a mysterious watery planet. The goal is to survive by harvesting the local resources, find help and eventually escape.

At my first glance, Subnautica looks like yet another survival crafting game with an underwater twist. But then it dawned on me that there is more that you can do than just survive. You can visit the wreck of the Aurora. You craft vehicles to explore the ocean in greater depths. And then you eventually encounter a mysterious alien building situated on a remote island. There IS a story in Subnautica and the game CAN be finished; but when and how you do it, is completely up to you. The game grants players a tremendous amount of freedom but unfortunately it is much to the game’s detriment.

My first 5-6 hours with Subnautica was a blast. I was crafting better and better equipment. I was constructing my own remote sea bases to make storing and fabricating goods more convenient. And I had constructed the Seamoth, an underwater vehicle that allowed me to traverse previously unreachable biomes filled with unique creatures, ores and plant life. Then I stumbled onto a brick wall, I no longer had any new things to craft.

There are not enough clear objectives in Subnautica. Outside of following the distress signals, visiting the wreck of the Aurora and exploring the alien structure, I had no idea where to go. I had to read through reams of text in the in-game logs to learn that I had to visit two facilities deep below the surface. It’s unusual why the game doesn’t make this more transparent. Even though I have now ascertained this information, I didn’t have the proper vehicle to venture deeper. I knew I had to construct a submarine called the Cyclops, but I didn’t know where to find all the blueprints. There is no map in Subnautica, so even following a walkthrough doesn’t help that much. After eventually gathering all the blueprints to construct the submarine there is the hassle of finding all the necessary materials to fabricate it. I had to build several Scanner Rooms to find the requisite ores. I wasn’t having fun with the game anymore and this whole process felt like mindless busywork.

To pour on more salt into the wound, be prepared for a ridiculous amount of backtracking (unless you are following a walkthrough). I have encountered multiple occasions where I have reached a destination only to find myself having to travel all the way back. The game tends to gate areas with specific tool and item checks but gives no indication about bringing them until you’ve arrived. The game can also become punishingly frustrating in the late game. I wasted several hours because I didn’t adequately prepare the Cyclops with enough surplus batteries and was forced to resurface.

Despite all of these time-sinks, I was still immersed with Subnautica because exploring the different biomes was genuinely exciting. I marveled at the luminescent mushrooms, panicked when I encountered creatures as large as the submarine and was thrilled when I finally reached the deepest levels of the planet. Unfortunately my immersion was completely broken because of the game’s multitude of bugs.

Subnautica was released in early access in late 2014, officially released in early 2018 and I am playing the game now in 2021 and this game is still buggy! Given the vast open world of Subnautica, I expected some “open-world jank” that is typically found in other open world games. I experienced creatures and fauna clipping through the terrain and odd UI issues where my screen would get partially obscured if I was too close to a wall. But then I encountered even worse bugs. The game constantly reminds me that my sea bases are running out of power even though I’m over 1000 meters away and not exactly planning to return to them soon. I would get immediately killed if I exited the Seamoth at full speed. The Prawn Suit would sometimes get stuck in the terrain which requires a full restart to fix. But the worst bug I’ve experienced was a Sea Dragon Leviathan that clipped through the second to final room in the game. I’ve tried restarting the game but it would still be there. I had to carefully walk past the room, hoping it didn’t immediately insta-kill me and then save each time I crossed the room (which you need to do multiple times).

Subnautica by all means is a wonderful crafting and exploration adventure. It is one of the best underwater exploration games that I have played. The game is also extremely buggy, not intuitive and a massive time-sink. Subnautica is one of the few games that I think few would want to play if they couldn’t follow a walkthrough or search for something online. The game simply does not provide enough clear objectives and instead relies too much on the player to eventually stumble upon the solution. Subnautica is a great game if all you want to do is craft and build the ultimate sea base. However, Subnautica has problems if you are planning on actually finishing it