Subnautica - A 5 Year Retrospective

subnautica is one of the most unique survival games ever created a Sandbox of oceanic proportions that gives you almost Limitless possibilities for exploration and Terror in equal measure set on the ocean world of 4546b subnautica gives you the chance to explore an alien ocean teeming with life from the smallest of friendly fish to the largest of predators so five years on from its official release out of Early Access in January 2018 how does subnautica hold up today let's find out subnautica is set in the 22nd century where Humanity has progressed past its Earthly limitations and become a space-faring civilization with spaceships and Intergalactic travel sustained by high-speed space travel infrastructure known as phase Gates this is where the Aurora comes in created by the Altera Corporation the Aurora is a long-range capital ship sent to the arabny system in order to create new phase Gates and allow for quick travel to the area the Aurora has a crew of 157 people to help it to complete this task one of which is non-essential system maintenance Chief Riley Robbins person while in the aratny system the Aurora moves to undertake a gravity slingshot maneuver around one of the system's planets 45-46b this is where subnautica begins in a blaze of glory an alarm screams something's gone wrong it's time to abandon ship Riley finds himself in a life pod flying away from the Aurora before a shock wave from the exploding ship sends debris fly all around the life pod knocking him unconscious Riley awakes to the smell of soot and smoke the life pod is Ablaze but luckily a fire extinguisher is close to hand to help douse the Flames Riley climbs up the ladder onto the life pod's roof to see his former home and place of work is now crashed in the ocean a few miles away with no land in sight Riley Robinson now only has one job to complete stay alive this opening does an amazing job of both setting the scene for subnautica's story and giving the world a sense of size and scale which other games fail to match the player knows what to do next without being told it's simple you just have to survive there is no flashy or unnecessary objective and looking around you'd see nothing but ocean shows just how hard this is going to be are there any other survivors out there who knows but from where you're standing right now things are looking bad as there are no other life pods to be seen for now at least you're on your own almost immediately the silence starts to become noticeable apart from the sound of the lapping of the Waves around your life pod and the chattering of some alien seagulls there isn't much to break the quietness now this immediately immerses you within the story none of us have ever had The Misfortune of crashing on an alien planet unless you're some kind of lizard but we've all experienced silence which when added to the vastness of the water that surrounds you really reinforces the feeling of being truly alone you look down at your damaged life pod and know you're going to have to conduct some repairs and for that you're going to need materials but there's only one place those materials could come from and you don't have any idea what's down there Earth's oceans can be scary enough but this is a completely alien world where absolutely anything goes but if you want to get out of here I suppose you don't have much choice but to get in there and find out you take a deep breath and dip your feet into the void below well here goes nothing after the disorientation of the cold water subsides you find yourself in a Fantastical alien world with bright plants fish and even giant Coral tubes you cautiously explore your environment keeping one eye on your oxygen tank at all times trying to gather just enough resources to fix your new home and use the radio to try and call for help graphically subnautica is at one of its best in these early safe shallows resembling a tropical Reef on Earth with light crystal clear waters and plenty of Light subnautica's art style holds up well to this day considering the game was first released in Early Access in 2014 which is the same year Far Cry 4 was released colors pop and are clear and vibrant and the water itself is clear enough to see through while also fading the draw distance to add blur to Faraway objects just as real underwater exploration would as water distorts light now while Graphics technology has moved on in the last five years since subnautica's full release in 2018 the game still looks nice I'm sure it could still be improved upon if it were released today but I wouldn't say anything was missing here visual energy is good in all areas of the game but personally the safe shallows is one of my favorites with the Jelly Troon caves Grand reef and the underwater Islands also being good examples of the game's enduring Beauty to complement these environments subnautica has an ocean full of weird and interesting creatures from the more Earth-like looking peepers and stalkers to the very alien looking gasopods subnautica does an excellent job of populating its ocean with a balance between alien looking and more earth-looking creatures giving the ocean a somewhat familiar feeling while also being strange and exotic that beauty doesn't mean there isn't any threats though as stalkers and even the passive gasopods can be dangerous if you get too close giving the player that sense of danger even when close to the surface as subnautica is a survival game first and foremost you will need to balance your food water and oxygen in order to survive and after catching enough Wildlife to eat and filtering enough water to sustain your body collecting materials to repair your life pod craft new equipment and expand is your next key aim subnautica's core gameplay Loop revolves around diving to find materials which allows you to craft new equipment and vehicles this then allows you to dive deeper and explore and find better loot all of this diving and looting will soon mean you will run out of storage space in your life pod requiring you to construct your own base using the habitat builder in order to have enough space and to put down permanent routes this brings subnautica's Base building mechanics into play which allows you to build your very own underwater base and build lots of Windows to look at that beautiful scenery the unique nature of subnautica's underwater world is what makes Base building here so much fun while there's nothing particularly unique about building a base in a video game it's not typically done underwater which gives you a few more options for creativity with large underwater rooms covered in glass like some kind of reverse aquarium where you're the interesting thing for the fish to look at rather than the other way around simple activities in other games such as building a farm needs to be done inside a building underwater which adds another layer of complexity and an interesting visual design to look at this also allows for interesting mechanics to be used to control the size of the player's base such as the whole Integrity crushing mechanic where if your base gets too large for the supporting reinforcements it's built on water will start to pour in and your new favorite poster above your bed is going to get very wet indeed while subnautica's bases are necessary to survive for easy access to food water and storage building and designing the base itself can be its own form of fun and picking the most interesting location for your base can be a tough choice the living large update released at the end of 2022 also brought in a number of building mechanics and new bass pieces from subnautica sequel below zero which further refined and added to the base building experience after building a base and creating a radio or repairing the radio in the Life pod Riley will start to receive distress signals from other survivors maybe you aren't alone after all this acts to give the game further depth than simply survival while not taking away from its Core theme with each signal investigated your hopes are dashed over and over again as nobody else can be found alive it seems that nobody else has survived the crash at least not for very long it seems that 45-46b's giant creatures known as leviathan's make short work of any humans who encounter them that is if the elements haven't got to them first subnautica is designed around the concept of hunting and prey specifically you being hunted and you being prey subnautica's developers deliberately didn't include weapons in the game so that the player couldn't fight back they wanted to play on the idea and adrenaline that comes from being helpless and being hunted when encountering a hostile creature the smartest move is to run away and the developers further reinforced this gameplay by not giving any rewards for killing a leviathan even if you do manage to do it this makes subnautica unique as most games are built around some form of combat or fighting and their way to make the game interesting without this mechanic was to make getting hunted so fun that you got the same Adrenaline Rush when playing even without the ability to fight back as you continue your search for survivors the Aurora's secondary mission on 45-46b is revealed as part of its trip the Aurora is to attempt to locate and possibly rescue survivors of a ship that previously disappeared on the planet known as the degasi venturing further afield ruins of the degassi cruise bases and settlements can be found dotted throughout the world it seems like the survivors were stuck here for a long time but it's not clear as to why but that shouldn't be the case for you as from a stroke of luck a ship passing the system called the Sunbeam has picked up Riley's distress signal it looks like you might finally be able to go home the Sunbeam gives you coordinates for a nearby piece of land where they can pick you up all you have to do is travel to it and wait for rescue upon arrival at the Mountain Island you find a strange alien looking structure and just as you can reach out and touch rescue with the Sunbeam just meters away the structure comes alive and fires a green beam of energy destroying the Sunbeam completely and any hope of rescue this must have been what destroyed the Aurora and the degassi and if it destroys every ship that comes to rescue you you'll be stuck here forever after gaining access to the facility by using a purple tablet found on the Mountain Island as a key it seems that the gun has been created to enforce a quarantine on the planet due to the outbreak of a disease although we don't know what one all the creatures on the planet seem to be fine don't they the gun known as the enforcement platform gives Riley information about a number of alien facilities hidden around the Planet all incredible depths meaning Vehicles will be needed to access them subnautica has three main Vehicles the seamoth the prawn 2 and the Cyclops which all fill a different and unique role the seamoth is a small and lightweight scouting vehicle which while Nimble and fast lacks the whole Integrity to go deep underwater on its own it also leaves its pilot at significant risk of Leviathan attack due to its weak Hull but with its maneuverability and a little skill you can drive rings around most potential threats access to the seamoth is given early in the game and allows for the world to really open up to the player prior to getting the seam off the player must constantly watch their oxygen levels returning to the surface each time these are low in order to avoid drowning the seamoth with its own Air Supply and built-in lights and armor for protection allows the player to explore more freely after the initial survival challenge of simply trying to stay alive starts to wind down keeping gameplay interesting and speeding up movement throughout the world while not making the player too overpowered and still vulnerable to threats the planet May pose as subnautica expands and the need to go deeper emerges the Cyclops is introduced as a slow lumbering but Strong mobile base that eliminates the need to return to your normal home after each trip into the unknown the Cyclops acts as a form of checkpoint in the game not only is it a fun and epic moment to create such a massive vehicle but it decisively shifts your goals towards deep sea exploration the cyclops's ability to carry the seamoth and the prawn suit makes it the perfect staging ground for launching short missions to gather key resources and for progressing the game's story but its slow speed and large size means it can never replace these vehicles when it comes to maneuverability and scouting but importantly even with the Cyclops being as big as it is it's not indestructible and the player remains vulnerable to Leviathan attacks which is important for continuing the game's tension and pacing as the game is built around the thrill of the chase the vulnerability of the Cyclops means this important gameplay Loop is maintained while also allowing the player to feel like they're progressing in the story The prawn suit is subnautica's last main vehicle and acts in a similar vein to the seamoth in that is primarily a scouting vehicle the prawn suit while stronger and more durable than the seamoth is limited by its legs and short-range thrusters meaning it isn't as maneuverable but it makes up for this by having arms which can be used for Gathering resources and having a stronger Hull allowing the player to go deeper the prawn suit has a number of different arms that can be added to increase its versatility and its defensiveness and some are just plain good fun the inclusion of the prawnsu and its relatively slow speed increases tension in the later parts of the game as the player's ability to escape danger is severely reduced due to its lack of speed and maneuverability each of subnautica's vehicles is added at just the right time in order to keep gameplay fresh without the player becoming bored or too overpowered for their current area allowing for just enough exploration and threat to exist without removing the player's limits entirely with these new vehicles in place Riley is now free to explore deeper into the world and based on the information found at the enforcement platform discovers the disease research facility nestled within the Lost River here we learn the true reason for the existence of the enforcement platform that prevents us from leaving the planet the Ancient Aliens who built the enforcement platform known as the precursors or The Architects discovered a disease known as Cara while they were expanding their civilization throughout space the disease escaped quarantine and infected their core home worlds killing up to 143 billion individuals in order to stop the disease from spreading further the core worlds were quarantined an isolated disease research facilities were created on a number of Worlds where Cara could be studied and hopefully cured 45-46b the planet on which you are currently stuck is one of these worlds during their study of Cara The Architects took samples from different creatures to try and find a cure and some of these samples were taken from the eggs of a sea dragon Leviathan a massive aggressive 112 meter long creature the Sea Dragon followed the Architects after they stole its eggs and rammed the facility in which they were stored destroying it and releasing the Cara bacteria that was meant for study into 4546b's ecosystem this forced The Architects to flee the planet or die from the infection so they activated the enforcement platform to stop the disease from escaping horrified by this Riley now undertakes a medical cell scan and realizes that he too is infected with the disease along with the rest of the life on 4546b if he wishes to survive he'll have to find the other alien facilities hidden on the planet and figure out a cure heading deeper Riley encounters the alien thermal plant deep inside the lava Zone which is used to power all of the architect's facilities on the planet information here reveals a mass extinction event occurred around one thousand years ago at the same time Cara was released it also indicates that the life we see on 4546b today is just a fraction of what used to live here and these are the descendants of the survivors of the initial outbreak in this area Riley finds a tablet which allows for access to the primary containment facility the architect's main research base upon entering the primary containment facility we discovered the Architects were studying a large creature known as the siempril Leviathan which was immune to the car or bacteria the sea Emperor itself is old and weak so it's not a good source for generating a cure but it does have five eggs which could be hatched in order to create a lasting antidote the arc attacks were unable to get these eggs to hatch within the containment facility which is why they took the sea dragon's eggs instead as the two creatures are similar and they thought they could be used for creating a cure although this is ultimately what led Takara being released onto the planet the sea emperor that remains alive in the containment facility is able to telepathically communicate with Riley that if a number of different plants which can be found across the planet's various biomes can be brought to the facility that the eggs will be able to hatch the baby sea Emperors will then be able to release enzyme 42 which can cure the planet of the Cara bacteria after bringing the plants needed and hatching the eggs Riley is cured and the baby sea Emperors are released onto 45-46b to begin to clean the wider ecosystem now that Riley is cured he is able to return to the enforcement platform and disable it allowing him to escape the planet after gathering enough resources and obtaining the blueprints from the wreckage of the Aurora Riley is finally able to construct the Neptune Escape rocket and Escape 4546b for good subnautica's story is told in a way that allows the player to discover each element on their own with very little guidance in fact a lot of the story and side story elements in subnautica can be accessed at any time and is dependent on the player's actions for instance the Sunbeam story mentioned earlier is only activated after a radio is obtained by the player and the Kara story is only progressed when going deep enough into the world this allowed for the developers to tailor area Loot and crafting recipes to the relevant areas of the story avoiding the issue of becoming too overpowered or too bored this means that subnautica is a very quiet game there's no objective forced on you at any time and if you don't want to progress the main story you could ignore it completely one of the most beautiful things about subnautica is the mystery in which the game unfolds and the Silence of its World The Game's atmosphere is built on top of this Silence with the Roar of a far-off creature making the world feel real and alive often it's just you and the bubbles from your air tank that fills the silence but that's what makes it great the world is allowed to breathe and simply exist allowing you to lose yourself in the planet's mystery the PDA exists to give you information when required but enough time is given for you to have your own reaction to what you're seeing when you first see a Reaper you have that horrified moment that wouldn't be possible if you were warned about the danger beforehand and these organic reactions keep you coming back over and over again often the thought and Imagination of what could be around the next corner is just as exciting as what actually is subnautica's ending ultimately feels well earned you survived against the odds and finally get to escape it brings together your entire Journey from Catching your first fish to ultimately saving the planet and yourself completing a satisfying story from Lone Survivor to Planet conqueror subnautica's world is enhanced by its outstanding soundtrack while generally low-key songs such as into the unknown and tropical Eden really set the scene for a world steeped in mystery they give the game its sci-fi feel without being overstated and complements subnautica's quiet World perfectly from happy and light in the safe shallows to Eerie and mysterious in the Lost River with the soundtrack ratcheting up in moments of danger with iconic songs such as abandoned ship all Leviathan playing when tension is high and the stakes are even higher it's important for a game to get its music right as this can set the tone and pacing for the action seen on screen and thankfully subnautica does just that five years on from full release and subnautica has one of the most dedicated fan bases around with a thriving modding community and interest in the game remaining high with mods ranging from simple quality of life fixes to full expansion of the game's Base building mechanics subnautica's enduring Legacy five years after release is one of success it's one of the most unique games released in the past few years and holds up surprisingly well today in the visual Department due to its stylized graphics and bright colors subnautica's blend of survival and undersea exploration is a unique combination that not many games can effectively pull off with strong core mechanics and outstanding soundtrack and an interesting spin on the survival formula subnautica remains one of the top games in the genre with a passionate fan base and a thriving modding Community subnautica is going to be around for a long time to come and who knows what the next title may have in store for us if you'd like to know more about how subnautica was developed and how three bankruptcy scares almost killed the game completely then you'll have to watch this video next to find out more and special thanks to my patrons Rowan Thane and asmodius

Channel: Aletho

Views: 106,965

Keywords: Aletho, subnautica, subnautica below zero, subnautica 2023, Uncharted Waters - Analysing Subnautica's Legacy, subnautica 5 years later, subnautica retrospective, subnautica below retro, subnautica review 2023, subnautica story explained, subnautica 3, is subnautica worth it, subnautica mods, subnautica news, subnautica update, subnautica guide, subnautica explained, subnautica ost, subnautica leviathan, video essay, subnautica critique, subnautica development, unknown worlds

Id: 6P3gcaJsBio

Length: 18min 5sec (1085 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023