After completing the early access part of the game, I was left extremely happy for what may come later. The base game was already great enough given all of the story behind it, and you can partially see a similar story rising up like the original Subnautica. That's amazing. And it's a huge upgrade from BZ.
The graphics on ultra are incredible. I've played it on 3 different computers (albeit, most of them midrange-highend, so the lag was never really an issue) and found the vibrancy incredible. The gameplay was quite fun, and I really like the direction this early access preview has implied this game will be heading in.
Some of the glitches are hilarious. I honestly think they should remain in the game as long as they don't destroy gameplay as a whole just for the memes. I had an awesome time with some of my friends figuring these out, and playing around with them. We all had a good laugh at them.
Now, let's be honest here. There are definitely things that need to be worked on. Most notably, the vehicles, the fauna, and the wakemaker.
I have absolutely no clue if this is still true today, but it seems that the tadpole will be the only vehicle released for this game. Have we not learned from Below Zero here? People don't like the idea of modules where you turn your supposed "Fast scouting vehicle" into a hauling vehicle. It defeats the purpose, and only makes you have to use double the resources to have 2 that actually serve independent purposes.
The fauna are either incredibly easy to avoid, are a pain in the ass, or are literally unavoidable for some odd reason. This classification is NOT based on the type of fauna it is. Sometimes, the collector leviathan will just ♥♥♥♥ off, and other times, doing the exact same thing, it eats you and the following bloodline of reprints 8 times over, simultaneously destroying 3 of your tadpoles. A nibbler mango will sometimes just swim around you and never attack you, or it can be a sneaky bastard that decides its your time. I don't like the inconsistency. It makes every interaction with any fauna a gamble in an unnecessary fashion.
The wakemaker is definitely where I get the most irritated. You don't get a significant, or even NOTABLE boost in speed using it without glitches. Early game progression is curbstomped so hard in this game because of this thing to the point its almost laughable. It was an absolute hellhole trying to get resources without proper equipment like a tadpole or nearby base to rely on for oxygen without straying too far to where it becomes inefficient for you to gather resources there without them. Lithium, Gold, and Silver especially, are extremely notable for that.
Now, it's definitely still an amazing game. These are just nitpicks that I seem to have with the game. And I'm glad these were discovered quickly by others in early access so that we don't get left with a game like BZ, where we don't get the content we want at all. It's going to be an interesting experience seeing this game eventually release with whatever they decide to come up with, and I hope the Unknown Worlds development team will listen to community feedback.
