Subnautica: Below Zero

Buenardo

So, Below Zero is a good game, which is why it gets the rating it does from me. But it's not a particularly impressive entry in the Subnautica series. I have a lot of thoughts as to why, which I'll go over to the best of my ability. Compliments first: the game runs amazingly well. Lots of games these days barely seem to have any optimization, but this one works so well that I swear it puts less strain on my PC than a Youtube video, so props for that. The voice acting is also very well done. I liked all of the characters, including Robin. It's a bit different having a voiced protagonist, but really the only thing I didn't like about that was the new eating noises. Base building was a highlight for me in the original Subnautica, and Below Zero brought some updates and improvements, which I was excited about. I had a lot of fun with it. I do wish the large room was available earlier, since by the time I got access to the blueprint, my base layout was already done and I had to change everything around. Maybe I just went about exploration in a weird order? Which brings me to some of the issues I feel the game has. Subnautica 1 was great about providing pointers to story locations while still giving the player a lot of freedom. Below Zero... I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing at any given time, mostly because the story was trying to do too many things at once. I had trouble finding upgrades and blueprints in general, usually stumbling across them much later than they were initially needed. It was frustrating, and combined with the lack of drive from the story, my interest in the game really dropped. The biggest gripe I have is actually with how noisy everything is. The original game had this sense of vast, desolate loneliness that made it beautiful. You get none of that in Below Zero. All the hostile creatures roar loudly, regardless of their actual threat level (and, uh... basically every one of them you can just run over, which made them more of an annoyance than something to play around). The vehicles also have a constant, loud movement noise; especially the Prawn, which gave me a headache. Subnautica 1 was so careful with its sound design, and it created an amazing atmosphere. Below Zero felt clumsy in comparison. There was nothing that measured up to the experience of discovering the Dunes, for example. It was disappointing. I'll say again: Below Zero isn't at all [i]bad[/i] for an ocean survival game. If this was the first and only game in the series, probably nobody would know what they were missing. Subnautica 1 set the bar so incredibly high that it's a hard act to follow, that's all.