Recent reviews by pyro3

negative review until they actually optimize it, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ practices

otherwise good game im a wizard

great

good

This game has granted me superhuman powers, women now have a primal urge to mate with me, i can teleport and my boss gave me a 800% raise. safe to say this is the best game of all time.

Subnautica Below Zero takes what made Subnautica great and gives it a bit of a spin.
*note: this review contains spoilers for the original Subnautica (which you should play before this game anyways) *

Firstly, the story – your character now talks, and is no longer a silent shell like in its predecessor. This might throw some people off, but it did not bother me at all (surprisingly, it made me more invested in the story). Another thing about the storyline is that it guides you a lot less. Unlike the first game, where you have a clear final objective (escaping the planet), the second one is a bit blurrier. The first few seconds you are told that your sister has died, and you are going onto the planet to find out why. As you progress, more storylines are added which you advance through. I personally find the conclusion of most of these storylines underwhelming, except one of them. I do think they could have done more with the underwhelming storylines, but you have to consider they fired the original writer halfway through development. The interface when listening to PDAs is also a lot more refined, and the other characters are a lot more fleshed out.

Secondly, the progression - I was sometimes lost and didn’t know what to do next. This game has a much more laissez-faire approach, letting you advance the story and the game progression at practically your own pace, unlike the original which pressured you to progress (the crashed lifepods, the Sunbeam/quarantine platforms, the Kharaa, the Aurora’s radiation – which you were guided to most of the time, and requiring better equipment each time). Below Zero is also a lot more exploration driven, with storylines and special places only appearing if you explore the area nearby, meaning if you don’t pass by the area, you can miss an important place early on. You obviously will be driven towards the aforementioned areas if you play long enough, but it means that less adventurous players will have a much slower story progression. This ends up with a very different experience depending on your playstyle. For me personally it meant that I had mid/late game items whilst only being near the beginning of the story, whilst I had a friend who almost had finished the story with mostly mid game items.

Now some smaller changes which affect the game, but much less than what I brought up in the first two points.
The balancing of resources in the game is honestly very good, only a couple resources are hard to find. For example, one of the resources I needed late game required a wiki search, and I probably would not have found it otherwise. I also very often found myself lacking lead, which is used in a lot more recipes in this game. A lot of the late game resources from the previous game could be found in mid-game areas of Below Zero, which contributes to the more open progression (acquiring late game items whilst barely touching the story).
I did dislike the surface parts of the game which you cannot avoid as a good part of the story happens there. I found them to be the only boring environments, with often the terrain being glitchy and more annoying then challenging. I understand they wanted to differentiate from the first game, but I am playing a Subnautica game because I want to be underwater, not running around on land.
The other great aspects of the original Subnautica, like resource gathering, base building, and the biomes are very well done, with lots of quality-of-life improvements all around. The base building is expanded on with new buildings, the outcrops make a lot more sense, the biomes are brand new and just as beautiful.
Below Zero doesn’t go as deep as the original, but I honestly don’t mind it that much.
The new submarine is honestly ♥♥♥♥ compared to the Cyclops and the Seamoth. The concept is cool, but in practice I find it pretty boring and annoying.
Graphically/performance wise the game is a lot prettier and runs much better too. I was able to play this game on the highest settings and get better frames than the original on lower settings.
This game is a lot less scary then the first one in my opinion, I find the leviathans to not be as scary. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, but not as much as its predecessor.

Overall, I think if you enjoyed the first game you will also enjoy this one. It answers some of the mysteries in the first and fills out some more details of the Subnautica universe. The gameplay is still fun and a lot more polished. Although not as good as the first in terms of story and progression, I think you can still have fun surviving and exploring in this game.

play this game rn

great fun with friends, although lacking graphically, still scares the ♥♥♥♥ out of you. still kinda buggy, and some mechanisms are unclear. i would recommend if you can get it with friends, it's a good time.

10/10

very fun with friends and also hella cheap

good game although with aging graphics. personally find the controls a bit clunky. i would only recommend playing with friends though, as it's a blast with a few mates. TK can be annoying at times. the game gets a bit intense at time, but not a full-out horror game.

7/10 get this when it's on sale