NEWS: Subnautica finally surfaces from Early Access January 24th

Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s underwater survival game, Subnautica, has finally made it out of Steam’s Early Access, available for £17.54 (£19.49 after promotion) in the UK, and for $24.99 in the US. Already highly successful and much-loved by YouTubers including Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, Subnautica promises underwater survival sandbox gameplay and base-building elements that bring a unique twist on the flooded genre of survival games.

Subnautica is a deeply beautiful game with lots of bright colours in use bringing a engaging diving and exploration experience to the player. The gameplay consists largely of collecting blueprints and adventuring around a fluorescent alien ocean while also avoiding death from the many dangers lurking in the deadly sea, from dangerous stinging plants all the way up to giant sea monsters called Leviathans. 

 

Subnautica's beautiful, but deadly luminescent ocean. Source: in-game screenshot.

Some of the more promising features of the game include the scavenging elements and the crafting elements. With a fitting sci-fi twist on the formula most common in survival games, Subnautica forges its own identity in the genre; instead of crafting recipes using benches and tables, instead useful items are Fabricated using an in-game tool that 3D-prints such goodies in front of the players eyes. From this, an extensive array of underwater machinery and tools can be constructed to make exploration easier and more satisfying, and not only that but the player can also create sprawling underwater habitats with many cool little personalisations that add to the game’s individual charm. The game offers different options to explore its oceans including the traditional Survival mode and genre mainstays Hardcore mode (giving the player only one life alongside difficulty hikes) and Creative mode (offering players freedom of exploration and crafting).

It is promising to see the game finally out of Early Access after its development period. With the many performance upgrades and features added since its initial offering, including a deep story mode, Subnautica has grown as a game and is a fine example of how to do Early Access correctly. The game joins the likes of Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve in its success on getting out of what, for many games, is a long and protracted beta period that is difficult to survive.

On announcing the game’s final release, Charlie Cleveland, Co-Founder and Game Director of Unknown Worlds Entertainment had this to say:

“Since the game’s beta release in 2014, Subnautica has received waves of positive and constructive feedback from our dedicated players. The team is grateful to the community for the overwhelming support. We are proud to deliver an experience that gamers of all ages will dive into and immediately feel the thrill of exploration and survival in an expansive undersea world.”

Further coverage of Subnautica will include a review and a Twitch stream at a later date. The game’s trailer is viewable below:

For more information on Subnautica, a link to the game's page can be found here.