Subnautica, survival games and padding

Now that it has been released, Subnautica has gotten a lot of attention from critics and audiences. It is undoubtedly one of the best survival games released in a long while, perhaps even the best one since Minecraft itself. A review will be coming down the line, but it is important to look towards one of the few issues that Subnautica does have in more detail, and something that it has in common with other survival games; that of padding.

 

Subnautica's final release looks stunning, and the game itself is excellent. Source: in-game screenshot

I should preface this by saying that I LOVE Subnautica; it is, as I mentioned before, one of the best survival games to come out in a long while. I feel it does its exploration elements exceedingly well, and the loop of exploration and growth in early and mid-game is so organic it can arguably beat The Legend of Zelda for that core of sheer enjoyment in exploration. This is just over-thinking on one particular issue that this game has in common with many other games of its type.

Padding refers to when a game’s section is unnecessarily stretched out in length, usually long after said section stopped being interesting. Unfortunately, many survival games do fall for this as a flaw, but often not in the traditional plot sense that most games do. However, where survival games, such as Subnautica, begin to feel padded-out is in the late-game recipes and in how they tie to finishing the game.

 

Minecraft fell for this issue with the crafting of many late game items, such as Eyes of Ender and weapon and armour enchantments. Factorio’s late game is very unfortunately full of padded grind, where the loop of gathering and crafting many different branches of technology and items becomes an arduous task, that takes hours to do what gamers have been doing for the length of the game. It seems that survival games do have a problem with late-game crafting recipes, where the temptation to implement more complex crafting results in something where the actual tasks required are not difficult but are just boring and over-long. 

It is not a challenge to craft Eyes of Ender in Minecraft; it is just a boring experience at the mercy of the RNG of item drops, where your best bet to get the items you need involves grinding mobs that aren’t particularly challenging to kill, nor do they require any strategy. The worst part of this is that the drops required are so rare that you can go long stretches of grinding without ever seeing the items you need. As for the experience in Factorio, by the point you have reached the recipe for completing the end-game, it is not difficult to create a machinery loop to gather resources, but the game requires you to do this to a whole other level, with the different items necessary not being particularly difficult to make, but they just take a long time.

Subnautica, however, falls for this big time in both the traditional plot sense and in the mechanical sense. The end game is just about where fatigue sets in with the numerous different blueprints one can craft, and creature encounters become an annoyance as one explores deeper, as you just find yourself working toward the next objective. 

By the time players get to facilities such as this, padding becomes more obvious. Source: in-game screenshot

It is an issue because the recipes start to become repetitive and involve backtracking. When you reach one of the final areas, it becomes necessary to backtrack so that you can craft a key to a locked door. Otherwise, the area itself is mysterious and inviting and begs exploration. This ‘key’ and the items required to craft it are so mundane that the backtracking is almost redundant; a well-prepared player would have the items on hand to make such a key, so it becomes a simple act of walking back to the ship. On top of the slow walking speed in game, it becomes a painful experience. This offers little reward, or challenge; so why is this required at all?

 

The end-game area is intriguing and mysterious on its own. Source: in-game screenshot

It seems that recipe padding and end-game issues are a common theme when it comes to the survival genre. Perhaps more thought should be taken before considering whether or not end-game recipes and blueprints are actually difficult to achieve, or is it just that they take a long time; waiting and grinding does not make something difficult, but creates the illusion of difficulty from the time investment required.

The end-game back-tracking feels unnecessary considering the ease of the task. Source: in-game screenshot

Most of the games mentioned are excellent in their entirety, but this is a common flaw that is undoubtedly a problematic issue with the genre, and seems to repeat itself as a theme. Hopefully someday developers can find a way to make end-game crafting exciting, tense and thrilling, and not the chore that it currently is. At the very least, Subnautica goes a long way toward making the end-game thrilling and compelling such that these chores are very well worth the grind; the reward for getting through the grind is terrifying, mysterious and astonishingly beautiful and emotionally-affecting. 

The reward for end-game is well worth it. Want to see it fully? Play the game yourself! Source: in-game screenshot