Subnautica Review

Having followed Subnautica from its days as a fledgling Early Access to the breathtakingly beautiful final release that it is today, I have already racked up over a hundred hours in Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s underwater paradise, and I undoubtedly will play many more before I’m through with the game. But now that it is finally out in the wild, does Subnautica survive against the scrutiny of critical attention? The short answer is yes, but the long answer is that the final game is something so spectacular it begs for far more description. 

Graphically, Subnautica is both magnificent and disappointing. It’s uncontroversial to say that with its full-fat graphical release, the final game is an aesthetic masterpiece and one of the best-looking videogames ever made. Subnautica’s numerous biomes all pop uniquely with their own brand of awesome bioluminescent beauty, and many will be taken aback by the range of jaw-droppingly beautiful sights offered by the underwater paradise in the game. This only makes it more of a crying shame that the performance of the game is so poor. 

 

The reveal of one of the most beautiful characters in a game to date. Source: in game screenshot

Playing on a PC that’s no slouch, powered by an NVIDIA 1070 with an overclocked i7, it was still easy to notice a lot of stuttering as the game’s engine jarringly chugged under load. This is especially true as the player dives into the more complex zones such as the Active Lava areas. Given how amazing and diverse the aesthetics are, it’s a massive shame that the performance is so terrible and even gets as bad as almost unplayable in parts, as fish flicker and stutter around the player in movements vaguely resembling a swimming motion. Players will undoubtedly spend a lot of time clumsily trying to anticipate such stuttery motion, clicking far too often at blank space as the fish stutters away into the wrong direction. Updates may have alleviated these issues somewhat recently, but if this game is still difficult to run on a 1070 there’s undoubtedly going to be problems for anyone playing on a lesser machine.  

The graphics, however, are commendable for being able to stand out as spectacular in spite of the many performance issues. The sheer diversity and aesthetic of the biomes on offer are breathtaking, and only add to the gameplay. Every aspect of the game’s art design is clearly carefully considered. The atmosphere of Subnautica oozes from every bioluminescent barnacle, from every glowing bush right down to the way the water reflects off the sand. A whole spectrum of emotions is stirred up appropriately by the aesthetic design of Subnautica, such that it’s almost easy to ignore the performance issues. 

 

The aesthetic design is suitably alien, and spectacular to look at. Source: in game screenshot

Another area where Subnautica impresses is in the sound design, which is nothing short of genius. I was in love with the Sea Emperor’s voice acting from the first moment I heard it, as it hit all of the right emotive notes while at the same time convincingly portraying an alien creature with wisdom beyond imagination. The voice acting of the NPCs, however, is hit and miss. The creature noises, on the other hand, are all spot on. From the cutesy chirp of a Peeper to the terrifyingly-shrill roar of a Reaper Leviathan, the sounds are always perfectly tuned into the game’s atmospherics and serve only to immerse the player further into the experience. It’s also of merit that the background music of each biome in the game is sublime and absorbing.

 

Even staring at the night sky is a beautiful experience. Source: in game screenshot

The storyline of Subnautica is a mixed bag; while it is engaging in many parts, and the narrative of the Sea Emperor is tragic and affecting, the pacing can feel off on numerous occasions. Moments such as a timer ticking to an important game event could have been done without (though it is nearly made up for by the sheer spectacle of what follows), and progression can often feel as though it is deliberately padded and overlong. 

There is no denying, however, that the world-building of Subnautica is spot-on, and the final result, for all its flaws, is a story that is gripping from the first moment the player dips their toes into the alien ocean.

The character of the Sea Emperor is awe-inspiring. Source: in game screenshot

What is of note, however, is how the world-building of Subnautica feeds into its gameplay. Given its sci-fi high-tech setting it’s impressive how believable the game makes its own survival mechanics. One example of this is in how items are crafted and broken down into constituent materials with the Fabricator, a suitably sci-fi bit of kit that feels right at home in Subnautica’s setting. Materials and shelters are 3D-printed in front of the player’s eyes in ways that deepen their immersion into the plausibility of Subnautica’s world.

Other aspects of gameplay are just as impressive; the game may have been described as ‘Minecraft, but underwater’, but the execution of Subnautica feels like nothing else on the market right now. The game even surpasses The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in how it encourages, even begs exploration of its sandbox; deep crevasses, underwater cave and abandoned shelters float tantalisingly for the player to plunder. There is a kind of joy in the loop of exploring and plundering loot, only to use such loot to explore further that is impossible to replicate in most other games. The sheer sandbox freedom and compulsion to explore is a joy to experience. 

 

The world is inviting and beautiful in nearly every shot. Source: in game screenshot

It's also helpful that Subnautica represents a more pacifist design philosophy rarely seen in gaming. For better or worse, there are very few ways to ‘kill’ the creatures in the game. While smaller animals are, of course, valuable sources of food, the clear majority of player interaction with threats is non-lethal. While some gamers may hope to fight against the many deadly creatures they will come up against in Subnautica, that just isn’t the point of the game. It’s a refreshing and brave design choice, to be sure; one that doubles down on the survival focus and streamlines the game toward the joy of its other mechanics. It also makes large creature encounters suitably terrifying and awe-inspiring. The Sea Dragon Leviathan is one creature that can still offer scares even in the relative safety of a gigantic submarine. 

 

The end-game begs the player to go deeper, but pacing can be an issue. Source: in game screenshot

One of the few issues with Subnautica’s game design is in how unfortunate the hunger and thirst meters are timed. Often it feels like the player character can’t go for more than five minutes without chugging a gallon of water. Sadly, Subnautica just didn’t seem to get the balance right on the hunger and thirst timings, and it’s a shame to have such an enticing world to explore only to be nagged every five minutes to drink more water, like an overbearing mother. This issue can be solved by turning off the survival elements of the game but in doing so the player is not playing Subnautica how it is meant to be experienced. 

There are also issues in the pacing of the storyline’s gameplay; too many times you will have to backtrack to get required materials, often just as the game begs you to explore deeper. One particularly bad example of this is near the endgame, involving alien tablets being used as keys to unlock doors. The materials themselves are easy to gather and by this point the player has the Cyclops as a portable base, but it’s annoying that the story seems to be coming to a climax only for the player to have to drop everything to run back to the submarine to craft an arbitrary recipe that represents little actual gameplay challenge. 

 

The atmospherics of the alien facilities are suitably mysterious. Source: in game screenshot

It's telling, though, that Subnautica’s main flaws are mere implementation issues of design factors that form the game’s central pillars. Because the game is such a masterwork of sandbox design, it’s easy to forgive these flaws as consequences of Subnautica’s design choices. 

Subnautica is indeed a masterpiece that stands out as unique in a genre niche that feels increasingly saturated. While the game is flawed in many aspects: the performance is choppy at best, the story mode is roughly implemented, and the survival mechanics often feel clumsy; the fact that Subnautica still stands as one of the best games I’ve ever played despite these issues is testament to how masterful a game it is. Lesser games would crumble under the weight of their flaws but with Subnautica, the overall experience is so good that it outshines any of these issues with style.

 

One of the more beautiful scenes in the game. Source: in game screenshot

Candidly, Subnautica is one of the best games I’ve played this generation. As an experience, I put it up there with Minecraft, Pokémon and Resident Evil 4; sublime masterworks that shaped my view of gaming today. That Subnautica nestles comfortably into such a list is testament to just how good an experience it is. If you haven’t played Subnautica, you really should. I promise you that once you take the plunge, you will find a game that engages you for many hours.

-Gold Standard

On reviewing this game, it came to my attention that some games stand out as masterpieces, that are so memorable and important that a recommendation just isn’t enough. For this reason, I have decided to implement the Gold Standard Coin, a stamp of approval for the most important games that come to shape my view of gaming as a hobby and artwork. Games that are eligible for this Gold Standard will be re-reviewed later to make use of this feature. 

For now, Subnautica is the first game for which I have decided to use this standard. I have played over a hundred hours in this sandbox and I’m still not bored. It is one of the best examples of Early Access done right, and of implementing survival mechanics in a unique way that truly sets a new bar for the genre, in a way that hasn’t been done since Minecraft and Don’t Starve.

Congratulations to Subnautica for being the first to achieve Stev3L’s Gold Standard!