Subnautica

Gameplay

The player controls in first-person view the lone survivor of a crashed space ship, called the Aurora, on an aquatic planet. The main objective of the player is to explore the open world environment and survive the dangers of the planet while at the same time following the story of what happened in the game. Subnautica allows the player to collect resources, construct tools, bases, and submersibles, and interact with the planet's wildlife. Players must keep themselves adequately hydrated and fed. In Survival Mode, they must also maintain their oxygen supply while traversing underwater. The game includes a day and night cycle. The game includes three other modes: Freedom mode, in which hunger and thirst are disabled; Hardcore mode, which is the same as Survival, except that if the player dies, the player will no longer be able to respawn; and Creative Mode, in which the hunger, thirst, health, and oxygen features are all disabled, all the crafting blueprints are acquired, where no resources are needed to craft and the submersibles do not need energy and can be damaged. The game is mainly set underwater, with two explorable islands.

HTC Vive Support is not yet fully built into the game. As a result, using SteamVR will not work with the Vive Controllers.

Plot

The game takes place in the late 22nd century, when humanity begins to colonize planets in space. The Alterra Corporation sends the Capital-class starship Aurora to Ariadne Arm to construct a phase gate. However, during its gravitational slingshot maneuver around planet 4546b, an unknown energy pulse strikes the vessel, critically damaging the hull, making the ship crash-land into the planet's ocean. During the crash-landing sequence, several life pods were launched. One of these life pods contains the player.

After about three in-game days, the Aurora explodes due to instability on one of the drive cores and releases massive amounts of radiation. The vessel's blown out front opens several passages to the ship's reactor room, which the player can access with a radiation suit. After fixing the reactors, radiation levels around the Aurora crash site begins to decrease. Through the Data Terminals found in the Aurora, its secret second mission of finding the lost ship Degasi and its survivors is revealed.

While progressing through the game, a radio message is sent to the communications relay, which explains that a passing cargo ship, called the Sunbeam, has picked up their distress signal and are coming to help, telling the player that they are going to land on a nearby island to rescue them. Upon Attempted landing the Sunbeam is destroyed by the Quarantine Enforcement Platform.

Later in the game, the player discovers information about the Precursors, and the lethal bacteria, the Carar, which has infected the player. The Precursors built a massive energy cannon to quarantine the planet and potentially spread the Carar to other planets. The Precursors are revealed to have constructed four bases on the planet over one thousand years ago, the "Quarantine Enforcement Platform", the large energy cannon that shot down the Aurora, Degasi, and the Sunbeam. The "Disease Research Facility", which was a testing facility for creatures infected with the Carar, however, this base was destroyed by an escaped creature, an event that unleashed the Carar onto the planet. The "Precursor Thermal Power Generator", which powers the other bases as well as the Warpers, a bio-mechanical life form developed by the Precursors in order to stop the spread of the Carar. The Primary Containment Facility which contains the Sea Emperor and is the only creature immune to the Carar.

Development

Subnautica was first announced by Unknown Worlds Entertainment on December 17, 2013, with Charlie Cleveland as the game director and lead gameplay programmer, and Hugh Jeremy as the producer.

The development team opted to use the Unity engine rather than Spark, the engine used for the company's previous game, Natural Selection 2. Subnautica producer Hugh Jeremy justified this decision because of the different demands that the game places on the engine, and "because [the team] does not include people working on Spark, it's not appropriate for Subnautica to use Spark. By using Unity for Subnautica, Spark can continue to develop in certain directions, while Subnautica develops in others. To use Spark for Subnautica would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole."

The development team opted against the inclusion of lethal weapons in the game. Charlie Cleveland, the game's director, described Subnautica as "one vote towards a world with less guns," and had felt inspired by real life gun violence, including the Sandy Hook shooting, to encourage players to think about "non-violent and more creative solutions to solve our problems."

Subnautica was released on Steam Early Access on December 16, 2014, and is currently in early access development. It was released on Xbox One Preview on May 17, 2016.

Reception

Ian Birnbaum of PC Gamer described Subnautica as an "underwater Minecraft", remarking that "with an experienced developer at the helm and a limitless variety of the oceans to play with, it’s going to take a lot for Subnautica to go badly wrong. As the toolbox gets deeper and the shape of the end-game gets set, Subnautica will be a unique example of the ways survival can be tense, rewarding, and fun." Marsh Davies of Rock, Paper, Shotgun praised the rewarding nature of exploring the world of Subnautica, but criticized the "arbitrariness" and lack of intuition in some of the in-game recipes.

The game is currently rated very positive (92%) on Steam.