Subnautica: Below Zero review

Our Verdict

Subnautica: Below Zero is a solid addition to the survival game genre, delivering a standalone experience that manages to be both cozy and challenging.

For

Unique gameplay
Well-designed emphasis on exploration
Beautiful environment and diverse body of water life

Against

Smaller map compared to its predecessor
No multiplayer

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

Subnautica: Below Zero is a solid addition to the survival game genre, delivering a standalone experience that manages to be both cozy and challenging.

Pros

+
Unique gameplay
+
Well-designed emphasis on exploration
+
Beautiful environment and diverse bounding main life

Cons

-
Smaller map compared to its predecessor
-
No multiplayer

After spending two years in early on admission, Subnautica: Below Zilch has finally arrived. A follow-up to i of the most critically acclaimed open-world survival games, the sequel brings with it brand-new challenges and chilling adventures.

Full disclosure: I've never played the original Subnautica game, released in 2014. Even so, playing through the entirety of Subnautica: Below Zero definitely made me regret not giving the serial a go sooner.

In our Subnautica: Below Zero review below, we highlight what we loved about this survival sequel, including its unique gameplay, unobtrusive story and well-designed environments. And if you're on the cruise for more new games, take a wait at our list of the best PC games of 2021.

Subnautica: Below Zero review: Gameplay

Subnautica: Below Cipher is a survival game built on the foundation of deep-sea exploration and resources gathering. Crash-landing in the arctic region of an aquatic planet chosen 4546B, you commencement off with some basic equipment, including an frustratingly primitive oxygen tank that can only hold 45 seconds' worth of air at a time. That means yous'll constantly accept to swim up to the surface to avoid drowning.

As the name of the game may bespeak, the planet's terrain is inhospitably common cold, preventing you lot from seeking shelter in the overworld without succumbing to hypothermia. With the threat of death looming from both sides of the h2o, this game constantly toes the sparse line between comfort and adventure.

Dissimilar more combat-driven survival games, exploration is the principal activity in Subnautica: Beneath Zero. Self-defence isn't much of a concern, considering about of the ocean life around you lot is either a harmless fish fry or a jumbo monster, which you have no concern fighting. Instead, your principal task is to scavenge the seafloor for various raw materials. You can use these resource to construct underwater bases and more advanced tools, which enable you to descend even deeper.

Y'all can bypass virtually all of the game's challenges, including thirst, hunger, and lack of oxygen by playing the game in Liberty style. This variant allows you lot to focus solely on exploring the vast blue ocean. There'southward also Artistic mode, which enables you to start the game with all resources and invention blueprints readily bachelor. Nevertheless, I would thoroughly recommend opting for Survival mode for your showtime several playthroughs in social club to get the most authentic Subnautica: Below Goose egg experience. Returning fans and more seasoned survival players also have Hardcore mode at their disposal, introducing the exciting adventure of having your entire game file deleted permanently should your graphic symbol dice.

Unfortunately, Subnautica: Below Zero doesn't offering multiplayer, which I think could accept added a bit more than depth to the game. The developers had previously explored the possibility of adding co-op gameplay to both the original Subnautica and its sequel. However, they ultimately scrapped the idea to focus on more important aspects of the gameplay.

Subnautica: Below Zero review: Plot

In Subnautica: Below Zero, you take the reins as a sharp scientist named Robin Ayou, every bit she investigates the mystery surrounding the death of her sister, Sam. According to Alterra, the interplanetary corporation that employed Robin's sister, Sam had reportedly perished in an blow on planet 4546B due to her own negligence. Robin, as a loving sister, takes Alterra's report with a grain of salt, and decides to conduct her own inquiry.

Overall, the game's plot is at that place to support the exploration-based gameplay, and it's paced well. The story appears throughout your adventures in an unobtrusive mode, as you collect audio logs during your numerous ventures across the planet. The dazzler of Subnautica: Below Zip is that you're complimentary to be as engaged with the lore of the game every bit you want. You tin choose whether or not y'all want to mind to the sound logs for more details regarding Sam's untimely demise.

Conveniently, the story's biggest and nigh relevant revelations are unmissable, since they're present throughout the game in the form of cutscenes and monologues. Equally you lot keep to make technological advancements and explore your surroundings, primal plot locations will likewise become available on your radar. Even if you somehow come across plot locations earlier than you lot're told, the game will suit the story to suit your discoveries.

Subnautica: Below Zippo review: Surround

At first glance, the map in Subnautica: Below Nothing can experience about too overwhelming to explore properly. However, the more I played, the more I realized how cozy and well-designed it was. There are very few underutilized spaces inside the game, every bit each unique area of the map contains something that volition be relevant to your progress.

At the same time, I found the environs design to be incredibly immersive. It does a bang-up job of recreating the isolation you'd expect to feel being left alone in the deep blue sea to fend for yourself. However, every bit you gather more materials and arts and crafts new modes of transportation, your environs will get easier to explore. Later approximately five hours of gameplay, I institute myself reaching the edges of the map on more than than i occasion, which simply incentivized me to invest in equipment that allowed me to commencement diving deeper and deeper into the bounding main.

Subnautica: Below Zero as well features a wide variety of dissimilar biomes for y'all to explore, giving you the chance to encounter new flora and creature wherever you become. The sea life you come across on 4546B is incredibly diverse, too, ranging from small and passive herbivores, to ambitious shark-similar creatures that assail on sight. You're also bound to cross paths with playful sea monkeys, which can and will steal your tools from you when you least expect it.

The game's picturesque scenery and colorful plant life will hateful that you'll likely never want to end exploring. In fact, while near survival games will have y'all cowering in rubber during the night, the dazzler of Subnautica: Below Aught volition encourage you to continue traversing the dark seas with bioluminescent marine life. The audio effects are a not bad improver to the game, also, with the odd distant snarl of a shark popping upward in your headphones every once in a while to keep you on your toes.

Subnautica: Below Zero review: Verdict

Subnautica: Below Nada successfully combines everything that makes a nifty survival game tick. With an incredibly immersive environment, a diverse roster of sea creatures and an unobtrusive storyline, this sequel has its fair share of adventures for players willing to take a adventure in 4546B'due south sub-zero temperatures.

Overall, the game is a must-play for fans of the survival genre. Fifty-fifty those, like myself, who are new to the franchise will enjoy the unique gameplay that Subnautica: Beneath Zero has to offer. At the aforementioned time, fans of the original game tin claiming themselves to survive in an unfamiliar setting, as long every bit they can stay warm.

Denise is a news writer at Tom'south Guide covering all things tech, gaming software/hardware, streaming, and more. She regularly produces short-form news articles also every bit long-form content, including reviews, buying guides, how-tos, and features. When she'due south non live-streaming horror games on Twitch, she can be found exploring East London while playing Pokemon Go. She'southward also a part-fourth dimension pianoforte enthusiast and regularly experiments in the kitchen. You can reach her at denise.primbet@futurenet.com.