Subnautica – An Incredible Nautical Disaster

Before we begin this Unqualified Review for the recently out of Early Access ‘Subnautica’, please acquaint yourself with Canadian national treasure The Tragically Hip and their song Nautical Disaster. It has no real relevance to the review besides the fact the title adequately describes the introductory sequence of the game.

Much like with Assassins Creed, I am playing this game with my Steam Controller over the Steam Link. In order to get your controller to work, you need to hook it directly into the PC first, load the game and under Options you will see a Controller section. Check the Enabled box and start swimming!

I know I said start swimming, but I lied. You start in a space ship of some sort called the Aurora and it goes down, as is expected in a survival game experience. You awaken inside a crashed escape pod floating in an ocean of some kind with the Aurora in the distance, floating but clearly damaged. Now the swimming starts.

From this point on its up to you to decide what to do, which can be a daunting weight put on the players shoulders but in this case the game eases you into a sense of security until the horror starts.

Before we travel into the depths of madness, what lies before us is this vast open ocean. Looking out over the ocean you really only have one option, jump. Taking the initial plunge is great, your view changes from this above water view devoid of anything but a smoking space ship into an incredibly detailed and gorgeous underwater world filled with flora and fauna.

You swim around, grab some mushrooms as they are the only things that wont swim away from you at this point, and then you get the audio warning that you are running out of air. Up you go, fill your lungs and do it again and again. Soon you fill your inventory with some scrap metal and a couple Boomerangs, Peepers and Bladderfish and you notice that the world is getting a bit darker. Soon the sun is gone and the water changes. It’s gorgeous, there are small schools of fish that swim around and light up areas of the water. Some of the other fish are less mobile at night making them easier to catch and then you realize something. You have no idea where you are and what is, or is not, out there trying to find you.

The crafting in the game is interesting but simplistic. You smash some limestone deposits to get ore samples, collect some salt and sulphur from the ocean floor and you are off to the races. Your escape pod is equipped with a fabricator that will help you turn all these fun things into batteries, swim fins, a better air tank and some tools. I didn’t even realize the PDA you come equipped with has some recipes in it so you know what to look for, it just happened that I was able to make a new air tank within the first 30 minutes of game play and then you move forward!

I ran into a few smaller fish, trying to catch them using a controller feels impossible, but when it happens I get quite excited turning them into food to keep me alive.  A couple of the larger water beasts came after me a few times but with an audible yelp from me I swam away and gave them a wide berth.

I was about 100m underwater grabbing some scrap metal when I got a message that the Aurora was becoming unstable. I swam up while the last 10 seconds of the countdown came over the radio, then it exploded. At this point I am standing on my escape pod looking at the remains of the spaceship I rode in on, with a new message on the screen saying that I need an anti-radiation suit if I want to get close to it. That’s where it has stopped for the time being.

I have to say that I had heard this game was good while it was in Early Access, but now that it is released and I finally picked it up I find myself wanting to play it. It is gorgeous and difficult and incredibly terrifying at times and I have barely swam under the surface. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to explore, craft and try to survive in a different world than normally given to us in these types of titles.