Hi guys, I just played through Subnautica: Below Zero. I really enjoyed the first game, and played through nearly to the end, while building some bases and enjoying the atmosphere. I really think Subnautica: Below Zero has a better potential for excellent gameplay and story than Subnautica had, but would like to give some advice about the things that matter most to me in that regard, as well as some suggestions for less important but still great features. Spoilers, obviously.
First and foremost is the issue of pop-in. Texture pop-in is very noticeable, but worse than that is environment and creature pop-in. The most egregious examples are the Rock Breakers and the Glow Whales, where the rock breaker crabs will spawn in above the ground, floating slowly to the bottom in a very conspicuous way. Glow whales pop in in full pods, all swimming in the same direction, and it completely breaks immersion. Extending the pop-in cutoff, improving pop-in spawn behavior, and reducing visibility at long distances would help with the issue.
Second, the issue of clipping. Player clipping is limited to feet clipping below ground textures but creatures, especially leviathans, have had clipping issues for a long time. The Sea Emperor has a big problem with clipping through walls, and in addition his sharp turns look unnatural when he runs into a wall. I don't know how to fix the issue, but my dream would be for leviathans to interact with walls intelligently, for example the Sea Emperor, when it gets too close to a wall, could turn its body and grip the wall with its tentacles to turn and push off. This tech would likely require some hybrid animations, which I'm not sure are implemented yet and therefore would be a low priority.
Third, the narrative. The game comes off very strong at the beginning with a negative view of megacorps, but it's not couched in realism. Alterra's dominance in Subnautica was limited to small views of their galactic superiority, but in this game we get a close up look, and it doesn't show properly. The most striking example of this (to me) is the poster in the arctic base. It boils down to "we own everything you find, and technology is good, culture bad". It doesn't really relate to our current or historical experience of corporations, and I think it could be well altered to something like "Alterra needs results! Your pay is based on your findings. Remember that you're a researcher, not a tourist". This poster would make more sense to me, because it is closer to the gray area, and I could actually believe an imaginary megacorp believing it's a reasonable sign to post in their base. Adding some very positive examples from Alterra would be great as well. They're putting out propaganda for their many employees/indentured servants, so making some really good looking, emotionally affirming posters would be great, and would further drive dissonance between Alterra's image and Robin's distrust of it may drive the player to question if she and her sister are simply paranoid, and whether trusting the alien AI is truly a smart idea or one that could lead to a lot of danger for Robin and Sam. This kind of uncertainty really plays into the Subnautica feel from the first game, where you're always led to wonder whether it's smart to take your seamoth deeper into the grand reef or if you should stick to safer, well explored waters.
Less importantly than these three, I have a couple of suggestions. First, I'd love if weather were made up of dynamic weather systems. For example, if you could sit on top of an ice sheet and watch as a rain cloud rolls over the map from a distance. This would occlude some map features, and if the weather is sufficiently chaotic it could really give the map a larger, more intense look. This could also give the player a chance to see a blizzard coming, instead of getting no more than a few seconds' notice. I love the idea of dynamic weather, and think it could help with immersion.
In my original Subnautica playthrough, I completely ignored the option of building a second main base, and opted instead to build a tiny outpost with nothing but water and medkit production. The main reason for that was that I didn't want to have to move all of my many materials over from my main base, and so left them in the shallows. A cargo system would be very nice, made up of a cargo hold base module (a bunch of boxes with some robotic arms to carry them) and a cargo loading bay for the Cyclops. This would allow you to store a lot of materials easily, and easily cart them from one base to another if you want to. Possible extension could include cargo bots, which would carry materials but could be damaged by aggressive creatures. This would mark a beacon, which would lead you to the bot and its loot, but could lead you straight to a leviathan-class creature with the bot in its belly.
Above-ground bases need some love I think. I don't know if I just found the wrong place for it, but I wasn't able to place modules above-ground without placing a foundation, and the foundation was a good 5 feet above the surface. This clearly doesn't work well for base building, so I'd like it if the foundation could be placed underground. Bonus points if above-ground bases and sections of underwater bases that breach the surface get covered by snow during a blizzard.
Weapons and combat are in dire need of something, but I'm not sure exactly what. The technique of using the prawn suit to grapple and drill a leviathan class creature is so utterly absurd that it breaks me from the game completely. Essentially leviathans are placed as creatures whose only interaction with you is to eat you. The Stasis Rifle is an interesting concept, but doesn't feel right. If weapon effects were improved, and new weapons were added, then it could be nice to use the weapons to chase away enemies, up to leviathan class. In my mind, most weapons should be reserved for the Cyclops or PRAWN suit, since this would add to the claustrophobia of using that equipment. Bonus points for dynamic damage effects on creatures in the vein of Left 4 Dead 2.
Thanks for reading! Please let me know what kind of feedback you have on these points. Would you also like to see these things added to the game?
) to get Subnautica into this massive potential community of players, but also to a wonderful platform for this type of game! We arre often overloaded with war game titles and sports titles, getting this one is a huge win for Xbox One!
Subnautica Update 84 on Xbox One - Subnautica