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Wow! Not one bit of news coming out of this company gives any confidence that Subnautica 2 is gonna be a good game.
It definitely looks like the publisher is going to run it into the ground, if it ever gets released.
Subnautica: holy shit we are geniuses
Subnautica: Below Zero: let's throw away our core concept, but leave something playable
Subnautica 2: let's light a dumpster on fire then take a shit in it
I was thinking what is the key difference that made BZ less enjoyable that the first game: I think it's the fact that in the first game the player is a clueless fragile thing thrown in a hostile and alien world with frightening creatures and a large degree of freedom when dealing with advancing the game or just playing it as a sandbox. The fact that there were clues spread out in the ocean and it was my choice if I wanted to pursue them first or build some vehicle or base, felt like I had a lot of agency. Plus, moving towards a new biome was always very tense as I had no clue what was waiting there.
Because BZ has a better structured story, I often felt forced to follow the beats that it was demanding, but also I think the key issue was that I knew Subnautica so well, all the dread, mystery and sense of wonder was no longer there.
At the end of the day I enjoyed Below Zero, but I wanted to repeat my Subnautica experience and it failed to reproduce it.
Honestly I actually liked BZ more than the original, but it's difficult for me to figure out why exactly. I play those games a bit differently from the proper way, I basically ignore the plot beyond what is needed to get the tools and location I want and mostly just play them to build and decorate bases in a pretty environment with survival elements to make the base feel like it has design requirements and resource constraints, like Minecraft almost, but I'm not going to say that BZ has prettier environments for that either. Might be the creature design, my favorite subnautica critters are mostly in BZ, though not all, and they feel like they fit together more tightly than the ones in the first game, if that makes sense, like one can look at certain features and get a greater sense of them all seeming to descend from a few common ancestors.
You absolutely nailed it.
You had to discover the world yourself in Subnautica, they pointed you to an island one time, the rest was reading PDAs. You were a silent protagonist, so it was easier to immerse yourself in the world.
Below Zero was so disappointing in every regard except more base building options. (I cant remember if they added them to the original or not in an update). Why did they make the protagonist speak??? Ugh.
You go down on the planet to find out what happened to your sister and you get pretty much railroaded (waypoint here, waypoint there) into leaving without ever even acknowledging your sister again, unless you remember and go looking. All the enemies in BZ had the same "munch munch munch" making them all so uninteresting. The world was small and empty, it literally had no depth. The entire land portion was such a dumb addition and the worm was just incredibly annoying rather than something daunting to deal with.
Subnautica is one of them games you wished you could play blind again. Below Zero though...
It's one of them too often occurring cases where developers don't know what made their original game good.
I loved the main character, her sister, and the other characters. Probably my favorite part of BZ was how lived in and full of history it felt compared to Subnautica.
I agree the land part sucked balls.
I didn't care that much about the creatures in either game, except I did like the reefbacks in 1, and dislikes the brain octopus, electric jellyfish in 2.
I guess I likes the stalkers in 1, and the teeth/metal mechanic was fun.
I loved the submarine!!!
No one in the comments seems to be realizing this, but the layoff is at the company who is the publisher of Subnautica 2 (among other games), for their Korean employees.
Not at the studio that makes Subnautica 2. This has nothing to do with Subnautica 2 and doesn't affect it. Meanwhile Subnautica 2 devs already confirmed they won't be using AI.
As true as this is it doesn't alleviate the fact that the company is a rotten mess. They are rushing to embrace generative AI and firing any and all employees who aren't on board with that. I think it's safe to say that this company going forward is going to be putting out absolute garbage. This likely includes Subnautica 2, not because the developers are skimping or using generative AI but because the publishing company is attempting to put the cart before the horse. And in doing so they are setting things up for a tremendous failure.
Welp
Add it to ever growing list of reasons to not buy Subnautica 2
All they had to do was not fuck it up. Just sit back, let the developers work, and collect the money. But apparently they thought they could make slightly more by ruining everything. Fucking morons.
Nothing makes me hate a company more than them claiming to be "AI-first". Like seriously fuck all the way off.
Think, if they started from the top they could retain talent and remove the easily replaceable dead wood. Based on the chairman apparently having a $1.1 billion net worth, I'm pretty sure he doesn't need any further income for instance.
Subnautica going the way of the Kerbal space program
Almost like this whole company that bought them sucks shit
I wonder if Krafton will rebrand at some point; they seem dedicated to tarnishing the name daily.
KraftonAI.
KrappedOnAI
"Subnautica 2 is going to suck"
I love the many ways the Dead Sea Effect is getting press during these otherwise joyless times.