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#4425183 - 06/08/18 02:08 PM Subnautica  
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Recently I decided I needed a new game as I've burnt out a bit on the ones I've been playing, mostly Elite Dangerous and Football Manager. So I wanted to get something different. I don't think I've played any 'survival game', though I've watched the kids play Minecraft smile

Subnautica caught my eye during it's Early Access period, but I don't do early access. But it's out of EA now. Over the past couple of days I've been reading reviews of this game and they are absolutely glowing. I've learned to be cautious about such things. I mean after all if you look on Steam, all of those 'pixel scrollers' or whatever they are called get glowing reviews too.

But when you see people who like survival games call Subnautica the best one of them all you take notice. So I decided to put it on the wishlist and pick it up during the summer sale, but when I logged in to Steam I saw Valve has been stealing my thoughts and already had it on sale. It's only $25 normally, and $20 this weekend. So I bought it.

Since I am re-playing Prey I didn't try Subnautica yet, but will soon. The reviews and comments praise the game for it's story, graphics, mechanics, systems. It's equal parts wonder and horror, or at least that's what I've read. I'm particularly intrigued by the praise for the story, since that's one area that games like this tend to fall short on, if they have a story at all.

So I'm wondering who here has the game? What are your thoughts on it? Please keep spoilers to a minimum if possible. What tips do you have for starting out if you can do so without giving away too much?

Subnautica Homepage

Subnautica on Steam


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#4425184 - 06/08/18 02:15 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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Also been on my wishlist for months, was about to click purchase the other day but then noticed “gamepad recommended”.
I don’t have one :-/

I will be following this thread with great interest.

Cheers,
Slug


"Major Burns isn't saying much of anything, Sir. I think he's formulating the answer..." - Radar - M*A*S*H
#4425187 - 06/08/18 02:19 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: Sluggish Controls]  
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Originally Posted by Sluggish Controls
...was about to click purchase the other day but then noticed “gamepad recommended”.



Haha, I completely missed that. Well, that's a great thing to hear from folks who have it. How is it with mouse and keyboard?

Maybe I'll dive in to it tonight and see.



No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4425188 - 06/08/18 02:26 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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I've only ever played it with mouse and keyboard and it seemed fine to me. Having said that I've not played it recently. In fact the last time I put any effort into it you couldn't explore the Aurora.


EV's are the Devils matchbox.
#4425192 - 06/08/18 02:40 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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Thanks Chucky, good to know. Controller recommended, but not necessary I'm sure. We've all been using mouse and keyboard for 40 years so can't tell us nuthin' smile

Any plans to revisit the game now that it's full release? A different sort of exploration eh?


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4425195 - 06/08/18 02:47 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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I'm not sure DB,the game never really gripped me as much as I'd hoped and probably won't again, even with all the new content. I watched a 'Let's Play' of the ship exploration and thought 'nope'. I enjoyed No Man's Sky more. In fact I bought a controller to play that,just so I could have the virtual cockpit view. Besides,if I start Subnautica again now I'll have less time to get double Elite ranking biggrin

I guess I'm getting really fussy in my old age.

Last edited by Chucky; 06/08/18 02:49 PM.

EV's are the Devils matchbox.
#4425196 - 06/08/18 02:52 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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So how exactly would you guys define a "survival" game?

Not too long ago I played and finished Alien: Isolation. I would definitely call that a "survival game".


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4425197 - 06/08/18 02:57 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Originally Posted by Chucky


I guess I'm getting really fussy in my old age.


Not at all. Elite's a great game anyway. I might try this one and not find it to my liking, I dunno yet.


Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
So how exactly would you guys define a "survival" game?

Not too long ago I played and finished Alien: Isolation. I would definitely call that a "survival game".


I think in general survival games are ones that are open world and focus on resource gathering/management, crafting, sustenance and shelter. And survival. Just my take PM.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4425227 - 06/08/18 06:12 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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Quote
I think in general survival games are ones that are open world and focus on resource gathering/management, crafting, sustenance and shelter. And survival. Just my take PM.


All this in small scale, but no magic click and build a house wall: The Long Dark in survival mode, story mode is boring.

#4425231 - 06/08/18 06:42 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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Thanks for that info DBond and Sokol. Yeah, that game style doesn't really float my boat. The home-building in Skyrim was enough for me. smile


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4425235 - 06/08/18 07:30 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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PM, I'd agree with you normally. The fact that I've never purchased a survival game I think shows I felt it wasn't my thing. But I sense something in what I've read. That this game may be the exception. A game good enough to transcend the genre. Of course I may not like it at all. Time will tell.

At various points I have considered buying The Long Dark, The Forest, Rust, Don't Starve and more. But each time I come to the conclusion that while they may indeed be great games, the gameplay may not appeal to me. Resource gathering just isn't my idea of a good time. But I decided to take a punt on this one.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4425238 - 06/08/18 08:10 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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Subnautica is a fantastic game and REALLY good in VR, try it out. Worth every penny IMO

#4425239 - 06/08/18 08:42 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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I have it.

Well worth the full price. Fantastic story, beautiful world, solid survival building..

#4425243 - 06/08/18 09:26 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: Khai]  
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Subnautica draws you in and let's you progress nicely without obvious hand holding. Graphics are rather nice but do suffer from popping as different areas load. I imagine a decent pc will improve that.

One of my better game choices, I think.

#4425244 - 06/08/18 09:30 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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I love subnautica. One of the few survival games I've played through multiple times. But it IS a survival game. if you dont like collecting and base building then the game is probably not for you. Its one of the few games that I am dying to play in VR but I dont have a VR headset yet. But the way you feel trapped/claustrophobic would be amazing in VR.

But it is very much a survival game. You spend a lot of time early on collecting food/water and trying to piece together a base. Once you hit the mid game that settles down a bit and you start trying to build other things. The end game objective feels very nice and paced well. I never felt overly rushed but also felt like I had to keep moving. Probably one of the best balanced survival games out there.

#4425249 - 06/08/18 10:49 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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I've had Subnautica since early access and have always enjoyed it. I recently reinstalled to start a fresh game when it came out of EA. I also never saw the "controller recommended" comment. I have always used mouse and keyboard and have no issues with it. There's not that many controls since the mouse is used for a lot so everything has always felt good to me.

I've got over 80s though I never progressed far enough to divulge the story to me. I usually would played enough to check out new updates but I tried my best to hold off until release. The farthest I've gotten is some minor base building but now that the game is full released I have started a new game to finally dive into the full experience.

Its a beautiful game. Outside is fairly simple but its about the world below which is huge. I know for a fact I haven't even seen half of what's down there. I've never even build the Cyclops yet in all my play time in EA so most of it should still be new and fresh for me.

I like playing the survival mode myself as it adds to the story and theme of the setting. Its not not near as grindy feeling as some other survival type games or even some RPGs. It feels balance. From my experience, one of the most important things to do first is find those sea glide and sea moth parts and get those built. Those then will help increase your ability to explore. Also try not to be too scared of some of the initial sea creatures. Those sabre tooth alligator looking fish are scary sounding and can hurt you a bit but I have many a time hit them with my knife and they'll tend to leave you alone. I've even killed them. Eventually I've gotten to a point where I can easily swim around them and ignore them.

Also a tip I never knew about until recently, I believe its the F6 key. That key will hide varying levels of HUD elements which makes for better screenshots.

Attached Files 20180507234304_1.jpg20180508000605_1.jpg20180516175314_1.jpg20180516175337_1.jpg20180517173844_1.jpg

John 10:1-30
Romans 10:1-13

#4425259 - 06/08/18 11:37 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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Thanks for the comments. The opinions are appreciated. I have also been ejected from the Aurora and begun the game and explored close to the pod. And mouse/keyboard is fine, good as any other game. Maybe in the watercraft it's better, but I'm nowhere close to that. From the little I've seen I like it already. For 20 bucks it's looking like a great deal. Looking forward to discovering more of it.

The developer is donating 15% of the profit during the weekend sale to the charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation since evidently it's World Oceans Day which seems a noble pursuit and you can get a good game and help protect the ocean's creatures at the same time smile


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4425562 - 06/11/18 01:59 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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It was a rainy weekend and the kid's soccer season just ended so no far-flung soccer pitch to spend the day driving to and from. And that left me time to play games biggrin

I've now dropped about 15 hours in to Subnautica and it's got it's hooks in. For a survival game I must say that progression is pretty fast. Compared to a run I recently did in the Stalker mod Misery, Subnautica is like greased lighting in regards to how fast you get stuff. The environment is amazing. The devs went with an alien ecology and I'm glad they did. It left them free to re-imagine the ocean, and they did a fantastic job of it I think. The flora and fauna are interesting and evolutionarily plausible (I made up evolutionarily). The sense of exploration and discovery is great.

Swimming and diving through the brightly lit and colorful starter area, Safe Shallows, is relaxing and beautiful. As you venture further afield, the Safe Shallows reach the point where the next biome begins, you reach a drop off, or a cliff leading to deeper, darker, murkier waters with the far off (closer that time?!) sounds of creatures unseen, but imagined with huge teeth and poor dispositions. I've encountered some of these leviathans, but I'll avoid spoilers if I can. This is a game that should be played from a clean slate. Don't ruin the experience by looking everything up. You are a spaceship crewman marooned on an alien waterworld. It's best to approach the game with a healthy sense of what the hell am I doing? What am I supposed to do? What the hell is THAT?!? And then figure it out as you go.

The player begins the game being ejected from the spaceship Aurora in Life Pod 5. You splash down in a random spot in the Safe Shallows. The Pod is damaged. Radio doesn't work. Smoke escapes from the various equipment on board. Ascending the ladder you climb out on top of the pod, with ocean as far as the eye can see. In the distance, the burning hulk of the Aurora lies in shallow water. Depressing yes, but maybe we can find something useful over there....

Unless you resort to guides and Google, from this point the player needs to find a way to survive. Gather resources, which can be plants, fish, metals, bits of man-made detritus found scattered here and there. Explore caves, shallows, depths, wrecks. With the resources you find you can craft tools to help you. Eventually you can create watercraft and even a base habitat. The crafting system is extensive and fun. Each requires resources yes, but it's not a grind. Resources are fairly plentiful and blueprints have modest requirements. Within three hours of starting I had most of the essential tools I would need to get out there and make my lot in life better. But, as I've found, I cannot craft courage smile

After 15 hours I have vehicles and an underwater base. It's so cool to construct the base and see your handiwork, especially lit up at night in the clear shallow water. Of course you can build much deeper if you want. In time I imagine you'll have bases scattered around the various biomes, but I still have just the one. And it's really cool.

Subnautica is an astonishingly open-ended experience. Nothing holds your hand, little guides you aside from some snippets from the radio or PDAs that you find, but I won't say more. It's left to the player to forge his own story, and I am loving it. A really good game.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4425651 - 06/11/18 07:25 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: DBond]  
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That's one of the reasons I never pushed to far into the game since I bought it EA. I wanted to have a good, fresh experience once the game was finished. I played about 80 hours worth to the extent that I experimented with base building and got the Sea Moth and the hanger for the Sea Moth and explored some of that island but that's it. (I've never even built a Cyclops yet in all my time) I've had to try to politely block my hearing from my nephew who was always excited about "Have you seen this or that?" kind of questions. So I've heard about the huge creatures and other things but I've not seen them myself yet. From his descriptions the world sound far huger than anything I've seen yet.

So with my new fresh start I still haven't gotten as far along as you yet. I've got the Sea Moth and I'm poking around on that island. I only recently found some diamonds to make the lazer cutter so that I can get into wreckage. I need to find the Sea Moth upgrades so that I can go deeper. I've got the radiation suit so I can poke around the Aurora. It really is a cool and unsettling feeling when you dive too deep in your Sea Moth and the glass canopy starts to crack and the hull starts creaking.


John 10:1-30
Romans 10:1-13

#4425666 - 06/11/18 08:31 PM Re: Subnautica [Re: Coot]  
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Originally Posted by Coot
That's one of the reasons I never pushed to far into the game since I bought it EA. I wanted to have a good, fresh experience once the game was finished.


This, along with the ability to avoid backing a dud, is exactly how I approach EA games as well. Divinity Original Sin 2 was another. I knew I would like it. And I knew it would be good. But I didn't want to spend my 'first time' on unfinished content. Same with Subnautica. I wanted the game two years ago, but I waited for full release so I would experience the full game on the first exposure,

And it sounds like we are just about at the same stage, I have all the things you mentioned but not much beyond that. I'm in no rush as I'm enjoying it and in no hurry to finish.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
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