$25 is criminally underrating this game, it's definitely a $60 experience.

(WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD)

One word: Immersion.

This game has THE greatest immersion of any survival game ever made, everything has been lovingly crafted from top to bottom.

It's a horror game, it's a survival game, it's an open-world exploration game, it is all of these things.

Horror in this game is fantastic, even when creatures pose little threat to you, they are still absolutely terrifying, just hearing the call of a leviathan is enough to make someone faint, it shakes the ocean and will scare the hell out of you.

I recall swimming to the crashed ship and seeing a large beast swimming around, figuring it was aggressive, I figured I'd just swim past. It did no good, the creature went for me and I was literally shaking in real life, on my bed, my lip was quivering, my hands were shaking as I held my controller, and sure enough, I didn't get away, and was eaten alive.

You're never safe. not in your tiny Seamoth, not in your bad-ass P.R.A.W.N. Suit, not even in your gigantic Cyclops submarine.

Besides the aggressive creatures, the game always makes you feel... alone, even when you're surrounded by non-aggressive aquatic wildlife, the feeling of Isolation is very real and valid. The big open spaces are incredibly unnerving, even when you know you're safe, you never feel like it, you are always on edge, even when invulnerable in modes like creative, where you take no damage.

Weapons are very rarely lethal, and the ones that are will require you to personally go out of your way and risk a horrible and quick death just to kill the creature that will almost certainly kill you before you kill it.

Besides the horror aspect, survival is done very well, you will not be chopping down trees for 10 minutes, you don't lose very much in the long run if you die, and there are many areas to gather different materials, food and water will not be a problem later down the line. Gathering materials is fun as all hell and when you finally craft that seamoth, that cyclops, or that huge base, it will be absolute euphoria.

The vast amount of things you can craft is awesome, and bases are highly customizable with decorations, tables, chairs, benches, desks, and more.

However, don't think you can't lose things, you can, you just won't lose all THAT much, and certain materials do become scarce later on.

The exploration aspect is the game's biggest strength besides the horror aspect of it. Through-out the game you'll get radio calls from other lifepods, find various wrecks, all of which have tons of awesome stuff hidden within and around them, and not just "useful" items, but also tons of decorative items like posters, dolls, and figurines, picture frames, etc.

Things must be scanned for you to later craft them, encouraging more exploration, though you can also scan various flora and fauna to learn more about them. Practically everything in Subnautica can be scanned, from ancient alien artifacts, to deadly predators, to the smallest bit of cave sulfur, all of it is very informative and makes the game's lore that much deeper.

There are tons of various biomes worth exploring just to explore them, all very gorgeous and brimming with atmosphere, you'll always look forward to (and in some cases, dread) new biomes to explore, all with their own wrecks, secrets, materials, flora, and fauna.

The aesthetic of the game has a light-hearted and endearing feel, and Subnautica can look absolutely breath-takingly beautiful at times, from the creatures, to the plants, to the water, the sun, moon, all of it is just beautiful.

Creature designs are original and very interesting, and the world design has to be one of the most interesting I've ever seen in ANY game.

The story at first, is nothing special, but it turns very interesting later on down the line and gets very deep and engaging, and, at times, heartbreaking. I'm just happy they included one at all, because they certainly didn't have to, but it has been one of the best game stories in 2018 so far.

I could go on forever about all the things this game does right, but to cover everything this game does right would take a very, very long time, so let's cover what it doesn't do so right.

The game can be a bit aimless, you can lose yourself through-out your travels, the game could really do with a detailed map in-game. Thankfully, you can fix most of that with mods that improve the game.

It can also be a bit hard to track down materials late-game, since mines do not respawn, though this is a minor gripe, and you'll soon be able to go into most areas to get more materials anyway

These are the only major issues I can think of, there are other minor issues, but all-in-all, I think it's safe to say that Subnautica is a fantastic game and can potentially last a lifetime.

I give it a 9 out of 10.

Pick this game up, even to those who don't like survival games, this WILL be the one to change your mind, and make you think about just how deep survival games can get, both literally and figuratively.