Recent reviews by saltypistachiosss

Subnautica is truly an incredibly wonderful experience. Here's why:

I'll list a few aspects of the game and tell you about the pros and cons:
- Immersive World
From the moment you dive in (quite literally), this game sucks you into an immersive experience. I've never played a game, or even seen a movie (maybe except for the 'How To Train Your Dragon' franchise), with such an expansive, original and realistic mix of new alien flora, fauna and biomes. On top of that, the mix between the natural and sci-fi is wonderfully done. The world of Subnautica is affected by traces of a previous alien species and their creations, which are given a very distinct style. The humans' tools, vehicles and buildings give this game yet another sci-fi style mixed in. In short: if you like the ocean, aliens, weird animals and plants, even weirder aliens and sci-fi buildings and vehicles; you should play this game.
While playing this game, you might experience: 1. Crippling fear of the Reapers, 2. Extreme anger towards Crashfish, 3. Wonderful wonder when exploring a new biome, 4. The urge to protect your pet(s) and vehicle(s) (which you can name by the way) at all costs, 5. Proud of the base you made, 6. A sudden urge to try and face off against a Reaper, 7. Death.

- Goal of the Game
The ultimate goal of this game is to leave the dangerous alien planet you crashed on, but it's not that simple.
This game has a unique combination of a task-oriented survival strategies, including: finding food and water, gathering resources to build and craft, making one tool after the next, builing a shelter and/or base and exploring increasingly dangerous monster-infested regions - but somehow this game manages to never force the player to do anything specific. If you want to build three enormous bases before even exploring the Aurora, go ahead! For survival game standards, this is a very free playstyle. Another fun goal: get yourself a pet! I would personally recommend Hoverfish or Cuddle Fish.
One aspect of the game that will inevitably annoy every player who makes any sort of attempt at a non-creative, non-console playthrough: gathering resources. You'll either simply accept that you will be grinding copper, quartz and titanium for hours while balancing your hunger, oxygen and thirst, or you'll just use commands to do it. This might be just about the only con of the entire game: the resource-gathering gets *really* tedious.

- Story & Lore
If you *don't* like reading or listening to original, cool stories about the horrors that humans before you have endured on an alien planet or about the mystery surrounding several topics (such as: 1. How the hell you even crashed on this planet, 2. How the hell you can ever leave, 3. What the hell lives on this planet, 4. What the hell was on this planet before humans got here, 5. What the hell happened to the other crew members of the Aurora, 6. How the hell do the things that live here function, 7. WHAT WAS THAT "BRRRRRRRRRRR" SOUND??, and honestly so much more), then you're in luck! You can ignore the story for most of the game. But if you *are* interested, then you're also in luck, because there's so much story and lore to unpack. You can really tell the developers cared about this game when they made it, and they still do.

- Sound Design (Score & Effects)
I feel like the sound design is one of the most underrated aspects of the game. This goes for both the score and sound effects. Simon Chylinski did an incredible job bringing the sci-fi, the awe and the absolute horror into this game with his soundtrack (which also has a pretty sick beat btw). The sound effects are out of this world. I won't spoil anything, but at some point something will explode in this game, and the sound of it is just *chefs kiss*. Without the amazing sound of Subnautica, this game wouldn't be the awesome experience it is.

- Playstyles & Replay-ability
As mentioned earlier, you can play this game in survival in any way you'd like. But if you want some more freedom, you could choose to ignore some of your character's needs like oxygen or hydration. Take it a step further, and you'll find yourself in Creative Mode. I would advise everyone to play 1 full survival playthrough (with or without commands), and then go creative. It's seriously so much fun building bases in every biome of this game, even if it wouldn't be possible in survival.
As for replay-ability: this game also does pretty well! You can explore different styles of playing, or play in multiplayer using mods, or just singleplayer with or without mods. Set yourself some goals and keep playing this wondrous game.

- Community Interaction (In-Game!)
[SMALL SPOILER AHEAD:] While exploring the planet of this game, the player might come across little capsules with a message, a picture and some items inside. These capsules are made by other players who finished their playthroughs. It's a unique feeling: for the first time in your playthrough of the lone, hopeless survivor on a hellhole of a planet, who knows how many lightyears away - only to find you're no the first, and others succeeded in the journey that lies ahead for you. You get to leave a similar capsule behind for your fellow players when you're done, too.
This feature might be my favourite of the entire game.


One huge downside of this game, though:
- Not enough. There is not enough of Subnautica, and there aren't enough games like it.


Be prepared to sh*t your pants!