Subnautica

[Skybird]

I follow this game since I bought it as Early Access early last year. It still is in Early Access.

Set in a SciFi environment, it puts the player into the role of the only survivor of a starship that wrecked on a water world. He makes his escape from his life pod, only to find himself needing to discover the huge ocean around, the various habitat zones in it, dangerous tunnels and caves with hungry carnivores, exploring the starship wreck which still burns and radiates, and finding a way to deal with the growing pressure if wantngn to explore the deeper and darker abysses of the wide ocean range around. Of course there is various flora and fauna of already huge variety, some of which are harmelss, some are dangerous, and some serve as resources.

The player explores this environment, collects ressources, snippets of information blueprints from the starship wreck, to build new equipment, parts for a sea lab that can be freely constructed, and small and big submarines. Not a realistic diving simulation, the diving in Subnautica nevertheless is great fun and looks very nice. Its probbaly the best looking underwater environment I have ever seen in any game relating to such an environment

The storyline is not yet fully developed, but there are several playing modes that already can deliver good fun if understanding the game to be an open sandbox. Included is a god mode where you can just cionmstruct away without needing to care for annoiyance slike needing to eat, save your life and collecting resources. this game mode is expected to be erased form the final version of the game. The hardcore survival game mode however can be very unforgiving.

Visually, I was hooked by the way they created the water, the kelp forests, the waves and spray on the surface, the visual display of water and spray on the player's diving mask when breaking through the water surface, the sun - or moons - shining through the breaking waves at the surface - the environment, with full day and night cycle, is a sight to see. At night, the ocean changes into a dark cosmos filled with ballets of dancing colours and lights on a black stage.

The style of technology is very much SciFi, obviously, and the animals, fishes, are a bit too colourful and a bit too comic-like, I would have preferred a more "realistic" look there, more natural looking. However, it is a game - and a real good looking one, I admit.

Players getting hooked on castle-building, really should have a look at this. The Base-building can be fun.

The game still is in developement, but over the course of the year, there have been frequent and substantial updates delivered - the project is alive and is fully supported, it seems.

VR support is on the agenda.

I do not know what it now costs, but give it a look - you might be positively surprised.

I post a link to the wikipedia which gives a better impression maybe of what this game already is, and is planned to finally become. I would describe it as a maritime castle building, open world discovering and survival game, and naval sandbox scifi game, presented in a visually very pleasant and laid-back style.

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Subnautica_Wiki


Edit:

P.S.
In Germany, still 20 Euros currently. Steam player feedback gets rated on the first page as "very positive". I consider that as a minor gamble, or investment, into the future with a very fair chance to get something really good at the end.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/

And this image search overview with both latest and old ingame pics and blueprints and sketches which should give you an idea of what they are after.

https://de.images.search.yahoo.com/s...=p%3As%2Cv%3Ai

Two or three m onths ago they have implemented a nerw gfx tehcnology to display the ocean surface waves and underwater vision, most pics out there still show older stuff not that advanced.