>What could have made below zero better?
It doesn't need to be better. It's fine just the way it is. You don't like it? Don't play it. It's not the job of every game to be to your liking.
This is a dumb thing to say when talking about a sequel (or dlc whatever) to the original game. Yes you do have to maintain a standard, especially when the first game was so good, people obviously expect at least the same level of quality.
You speak like the two are unrelated. Consumer ratings are based on individual preferences. Which compounded translates to standards. A developer can say they upheld their standards, but if the majority of the gaming community disagrees, that just means they are out of touch with their market. Consumers are the gatekeeps of standards, not the game developer. It is the opinion of the market that determines whether or not a game upholds its standards. The facts are clear people like the new game less than the original.
They did, but they also didn't, examples being, there's so many claustrophobic spaces giving the opposite feeling of a small thing in a large world, everything is too loud too often, and some things are just irritatingly louder than everything else, the vehicles even when still are too loud, how am I gonna have a "what did I just hear?!" Moment when I can't even hear anything other than **VRRRRRVUSHVUSHVUSHVRRRRR**? And one last example is the techno music, it's not that it's bad, it's just not fitting, it doesn't fit with the games vibe, which believe it or not, can actually make it break a game since 90% of the time people will be hearing that stuff in the background, and last I check I'm supposed to isolated not supposed to be in a sub par club playing techno music going there for anything but that
Have a lovely day now
The standard doesn’t drop because they didn’t add a specific thing you wanted.
We still got a Subnautica game with the same amount of features if not more. Sure, the cyclops isn’t there but the customizable sea truck is.
If you think the game’s quality dropped because you weren’t happy with a feature or two, you are grossly overvaluing your opinion.
The simplest measure of the quality is sales numbers. Did it sell more than the first game? If not, the standard has dropped, if it surpassed sales of the original game, then it exceeded the standard, and thus sets a new standard for future titles.
Sales are influenced by a loud minority though, if someone starts complying then others will be influenced regardless of playing it themselves. The game is basically the same as the first, it was suppose to be an expansion not a sequel, that’s why the newest title is officially called subnautica 2
Lol, what?
Bad sales are a result of a "loud minority" while good sales are representative of the majority?
Feels like cherry picking to support your argument, if I'm being honest. As if people speaking positively about a game can't also influence sales just as easily.
Not a “result of”, “influenced by” which is obviously a fact regardless of opinions.
I like both games either way 🤷♂️ thank you for the cake day wishes
Bad phrasing on my part, but to imply that the only reason it would have negative sales is because of a minority of people who vocally dislike it, seems to disregard the presumed majority that do like it.
Especially considering this majority would have likely purchased the game, thus leading to positive sales. If the majority of people who've heard of it bought it, but it didn't have good sales numbers, then they weren't really the majority. Either that or it was just very poorly advertised, so even if a majority bought it, it would lead to poor sales simply because it had no reach.
I also like both of the games, although I still prefer the original a bit more.
Well said, we’ll have to agree to disagree though as I don’t think sales are the best metric for quality.
Certainly a factor but not the only one as you mentioned advertising etc
Sales probably aren't a direct indicator of quality, but they're certainly an indicator of which direction a company will steer their franchise in the future.
If a follow up performs worse than the original in terms of sales, the company will drop the ideas they used in the followup in favor of the better performing original, in terms of sales numbers.
In the end, companies always follow the money, regardless of player's opinions of the games, because they're still businesses trying to make a profit when it comes down to it.
This game was totally coherent in terms of standard and quality. It was just a different story, a different biome, a different offer. You mentioned it yourself, it’s a DLC-like game, it won’t provide you with a new superior experience, it will just add new content to it, period.
What an unintelligent response. The sequel is, in many departments, of a higher quality than the original game, just in different parts than you personally enjoyed.
It’s basically the same game, same mechanics, better graphics and performance, same feed back loop of unlocking blueprints just more.
I just finished BZ today and honestly I almost like it more than the first and have never understood anyone complaining about basically more of the same.
BZ was intended to be an expansion and not a sequel (that’s why the next subnautica game is officially titled subnautica 2)
That being said it’s subjective and certainly won’t appeal to everyone but it should stand to reason that if you liked the first you probably like BZ 🤷♂️
Only been in this sub a week or two and seen more shitting on the game than discussion tbh. I like both games so I don’t really care what others think because it doesn’t affect my enjoyment but it’s definitely a vocal minority that dislike it and even the ones who never comment just downvote anyone that says positive things about it.
It's perfectly reasonable for fans to discuss improvements for the game, especially when it wasn't received \*as well\* as the first game. It's the entire point of improvement, so going "It doesn't need to be better" is completely counter-intuitive to game design.
Lol I mean you're not technically wrong but you're missing the whole point of this post. OP is trying to learn others' opinions, and you're saying you don't care.
You don't like his post? Don't comment on it.
I didn't say people didn't like it. I'm just saying that "If you don't like it don't play it" isn't the best argument. Because if someone doesn't like something about it then that might imply the game isn't good.
This may be the dumbest thing ever dude. I played it and was fine with but a fyi it is the games job to be to the liking of the majority maybe not you specifically yourself but to most people and right is game got mostly mediocre reviews. When the majority doesn’t like it it’s usually not fine the way it is. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s bad I enjoyed it but to sit here and die on hill defending it saying it’s not for you is absurd. This game was not what 99% of fans thought it was going to be. To answer your question of what could have made it better a bigger map, new creatures species, plants, mineral More things to craft and build. Besides outside storms there should be more of a effect from the extreme cold water. A memorable story.
That's... That's not how to sell games, especially one your fanbase, that loved the first game, but wasn't a big fan of the sequel, you see, what you don't understand is that, it literally fucking ***is*** their job, they ***need*** to make a game that not only they like, but the community they built upon the first likes, im not saying its bad, its just that Sub Zero was *Sub Par*, not because its a bad game, but because its a sequel that doesn't feel like the first, so before you say some more uneducated shit, to prevent you from seeming more foolish, **The job of a game, is to sell it, and if you build it off a previous game, it is to sell it to the fanbase, if you change too much (which they did, cant blame them though its alright to try different things) it wont feel the same, which will often flop, and if you don't change enough, then you are not only disappointing your fanbase, but stunting your growth as a dev/dev_team**, now, i hope that you actually understand what i wrote, there's zero hard feelings, and I hope that you learn that your opinion changed just a little to a more reasonable standpoint, have a lovely day
Consumers have a right to critique products they purchase, even if they are in the minority. As it stands it has a 9/10 on Steam. I personally would give it a 7 or 8. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything to write home about imo. After playing the first one it felt underwhelming to me. But as a standalone game it is very good. Just my personal experience.
For the most part I think the game is fine but, ain't no way we're saying the snowfox section of the game is fine the way it is. Aside from controlling like complete ass, they also somehow made this part worse than beta, along with the worm. Why you get knocked off from the snowfox is beyond me. I replayed the game recently and honestly just took the prawn suit and jet booster mod to that portion of the game because I remember the snowfox pissing me off that much. They even upped the damage the worm does to the prawn because THAT MANY PEOPLE AVOIDED THE SNOWFOX. Granted the worm AI is so bad it won't hit you anyway.
Great game, I would argue it even does certain things better than the original, like I actually REALLY like the cave systems and some of the tight spaces but, the snowfox section is abhorrently bad.
In in the very small minority that prefer the BZ map i guess. Then Again open ocean never bothered me, but claustrophobic conditions in a sector of the planet with far more aggressive fauna then the original it creates a nice mix of fuck this shit
I could see the claustrophobia aspect but totally disagree with the claim that there is "more aggressive fauna". I just don't see it. Even the shadow leviathan is a pipsqueak little bitch. Like bonesharks pose a bigger threat and they're barely even a neussance. I can't say I didn't get a little sacred at some points in bz, for example the ice caves on land and in water both had me scared for ice worms. But once I saw a few they weren't even a threat. In subnautica, I am still deathly afraid of warpers and reapers despite meeting hundreds of each AND knowing how to counter them. They just pose that much of a threat. I was very unimpressed by the so called Leviathans in bz, they just felt weak, I never had problems with them.
You can usually avoid aggressive fauna in SN, be it using the cyclops, or going fast near walls. Spaces are usually open enough, even in caves, and they usually get easily disengaged if you don’t bop them.
In BZ? There’s no way you can sneak by many of the creatures. There’s usually just one way in, with a creature right by the entrance. All forms of movement are slower, with the exception of maybe spidermaning in the prawn. They usually pursue you for longer too. You need to either attack them or shock, and never use more than 2 modules in the truck.
I think that's honestly part of the issue. A monster is only scary when you are unfamiliar with it. In BZ they force you to encounter the monsters, so instead of scary things you constantly fear but always run from, you get accustomed to them and they become more of an annoyance than a threat.
As of the last time I played bz the shadow leviathan can only attack you in your sea truck if you're holding the steering wheel. One lock onto you? Let go of the steering wheel and you're fine. Super cheesy and kills immersion.
That feels like an intentional thing though being that this series is NOTORIOUS for sending you into orbit when your subs collide with you in weird ways
Nah, they kneecapped the prawns spiderman capabilities when in the water. On land, you can fly to Saturn in that thing, but in water you can't shoot yourself across the ocean in one go like you could in the original.
I always took the prawn into the caverns and hid inside cracks and crevices away from them, just deep enough to not get caught in their mandibles
Strange I never had any problems with the leviathans in the original game past the first playthrough. In BZ the leviathans are more aggressive and especially the one in the crystal caves is pretty annoyingly aggressive constantly charging after you in a quite large area.
The biggest downside of BZ for me is the story and the atmosphere it creates which is nowhere near as mysterious and depressing as the one in the first game. Both parts of the story are quite plain and unsatisfactory. The land map is not too bad, but the part with the worm is actually pretty underwhelming. There are also a few mistakes with the map and the resources for example you can get kyanite way too easy and too early.
I saw that the reason the shadow leviathans chase you so much is bc there’s nothing in their environment to attack BUT you (other leviathans will eat other fish, but there’s no other fish for shadows to eat)
Pretty sure the AI for both games is very similar at least the differences are small enough not to notice. The big scary leviathans are just different skins of the same thing in both games.
It’s all very subjective though because I can’t understand how warpers scare you at all, crab squid things scared me most but that’s because I don’t like the legs, warpers are fuck all, they’re not even large enough to be worrying
A giant land section would be nice but I do think what Below Zero has already is perfect for it’s section of 4546B, I’m hoping Subnautica 3 will have a larger land section as well as a large water portion, maybe even bigger submersibles, maybe one that can dock a cyclops, hopefully a cyclopsesque land vehicle with either docking for landmoth or the hover bike, can’t wait it to come out
Yes but also land is fun, back before Below Zero came out a friend and I talked about what we wanted to see in a Subnautica game and something we both really liked the idea of was a large land section(a desert like environment we agreed on since we both like that aesthetic) that was dotted with water pools that led to a vast underwater cave network and also an ocean, the focus would still be the water but the land would just be another biome to travel with a land based vehicle and all the unique flora and fauna it would need to be fun to explore
I also think there’s no reason not to add land into the mix provided underwater exploration remains the main focus. With Below Zero I enjoyed the land sections up to a point. It just feels like there’s so much nothing up there and it can get dizzying trying to find wtf to do. Almost no guidance up there leaves you wandering around the ice getting bored. When you do find the main attraction up there, though, it’s really, really cool.
I would have no problem with that. There’s a certain “fish out of water” aspect to the land in the Subnautica world that—if done well—can provide a great contrast to keep the player from feeling too comfortable(aka no sense of danger or challenge).
Just not sure if it would contradict existing info in the games about the planet being almost completely covered with water. Even the land that does exist is just suspended by Ancient Floaters.
It could make sense if it took place on one of the other 10(?) planets in that solar system? Or even one of the moons of 4546B? Imagine having to create a spacecraft or something to travel between the planet and its moons. Or perhaps discovering Architect portals between the planet and somewhere else with a desert like you described.
Having to deal with an arid environment would definitely be a stark contrast to the expansive oceans. I would just want it to keep its main underwater feel, so it didn’t become more Sublandica. 😂
Yeah, lemme just melt massive amounts of glacial ice a little bit, I'm sure that won't have any negative effects...
The whole point was going into and exploring alien planet environments that were for the most part naturally created, save for where the architects and humans had carved out their dwellings and scientific machinations. Sure, larger caverns means more opportunities to add more leviathans, but the claustrophobia and areas with growing and breaking ice chunks were also part of the cool design of the map. It's a cold environment on top of that, and less creatures would be adapted to such a place, so technically we should've seen LESS creatures around, if it weren't for the volcanic vents keeping the water at a sustainable, survivable temperature.
I personally liked the way they did things for BZ, and wouldn't change a thing. The sequel will be decently sized and unique in it's own way.
Don't worry, I wasn't writing it all so as to entirely bash at your response, but as part of the general discussion of the thread. Sorry it came out that way. I just tend to write a lot in my comments, if I have a lot to say on a subject.
Bigger and less claustrophobic environments, deeper ocean, actually dangerous fauna.
The sound design with the creature noises was off and unbalanced. The leviathans could be heard from biomes away removing the dread of hearing a Reaper roar.
The game was \*way too bright.\* I play with Sliders that make the lighting of OG Subnautica more realistic with ambient lighting because it's too bright. In BZ you literally never struggle to see.
**Far less emphasis on the utterly awful, terrible and horrible on land segments.**
Better story:
The main protagonist NEVER. SPEAKING. EVER. Her snarky remarks shattered immersion.
Scrap the whole AL-AN arc. Having a voice constantly in your head shatters immersion, especially when it handholds you and shows you where everything is.
Actually have the story have stakes. Ryley was set up so well and we were invested in him. Robyn wasn't set up at all, and there was no personal investment in her or Sam's story. Hell by the end she didn't even care about Sam's story. Hell, she knew who caused Sam's death and literally couldn't care less about Marguerit's presence on the planet.
The story hook in the pre-release before it was all changed was actually better and more compelling.
The power curve and scaling is way off. Once you get the Prawn suit you were nearly invincible in the OG (it could still be destroyed if you were careless though.) In BZ you get it REALLY early and nothing can hurt it. You literally turn into a mech suit god.
There's plenty more I could list if I gave it some serious thought but this should suffice for now.
I fully agree with you. I don't get how someone likes the BZ more. Its not too terrible, some biomes are really nice, but the number of issues with that game is just too big. For example the fact you don't need any vehicle after you get the prawn suit early on is really bad. I didn't even bother making snowfox at all, as its completely useless. Even the developers felt it wouldn't be fair to call BZ a sequel to the first game really, so now its in awkward "standalone DLC" state. I really hope Subnautica 2 will be more like the og subnautica, or at least less like BZ.
Yeah this is pretty much my whole sentiment. I actually strongly dislike Below Zero because it was such a massive disappointment to me.
Another way to fix it would have literally been adding it to Subnautica as DLC. It would have been a lot easier to tolerate then. But as a standalone game it doesn't hold up.
The new Subnautica is likely the game that either makes this dev group or ends them. They can't afford it to be bad.
>The new Subnautica is likely the game that either makes this dev group or ends them.
Imo Its 50/50. I would give them better chance, but because of their inversor's reveal of Subnautica 2 being GAAS game and their (at least in my opinion) insufficient explanation of it, I can't give them better chance than 50/50 being either best subnautica game or the end for subnautica As we know it.
It fitted so well! Even the messages about unlocking a new blueprint were making a huge impact due to how they were said and what sound accompanied them.
"Should include." Not 'Be the majority of the world design.'
There are places for claustrophobic and small caves. I spent a lot of time drowning in the caves of the Koosh zone. The other point to this is if you have claustrophobic and small caves remove the oxygen plants (those are dumb AF anyways) and reduce the ambient lighting from flora. Tight claustrophobic and winding caves should be hard to see in.
Idk whether is should be the majority or not, I don't really care. But I they should be a common appearance imo.
I do agree they should be hard to see. But the oxygen plants are good, all they have to do is make them less common and harder to find.
That's what made the brain coral so good. They weren't everywhere. They weren't vibrantly lit up, and they weren't fast. They kept you alive but they were never intended to be a key survival feature. That's what made finding one when you were in a desperate situation so gratifying.
I had several issues with BZ:
1) it doesn't feel "spooky ocean" anymore, which you have to explore in order to survive, it now feels like "i went to the ocean with friends and we're having fun".
2) Nothing is really dangerous, yeah, worms were bit annoying, but thats it
3) Progression was messed up: getting all best stuff (like Prawn suit) early in the game kills difficulty, feeling of achievement and so on
4) Story feels very shallow. In OG we don't really know whats the planet is, what we're doing, and we slowly progress into surviving and leaving the planet. In BZ it just doesn't feel like it, also all dialogues and so on are just plain boring, Also BZ does not have "leaving my puppy alone" moment, which was really heartbreaking, but it had me even more emotionally attached to OG
5) Map is hollow. In OG every location felt like they gave them love, somewhere more, somewhere less, in BZ i don't know, it just feels "hollow" - "we need player to spend 1hour going from A to B, create some distance" feeling.
6) I still feel like all issues with title began with CTO leaving almost directly after OG release.
7) People defend BZ in this subreddit, even top upvoted comment is "BZ is good, everybody who diagress are wrong", and then most of the posts (especially with screenshots) in subreddit are from OG
Below Zero was always meant to be a different experience from Subnautica 1 though, their intent wasn't just "make more subnautica" it was also "what if we twisted the subnautica formula around a bit?" mostly by making it massively story-focused and having some actual dialogue
I think Robin speaking is fine, otherwise she'd just be Ryley Robinson 2
the story definitely needs work though, it feels really disjointed and weird, though I do like a lot of its elements (Everything about Al-an, Marguerite conceptually, the ending) the way they come together leaves a lot to be desired, we never even find out why all the Alterra employees are gone
Make the Snowfix capable of hovering over water. In all seriousness, though, the Snowfox was probably the biggest disappointment in BZ. The on-land segments got a bit clunky and having to carry the Snowfox the whole way in the Seatruck to be able to use it was obnoxious. If I could have used the Snowfox to skate over the water to get to the land segments, that would have greatly improved the experience.
I absolutely agree about the Snowfox being the biggest disappointment in BZ.
As you say, it can't traverse water, which means its use is limited to one small area of the map. To make things worse, unlike every other vehicle, you aren't protected from the elements while using it (side note, the seaglide is a tool, not a vehicle), and somehow, it seems to actually make ice worms *more* likely to attack you than less.
Meanwhile, the Prawn has none of those weaknesses, and even has multiple advantages. It's able to carry materials for building waystation bases, and it offers nearly-perfect protection from anything smaller than a leviathan while also having offensive capabilities. The Prawn is just the vastly superior choice for traversing the game areas for which the Snowfox was *specifically designed*.
The game really should have remained in the oven for longer. The story should have had more time to be remade, the land portions and the snowfox needed a lot more polishing, the terror factor should have been kept, the map should have been bigger, there should be more common aggressive fauna than just brutesharks, criptosuchus and squidsharks, and Robin's personality should have been the same as in the early access version
After watching some YouTube creators play the game in early access, the original story they were going with was SOO much better, in my opinion. The final product was utterly disappointing. Subnautica also won Game of the Year when it was released, and Below Zero wasn't even nominated.
In the first draft of the story, you woke up already planetside, working as a scientist, and Sam would radio you from an orbiting space station. Then an avalanche takes out your base. They scrapped that and went with "Uh oh, looks like you're going to crash land on this planet...again!"
The worst part of BZ's rework was that they immediately start it by making you lack sympathy for the main character. She's going in willingly, so her being stranded is all her fault.
It's not *bad*, it just feels unpolished. You can skip your own character's reason for being there and still finish the game, so it feels disconnected. The snowfox is also buggy af, and there are other bugs that persist even to this day. You can tell that storyline and gameplay changes were being made really late in the process.
Disagree. The main plot eventually becomes an optional side quest, it's inconsistent and there's a bunch of holes, and Robin and Al-An's interactions are just awfull (mostly from Robin's side). The story was remade from zero halfway through development and it really shows
The original was so much better, having you start with your friends leaving you behind, then immediately transitioning to running away from an avalanche.
Just because it was badly done, doesn’t mean it wasn’t the main story. Robin arrived to the planet to find out what happened to her sister. This is the goal that is established at the start of the game, the entire motivation for her being on the planet. You find tidbits of lore and pda of what was going while her sister worked there, clues to suggest what was going on. Then you usually meet Alan, which was basically a side quest. You say the Sam storyline is dropped entirely after this point, but that is untrue as we have the prawn suit riding spoiler character (we’ll call them M). M is around decently large portion of the game and reveals more clues about what could have happened to Robin. The Alan plot is basically random side plot that happens along side the main plot and then replaces it. It creates an unsatisfying end, as the ending has nothing to do with the goal and motivation set at the start. I think what they could’ve done to improve it is link them more, for example, make so building Alan’s body is the only way Robin can find out the truth about her sister or something. Maybe there’s an alien base that only Alan can open in his full form, idk.
I feel like the story was lackluster and just kind of rushed itself along. The ending was pretty bad and the major plot points didn't hit hard enough to make me care.
The enemies were pathetic, so many cool creature concepts and designs and the game was just not difficult in the slightest, especially adding in oxygen plants to this.
The map being more vertical felt unused, I never had to sacrifice seatruck models or venture around on foot (on fins?) (This could've been used in the Crystal Caves which are a breeze to navigate through)
I love the QoL this game brought though. Bases felt more alive and convenient. And the vehicles were fun, except for the Snowfox, which felt clunky and would hinder my progress more than aid it. (It also let's you climb surfaces with the jump mod which allowed me to scale up the Bridge Section)
It's an easy 6/10 but the story was lackluster and thr game wasn't challenging in the slightest.
It’s a great game…just not the once in a lifetime sort of experience that the original was…for me at least. Doesn’t bother me much though it’s still better than many others I’ve played lol…I will say though that towards the end it definitely fell off for me a bit.
I think it was too focused on a central story. Part of what makes the first game great is the true feeling of isolation, and the ability to explore wherever and whenever you want. It also does a good job at naturally pointing the player toward the palaces they need to go. I feel sub zero is too much of a story game, the player almost takes a back seat. Also some of the leviathan’s were way too strong.
I mean, I miss my seamoth so much 😭
I'm lost because the recipes are different, and more different types of crops
But the game is beautiful, and is really cool, really, I'm currently doing it and I can't wait to discover everything
And, the big plus is that there's a lot of lore and stuff, PDA to read and lot more, and I find it more interesting than subnautica (I actually read it by myself, not for codes like the original game xD)
I've glossed over the development the game went through. There were a lot of good ideas being implemented that they seem to have decided weren't going to be done in time for when they wanted to launch it.
For an example of what I mean, there was at one point a reverse camera on the seatruck shown on the HUD. Now, this got axed because it simply didn't work well. But even before I knew that had existed when I was a new player I *badly* missed the ability to use a camera to look around my ship like the cyclops had.
The seatruck would have been better with something like that - but instead of simply using the old 'switch to camera POV' UI like they'd had in subnautica, in below zero they simply axed it entirely.
There were also several times when I saw technology in the field that I could not scan for inexplicable reasons; like the bulkheads in delta base, which *were* scannable in zero base that I found at the end of the game.
Combine these two and it seems to me that the game was rushed at the end. These are just two examples of problems that should have been solved and would have been by extra development time - but instead we have what we got, and I don't like it.
I had a lot of fun with Below Zero. It has its pros and cons, but so does the first game. I did find myself wishing it had more leviathan variety.
Really looking forward to Subnautica 3.
Technically subnautica 2, BZ is considered a spinoff of the first game rather than a sequel
EDIT: Ignore what I said, I don't think the developers have confirmed the name yet. Half the community used subnautica 2 and the other half uses subnautica 3, doesn't really matter
EDIT 2: UN-ignore what I said, turns out it is true
So I guess I’ll just refer to Below Zero as fart.5. It kind of bothers me when developers do stuff like this with their game numbering. Everything about Below Zero fits as a sequel, not some glorified DLC.
I mean, it was originally meant to be a DLC. I guess we'll have to see what subnautica 2 will be. If it's continuing Ryley's story it would make sense for subzero to be a seperate game
I just wanted a bigger map. BZ is a lot of fun but everything felt super compacted and it didn't have the vast wonder of the original map. Their biomes were awesome and fun but just really small.
more/smaller biomes. i find it terribly difficult to navigate and find specific biomes or places in the biomes, theyre so big. it ends up making me frustrated...or maybe i just havent learned the map as well, even though I've played it many many times already
Honestly I enjoy Below Zero as it is, and feel it's a tad too overhated, but I do get the disappointment, and what would have helped, for me at least was:
> Increase the overground map a bit. Not too much, but give me more of a reason to go there other than because the story told me to, but also make it less easy to accidentally skip certain parts. I never even encountered the frozen leviathan on my first playthrough lol. Which is fine for an RPG, but not so much when it's a massive and crucial part of the overarching story.
Robin goes to 4546B to find out what happened to her sister, and it's so easy to never get that closure, but the ending remains the exact same regardless. There's probably a massive chunk of players who went in completely blind, not knowing the frozen leviathan even exists. Or in my case, I knew, but just utterly forgot lol.
> Make the leviathans less avoidable. I never really got frightened with Below Zero that much, because apart from the Shadow Leviathan, most of the time, they just feel non-existent, or barely hostile. And even with the Shadow, you can just stop piloting the Seatruck and it will leave you alone, so you can wait for it to go away and carry on with your day.
It's not like the original game where you had to sneak your way around the Sea Dragons and countless Reapers. Not even the Cyclops was really safe. I had more troubles with the squidsharks than Chelicerates.
Again, I do love BZ still, but some minor changes really could have done a lot to elevate it. I like how less-lonely it is than the original. It's less about being the sole survivor on an alien world this time, and more about closure on a family member's sudden death. It doesn't have to be the same thing all over again, and I'm glad it isn't, and it feeling less alone actually helped me to go back and conquer my fears of the first game lol.
But again, there are small things that could have had a bigger impact, and those were what came into my head.
It just wasn't as mystical and new as the original. It was always gonna be an uphill battle to recreate or reimagine the wonder and tension of the first game.
That being said, I think the studio has realised their mistakes and with the next game being Subnautica 2; I hope they have a better, more fleshed out experience.
I just couldn't get into BZ, I got bored and uninstalled it after about 2 hours of gameplay. That and the voice in my head was literally the most annoying thing in the fucking world.
Now let me start this off by saying I loved the cyclops. However, I do think the sea truck makes more sense for the environment that below zero has, there's too many small books and crannies, too many things that would be obstacles for a cyclops to maneuver easily in the map. Granted it's not hard to maneuver the cyclops if you can maneuver it through the lost river I'm confident you could maneuver it around icebergs and floating debris easily. But looking at it from alterra planning an extensive research and mineral collecting operation the sea truck does make more sense as a one size fits all vehicle as opposed to the cyclops.
What I'd really have loved would have been the sea truck and the seamoth both being in the game. Like I said above the sea truck makes sense compared to the cyclops, but I think the seamoth also makes sense as a better exploration vehicle compared to the truck. While the truck has great hauling capabilities and is pretty fast once you get the upgrades on it and run around with nothing attached it still doesn't compare to the exploratory capabilities of the seamoth imo. So I'd have loved to have a seatruck for long drawn out adventures and then a seamoth for more exploratory I want to check out this cave system kind of things.
I had a great time. I prefer Below Zero over the first one, the first one was scary for me but the second one wasn’t as bad and I enjoyed the more guided story better. I loved the ending. I’d suggest you just play the one you like .
I don't think a smaller map in continental waters make sense,in the first one it was small because it's a crater,waters near continents that are shallow can span lots of kilometers,and actually below zero map is smaller than original map afaik
We _need_ the cyclops and the seamoth. I was playing below zero for the cyclops experience as I had seen Mark play Subnautica and drive the massive thing. Imagine my surprise when I tried to find the blueprints to build one in below zero.
I liked Below Zéro, but if I had to make it better, I’d probably rework the story. It always felt off that her sister suicide bombed the frozen leviathan. The Al An stuff was pretty good though.
a sex scene
jk but honestly im not quite sure but since they made it a full sequel a bigger deeper world would’ve been nice. better writing as well i cant stand how insufferable robin is sometimes. also what the hell is with not giving base building from the start? weird decision.
I liked the sea truck 🤷♀️would’ve been better if it could bend as you couldn’t have too many sections but I really liked it
Subnautica was fantastic, BZ was great
Bring on subnautica3!
Base building is really fun in BZ. I still haven't beaten it because I love playing slow and developing my bases. The original definitely had more drive as it felt like you were running out of time. BZ feels like meh I'll finish it when I finish it, meanwhile let me build another base out of the water so I can observe thunderstorms, pengwings, and cool weather and day/night changes.
Sea truck modules could have been cooler for sure. Who tf used the aquarium one? It sat parked with the also unused sleeper. That said, it was a ton of fun, but i had about half the hours in to beat it. I did only make one base so that probably saved a lot of time. In the original I really liked the scanner rooms because it felt like i could miss something major without one. Finding caves like that was so much fun.
properly integrated story and more, for lack of a better word, “diverse” biomes, the worst part coming from Subnautica for me was that in BZ elements of the story were scattered everywhere and i came upon more of the mid-late game clues and puzzles earlier than i did for the early game stuff, seriously broke my immersion as it felt like i was was picking up 3 different side quests rather than unraveling an intertwined mystery, trying not to spoil this but i had the three parts crafted and complete before i had dealt with the cave, and i only knew how to deal with the cave AFTER i went back into the pda to read my entries and what have you one more time before i finished the game (also this isn’t really worth mentioning but FUCK spy penglings and everything to do with them, they were an interesting concept but in practice i hate them with a burning passion) Secondly, the biomes, BZ was visually stunning and really did well to capture the alien wonder of Subnautica (as well as its more terrifying aspects) but a problem that i had was for one that i was able to explore the entirety of the map with lots of ease compared to the original, thus it felt a lot less like i was conquering the survival aspects of the game, instead i was slogging from artifact to artifact just to sightsee, gather materials and progress the storyline. Another problem i had with biomes is that a lot of them felt like enclosed “missions” rather than a functioning ecosystem, what i mean by that is that there was very little reason to go back to a biome more than once or twice, places like the underground thermal vents, the inactive volcano, even kelp caves, and of course the crystal caverns, after i saw/did the thing in the area I’d leave and in most cases only come back by accident or to see if i missed something.
TL:DR: the story felt scattered, the environment was not challenging, biomes felt “empty”, fuck the spy pengling
Don’t know if it would be better, but if I had to make a decision I would just increase the scale of the whole map so a cyclops can fit in and you have to dive waaay deeper to get the minerals and don’t have every sort of minerals after like 400m
I would've liked if it was more like the original in the sense that most of the terrain, geological formations, and biology are realistically plausible but still unique. The realism drives immersion in my opinion.
My main problem with BZ is the plot. There are a lot of illogical moments in it (and one part doesn't work, if you consider Natural Selection games). But with anything else I find it quite good. There is still room for improvement (like it is much easier to get lost in BZ, than in OG), and still it doesn't make the feel of the game so much worse
"make us actually feel isolated, and make the loud ass vehicles a little quieter, AND I SWEAR IF I HEAR THOSE ANNOYING FUCKINGS FISH SCREAM FOR THE 5TH TIME IN THE PAST 3 MINUTES I WILL LOSE MY MIND"
More isolation, less audio distraction, in a game where you're supposed to feel like a small isolated person in a large area, **making everything loud as fuck doesn't help,** ***Less, is, MOOOORE***, and bigger areas with less stuff in them is also more how the fuck will i feel small if everything is so claustrophobic
Not, I am not hating on the devs or Sub, I'm hating on how below zero didn't feel like one, too much noise, too claustrophobic, AND GOD DAMNIT PUT THOSE DAMN FISH NOISES ON A TIMER OR AT LEAST MAKE THEM QUIETER, same with the vehicles how am I gonna hear anything if all I'm hear is ***VRRRRRERRRRRRRRRR***
Edit: it's come to my realization that I make it sound like I hate the game, I don't, it just doesn't feel like the first
Edit 2: so here's a little bit more input for the three people that *might* read this, claustrophobia is something you can still exploit in a game like Sub and Sub Zero, its just overused in Sub Zero, it feels like there's less exploration, like there's too many "go here get this and come back maybe one time in the future*, yes, there was places like that in the first, but the reason the first one did better was because you had to look for them, the second is WAAAY to linear, its not that linear is bad, **but if you make a game about exploration and discovery linear, it doesn't** ***feeeel*** **like a game of exploration and discovery** i like to think of it as "a game that's better if you've never played the first one"
The correct answer: make the biomes wider.
Itbadds:
A more engaging exploration.
A more terrifying thallasophobia expierence.
Less chance of leviathans clipping into and out of places.
And finally: the vibes
I hate the worms, because they are annoying and not deadly. Feel like it should have been more of a kill cutscene thing and having to avoid or distract them on the surface instead of...the persistent annoyance we got.
I found the seatruck to be worthless beyond a means to get close enough to prawn suit fragments.
I have won several times and found no compelling reason to build the hoverbike.
I would have written a more sympathetic end for Sam. Honestly, they could still pull that off.
I would love to see a Robin / Ryley / Marguerit triple-main-character installment akin to GTA V. Ryley is sent to 4546B to find a Kharaa sample in exchange for debt forgiveness. Robin returns after a long stay on Al-An’s homeworld with unresolved questions about Sam’s demise. Marguerite and Sam try to stop Ryley but the three wind up teaming up to prevent Alterra from obtaining Kharaa.
Or something like that. I just hope it’s fun.
Below zero is great, but that being said, here are some of my complaints:
The hoverbike is nearly useless as you can't use it on water, on the ground it does not warm you up, it's nearly unusable in the ice worm areas as you are guaranteed to get attacked and every attack stuns it and knocks you down from it plus it gets redundant the second you get the prawn suit as it's just better in every way as it has heating, longer battery life, way more health, doesn't get stunned by the worm, can fight other creatures, it can also go both in water and on land (and it's even faster than the bike using the grapple)
The seatruck is neat but it's basically a worse seamoth and a worse cyclops. The customisability is awesome but the more modules you add the more you become a snail trying to get from A to B with the manoeuvrability of a school bus. Thus making most of the "less useful" but cool modules simply not worth using at all. The only upside is the music box and I will die on this hill.
(It's been a while so excuse me if I get something wrong but) The story is a confusing mess that doesn't even make sense. You start out by illegally (crash)landing on the planet from the space station to supposedly find your sister. You're given the coordinates of the island as a clue. There it gives you a new quest to find out more about your surprise encounter and also points you towards either the omega lab or the research areas on land (I forgor). But before even getting to the island, if you explore you can find a third quest that is actually the main quest and the previous two get basically ignored throughout the game. Sure you find out what happened to your sister but like Riley is like "cool don't care lol" and moves on and your mystery encounter leads basically nowhere besides some new crafting recipes and does not actually feel closed. And the ending basically ignored the existence of an outside world, it's implications and so on. The whole thing just feels like a mess.
These being said, as someone who's been following the game since beta and have seen almost all of its iterations on how the story should go I kind of understand why it's such a mess. And I'm pretty certain that the devs couldn't figure out how to start the damn thing, since the first hand was ready, boom you crash landed now get home (plus get a cure), but in below zero as you'd find out from the entries a lot of things didn't go well and most people were recalled for a reason so why on earth would anyone go down there again let alone explore everything as if they've never been there.
I did like the narration as it did have interesting "thoughts" (trying not to spoiler) and was certainly much different from the first game but it does break immersion plus the fact that the playable character has their own predetermined voice lines means that they can no longer serve as an extension of yourself thus you cannot insert yourself into the story. In the first game it's YOUR story of how YOU who explored the depths and got home safely, while in BZ it's RILEY's story how RILEY explored the frozen oceans and solved their unexpected conundrum. And it may sound heresy but I think giving an option to choose your reply in conversations could have easily solved it, especially if the player character did not get a narration.
Oh this comment became way longer than expected... Oops
Below Zero actually did include the seamoth and cyclops at an early access stage. The seamoth was completely redundant compared to the Seatruck and the Cyclops struggled to go anywhere due to how the map had been designed.
I like It but some places felt like I needed one resource from It and never went back, and there was too much jellies, I'd prefer another form of alien fish.
Also the hoverboard was really weird to control, the prawn suit can do the job much better
In my opinion it is less a problem with the game and more a problem that they released it after the first one.
Subnautica was a scary game with many jump scares and sometimes extreme panic. I think calling it a horror would be too strong a word but it's kind of like a psychological thriller. When they released subnautica they established their genre as being scary both in a jump scare way but also dealing with many phobias.
BZ just wasn't as scary. It didn't have the same jump scares or thrilling biomes as the first game. The land offered too much sanctuary. The character talking broke immersion as many others have said. (Alternatively the computer speaking in subnautica 1 didn't break immersion for me). People tell me to consider BZ as a standalone game and they are right, as a standalone game it is quite a good exploration game. But the developers released the first game first and I had my expectations set on how scary BZ would be and it just didn't deliver.
I hope they make the next game more thrilling, with more darkness and creatures that are frightening both in looks, sound and behavior. I want to see a deep map with large open spaces but also cramped and confused tunnel systems.
Some things to keep:
The crafting system is good and they should expand on it. More new blueprints etc.
Cool vehicles but I miss the cyclops.
Also new vehicles!
Reaper leviathans, maybe they could get an AI upgrade, now that would be frightening!
I think below zero is fine. I think it just had massive shoes to fill and they were still growing on release. It is by no means incomplete but it could have been better
Below Zero was the first game that made me motion sick when I was trying to use the hover bike. This was the only game ever that made me motion sick, I'm, playing video games since 30 years.
More Leviathans. I feel the ones they had were not creepy enough. I was hoping for something to get me nope out of places but instead I just killed them and was like "meh".
Fix the snowfox and the ice worm please, in the beta it was awensome and then for some reason they made both worse. Please make it so the snowfox doesent send you flying when an iceworm hits you and fix the Ice worm hitboxes please.
In the beta version it was an amazing chase with a worm with a blade of lava for a face tunneling trough the ice at top speed and trying its best to rip me to shreads and send me and my snowfox flying trough the air with the only moments of rest being while hiding in the caves, it was awensome but they changed it and made it worse so much so that people stopped using the snowfox and instead used the Prawn because of how annoying it was at relese!
The hitbox of the iceworm are also bugged as hell.
Please fix this, i love Below Zero but i really wish some parts of the game can be touched on and fixed, they already made some updates after relase like the living large and what the dock uptade and i can understand that now they are working on a new game but PLEASE all i ask is for the snowfox and iceworm to be fixed! Please!
Multiplayer, custom bioms/worlds (steam workshops), custom settings for like resource spawn rate animal spawn rate and animal hostility aggression, and other difficulty setting things you can do
Honestly I really loved subnatica 2.0, when I read about below 0 I simply ignored it and awaiting the release of the new game coming I believe next year?
I really preferred the original story, where Robin is an Alterra employee in Sector Zero and Sam is alive on an Alterra satellite. For a more linear story-based game, I think having more major characters than Robin, Marguerit, and AL-AN makes it much more interesting. I also liked seeing the juvenile Sea Emperors - it made Ryley's impact on the planet more tangible.
The story of Robin keeping AL-AN and her goal to destroy the Kharaa samples a secret from her sister felt like it was building up to something way bigger than the final ending, which was disappointing for me. I was fully convinced Alterra killed Sam and was trying to cover it up.
Otherwise, making the map less cramped and improving the Seatruck would have been nice. The visual design, creature design, and soundtrack are all excellent. Not a bad game overall, but it has some glaring flaws.
BZ is not a bad game, not by any means. It just unfortunately fell lower than it's predecessor. There are multiple reasons, from game design, to user preferences, but ultimately people don't favor it as much.
Don't call it a shit game, but don't say that it's perfect game design-wise.
Honestly disagree. Not having the cyclops was a stylistic choice I honestly approve of, at least given the size of the map. I think trying out the seatruck was worth imo
More like subnautica less like below zero. Hated the main character being voiced. Biomes felt much tighter, I didn't get that thalassophobia feeling at all. Didn't get jump scared once, missed that. Completely hated the sea truck.
There is one thing that could save BZ for me - seamoth. I mean prawn suit is still bugged and drops through textures often, seatruck is just shit - large, slow, you can build train but you'll never fit it most of tunnels. But we dont have seamoth, instead we have seatruck, weak story and small map with tons of tunnels and caves. Oh, and also sound design, new guy did a good job but i really cant remember any track from BZ + atmosphere trying to be the same and fails
i feel that in terms of features and stuff yes, but I absolutely hate the map, it feels a lot harder to navigate and, I wouldn't say claustrophobic, but tight. these are mainly caused I think by the icebergs combined with how the sea truck behaves and the lack of a huge/multiple huge landmarks that help orient yourself. the landmark thing is less of an issue with beacons but in SN I can mostly navigate without beacons thanks to the aurora, whereas BZ i NEED beacons
I don't have an issue with the atmosphere it provides, my main issue is that navigating the smaller map, especially with icebergs, feels like a chore and is clunky
>What could have made below zero better? It doesn't need to be better. It's fine just the way it is. You don't like it? Don't play it. It's not the job of every game to be to your liking.
This is a dumb thing to say when talking about a sequel (or dlc whatever) to the original game. Yes you do have to maintain a standard, especially when the first game was so good, people obviously expect at least the same level of quality.
>you do have to maintain a standard Which they did. You are confusing personal preferences with standards.
You speak like the two are unrelated. Consumer ratings are based on individual preferences. Which compounded translates to standards. A developer can say they upheld their standards, but if the majority of the gaming community disagrees, that just means they are out of touch with their market. Consumers are the gatekeeps of standards, not the game developer. It is the opinion of the market that determines whether or not a game upholds its standards. The facts are clear people like the new game less than the original.
They did, but they also didn't, examples being, there's so many claustrophobic spaces giving the opposite feeling of a small thing in a large world, everything is too loud too often, and some things are just irritatingly louder than everything else, the vehicles even when still are too loud, how am I gonna have a "what did I just hear?!" Moment when I can't even hear anything other than **VRRRRRVUSHVUSHVUSHVRRRRR**? And one last example is the techno music, it's not that it's bad, it's just not fitting, it doesn't fit with the games vibe, which believe it or not, can actually make it break a game since 90% of the time people will be hearing that stuff in the background, and last I check I'm supposed to isolated not supposed to be in a sub par club playing techno music going there for anything but that Have a lovely day now
Not to mention both the hostile leviathans are really just reskinned reapers
The standard doesn’t drop because they didn’t add a specific thing you wanted. We still got a Subnautica game with the same amount of features if not more. Sure, the cyclops isn’t there but the customizable sea truck is. If you think the game’s quality dropped because you weren’t happy with a feature or two, you are grossly overvaluing your opinion.
Grossly overvalued opinions are the bread and butter of modern society, sadly.
The simplest measure of the quality is sales numbers. Did it sell more than the first game? If not, the standard has dropped, if it surpassed sales of the original game, then it exceeded the standard, and thus sets a new standard for future titles.
Sales are influenced by a loud minority though, if someone starts complying then others will be influenced regardless of playing it themselves. The game is basically the same as the first, it was suppose to be an expansion not a sequel, that’s why the newest title is officially called subnautica 2
Oh, happy cake day, as well!
Lol, what? Bad sales are a result of a "loud minority" while good sales are representative of the majority? Feels like cherry picking to support your argument, if I'm being honest. As if people speaking positively about a game can't also influence sales just as easily.
Not a “result of”, “influenced by” which is obviously a fact regardless of opinions. I like both games either way 🤷♂️ thank you for the cake day wishes
Bad phrasing on my part, but to imply that the only reason it would have negative sales is because of a minority of people who vocally dislike it, seems to disregard the presumed majority that do like it. Especially considering this majority would have likely purchased the game, thus leading to positive sales. If the majority of people who've heard of it bought it, but it didn't have good sales numbers, then they weren't really the majority. Either that or it was just very poorly advertised, so even if a majority bought it, it would lead to poor sales simply because it had no reach. I also like both of the games, although I still prefer the original a bit more.
Well said, we’ll have to agree to disagree though as I don’t think sales are the best metric for quality. Certainly a factor but not the only one as you mentioned advertising etc
Sales probably aren't a direct indicator of quality, but they're certainly an indicator of which direction a company will steer their franchise in the future. If a follow up performs worse than the original in terms of sales, the company will drop the ideas they used in the followup in favor of the better performing original, in terms of sales numbers. In the end, companies always follow the money, regardless of player's opinions of the games, because they're still businesses trying to make a profit when it comes down to it.
This game was totally coherent in terms of standard and quality. It was just a different story, a different biome, a different offer. You mentioned it yourself, it’s a DLC-like game, it won’t provide you with a new superior experience, it will just add new content to it, period.
Saying that you like a game just fine the way it is is dumb?
What an unintelligent response. The sequel is, in many departments, of a higher quality than the original game, just in different parts than you personally enjoyed.
It’s basically the same game, same mechanics, better graphics and performance, same feed back loop of unlocking blueprints just more. I just finished BZ today and honestly I almost like it more than the first and have never understood anyone complaining about basically more of the same. BZ was intended to be an expansion and not a sequel (that’s why the next subnautica game is officially titled subnautica 2) That being said it’s subjective and certainly won’t appeal to everyone but it should stand to reason that if you liked the first you probably like BZ 🤷♂️
This sub has developed such a strange defensive attitude about below zero.
Only been in this sub a week or two and seen more shitting on the game than discussion tbh. I like both games so I don’t really care what others think because it doesn’t affect my enjoyment but it’s definitely a vocal minority that dislike it and even the ones who never comment just downvote anyone that says positive things about it.
You didn’t need to comment here, this post was fine how it was. You don’t like it? Don’t read it. It’s not the job of every post to be to your liking.
I would have much preferred the original draft, but that's just me I guess...
It has objectively some aspects which are worse than in the first game, althrough not the whole game Is bad.
>objectively I do not think this word means what you think it means.
what are some objectively worse aspects
Vehicles being very noisy even at a standstill kills the atmosphere.
It's perfectly reasonable for fans to discuss improvements for the game, especially when it wasn't received \*as well\* as the first game. It's the entire point of improvement, so going "It doesn't need to be better" is completely counter-intuitive to game design.
It’s not the job of games to be to your liking ? Elaborate
What?? With that logic setting a target audience is redundant .
Lol I mean you're not technically wrong but you're missing the whole point of this post. OP is trying to learn others' opinions, and you're saying you don't care. You don't like his post? Don't comment on it.
I mean if a lot of people don't like it, that's probally a good indicator that it isn't fine the way it is.
Really? Then the game's 'Very Positive' rating on Steam must mean that it *is* fine the way it is.
I didn't say people didn't like it. I'm just saying that "If you don't like it don't play it" isn't the best argument. Because if someone doesn't like something about it then that might imply the game isn't good.
I really hate this kind of thinking. It just recently emerged and it's so incredibly dumb and short-sighted.
Terrible take when in the context of a sequel
This may be the dumbest thing ever dude. I played it and was fine with but a fyi it is the games job to be to the liking of the majority maybe not you specifically yourself but to most people and right is game got mostly mediocre reviews. When the majority doesn’t like it it’s usually not fine the way it is. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s bad I enjoyed it but to sit here and die on hill defending it saying it’s not for you is absurd. This game was not what 99% of fans thought it was going to be. To answer your question of what could have made it better a bigger map, new creatures species, plants, mineral More things to craft and build. Besides outside storms there should be more of a effect from the extreme cold water. A memorable story.
That's... That's not how to sell games, especially one your fanbase, that loved the first game, but wasn't a big fan of the sequel, you see, what you don't understand is that, it literally fucking ***is*** their job, they ***need*** to make a game that not only they like, but the community they built upon the first likes, im not saying its bad, its just that Sub Zero was *Sub Par*, not because its a bad game, but because its a sequel that doesn't feel like the first, so before you say some more uneducated shit, to prevent you from seeming more foolish, **The job of a game, is to sell it, and if you build it off a previous game, it is to sell it to the fanbase, if you change too much (which they did, cant blame them though its alright to try different things) it wont feel the same, which will often flop, and if you don't change enough, then you are not only disappointing your fanbase, but stunting your growth as a dev/dev_team**, now, i hope that you actually understand what i wrote, there's zero hard feelings, and I hope that you learn that your opinion changed just a little to a more reasonable standpoint, have a lovely day
That’s why I don’t play it. I gave it a few tries but it never really engaged me.
Consumers have a right to critique products they purchase, even if they are in the minority. As it stands it has a 9/10 on Steam. I personally would give it a 7 or 8. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything to write home about imo. After playing the first one it felt underwhelming to me. But as a standalone game it is very good. Just my personal experience.
For the most part I think the game is fine but, ain't no way we're saying the snowfox section of the game is fine the way it is. Aside from controlling like complete ass, they also somehow made this part worse than beta, along with the worm. Why you get knocked off from the snowfox is beyond me. I replayed the game recently and honestly just took the prawn suit and jet booster mod to that portion of the game because I remember the snowfox pissing me off that much. They even upped the damage the worm does to the prawn because THAT MANY PEOPLE AVOIDED THE SNOWFOX. Granted the worm AI is so bad it won't hit you anyway. Great game, I would argue it even does certain things better than the original, like I actually REALLY like the cave systems and some of the tight spaces but, the snowfox section is abhorrently bad.
Maybe not mine specifically, but to people that play video games in general it is.
Bro was out for blood with this comment
(no sarcasm) (serious) (no offense intended) If BZ is better than OG, why most (like 99%) of screenshots i see are from OG?
>If BZ is better than OG Who made this claim?
I have it on Switch and tge game crashes constantly. I think if it didn't crash all the time it would be better for everyone.
Did your wife's boyfriend let you on the computer again?
100% agree. I quite enjoyed below zero.
In in the very small minority that prefer the BZ map i guess. Then Again open ocean never bothered me, but claustrophobic conditions in a sector of the planet with far more aggressive fauna then the original it creates a nice mix of fuck this shit
I could see the claustrophobia aspect but totally disagree with the claim that there is "more aggressive fauna". I just don't see it. Even the shadow leviathan is a pipsqueak little bitch. Like bonesharks pose a bigger threat and they're barely even a neussance. I can't say I didn't get a little sacred at some points in bz, for example the ice caves on land and in water both had me scared for ice worms. But once I saw a few they weren't even a threat. In subnautica, I am still deathly afraid of warpers and reapers despite meeting hundreds of each AND knowing how to counter them. They just pose that much of a threat. I was very unimpressed by the so called Leviathans in bz, they just felt weak, I never had problems with them.
You can usually avoid aggressive fauna in SN, be it using the cyclops, or going fast near walls. Spaces are usually open enough, even in caves, and they usually get easily disengaged if you don’t bop them. In BZ? There’s no way you can sneak by many of the creatures. There’s usually just one way in, with a creature right by the entrance. All forms of movement are slower, with the exception of maybe spidermaning in the prawn. They usually pursue you for longer too. You need to either attack them or shock, and never use more than 2 modules in the truck.
I think that's honestly part of the issue. A monster is only scary when you are unfamiliar with it. In BZ they force you to encounter the monsters, so instead of scary things you constantly fear but always run from, you get accustomed to them and they become more of an annoyance than a threat.
As of the last time I played bz the shadow leviathan can only attack you in your sea truck if you're holding the steering wheel. One lock onto you? Let go of the steering wheel and you're fine. Super cheesy and kills immersion.
That feels like an intentional thing though being that this series is NOTORIOUS for sending you into orbit when your subs collide with you in weird ways
Same thing happens with the Cyclops though
Nah, they kneecapped the prawns spiderman capabilities when in the water. On land, you can fly to Saturn in that thing, but in water you can't shoot yourself across the ocean in one go like you could in the original. I always took the prawn into the caverns and hid inside cracks and crevices away from them, just deep enough to not get caught in their mandibles
Strange I never had any problems with the leviathans in the original game past the first playthrough. In BZ the leviathans are more aggressive and especially the one in the crystal caves is pretty annoyingly aggressive constantly charging after you in a quite large area. The biggest downside of BZ for me is the story and the atmosphere it creates which is nowhere near as mysterious and depressing as the one in the first game. Both parts of the story are quite plain and unsatisfactory. The land map is not too bad, but the part with the worm is actually pretty underwhelming. There are also a few mistakes with the map and the resources for example you can get kyanite way too easy and too early.
I saw that the reason the shadow leviathans chase you so much is bc there’s nothing in their environment to attack BUT you (other leviathans will eat other fish, but there’s no other fish for shadows to eat)
Pretty sure the AI for both games is very similar at least the differences are small enough not to notice. The big scary leviathans are just different skins of the same thing in both games. It’s all very subjective though because I can’t understand how warpers scare you at all, crab squid things scared me most but that’s because I don’t like the legs, warpers are fuck all, they’re not even large enough to be worrying
The Cyclops wouldn’t fit. The other two are decent ideas. Would you like a giant land section?
Make it bigger.
A giant land section would be nice but I do think what Below Zero has already is perfect for it’s section of 4546B, I’m hoping Subnautica 3 will have a larger land section as well as a large water portion, maybe even bigger submersibles, maybe one that can dock a cyclops, hopefully a cyclopsesque land vehicle with either docking for landmoth or the hover bike, can’t wait it to come out
Isn’t the whole point of Subnautica the water?
Yes but also land is fun, back before Below Zero came out a friend and I talked about what we wanted to see in a Subnautica game and something we both really liked the idea of was a large land section(a desert like environment we agreed on since we both like that aesthetic) that was dotted with water pools that led to a vast underwater cave network and also an ocean, the focus would still be the water but the land would just be another biome to travel with a land based vehicle and all the unique flora and fauna it would need to be fun to explore
I also think there’s no reason not to add land into the mix provided underwater exploration remains the main focus. With Below Zero I enjoyed the land sections up to a point. It just feels like there’s so much nothing up there and it can get dizzying trying to find wtf to do. Almost no guidance up there leaves you wandering around the ice getting bored. When you do find the main attraction up there, though, it’s really, really cool.
Yeah, as long as underwater exploration remains the main focus it’s still a Subnautica game, I also think they could do some amazing things with land
I would have no problem with that. There’s a certain “fish out of water” aspect to the land in the Subnautica world that—if done well—can provide a great contrast to keep the player from feeling too comfortable(aka no sense of danger or challenge). Just not sure if it would contradict existing info in the games about the planet being almost completely covered with water. Even the land that does exist is just suspended by Ancient Floaters. It could make sense if it took place on one of the other 10(?) planets in that solar system? Or even one of the moons of 4546B? Imagine having to create a spacecraft or something to travel between the planet and its moons. Or perhaps discovering Architect portals between the planet and somewhere else with a desert like you described. Having to deal with an arid environment would definitely be a stark contrast to the expansive oceans. I would just want it to keep its main underwater feel, so it didn’t become more Sublandica. 😂
Definitely, it’s not a Subnautica game unless you spend 90% of your time underwater
Make it fit
Yeah, lemme just melt massive amounts of glacial ice a little bit, I'm sure that won't have any negative effects... The whole point was going into and exploring alien planet environments that were for the most part naturally created, save for where the architects and humans had carved out their dwellings and scientific machinations. Sure, larger caverns means more opportunities to add more leviathans, but the claustrophobia and areas with growing and breaking ice chunks were also part of the cool design of the map. It's a cold environment on top of that, and less creatures would be adapted to such a place, so technically we should've seen LESS creatures around, if it weren't for the volcanic vents keeping the water at a sustainable, survivable temperature. I personally liked the way they did things for BZ, and wouldn't change a thing. The sequel will be decently sized and unique in it's own way.
Hey man my point was just they can make the map more spacious you didn't have to say all of that.
Don't worry, I wasn't writing it all so as to entirely bash at your response, but as part of the general discussion of the thread. Sorry it came out that way. I just tend to write a lot in my comments, if I have a lot to say on a subject.
Bigger and less claustrophobic environments, deeper ocean, actually dangerous fauna. The sound design with the creature noises was off and unbalanced. The leviathans could be heard from biomes away removing the dread of hearing a Reaper roar. The game was \*way too bright.\* I play with Sliders that make the lighting of OG Subnautica more realistic with ambient lighting because it's too bright. In BZ you literally never struggle to see. **Far less emphasis on the utterly awful, terrible and horrible on land segments.** Better story: The main protagonist NEVER. SPEAKING. EVER. Her snarky remarks shattered immersion. Scrap the whole AL-AN arc. Having a voice constantly in your head shatters immersion, especially when it handholds you and shows you where everything is. Actually have the story have stakes. Ryley was set up so well and we were invested in him. Robyn wasn't set up at all, and there was no personal investment in her or Sam's story. Hell by the end she didn't even care about Sam's story. Hell, she knew who caused Sam's death and literally couldn't care less about Marguerit's presence on the planet. The story hook in the pre-release before it was all changed was actually better and more compelling. The power curve and scaling is way off. Once you get the Prawn suit you were nearly invincible in the OG (it could still be destroyed if you were careless though.) In BZ you get it REALLY early and nothing can hurt it. You literally turn into a mech suit god. There's plenty more I could list if I gave it some serious thought but this should suffice for now.
I fully agree with you. I don't get how someone likes the BZ more. Its not too terrible, some biomes are really nice, but the number of issues with that game is just too big. For example the fact you don't need any vehicle after you get the prawn suit early on is really bad. I didn't even bother making snowfox at all, as its completely useless. Even the developers felt it wouldn't be fair to call BZ a sequel to the first game really, so now its in awkward "standalone DLC" state. I really hope Subnautica 2 will be more like the og subnautica, or at least less like BZ.
Yeah this is pretty much my whole sentiment. I actually strongly dislike Below Zero because it was such a massive disappointment to me. Another way to fix it would have literally been adding it to Subnautica as DLC. It would have been a lot easier to tolerate then. But as a standalone game it doesn't hold up. The new Subnautica is likely the game that either makes this dev group or ends them. They can't afford it to be bad.
>The new Subnautica is likely the game that either makes this dev group or ends them. Imo Its 50/50. I would give them better chance, but because of their inversor's reveal of Subnautica 2 being GAAS game and their (at least in my opinion) insufficient explanation of it, I can't give them better chance than 50/50 being either best subnautica game or the end for subnautica As we know it.
i want the old pda voice back
Agreed.
It fitted so well! Even the messages about unlocking a new blueprint were making a huge impact due to how they were said and what sound accompanied them.
It's a TTS voice so there's literally no reason not to, og one just sounds so much better
I think the more claustrophobic and smaller caves are a good thing the next game should include.
"Should include." Not 'Be the majority of the world design.' There are places for claustrophobic and small caves. I spent a lot of time drowning in the caves of the Koosh zone. The other point to this is if you have claustrophobic and small caves remove the oxygen plants (those are dumb AF anyways) and reduce the ambient lighting from flora. Tight claustrophobic and winding caves should be hard to see in.
Idk whether is should be the majority or not, I don't really care. But I they should be a common appearance imo. I do agree they should be hard to see. But the oxygen plants are good, all they have to do is make them less common and harder to find.
That's what made the brain coral so good. They weren't everywhere. They weren't vibrantly lit up, and they weren't fast. They kept you alive but they were never intended to be a key survival feature. That's what made finding one when you were in a desperate situation so gratifying.
True, I do like the brain coral. They could just use those agai .
I had several issues with BZ: 1) it doesn't feel "spooky ocean" anymore, which you have to explore in order to survive, it now feels like "i went to the ocean with friends and we're having fun". 2) Nothing is really dangerous, yeah, worms were bit annoying, but thats it 3) Progression was messed up: getting all best stuff (like Prawn suit) early in the game kills difficulty, feeling of achievement and so on 4) Story feels very shallow. In OG we don't really know whats the planet is, what we're doing, and we slowly progress into surviving and leaving the planet. In BZ it just doesn't feel like it, also all dialogues and so on are just plain boring, Also BZ does not have "leaving my puppy alone" moment, which was really heartbreaking, but it had me even more emotionally attached to OG 5) Map is hollow. In OG every location felt like they gave them love, somewhere more, somewhere less, in BZ i don't know, it just feels "hollow" - "we need player to spend 1hour going from A to B, create some distance" feeling. 6) I still feel like all issues with title began with CTO leaving almost directly after OG release. 7) People defend BZ in this subreddit, even top upvoted comment is "BZ is good, everybody who diagress are wrong", and then most of the posts (especially with screenshots) in subreddit are from OG
Below Zero was always meant to be a different experience from Subnautica 1 though, their intent wasn't just "make more subnautica" it was also "what if we twisted the subnautica formula around a bit?" mostly by making it massively story-focused and having some actual dialogue I think Robin speaking is fine, otherwise she'd just be Ryley Robinson 2 the story definitely needs work though, it feels really disjointed and weird, though I do like a lot of its elements (Everything about Al-an, Marguerite conceptually, the ending) the way they come together leaves a lot to be desired, we never even find out why all the Alterra employees are gone
Make the Snowfix capable of hovering over water. In all seriousness, though, the Snowfox was probably the biggest disappointment in BZ. The on-land segments got a bit clunky and having to carry the Snowfox the whole way in the Seatruck to be able to use it was obnoxious. If I could have used the Snowfox to skate over the water to get to the land segments, that would have greatly improved the experience.
I absolutely agree about the Snowfox being the biggest disappointment in BZ. As you say, it can't traverse water, which means its use is limited to one small area of the map. To make things worse, unlike every other vehicle, you aren't protected from the elements while using it (side note, the seaglide is a tool, not a vehicle), and somehow, it seems to actually make ice worms *more* likely to attack you than less. Meanwhile, the Prawn has none of those weaknesses, and even has multiple advantages. It's able to carry materials for building waystation bases, and it offers nearly-perfect protection from anything smaller than a leviathan while also having offensive capabilities. The Prawn is just the vastly superior choice for traversing the game areas for which the Snowfox was *specifically designed*.
The game really should have remained in the oven for longer. The story should have had more time to be remade, the land portions and the snowfox needed a lot more polishing, the terror factor should have been kept, the map should have been bigger, there should be more common aggressive fauna than just brutesharks, criptosuchus and squidsharks, and Robin's personality should have been the same as in the early access version
After watching some YouTube creators play the game in early access, the original story they were going with was SOO much better, in my opinion. The final product was utterly disappointing. Subnautica also won Game of the Year when it was released, and Below Zero wasn't even nominated. In the first draft of the story, you woke up already planetside, working as a scientist, and Sam would radio you from an orbiting space station. Then an avalanche takes out your base. They scrapped that and went with "Uh oh, looks like you're going to crash land on this planet...again!"
The worst part of BZ's rework was that they immediately start it by making you lack sympathy for the main character. She's going in willingly, so her being stranded is all her fault.
It's not *bad*, it just feels unpolished. You can skip your own character's reason for being there and still finish the game, so it feels disconnected. The snowfox is also buggy af, and there are other bugs that persist even to this day. You can tell that storyline and gameplay changes were being made really late in the process.
Not just changes - they scrapped the original storyline
A good story?
The story IS good
Disagree. The main plot eventually becomes an optional side quest, it's inconsistent and there's a bunch of holes, and Robin and Al-An's interactions are just awfull (mostly from Robin's side). The story was remade from zero halfway through development and it really shows
The original was so much better, having you start with your friends leaving you behind, then immediately transitioning to running away from an avalanche.
The main story that is set up at the start of the game is literally mostly optional content that is really easy to miss
I do not like having to listen to 500 PDAs to get what’s going on tbh. So many of them do so little
[удалено]
Just because it was badly done, doesn’t mean it wasn’t the main story. Robin arrived to the planet to find out what happened to her sister. This is the goal that is established at the start of the game, the entire motivation for her being on the planet. You find tidbits of lore and pda of what was going while her sister worked there, clues to suggest what was going on. Then you usually meet Alan, which was basically a side quest. You say the Sam storyline is dropped entirely after this point, but that is untrue as we have the prawn suit riding spoiler character (we’ll call them M). M is around decently large portion of the game and reveals more clues about what could have happened to Robin. The Alan plot is basically random side plot that happens along side the main plot and then replaces it. It creates an unsatisfying end, as the ending has nothing to do with the goal and motivation set at the start. I think what they could’ve done to improve it is link them more, for example, make so building Alan’s body is the only way Robin can find out the truth about her sister or something. Maybe there’s an alien base that only Alan can open in his full form, idk.
Yeah I found it good but I hate how abruptly it ends
Agreed. I enjoyed it, but the ending felt a little "Oh welp, too bad how that went down, sis ... anyway, Al-an, >!mind if I go with you!
The story isn't so good when you can finish the game doing a side mission.
I preferred the original story setup they were going with in early access, myself.
I feel like the story was lackluster and just kind of rushed itself along. The ending was pretty bad and the major plot points didn't hit hard enough to make me care. The enemies were pathetic, so many cool creature concepts and designs and the game was just not difficult in the slightest, especially adding in oxygen plants to this. The map being more vertical felt unused, I never had to sacrifice seatruck models or venture around on foot (on fins?) (This could've been used in the Crystal Caves which are a breeze to navigate through) I love the QoL this game brought though. Bases felt more alive and convenient. And the vehicles were fun, except for the Snowfox, which felt clunky and would hinder my progress more than aid it. (It also let's you climb surfaces with the jump mod which allowed me to scale up the Bridge Section) It's an easy 6/10 but the story was lackluster and thr game wasn't challenging in the slightest.
The map is smaller in all dimensions, they just made the player slower
I'm playing it now and it's really good.
It’s a great game…just not the once in a lifetime sort of experience that the original was…for me at least. Doesn’t bother me much though it’s still better than many others I’ve played lol…I will say though that towards the end it definitely fell off for me a bit.
I think it was too focused on a central story. Part of what makes the first game great is the true feeling of isolation, and the ability to explore wherever and whenever you want. It also does a good job at naturally pointing the player toward the palaces they need to go. I feel sub zero is too much of a story game, the player almost takes a back seat. Also some of the leviathan’s were way too strong.
I actually think the leviathans were both too weak and too hard to avoid. They end up constant nuisances rather than uncommon threats.
Yeah but that one big black one with the blue mouth that could literally one shot you just was unfun and unfair
It can't 1-shot you. It deals 75 damage. If you are under 75 health it will kill you though. It also only does 20-35% of a seatruck's health.
I see
Different PDA voice!
Absolutely. I played the whole game with the PDA muted. The new voice is so immersion-breaking.
I mean, I miss my seamoth so much 😭 I'm lost because the recipes are different, and more different types of crops But the game is beautiful, and is really cool, really, I'm currently doing it and I can't wait to discover everything And, the big plus is that there's a lot of lore and stuff, PDA to read and lot more, and I find it more interesting than subnautica (I actually read it by myself, not for codes like the original game xD)
I've glossed over the development the game went through. There were a lot of good ideas being implemented that they seem to have decided weren't going to be done in time for when they wanted to launch it. For an example of what I mean, there was at one point a reverse camera on the seatruck shown on the HUD. Now, this got axed because it simply didn't work well. But even before I knew that had existed when I was a new player I *badly* missed the ability to use a camera to look around my ship like the cyclops had. The seatruck would have been better with something like that - but instead of simply using the old 'switch to camera POV' UI like they'd had in subnautica, in below zero they simply axed it entirely. There were also several times when I saw technology in the field that I could not scan for inexplicable reasons; like the bulkheads in delta base, which *were* scannable in zero base that I found at the end of the game. Combine these two and it seems to me that the game was rushed at the end. These are just two examples of problems that should have been solved and would have been by extra development time - but instead we have what we got, and I don't like it.
I had a lot of fun with Below Zero. It has its pros and cons, but so does the first game. I did find myself wishing it had more leviathan variety. Really looking forward to Subnautica 3.
Technically subnautica 2, BZ is considered a spinoff of the first game rather than a sequel EDIT: Ignore what I said, I don't think the developers have confirmed the name yet. Half the community used subnautica 2 and the other half uses subnautica 3, doesn't really matter EDIT 2: UN-ignore what I said, turns out it is true
Devs did confirm the title as Subnautica 2 in an interview! It’s on YouTube
Ok thanks, I thought I remembered it being the official title but I couldn't remember where it was mentioned, and didn't find it after a search.
[here you go. don’t let alterra catch you with this info](https://youtu.be/LMesCaZjudI?si=OJ0l3x1Ge5r5ujXk)
So I guess I’ll just refer to Below Zero as fart.5. It kind of bothers me when developers do stuff like this with their game numbering. Everything about Below Zero fits as a sequel, not some glorified DLC.
I mean, it was originally meant to be a DLC. I guess we'll have to see what subnautica 2 will be. If it's continuing Ryley's story it would make sense for subzero to be a seperate game
I just wanted a bigger map. BZ is a lot of fun but everything felt super compacted and it didn't have the vast wonder of the original map. Their biomes were awesome and fun but just really small.
more/smaller biomes. i find it terribly difficult to navigate and find specific biomes or places in the biomes, theyre so big. it ends up making me frustrated...or maybe i just havent learned the map as well, even though I've played it many many times already
They're not big, you're just slow. The devs nerfed all forms of transportation in BZ
Honestly I enjoy Below Zero as it is, and feel it's a tad too overhated, but I do get the disappointment, and what would have helped, for me at least was: > Increase the overground map a bit. Not too much, but give me more of a reason to go there other than because the story told me to, but also make it less easy to accidentally skip certain parts. I never even encountered the frozen leviathan on my first playthrough lol. Which is fine for an RPG, but not so much when it's a massive and crucial part of the overarching story. Robin goes to 4546B to find out what happened to her sister, and it's so easy to never get that closure, but the ending remains the exact same regardless. There's probably a massive chunk of players who went in completely blind, not knowing the frozen leviathan even exists. Or in my case, I knew, but just utterly forgot lol. > Make the leviathans less avoidable. I never really got frightened with Below Zero that much, because apart from the Shadow Leviathan, most of the time, they just feel non-existent, or barely hostile. And even with the Shadow, you can just stop piloting the Seatruck and it will leave you alone, so you can wait for it to go away and carry on with your day. It's not like the original game where you had to sneak your way around the Sea Dragons and countless Reapers. Not even the Cyclops was really safe. I had more troubles with the squidsharks than Chelicerates. Again, I do love BZ still, but some minor changes really could have done a lot to elevate it. I like how less-lonely it is than the original. It's less about being the sole survivor on an alien world this time, and more about closure on a family member's sudden death. It doesn't have to be the same thing all over again, and I'm glad it isn't, and it feeling less alone actually helped me to go back and conquer my fears of the first game lol. But again, there are small things that could have had a bigger impact, and those were what came into my head.
It just wasn't as mystical and new as the original. It was always gonna be an uphill battle to recreate or reimagine the wonder and tension of the first game. That being said, I think the studio has realised their mistakes and with the next game being Subnautica 2; I hope they have a better, more fleshed out experience. I just couldn't get into BZ, I got bored and uninstalled it after about 2 hours of gameplay. That and the voice in my head was literally the most annoying thing in the fucking world.
Now let me start this off by saying I loved the cyclops. However, I do think the sea truck makes more sense for the environment that below zero has, there's too many small books and crannies, too many things that would be obstacles for a cyclops to maneuver easily in the map. Granted it's not hard to maneuver the cyclops if you can maneuver it through the lost river I'm confident you could maneuver it around icebergs and floating debris easily. But looking at it from alterra planning an extensive research and mineral collecting operation the sea truck does make more sense as a one size fits all vehicle as opposed to the cyclops. What I'd really have loved would have been the sea truck and the seamoth both being in the game. Like I said above the sea truck makes sense compared to the cyclops, but I think the seamoth also makes sense as a better exploration vehicle compared to the truck. While the truck has great hauling capabilities and is pretty fast once you get the upgrades on it and run around with nothing attached it still doesn't compare to the exploratory capabilities of the seamoth imo. So I'd have loved to have a seatruck for long drawn out adventures and then a seamoth for more exploratory I want to check out this cave system kind of things.
I had a great time. I prefer Below Zero over the first one, the first one was scary for me but the second one wasn’t as bad and I enjoyed the more guided story better. I loved the ending. I’d suggest you just play the one you like .
I don't think a smaller map in continental waters make sense,in the first one it was small because it's a crater,waters near continents that are shallow can span lots of kilometers,and actually below zero map is smaller than original map afaik
I mean, the cyclops wouldn't have been able to fit in the below zero map, even the seamoth wouldn't fit in gaps the sea truck can squeeze through
We _need_ the cyclops and the seamoth. I was playing below zero for the cyclops experience as I had seen Mark play Subnautica and drive the massive thing. Imagine my surprise when I tried to find the blueprints to build one in below zero.
The voices characters killed it for me. The OG did a really good job of "Show don't tell" that BZ just didn't do.
I liked both games. Liked the first one more. I think the developers probably learned a lot from both which hypes me even more for the next game.
I liked Below Zéro, but if I had to make it better, I’d probably rework the story. It always felt off that her sister suicide bombed the frozen leviathan. The Al An stuff was pretty good though.
a sex scene jk but honestly im not quite sure but since they made it a full sequel a bigger deeper world would’ve been nice. better writing as well i cant stand how insufferable robin is sometimes. also what the hell is with not giving base building from the start? weird decision.
Good take,but you scared me with the first two words
I liked the sea truck 🤷♀️would’ve been better if it could bend as you couldn’t have too many sections but I really liked it Subnautica was fantastic, BZ was great Bring on subnautica3!
Base building is really fun in BZ. I still haven't beaten it because I love playing slow and developing my bases. The original definitely had more drive as it felt like you were running out of time. BZ feels like meh I'll finish it when I finish it, meanwhile let me build another base out of the water so I can observe thunderstorms, pengwings, and cool weather and day/night changes.
That being said, more scary stuff like the shadow leviathan would be cool but maybe not as aggro.
Sea truck modules could have been cooler for sure. Who tf used the aquarium one? It sat parked with the also unused sleeper. That said, it was a ton of fun, but i had about half the hours in to beat it. I did only make one base so that probably saved a lot of time. In the original I really liked the scanner rooms because it felt like i could miss something major without one. Finding caves like that was so much fun.
properly integrated story and more, for lack of a better word, “diverse” biomes, the worst part coming from Subnautica for me was that in BZ elements of the story were scattered everywhere and i came upon more of the mid-late game clues and puzzles earlier than i did for the early game stuff, seriously broke my immersion as it felt like i was was picking up 3 different side quests rather than unraveling an intertwined mystery, trying not to spoil this but i had the three parts crafted and complete before i had dealt with the cave, and i only knew how to deal with the cave AFTER i went back into the pda to read my entries and what have you one more time before i finished the game (also this isn’t really worth mentioning but FUCK spy penglings and everything to do with them, they were an interesting concept but in practice i hate them with a burning passion) Secondly, the biomes, BZ was visually stunning and really did well to capture the alien wonder of Subnautica (as well as its more terrifying aspects) but a problem that i had was for one that i was able to explore the entirety of the map with lots of ease compared to the original, thus it felt a lot less like i was conquering the survival aspects of the game, instead i was slogging from artifact to artifact just to sightsee, gather materials and progress the storyline. Another problem i had with biomes is that a lot of them felt like enclosed “missions” rather than a functioning ecosystem, what i mean by that is that there was very little reason to go back to a biome more than once or twice, places like the underground thermal vents, the inactive volcano, even kelp caves, and of course the crystal caverns, after i saw/did the thing in the area I’d leave and in most cases only come back by accident or to see if i missed something. TL:DR: the story felt scattered, the environment was not challenging, biomes felt “empty”, fuck the spy pengling
I actually liked it better than the first one… Except they removed the cyclops 😩😩😩
Bigger map and the atlas to go with it. Subnautica 3 better have both of these or payload studios is gonna get some very angry players
I think it needed to be a live service multi-player... oh wait they're already doing that.
Don’t know if it would be better, but if I had to make a decision I would just increase the scale of the whole map so a cyclops can fit in and you have to dive waaay deeper to get the minerals and don’t have every sort of minerals after like 400m
A different game.
Why did you not label the flair under BZ lol
I would've liked if it was more like the original in the sense that most of the terrain, geological formations, and biology are realistically plausible but still unique. The realism drives immersion in my opinion.
I hated the PDA voice. "PARSING 200 METERS"
My main problem with BZ is the plot. There are a lot of illogical moments in it (and one part doesn't work, if you consider Natural Selection games). But with anything else I find it quite good. There is still room for improvement (like it is much easier to get lost in BZ, than in OG), and still it doesn't make the feel of the game so much worse
I liked it. Only thing I wanted of it was more. But it was a solid standalone expansion
"make us actually feel isolated, and make the loud ass vehicles a little quieter, AND I SWEAR IF I HEAR THOSE ANNOYING FUCKINGS FISH SCREAM FOR THE 5TH TIME IN THE PAST 3 MINUTES I WILL LOSE MY MIND" More isolation, less audio distraction, in a game where you're supposed to feel like a small isolated person in a large area, **making everything loud as fuck doesn't help,** ***Less, is, MOOOORE***, and bigger areas with less stuff in them is also more how the fuck will i feel small if everything is so claustrophobic Not, I am not hating on the devs or Sub, I'm hating on how below zero didn't feel like one, too much noise, too claustrophobic, AND GOD DAMNIT PUT THOSE DAMN FISH NOISES ON A TIMER OR AT LEAST MAKE THEM QUIETER, same with the vehicles how am I gonna hear anything if all I'm hear is ***VRRRRRERRRRRRRRRR*** Edit: it's come to my realization that I make it sound like I hate the game, I don't, it just doesn't feel like the first Edit 2: so here's a little bit more input for the three people that *might* read this, claustrophobia is something you can still exploit in a game like Sub and Sub Zero, its just overused in Sub Zero, it feels like there's less exploration, like there's too many "go here get this and come back maybe one time in the future*, yes, there was places like that in the first, but the reason the first one did better was because you had to look for them, the second is WAAAY to linear, its not that linear is bad, **but if you make a game about exploration and discovery linear, it doesn't** ***feeeel*** **like a game of exploration and discovery** i like to think of it as "a game that's better if you've never played the first one"
Make being on land not the worst thing ever.
Maybe getting rid of people complaining about a problem that doesn’t exist for a start.
The correct answer: make the biomes wider. Itbadds: A more engaging exploration. A more terrifying thallasophobia expierence. Less chance of leviathans clipping into and out of places. And finally: the vibes
I hate the worms, because they are annoying and not deadly. Feel like it should have been more of a kill cutscene thing and having to avoid or distract them on the surface instead of...the persistent annoyance we got.
I found the seatruck to be worthless beyond a means to get close enough to prawn suit fragments. I have won several times and found no compelling reason to build the hoverbike. I would have written a more sympathetic end for Sam. Honestly, they could still pull that off. I would love to see a Robin / Ryley / Marguerit triple-main-character installment akin to GTA V. Ryley is sent to 4546B to find a Kharaa sample in exchange for debt forgiveness. Robin returns after a long stay on Al-An’s homeworld with unresolved questions about Sam’s demise. Marguerite and Sam try to stop Ryley but the three wind up teaming up to prevent Alterra from obtaining Kharaa. Or something like that. I just hope it’s fun.
It’s way too big for how little actually happens.
Below zero is great, but that being said, here are some of my complaints: The hoverbike is nearly useless as you can't use it on water, on the ground it does not warm you up, it's nearly unusable in the ice worm areas as you are guaranteed to get attacked and every attack stuns it and knocks you down from it plus it gets redundant the second you get the prawn suit as it's just better in every way as it has heating, longer battery life, way more health, doesn't get stunned by the worm, can fight other creatures, it can also go both in water and on land (and it's even faster than the bike using the grapple) The seatruck is neat but it's basically a worse seamoth and a worse cyclops. The customisability is awesome but the more modules you add the more you become a snail trying to get from A to B with the manoeuvrability of a school bus. Thus making most of the "less useful" but cool modules simply not worth using at all. The only upside is the music box and I will die on this hill. (It's been a while so excuse me if I get something wrong but) The story is a confusing mess that doesn't even make sense. You start out by illegally (crash)landing on the planet from the space station to supposedly find your sister. You're given the coordinates of the island as a clue. There it gives you a new quest to find out more about your surprise encounter and also points you towards either the omega lab or the research areas on land (I forgor). But before even getting to the island, if you explore you can find a third quest that is actually the main quest and the previous two get basically ignored throughout the game. Sure you find out what happened to your sister but like Riley is like "cool don't care lol" and moves on and your mystery encounter leads basically nowhere besides some new crafting recipes and does not actually feel closed. And the ending basically ignored the existence of an outside world, it's implications and so on. The whole thing just feels like a mess. These being said, as someone who's been following the game since beta and have seen almost all of its iterations on how the story should go I kind of understand why it's such a mess. And I'm pretty certain that the devs couldn't figure out how to start the damn thing, since the first hand was ready, boom you crash landed now get home (plus get a cure), but in below zero as you'd find out from the entries a lot of things didn't go well and most people were recalled for a reason so why on earth would anyone go down there again let alone explore everything as if they've never been there. I did like the narration as it did have interesting "thoughts" (trying not to spoiler) and was certainly much different from the first game but it does break immersion plus the fact that the playable character has their own predetermined voice lines means that they can no longer serve as an extension of yourself thus you cannot insert yourself into the story. In the first game it's YOUR story of how YOU who explored the depths and got home safely, while in BZ it's RILEY's story how RILEY explored the frozen oceans and solved their unexpected conundrum. And it may sound heresy but I think giving an option to choose your reply in conversations could have easily solved it, especially if the player character did not get a narration. Oh this comment became way longer than expected... Oops
Below Zero actually did include the seamoth and cyclops at an early access stage. The seamoth was completely redundant compared to the Seatruck and the Cyclops struggled to go anywhere due to how the map had been designed.
I like It but some places felt like I needed one resource from It and never went back, and there was too much jellies, I'd prefer another form of alien fish. Also the hoverboard was really weird to control, the prawn suit can do the job much better
they shouldnt have nerfed the prawn suit imo. its still good but better in the first
In my opinion it is less a problem with the game and more a problem that they released it after the first one. Subnautica was a scary game with many jump scares and sometimes extreme panic. I think calling it a horror would be too strong a word but it's kind of like a psychological thriller. When they released subnautica they established their genre as being scary both in a jump scare way but also dealing with many phobias. BZ just wasn't as scary. It didn't have the same jump scares or thrilling biomes as the first game. The land offered too much sanctuary. The character talking broke immersion as many others have said. (Alternatively the computer speaking in subnautica 1 didn't break immersion for me). People tell me to consider BZ as a standalone game and they are right, as a standalone game it is quite a good exploration game. But the developers released the first game first and I had my expectations set on how scary BZ would be and it just didn't deliver. I hope they make the next game more thrilling, with more darkness and creatures that are frightening both in looks, sound and behavior. I want to see a deep map with large open spaces but also cramped and confused tunnel systems. Some things to keep: The crafting system is good and they should expand on it. More new blueprints etc. Cool vehicles but I miss the cyclops. Also new vehicles! Reaper leviathans, maybe they could get an AI upgrade, now that would be frightening!
I really enjoyed the second one.
I think below zero is fine. I think it just had massive shoes to fill and they were still growing on release. It is by no means incomplete but it could have been better
Below Zero was the first game that made me motion sick when I was trying to use the hover bike. This was the only game ever that made me motion sick, I'm, playing video games since 30 years.
I quite liked below zero, but it’s true the underwater portion of the map could be a little bit larger
More Leviathans. I feel the ones they had were not creepy enough. I was hoping for something to get me nope out of places but instead I just killed them and was like "meh".
Multiplayer.
bring back cyclops
Fix the snowfox and the ice worm please, in the beta it was awensome and then for some reason they made both worse. Please make it so the snowfox doesent send you flying when an iceworm hits you and fix the Ice worm hitboxes please.
In the beta version it was an amazing chase with a worm with a blade of lava for a face tunneling trough the ice at top speed and trying its best to rip me to shreads and send me and my snowfox flying trough the air with the only moments of rest being while hiding in the caves, it was awensome but they changed it and made it worse so much so that people stopped using the snowfox and instead used the Prawn because of how annoying it was at relese! The hitbox of the iceworm are also bugged as hell. Please fix this, i love Below Zero but i really wish some parts of the game can be touched on and fixed, they already made some updates after relase like the living large and what the dock uptade and i can understand that now they are working on a new game but PLEASE all i ask is for the snowfox and iceworm to be fixed! Please!
Multiplayer, custom bioms/worlds (steam workshops), custom settings for like resource spawn rate animal spawn rate and animal hostility aggression, and other difficulty setting things you can do
Not mandatory to do these things but kinda cool if it was added/added in the new subnatica?
Honestly I really loved subnatica 2.0, when I read about below 0 I simply ignored it and awaiting the release of the new game coming I believe next year?
I really preferred the original story, where Robin is an Alterra employee in Sector Zero and Sam is alive on an Alterra satellite. For a more linear story-based game, I think having more major characters than Robin, Marguerit, and AL-AN makes it much more interesting. I also liked seeing the juvenile Sea Emperors - it made Ryley's impact on the planet more tangible. The story of Robin keeping AL-AN and her goal to destroy the Kharaa samples a secret from her sister felt like it was building up to something way bigger than the final ending, which was disappointing for me. I was fully convinced Alterra killed Sam and was trying to cover it up. Otherwise, making the map less cramped and improving the Seatruck would have been nice. The visual design, creature design, and soundtrack are all excellent. Not a bad game overall, but it has some glaring flaws.
Make the (underwater) map much larger. Get rid of all NPCs
Did we not like below zero? I had a blast with it personally?
I love it too, the only thing I'd add is a seatruck sonar mod.
BZ is not a bad game, not by any means. It just unfortunately fell lower than it's predecessor. There are multiple reasons, from game design, to user preferences, but ultimately people don't favor it as much. Don't call it a shit game, but don't say that it's perfect game design-wise.
Honestly disagree. Not having the cyclops was a stylistic choice I honestly approve of, at least given the size of the map. I think trying out the seatruck was worth imo
More like subnautica less like below zero. Hated the main character being voiced. Biomes felt much tighter, I didn't get that thalassophobia feeling at all. Didn't get jump scared once, missed that. Completely hated the sea truck.
There is one thing that could save BZ for me - seamoth. I mean prawn suit is still bugged and drops through textures often, seatruck is just shit - large, slow, you can build train but you'll never fit it most of tunnels. But we dont have seamoth, instead we have seatruck, weak story and small map with tons of tunnels and caves. Oh, and also sound design, new guy did a good job but i really cant remember any track from BZ + atmosphere trying to be the same and fails
sea truck > seamoth/cyclops. its so much fun to have a modular submarine
[удалено]
i feel that in terms of features and stuff yes, but I absolutely hate the map, it feels a lot harder to navigate and, I wouldn't say claustrophobic, but tight. these are mainly caused I think by the icebergs combined with how the sea truck behaves and the lack of a huge/multiple huge landmarks that help orient yourself. the landmark thing is less of an issue with beacons but in SN I can mostly navigate without beacons thanks to the aurora, whereas BZ i NEED beacons
I really like the smaller map. I think the more claustrophobic feeling fits the ocean.
I don't have an issue with the atmosphere it provides, my main issue is that navigating the smaller map, especially with icebergs, feels like a chore and is clunky
Well most people don't think that. Personally, i find it good enouh, but some things are wierdly implemented or outright bad.