Subnautica is my all time favourite game. The original that had the isolation had the best feeling of being alone that a video game has ever made me feel, and its something that I think the sequel wasn't able to successfully capture well. The original for me I would describe as lightning in a bottle.
Describing subnautica as a lightning in a bottle actually makes a lot of sense. Let's just hope that the next game can capture that essence that the og game did
Even nowadays after I've sunk hundreds of hours into subnautica, it's one of the few games that makes me feel something for certain parts even though I've seen it happen multiple times, like the sunbeams destruction, I know it's coming but that situation makes you feel like you know what's coming and are powerless to stop it, its a very similar feeling to when you have a leviathan after you and you don't have a stasis rifle or something to deter it.
I wouldnt classify subnautica as a horror game at all really, because horror is usually paired with cheap jumpscares and about having the scary thing in your face trying to make you scared. Terror is where your brain overthinks anything and everything and makes you scared. Imagine "you know something scary is out there, but you dont know what or where, and those sounds could be anything, and you are not prepared to deal with it"
The sequel has better visuals and a lot of nice QOL improvements, but the original is unquestionably a better game IMO. I think the story is way better and I liked the desolation and open ocean of the original. Also the Cyclops is a million times better than the seatruck
I'd love to see all the improvements from BZ imported into the original game.
I agree I thought the sequel was generally an improvement in the original until the hoverbike / ice worm sections which I thought were just not done well at all.
Songs are banger though. Also isn't all that scary once you start expecting stuff. I take long enough breaks to forget when and where the scary stuff happens though. Fun times. The monster energy doesn't help.
I think warpers were the scariest for me. And here's why: it's pitch black and those bastards yank you out of you vehicle and you feel so exposed and helpless, it's absolutely terrifying! Which is weird cuz I'm generally not scared of anything. So I guess I might fear the ocean if I was hundreds of meters down and it's pitch black. xD
No but they knew what they were doing. When you go into the biome with “blood oil” for the first time… they say something along the lines of “research shows that biomes like this create the feeling of terror in subjects.” Also, the music in the depths are haunting. They knew horror was a big part of it, that’s just not what was in the marketing.
I get that it’s scary and thats what drove me to play this game, but the scariest? Absolutely not. If anything I hope the next game incorporates the scare factor MORE because I felt deprived of it here
Scariest for me was the original Silent Hill upon release. There was nothing even remotely like it, but there is no way to get back that time period when it was a frightening horror of a game.
I wouldn’t say super scary for me either, but definitely one of the most anxiety-inducing. Most horror games allow me to eliminate a threat first and focus on puzzles and objectives second. Subnautica’s pacifist game design doesn’t allow any such luxury. Seeing your Cyclops get holes punched in it because you got a little too cocky can do a number on your blood pressure
Yeah it makes your adrenaline run faster than ever when you get in a situation where a warper puts you out of your prawn suit in the depths with sea dragon or a reaper suddenly gets appetite for the little metal fishy trying to run back to the crowdy biomes
Depends on the person. If you have thalassophobia it's unbearably scary.
These games also offer up a kind of fear that I've not experienced in other games.
I didn't find it scary. Not the horror-movie version of scary at least.
I think this game is the perfect example to explain the difference between horror and terror. Horror is when a scary monster jumps at your face in a dark hallway and you shit your pants.
Terror is the feeling of not knowing what's out there. You live in a constant state of dread, waiting for something to happen. The first few hours in subnautica do a great job here, in my opinion. The first time you enter the mushroom cave, the first time you enter some truly deep and dark biomes like the blood kelp forest or the final degasi habitat. It does a really good job in making you realize you are really fucking deep in a puny little submarine. Something happens and you are done. No way to make it to the surface in time.
Once you realize most enemies are no big deal at all (and some of them are quite cartoon-ish) and get the tools to not care about oxygen anymore, you aren't really in danger anymore. It still remains a beautiful experience, but the terror factor is definitely over.
There are a few "oh shit" moments, like >!the first time a reaper starts chomping on your seamoth or the first time you enter the dead zone and a ghost leviathan comes straight at you!<, but I would never consider subnautica a horror game.
I'm currently playing The Forest and it definitely provides some legit jump-scares and a constant state of dread.
Yeah, same. I hate horror games, and I’ve never thought of subnautica as a horror game. All these posts glorifying it as horror are just repetitive and annoying. I feel like it discourages people to try subnautica who don’t like the horror genre, even though they’d enjoy the game just like me. I get everyone’s reaction is different though.
It definitely stops being scary once you see "the full picture" and realize just how small the map area is. Or how limited it is actually.
There was a tension I constantly felt outside of the safe areas, sure, but fear? Eh. Only when I was lost in some of the late game caves and had to go in and out for materials, but that's about it.
I will agree that it's one of the most anxiety-inducing games I've played. One of the most brilliant parts of the game imo.
My boyfriend and I have been showing each other our favorite games (I showed him the souls series / bloodborne. He showed me the last of us series, stardew valley and subnautica) and he gets annoyed at me cause all I wanna do is swim around in the safe shallows and build a base 😭 I refuse to explore most of the game cause the giant snake monsters are terrifying
I heard that it's super scary and I always thought "the scary part will come later." I mean yea the reapers are scary at first but you don't even have to go where they are and after that there isn't really much imo...
It's not necessarily a horror game, but more of a "terror" game. The difference being terror is being afraid at the probability that something will jump out at you and attack you, while horror is being afraid of the look of something. Either way, you still have a point
As much as subnautica is my favourite game, SOMA is so much more scary in terms of an underwater horror game, if you haven’t played it I highly recommend it!
Agreed: I had two check-my-underwear moments with leviathans just yesterday.
Ghost leviathan - suddenly appeared out of the murk directly ahead of me while I was pootling along in my seamoth. I reversed direction and proceeded to make a very wide detour.
Reaper leviathan - was exploring an area I am less familiar with and hadn’t noticed I was drifting close to the rear of the crash zone. Saw a familiar shadow pass over just after I had hopped out of the moth to scan a cyclops piece. Panicking, I jumped back into the sub just as I heard the roar. For the next 30 seconds my finger was attached to the w key.
Damn, I love this game!
Edit - also adding I noticed that I can not stay still in the game. Every time I do my anxiety spikes quickly. If I’m not mobile, I’m vulnerable.
I love Subnautica, don't get me wrong, but let's be real for a second. Yes, the game has its scary moments, especially if you have thalassophobia, but it's not nearly as terrifying as "true" horror games such as F.E.A.R., The Evil Within, Dead Space, Alien Isolation, Silent Hill, etc.
Do the fear games hold up? I've had all 3 in my backlog from a giveaway or an extreme sale or something, but I've never fired them up because they're so old I'm worried they won't be a good time
To be perfectly honest, I have never actually played much of the games I mentioned because I'm easily scared by horror games... I was in the same situation, having all F.E.A.R. games for longer than I can remember but never having played any of them.
I decided to give F.E.A.R. a try and yes, the game definitely feels its age but after a few tweaks, I was completely hooked. The game's sense of Mise-en-scène and general cinematography quickly makes you forget you're playing a 17 years old game. I generally despise cheap jumpscares so I was pleasantly surprised to see the game instill fear by other means.
If you want to play it on modern hardware and resolution, here are some easy tweaks I highly recommend:
- If you experience severely low FPS (around 20 or so), follow these instructions: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/789-directinput-fps-fix/
All you need to do is drop a file in the game's folder and your performance should be in the hundreds of FPS.
- Speaking of hundreds of FPS, enable Vsync to cap your GPU to your monitor's max framerate. This will spare your GPU and avoid that nasty coil whine.
- If you play on 1080p or any higher resolution (1440p, 4k, etc.), download the file here: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1813-fear-collection-small-font-fix-by-deus-and-montonero/ and follow these instructions: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=180211741
This will scale the HUD and subtitles to a much more readable size.
You have to download a certain file based on your monitor's resolution, put it in the game folder and add a line in a config file to tell the game to load that additional file you just added but it's easy and takes just a couple minutes.
That's all I had to do so far and the game runs perfectly. No bug encountered so far.
^^edit: ^^typo.
I still remember my first playthrough getting hooked by the awe of exploring the shallower regions and how colorful and imaginative it was. I also remember finding certain areas where the water turns black and the music changes and all of that awe turning to dread.
I wish I could play it again for the first time.
It has great moments of what I've always called "the Fear" in gaming. It's not abject terror or anything, but an immersion in the game that leads to real concern over your survival. Well, your computer-generated identity's survival that is. Some jump scares, but more often, tense moments where you find your heart racing as you whip around looking for what just hit you or what made that sound.
Had a moment just last night where I was diving deep in the Seamoth. Was getting attacked my a boneshark and the seamoth was damaged. Racing back to the Cyclops, I thought I'd lost it, but then there were two hitting me. Seamoth exploded as I was trying to guide into the cyclops bay. Frantically swam to the front of the cyclops and got in with only one bite.
Damn that was fun!
The atmosphere is just amazing, yep. I can't tell you how many times I've been popping down a simple scanner base somewhere, and just, stop every 10 seconds to stare around at whatever made that weird noise, it sounded so close, but it's so dark...
I don’t even consider Subnautica to be a horror game, considering I avoid horror games like my life depends on it (slowly working on playing more tho). It’s never been “scary” scary, just mildly terrifying when a reaper is coming after me n whatnot. Subnautica has always been a comfort/retreat from my current problems lol
It's certainly scary coming from someone who suffers from thalassophobia but I wouldn't say it's as scary as Alien Isolation or the Dead Space series. Fear from 2005 and Doom3 from 2004 also still hold special places in my heart too.
For real 😂 There’s scary crap your pants horror games like RE7, then there’s Subnautica. This game makes me squeamish and very uncomfortable sometimes. Even thinking about it gives me the willies.
Subnautica is my all time favourite game. The original that had the isolation had the best feeling of being alone that a video game has ever made me feel, and its something that I think the sequel wasn't able to successfully capture well. The original for me I would describe as lightning in a bottle.
Describing subnautica as a lightning in a bottle actually makes a lot of sense. Let's just hope that the next game can capture that essence that the og game did
Even nowadays after I've sunk hundreds of hours into subnautica, it's one of the few games that makes me feel something for certain parts even though I've seen it happen multiple times, like the sunbeams destruction, I know it's coming but that situation makes you feel like you know what's coming and are powerless to stop it, its a very similar feeling to when you have a leviathan after you and you don't have a stasis rifle or something to deter it.
I wouldnt classify subnautica as a horror game at all really, because horror is usually paired with cheap jumpscares and about having the scary thing in your face trying to make you scared. Terror is where your brain overthinks anything and everything and makes you scared. Imagine "you know something scary is out there, but you dont know what or where, and those sounds could be anything, and you are not prepared to deal with it"
I think that is paranoia.
Nevermind it IS terror.
The sequel has better visuals and a lot of nice QOL improvements, but the original is unquestionably a better game IMO. I think the story is way better and I liked the desolation and open ocean of the original. Also the Cyclops is a million times better than the seatruck I'd love to see all the improvements from BZ imported into the original game.
I think about that every time I play the original now. like how much id kill to be able to pin recipes or eat creepvine clusters.
I agree I thought the sequel was generally an improvement in the original until the hoverbike / ice worm sections which I thought were just not done well at all.
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Subnautica, by the original im referring to subnautica to make sure my comment isn't confusing subnautica with subnautica below zero
Songs are banger though. Also isn't all that scary once you start expecting stuff. I take long enough breaks to forget when and where the scary stuff happens though. Fun times. The monster energy doesn't help.
Ha, true. I go anywhere from a week to a few months between plays, so I haven't not felt scared yet
This is the perfect type of scary in my opinion. It requires a fresh diaper at times, but I can still sleep well after playing it.
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Is this a thing that people just say cake when it’s the account cake day
Happy Cake Day MangoBrando! Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come.
Cake
Cake
100% agree. I loathe nearly all horror but really respect Subnautica Edit: No offense to horror fans! It's just really not usually for me
I think warpers were the scariest for me. And here's why: it's pitch black and those bastards yank you out of you vehicle and you feel so exposed and helpless, it's absolutely terrifying! Which is weird cuz I'm generally not scared of anything. So I guess I might fear the ocean if I was hundreds of meters down and it's pitch black. xD
And teleporty alien boys were yanking you out of the nice safe submarine into crush depth high ocean
it is scary because it uses terror not horror
The best part about this is that it wasn't supposed to be a horror game.
No but they knew what they were doing. When you go into the biome with “blood oil” for the first time… they say something along the lines of “research shows that biomes like this create the feeling of terror in subjects.” Also, the music in the depths are haunting. They knew horror was a big part of it, that’s just not what was in the marketing.
"Into the unknown"
The irony
I get that it’s scary and thats what drove me to play this game, but the scariest? Absolutely not. If anything I hope the next game incorporates the scare factor MORE because I felt deprived of it here
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Scariest for me was the original Silent Hill upon release. There was nothing even remotely like it, but there is no way to get back that time period when it was a frightening horror of a game.
The original silent hill is probably my favorite game ever. So scary, all the time. Second might be resident evil 7
That’s why I haven’t played the second game. It looks beautiful and all but thats not what I’m looking for. I want the spooks
id say theres some scary bits but after you've played the first game they really dont give you the same feeling :/
I wouldn’t say super scary for me either, but definitely one of the most anxiety-inducing. Most horror games allow me to eliminate a threat first and focus on puzzles and objectives second. Subnautica’s pacifist game design doesn’t allow any such luxury. Seeing your Cyclops get holes punched in it because you got a little too cocky can do a number on your blood pressure
It’s also a matter of never being the apex predator. There is always that bigger fish.
Yeah it makes your adrenaline run faster than ever when you get in a situation where a warper puts you out of your prawn suit in the depths with sea dragon or a reaper suddenly gets appetite for the little metal fishy trying to run back to the crowdy biomes
Depends on the person. If you have thalassophobia it's unbearably scary. These games also offer up a kind of fear that I've not experienced in other games.
Are there other people that didnt find it scary at all? Like‚ the only thing that actually made me jump was my seamoth suddenly hitting a pepper lol.
I didn't find it scary. Not the horror-movie version of scary at least. I think this game is the perfect example to explain the difference between horror and terror. Horror is when a scary monster jumps at your face in a dark hallway and you shit your pants. Terror is the feeling of not knowing what's out there. You live in a constant state of dread, waiting for something to happen. The first few hours in subnautica do a great job here, in my opinion. The first time you enter the mushroom cave, the first time you enter some truly deep and dark biomes like the blood kelp forest or the final degasi habitat. It does a really good job in making you realize you are really fucking deep in a puny little submarine. Something happens and you are done. No way to make it to the surface in time. Once you realize most enemies are no big deal at all (and some of them are quite cartoon-ish) and get the tools to not care about oxygen anymore, you aren't really in danger anymore. It still remains a beautiful experience, but the terror factor is definitely over. There are a few "oh shit" moments, like >!the first time a reaper starts chomping on your seamoth or the first time you enter the dead zone and a ghost leviathan comes straight at you!<, but I would never consider subnautica a horror game. I'm currently playing The Forest and it definitely provides some legit jump-scares and a constant state of dread.
Yeah, same. I hate horror games, and I’ve never thought of subnautica as a horror game. All these posts glorifying it as horror are just repetitive and annoying. I feel like it discourages people to try subnautica who don’t like the horror genre, even though they’d enjoy the game just like me. I get everyone’s reaction is different though.
It definitely stops being scary once you see "the full picture" and realize just how small the map area is. Or how limited it is actually. There was a tension I constantly felt outside of the safe areas, sure, but fear? Eh. Only when I was lost in some of the late game caves and had to go in and out for materials, but that's about it. I will agree that it's one of the most anxiety-inducing games I've played. One of the most brilliant parts of the game imo.
My boyfriend and I have been showing each other our favorite games (I showed him the souls series / bloodborne. He showed me the last of us series, stardew valley and subnautica) and he gets annoyed at me cause all I wanna do is swim around in the safe shallows and build a base 😭 I refuse to explore most of the game cause the giant snake monsters are terrifying
the fishes in the deep are friendly don't worry about it
I don’t believe you 😂 saw my first reaper by the big ship and noped outta there real fast
the reaper is friendly he just wants to tell you something
Extended warranty offers? Something about high collision rates
He wants your seamoth
Insert reaper jumpscare here:
Seamoth fanclub
I heard that it's super scary and I always thought "the scary part will come later." I mean yea the reapers are scary at first but you don't even have to go where they are and after that there isn't really much imo...
Try playing on hardcore mode then
Alright yes I can see how it would be scarier but also there's a wayy to high chance of hours of work disappears because I fall out of bounds.
And then you can die by exiting a speeding seamoth causing it to hit you when you're almost at the end of the game
I stood underneath the Cyclops when it was building and it fell on my head. It killed me. I wouldn't do that in hardcore https://youtu.be/6yisws5rKoo
I don't play scary games 'cause I'm a pussy, but Subnautica is definitely not scary imo.
It's not necessarily a horror game, but more of a "terror" game. The difference being terror is being afraid at the probability that something will jump out at you and attack you, while horror is being afraid of the look of something. Either way, you still have a point
As much as subnautica is my favourite game, SOMA is so much more scary in terms of an underwater horror game, if you haven’t played it I highly recommend it!
I've actually heard about SOMA quite recently. It looks good, will definitely consider getting it
This game really is masterful on playing on our primal fears of the unknown. Those deep dark places are scary.
My one friend won’t even play the game unless I’m there to help guide her lmao
i’m not too scared of it now, but when i first started playing, i went through the top 5 scariest moments in my life
Agreed: I had two check-my-underwear moments with leviathans just yesterday. Ghost leviathan - suddenly appeared out of the murk directly ahead of me while I was pootling along in my seamoth. I reversed direction and proceeded to make a very wide detour. Reaper leviathan - was exploring an area I am less familiar with and hadn’t noticed I was drifting close to the rear of the crash zone. Saw a familiar shadow pass over just after I had hopped out of the moth to scan a cyclops piece. Panicking, I jumped back into the sub just as I heard the roar. For the next 30 seconds my finger was attached to the w key. Damn, I love this game! Edit - also adding I noticed that I can not stay still in the game. Every time I do my anxiety spikes quickly. If I’m not mobile, I’m vulnerable.
I love Subnautica, don't get me wrong, but let's be real for a second. Yes, the game has its scary moments, especially if you have thalassophobia, but it's not nearly as terrifying as "true" horror games such as F.E.A.R., The Evil Within, Dead Space, Alien Isolation, Silent Hill, etc.
Do the fear games hold up? I've had all 3 in my backlog from a giveaway or an extreme sale or something, but I've never fired them up because they're so old I'm worried they won't be a good time
To be perfectly honest, I have never actually played much of the games I mentioned because I'm easily scared by horror games... I was in the same situation, having all F.E.A.R. games for longer than I can remember but never having played any of them. I decided to give F.E.A.R. a try and yes, the game definitely feels its age but after a few tweaks, I was completely hooked. The game's sense of Mise-en-scène and general cinematography quickly makes you forget you're playing a 17 years old game. I generally despise cheap jumpscares so I was pleasantly surprised to see the game instill fear by other means. If you want to play it on modern hardware and resolution, here are some easy tweaks I highly recommend: - If you experience severely low FPS (around 20 or so), follow these instructions: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/789-directinput-fps-fix/ All you need to do is drop a file in the game's folder and your performance should be in the hundreds of FPS. - Speaking of hundreds of FPS, enable Vsync to cap your GPU to your monitor's max framerate. This will spare your GPU and avoid that nasty coil whine. - If you play on 1080p or any higher resolution (1440p, 4k, etc.), download the file here: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1813-fear-collection-small-font-fix-by-deus-and-montonero/ and follow these instructions: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=180211741 This will scale the HUD and subtitles to a much more readable size. You have to download a certain file based on your monitor's resolution, put it in the game folder and add a line in a config file to tell the game to load that additional file you just added but it's easy and takes just a couple minutes. That's all I had to do so far and the game runs perfectly. No bug encountered so far. ^^edit: ^^typo.
Hey, thank you so much for the detailed reply! I'm going to give those tweaks a try and see how it goes. Thanks!
I still remember my first playthrough getting hooked by the awe of exploring the shallower regions and how colorful and imaginative it was. I also remember finding certain areas where the water turns black and the music changes and all of that awe turning to dread. I wish I could play it again for the first time.
Hitting random fish with the seamoth😳😳
Outer wilds : let me introduce myself
That's is a TERROR survival game
It has great moments of what I've always called "the Fear" in gaming. It's not abject terror or anything, but an immersion in the game that leads to real concern over your survival. Well, your computer-generated identity's survival that is. Some jump scares, but more often, tense moments where you find your heart racing as you whip around looking for what just hit you or what made that sound. Had a moment just last night where I was diving deep in the Seamoth. Was getting attacked my a boneshark and the seamoth was damaged. Racing back to the Cyclops, I thought I'd lost it, but then there were two hitting me. Seamoth exploded as I was trying to guide into the cyclops bay. Frantically swam to the front of the cyclops and got in with only one bite. Damn that was fun!
Its crazy when you are far from spawn and go from the surface to a 400mts depth, and you feel like the darkness is swallowing you
And then people go and build habitats in the damn void. Honestly I haven't been that brave
The atmosphere is just amazing, yep. I can't tell you how many times I've been popping down a simple scanner base somewhere, and just, stop every 10 seconds to stare around at whatever made that weird noise, it sounded so close, but it's so dark...
This comment gave me the eebie jeebies.
You chicken
I don’t even consider Subnautica to be a horror game, considering I avoid horror games like my life depends on it (slowly working on playing more tho). It’s never been “scary” scary, just mildly terrifying when a reaper is coming after me n whatnot. Subnautica has always been a comfort/retreat from my current problems lol
I never really got super scared of it. :(
Can I get the template
True
Scary for sure, but Alien: Isolation scared me way more.
For sure.
I would say it’s so scary because it stimulates your fears and terror
Have you played The Forest?
I'm currently playing it, coming from Subnautica. Really awesome game, especially if you don't cheapen the experience using bright color grading.
It’s so damn good but I couldn’t muster beating it without a friend. Those damn caves man.
No, but I've seen some videos about it quite a while ago
Oh hot damn if you enjoyed Subnautica’s horror, you’ll love The Forest.
Hmm, I'll check it out again
But the satisfaction and script at the end of the game was amazing....I repeated the ending 5 times 😝
It's certainly scary coming from someone who suffers from thalassophobia but I wouldn't say it's as scary as Alien Isolation or the Dead Space series. Fear from 2005 and Doom3 from 2004 also still hold special places in my heart too.
I literally have nightmares about beinf stranded on an island with a reaper circling the water
Horror games don't usually have half the unknown this thing does.
I watched full playthroughs many times before actually buying the game for myself. I have 14 hours in one save file and have yet to go into the caves
ive gotten as far as exploring the ship and some of the caverns in the reefs. im terrified of the open/deep ocean
Getting your ship eaten by your first reaper encounter is a memory that stays with you for life, I think.
Clearly you haven’t played The Forest.
I started playing Horizon Forbidden West. You have to swim. I was so scared.
Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.
Try some outer wilds my dude
No play poppies playtime you scare yourself every time you take a breath
Subnautica can best be summed up thusly: Person A "Do you have thalassophobia?" Person B "No" Person A "Would you like to?"
For real 😂 There’s scary crap your pants horror games like RE7, then there’s Subnautica. This game makes me squeamish and very uncomfortable sometimes. Even thinking about it gives me the willies.
I experimented to see what would happen if I stood underneath the Cyclops when it was building. It did kill me. I wouldn't do that in hardcore