Subnautica 2023 Review: My Underwater Survival Odyssey
Introduction
Subnautica first entered early access in 2014, later getting officially released in 2018. Since then, it has continued receiving love and care from its developers at Unknown Worlds, who keep nurturing this underwater survival gem with updates and improvements.
As we step into 2023, Subnautica remains one of the most refreshingly unique survival games you can dive into right now. This in-depth review aims to uncover why this indie darling still holds up strong and whether new players should take the plunge in 2023.
Visuals & Graphics: An Alien Ocean Brought to Life
Booting up Subnautica, even years later, fills me with childlike awe the moment my little escape pod splashes into the vibrant ocean of planet 4546B. Schools of exotic fish swim past the glass as rays of sunlight filter through swaying kelp forests. Venturing out, I discover fantastical biomes like blood-red mushroom forests, deep twisting cave systems, and a vast open inland sea teeming with life.
Powered by the Unity engine, Subnautica’s graphics convincingly depict this alien underwater setting through great use of color, lighting, and attention to detail in creature/environment design. My aging gaming rig did experience occasional texture pop-in issues, but for the most part, Subnautica’s visual splendor ran smooth.
From shimmering moon pools to hulking ancient skeletons, this game surrounds you in eye candy at every turn without the need for resource-intensive mods or RTX graphics cards.
Sounds & Music: Immerse Your Ears
Matching the visual spectacle is Subnautica’s phenomenal atmospheric audio. Gliding through kelp beds, you can hear swaying stalks creaking around you. In dark cave passages, creature roars echo ominously. Even back in my seabase, alarms beep, machinery hums, and glass corridors creek under the water pressure.
The ambient soundtrack dynamically switches between melodies, reacting to gameplay events like detecting new biomes or entering combat. Epic orchestral scores kick in when encountering leviathan class predators, amplified by your nervous heartbeat pounding in the background!
This reactive audio draws you deeper into the experience, blurring the line between game and captivating alien world. It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the sound design of iconic survival horror titles.
Gameplay & Mechanics: A Crafting Odyssey
Subnautica’s expansive crafting system lets you fabricate everything from basic survival tools to high-tech seabases, submarines, and mechanized exosuits. While more complex than traditional survival games, unraveling new blueprints proves incredibly rewarding.
The feeling when your new moonpool docking bay gets constructed piece by piece while dramatic music peaks in the background – it’s sheer bliss!
Most resources are hand-gathered through exploration, but some manufacturing components require setting up mineral extractors, solar panels, and power transmitters back at base. Managing hunger, thirst, and oxygen while traversing this massive ocean keeps you on your toes.
Rather than combat, Subnautica emphasizes evasion from deadly leviathans, adding thrill and purpose to those high-tech submarines you work so hard constructing! Some creatures attack bases, meaning fortifications like defense turrets are needed later on.
Overall, Subnautica strikes a nice risk-reward balance where upgrading gear allows accessing previously deadly zones, mirroring progression in classic Metroid or Castlevania games.
Storyline & Lore: Mysteries of the Deep
Delivered through snippets of survivor logs, alienFacility logs, and radio messages, Subnautica’s narrative slowly reveals a haunting tale.
Why did our ship crash land here? What happened to the other survivors? Who are the Precursors that inhabited this planet long ago and what clues exist about their fate? Like piecing together a fragmented artifact, uncovering the backstory becomes an engaging meta-game threaded through your aquatic adventures.
Some lore bits are found in hidden underground complexes and derelict ruins, rewarding wayfaring divers with snippets advancing the plot. Epic set-pieces like activating an alien portal device after powering up an intricate ancient network also contribute to that sense of unfolding mystery.
For a genre not typically known for storytelling, Subnautica’s narrative hooks sunk their teeth in deep for me!
Optimization & Performance
Given the scale of its ocean environment, Subnautica performs admirably well even on mid-range PCs. My system with a GTX 1060, 16GB RAM, SSD, and Core i5 CPU maintained smooth 60 FPS gameplay at 1080p resolution most of the time. Only in dense kelp forests with tons of vegetation did some stuttering occur.
From patches, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S console versions also received optimizations like improved loading times. However, be warned that last-gen base consoles really struggle with this game’s demands, suffering subpar FPS. Stick to PC or new-gen consoles for the best Subnautica performance currently.
Mod Support: Expanding the Ocean Floor
While the base Subnautica experience already delivers 100+ hours worth of content, the active mod community has developed over 5400 workshop items that enhance replay value! From cosmetic reskins and decorations to gameplay tweaks and new vehicles/gear, you can tailor the adventure to your liking.
Massive total conversion mods like Subnautica: Below Zero (set in an arctic region) or the Aquatica Life mod (introducing tamable sea life) essentially add expansions worth of stuff! If you enjoy tweaking games, Subnautica supports modding out of the box.
Compared to Other Survival Games
The survival genre has certainly seen some saturation over the years with many titles blending together. Subnautica stands out by fully committing to its underwater theme in all gameplay and world-building elements.
Ceres Station in Adrift and the planet from No Man’s Sky have floating islands and underground caves with air pockets – Subnautica forces you to adapt through submarines, oxygen tanks, and seabases. Crafting focuses more heavily on sea-faring tech over usual tools like pickaxes or bows too.
The idea of an alien ocean inspires unique aspects like raising captive sea creatures in Alien Containment tanks or cultivating edible plants via exterior growbeds mounted to bases. Levelling progression also maintains purpose – you upgrade to dive exponentially deeper, not just arbitrarily strengthen stats.
While the intimidating setting drives some people away, embracing thalassophobia allows you to discover one of gaming’s most emotive worlds where wonder and terror go hand-in-hand!
Verdict: Take the Plunge in 2023!
Even years since early access, Subnautica remains a genre standout for delivering such a creative, feature-rich survival sandbox full of possibilities. Exploring this ecclectic water world never gets old over multiple playthroughs thanks to diverse biomes, a compelling backstory, and massively flexible crafting mechanics.
A few texture glitches mar an otherwise beautiful alien setting and some dated UI elements could still see improvement. Nonetheless, Subnautica clearly earns its Overwhelmingly Positive review score on Steam through nailing the key things that matter.
So if you enjoy ambitious indie games, favor exotic settings, or just want a change of pace from crowded survival game market – I wholeheartedly recommend playing Subnautica in 2023! Just be sure to squeeze in a beach trip afterwards to decompress from all that underwater tension.
Let me know your own Subnautica adventures in the comments below!