Subnautica Below Zero – Preview

by Willemijn Grothe

SPLASH! Into the chilly deep we go! Subnautica Below Zero is the sequel to Subnautica, where you play as Robin who goes behind the backs of the giant corporation Alterra to explore the water-based alien planet 4546B.

It plays out after Ryley crash-landed on the planet by getting his ship, the Aurora (property of Alterra), shot down by the planets quarantine defence. The Precursor Race that came to the planet a long time before our two main protagonists through these two games were born came to the planet bringing a decease called the Kharaa that will kill the infected within a few weeks.

The Precursors build bases all around the planet to help find a cure, the planet was put under quarantine and a laser was built to keep visitors away from the planet.

Fast forward the first game’s protagonist falls down to the planet, explores and finds the cure for the disease and cures the planet.

Fast forward an unknown amount of time later and Alterra comes to the planet to study the alien planet and the bases that were built by the Precursors. But there are shady practices going on and the protagonist of Below Zero Robin will find out what it is!

Subnautica Below Zero is an early access game developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. The game is in the heavy story editing part of development. Right now, a big part of the story is getting changed and all the voice lines are getting changed and are not implemented yet. Certain information and models have not been added yet. But the game is fully explorable at your own pace and see the beautiful and terrifying underwater world!

Build your base and maybe meet a strange friend in the icy watery deeps. 😉 Beware to go above water though! You can freeze to death and you’ll never know what lurks below the snow and ice… As Subnautica Below Zero is an early access game, I cannot really say what it needs to add or how it can be improved because it’s not fully released yet. But I can always say what my hopes are for this underwater adventure!

Compared to the first game it seems like a lot is going to be above water as well. You can actually freeze to death, which will be very interesting when all is fully implemented!

I really hope the underwater world will be bigger though. The first game was so much bigger underwater but smaller above water. But I enjoyed going into the deeps seeing how deep you can go into the inactive volcano!

So, my hopes are that there will be a big underwater map and a cool above water adventure too! One of the best parts of the game for me is that it actually feels like you are underwater. I don’t feel like I am “clipping” in an empty space, it actually feels like you are swimming through the cold water of the planet.

Another great thing is the atmosphere. You can be amazed at how beautiful the underwater world is or be absolutely terrified of the dark depts where you can’t see what is in front, behind or lurking around the corner.

Some cons for me is that sometimes when you go above water, the game will lag for a short bit. The first game also had this problem so I hope they’ll fix that for this game.

Your vehicle gets stuck underneath the ocean floor and sometimes when you jump into the waters the swim animation doesn’t trigger and you sink to the bottom and can walk on the ocean floor as if you were on land. But as it still is in early access all of that will probably be fixed!

Altogether I would recommend the game! I do recommend to start with the first one for the lore sake! I am really excited for the fully released game and see what there will be to see in this amazing chilling alien game!