What The Hell Went Wrong with Subnautica Below Zero?

What did you think of Subnautica Below Zero?

Developers should stop trying to change the game theres no problem with subnautica love the style just want more of it

below zero felt like subnatica but worse. i feel like if they went more into the Antarctica aspect and made it able to stand on its own without subnatica with out relying on subnatica then it wouldve been way better

Oh also don’t forget that the frozen leviathan being infected doesn’t make any since as it’s explains that leviathans can’t be infected because they produce their own Enzyme 42 which is why you can’t find any infected leviathan in Subnautica 1 along with how Marguerit survived the Kharaa Virus in the first place.

People who built a land base in Subnautica. Wtf are you doing...

My main gripe with this game is that they called it a DLC and then charged the same price as the original game. If it's the same price, I'm expecting the same amount and quality of content.

2 years…just put the sea truck in the first game 😭 problem solved 😂❤❤❤ love the vid ❄️🩵

You say if it had come out before the original that we’d say it was good, but that wouldn’t have fixed the bad writing, acting, and story. A bad game is a bad game.

I feel like alan shoulda been in the polar cap, and therefor if bz was a dlc that woulda made sense. Plus phasegate, they coulda used void as a protection in and of itself for the facility alan is in to be like a library.

Oh maan. Below zero sucks in some many ways - and all unnecessary! The character constantly talking to herself and others - takes you out of the experience. It ruins the immersion of a survival game. The feeling of being scared and helpless at the beginning in Subnautica , barely surviving, fighting for breath and food and water. Being scared of every shadow and movement in the water (I was since my first random mapping escapades were to to Dunes and back of the Aurora - was terrified of exploring for a log time!). Then through understanding the world, exploring and technology - you go to hell, punch a dragon a right a wrong done by a more advanced race ages ago. The conquering your fears and sense of achievement in Subnautica is amazing. No such thing in BZ. You cannot put yourself in the character and she is not you. Second and major thing that ruined BZ for me - is the glacial basin. Whoever designed that Biome deserves a special level in hell. Boring, slow, repetitive and I got lost there over and over while having a map. Almost quit the game 2 times. Some of the mechanics and obstacles are artificial (I know all are in a game) - like the hydraulic fluid, hiding from the weather, having to have the snowfox with jump or the penguin and so on. You don't have the sense of achievement (as you did when getting depth upgrades and exploring new bioms) - just tedium and irritation. You don't progress because you understand the world (like you cannot cut the fur of dead snowstalker with you knife, you have to have the penguin?). For me it stopped the immersion, it's clearly a fixed mechanic, you go into the mindset I have to beat this level to beat the game. Super Mario Bros has more immersion. The game is artificially hard by making arbitrary obstacles with fixed mechanics - it's not hard. It's annoying. And the third thing is the seatruck. Clunky, slow and worst of all - soooo little storage space in the so called storage module. Calling it a mobile base is an insult. Especially for players who experienced the 'I am the king of sea!' moment of building their first Cyclops. The entering and exiting mechanics made me die a few times in tight situations. I get the idea - but it was mishandled. It didn't make the game easier or harder - just more annoying.
The story isn't a story. Both Alan's and Sam's story can be summed up in one sentence. There is no twist, there is no connection, no deeper meaning. I don't know about others - but I was sad leaving the sea emperors tank, happy to see his children swim around. I felt really ambivalent about leaving the planet and the sea emperors farewell really hit something.
On the plus side - I liked some biomes and some creatures. The feeling of exploration and going deeper - was there from time to time. But none of the creatures and biomes were truly horrifying - like in Subnautica. The monsters don't inspire awe - just another obstacle to go around.
I don't know how to describe it better. Everywhere I went and everything I did - I didn't see a world that inspired awe, wonder, terror. I saw a game. And annoying game decisions that created obstacles for me to beat.

Below Zero is the Dark Souls 2 of survival games. Better than the vast majority of its competition, infinity worse than the other game (hopefully games) in the series.

Deepness, that was the thing that made me love and hate in a good way the original game. There is not a single place in that game where I can’t see the bottom. I remember my first time crossing the cliff to the sparse reef and the sheer terror overwhelmed me. That was the magic of the first game. Subnautica below zero is more vibrant and pretty in certain areas but the deepness was what made me fear the first

I actually am kind of glad this game was kind of mid and received a bit of negative feedback, hopefully they will make the next in the franchise align with the criticism and they will make banging Subnautica 2

dissapointing that subnautica 2 ain't subnautica above 100

I think they had a solid idea for a DLC and someone came in and said NO! Subnautica 1.5!

The problem being is that the world was built for a small DLC. Not a full sized game.

And changing the script to fit this new narrative without actually thinking about it also probably ruined it.

It's a classic case of something being a bad sequel but being really good on its own

Eh, I can see why someone wouldn't like the game. I personally thought it was great.

Despite taking place in a frozen region of the world, Subnautica Below Zero really doesn't do that much to create the sense of dread around being in a frozen hellscape. It's all too easy to work around the parts of the game where the temperature is a problem, so it doesn't feel omnipresent the way the fear of drowning or of the unknown depths is. It's no Frostpunk.

Bro when I heard they wanted to harvest the fucking virus my reaction god damnit we just fixed it

The only real thing i didnt like was the new pda and the seatruck

I too beat the game till the "to be continued" point as it was in the development. Imagine the frustration of coming to the castle in the lava caves, and the door being closed. These caves were also less well lit, it was such a hustle to traverse them, very frustrating.

I honestly dug the sea truck, I really liked the aquarium add on that gathered fish, making feeding yourself away from the base super easy, I also liked that I could pull a few levers and make a super lean version with the prawn on the back allowing me to easily make my way into the depths and then transition seamlessly to the prawn, something that the cyclops couldn't do. I thought it was okay, but I'm a low maintenance gamer.

@10.20 you earned a like on the video :D

DEI ruined it

5 years on from release, I will still defend Below Zero.

People compare it to SN1 as it's the same universe, not realising that BZ is a different type of game. It has a few of the elements that SN1 did, but it's a more story-driven, smaller game. That's why it feels so bad - we're comparing it to something entirely different.

It's also by no means a bad game. I personally very much enjoyed my first playthrough.

tbh, below zero should have stayed as DLC, also doesnt help they decided to give the story a dull 180 over halfway through development

After returning to Subnautica to nab the last few steam achievements on it, I also went back to Below Zero. The progression of fragments feels janky and painful compared to the original. Every piece of equipment feels like it needs one more scan than is available, and it dumps beacons on you that never helps you unlock recipes, if you can even reach them.

i think the issue is that in below zero the character is prepared, isnt she?

Might be an old vid to talk about but honestly i preffered the original story beat where we are working with sam instead of her story of trying to learn about what happened to her. I like the concept of needing to send things up to her and all that

Would love to see a new game in the same worldspace but on a different planet and with different people. Like alterra is a thing still but aren't featured much and maybe there isn't any mention of the precursor race atall. Just survival on an alien world far out in space.

My biggest complaint with Below Zero is just how crowded the sea is and that we KNOW we’ll be fine if we find a way to call for help.

In subnautica, you have no way to call for help. Your radio can’t send out long distance calls due to the crash damaging it. Which, by proxy, means you can’t warn other people to stay away or to come prepared.
You’re able to find out that the mountain island station is a death trap before sunbeam arrives, and you should be able to tell them “Hey! Don’t get into the atmosphere, you’ll get killed!” But you can’t. You have no way to communicate, and the best you can do is stand there in salute as they fly towards their death at the hands of alien technology.

Every chance you see/hear of at rescue or of company is gone. Survivors? None, they all died before you even woke up in your lifepod. All to their own stupidity, Alterra’s terrible technology, or just sheer bad luck. Rescue? Heh, what a nice thought. No, it’s down to you and you alone. You’re the only human on this planet, and the only other voice you ever hear that isn’t from a dead thing is your PDA.

The other, bigger thing is that the ocean feels empty. Large, gaping depths of nothing is my biggest fear when it comes to the ocean. A coral reef, a winding cave tunnel, or an underwater volcano feels safer because I can see the ground, the walls, or just something I can touch. So when I have to swim down a couple hundred meters to get to something and all I see is water, (like a life pod) it’s nerve wracking. I don’t know what’s down there, What’s around me, how close the ground is, anything. I don’t know if something is following me or if I’m entirely alone in the ocean. And that excites me, to be honest. It sells the feeling of hopelessness that the PDA really instills at the beginning of the game.

Below zero just has none of that.
There’s a radio tower, there’s shelter everywhere. There’s people you could talk to, there’s always a way out. It’s not as hopeless, it’s just “I yeeted myself onto a planet.”
It’s an okay game, I’ll give it that, but it messed up astronomically on how it sold itself. I want the apprehension, Dang it!

Mostly everything said I could agree with, but the part where he said that the ending was "flat" is completely untrue in my opinion. The ending felt so surreal, and like a 4k movie, with amazing sounds and cinematics. After the ending I was left in shock for 5 minutes.

Weirdly, outside of the story i never minded below zero. I was spoiled very early on into subnauticas story development and only ever watched others play through it. I did eventually get it for free but i never touched it until i played through all of below zero. Many of the things i dislike about below zero now never even crossed my mind until actually playing through subnautica. Am hyped as hell for sub 2 tho

In my opinion the biggest reason they didn’t include something large like the cyclops is because the extremely small map, it would rarely fit anywhere and likely feel completely pointless

You didn’t understand a lot of the story and you got some things wrong

I cant agree with anything, i tought the game was scary asf and pretty pood

I really hated that they took away the story line where Robin got the cure from one of the hatched Sea Emperor's.

subnautica 2 announced lets goooo

i never found subnautica 1 scary in the first place so below zero was more of that. i even found the deepest parts of BZ scarier

the leviathans in below zero would be smaller to help manage the cold temperatures

Is it just me or did Aletho look at the pengling like bioreacter fuel

I defo think this game works better when looked at as more of an expansion pack from ye days of old than a sequel. It expands on things, sometimes in cool good ways, sometimes not so much but it was also made quicker and likely for less money and acts more as a content addition in practice.

With that being said as much as I enjoy story in video games the yapping in this game was too much, we didn't need the yapping.

If they cut the yapping, tidied up some areas and tied it a bit more into the original I'd say it would have been pretty well regarded.

As it stands what we got is FINE, I still enjoy it, I'm very much a seatruck enjoyer, but it could have been better.

Fingers crossed for 2

Maeda should be dead. The virus is cured. Seatruck is a complete piece of shit. Everything is slower by at least 15%. You will have a overwhelming amount of titanium. The pda is a scam caller that is barely understandable. The terrorist sisters are sooo annoying. Also the amount of wokeness is horrible 🤡🤮 do not buy this so called game.

The game was simplified to be more accessible. 90% of the time when this happens, the game turns to crap and typically does nothing to increase sales, especially for a less popular genre like this one.

And one thing I found odd is that I found an earlier version to have a better ocean. There isn’t enough open water to add a sense of size and lack of protection (places to hide) from danger(although there isn’t any lol). It’s like they just wanted to pack the entire ocean with random stuff.

Idk what the heck is your issue is the shadow leviathan is terrifying

Am I the only one who liked below zero way more? I was to scared to play the original, and the downscaling of scary fish in below zero actually makes the game playable. (For me)

you don't talk about spoilers while showing Chalicerate in the video lmao