Review for Subnautica. Game for Oculus Rift (VR), PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 23/01/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 04/12/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 04/12/2018
To survive. Don't live. In Subnautica you have to survive. And even if said so, brutally, it may turn out to be nothing more than a word, survival in this game developed by the guys at Unknown Worlds Entertainment is more than just a term.
We have seen a lot of survival video games therefore we would be lying if we said that Subnautica brings real and tangible novelties within such an inflated genre. The similarity with other titles of this genre is great (sometimes too much), to pretend that everything is unpublished. Yet the most convincing part of this title lies not in its mechanics well tested by others, but in its premises. In an interview that the developers kindly granted us it turned out that this was supposed to be a video game space theme but then things changed in the course of construction and everything was transformed. And mind you: it is from these aspects that you can see if a developer is good or not. In his ability to reverse course without making a clean sweep lies courage, experimentation and flexibility.
In any case, our adventure begins with a powerful spaceship Alterra (a space company that has taken on the task of transporting several scientists who knows where) that crashes for a serious failure on a mysterious planet completely covered by ocean waters. Our protagonist launches with one of the many rescue shells e it floats a short distance from the wreck of the mother ship. From this point on, it's all survival.
The on-board computer gives the player the first indication of what his chances of staying alive for a long time are. Very comforting. Great was the wonder when we first dived into this wonderful underwater world. Alien fish of all shapes and colors have begun to approach curiously or run away as far as possible to avoid being studied. Everything is to be discovered and everything must be given a name, but the wonder does not last long: the player soon realizes that even if the underwater world is extremely colorful, the indicators of hunger and thirst drop dramatically. In this way an adventure begins that can be as exciting as it is anxious.
Luckily finding the first elements necessary for survival is not difficult but at a certain point in the plot you will notice that to take the next step you need a lot more effort. We can say that the difficulty is not exactly gradual, it is not a smooth climb but a long staircase. There are those who at some point, after a discovery we do not want to spoil anything about, may decide to "settle down" and survive rather easily and those who want to go through with it. In the true sense of the word.
Graphically, Subnautica has many advantages for what concerns the models but it must also be said that these are very few. The creatures that we will meet in the abyss can be counted on the fingers of our hands, at most we can borrow a hand from a friend and we must also report some textures left a little adrift in many cases. On the other hand, the realization of the submarine housing modules is very good: nice, efficient and very similar to those of No Man's Sky. But basically we said it at the beginning: Subnautica doesn't add anything to the genre. Great attention has been paid to crafting, which is fast, intuitive, never banal.
The battle, however, this title wins on the well-made atmosphere and the right amount of fear of the unknown that grabs the player from the early stages. Going very deep will bring with it many qualms, we assure you, also thanks to a well-made soundtrack which, however, is often lost in a glass of water, dulling a little too much in the quiet phases without entertaining the player.
As for longevity, well, it's not easy to judge. Subnautica features four different game modes with three survival difficulty levels and a free mode. We advise you not to launch this mode: you would immediately lose interest in the game and leave it moldy in a corner.
Ultimately Subnautica certainly has more strengths than defects. It is a small game with small winning insights, well done but which unfortunately does not dare more and does not go beyond the rather easy task of making a survival game.
► Subnautica is a Survival type game developed and published by Unknown Worlds Entertainment for Oculus Rift (VR), PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 23/01/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 04/12/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 04/12/2018
