Gone are the nippy Seamoth and lumbering Cyclops from Subnautica in Below Zero, these are both replaced with the Seatruck, the little submersible train that could, which you can create individual modules for. These persistent issues aren’t that troublesome as the world is smaller this time around, but they introduce the same listless wandering that plagued Subnautica.Īs you’re scurrying to-and-fro to complete objectives, you’ll also want to build a vehicle for getting around. Similarly, progressing past some points will need you to have read or listened to the correct lore entry, or oriented yourself based on a static map to know where to go next. You nearly always need three fragments of a wrecked object to complete a research project, and they are not always easy to find. Both methods steer you towards hard and fast objectives, but like Subnautica, progress is often locked behind researching certain tools or vehicles or items. Already early on, Robin stumbles across the grizzled, cantankerous survivor Marguerit Maida (Lorelei King), and soon after ends up sharing her mind with the digital consciousness of one of the Architects, Al-An (Matthew Marsh).īoth characters give Below Zero a sense of narrative propulsion as well as literal direction: Al-an puts specific waypoints on your HUD, whilst Marguerit will give you instructions in relation to your location. This can be seen in how Below Zero focuses on cutting down the size of the world to expand on its narrative. Having a fully voiced protagonist, with an actual goal beyond survival, makes Below Zero a leaner experience than the original. A collision with a meteorite causes her to crash land in the arctic circle, thrusting you into the same loop of exploring for materials, information on PDAs, all whilst building structures and equipment to furnish deeper excursions, just like Ryley did in the previous game. Brooks) is on a mission to find her sister Sam, who had taken a job for super-capitalist tech conglomerate Alterra on planet 4546b. Protagonist Robin Ayou (voiced by Kimberly D.

Thankfully, my hesitations and doubts were mostly unfounded.īelow Zero’s setup is slightly different to the original. Early Access had given Unknown Worlds time to hone and refine the expansive world of Subnautica, and I was worried that a smaller amount of development time would get in the way. That said, it was with some hesitation that I booted up the new standalone campaign, Below Zero, because replicating the mood and runaway success of Subnautica is a big ask for any developer. Unsurprisingly I did love it, bar the frustrating lack of direction and end-game resource grind that sapped a lot of fun out of the last hour or two. The stage was well set for me to love Unknown Worlds’ Subnautica despite it being a survival game, one of my least favourite genres to come out from the last decade.

Subnautica game progress route