Is Subnautica: Below Zero Better Or Worse Than The Original?

After years of anticipation, Below Zero finally came out of Early Access. We all know how massively successful the original Subnautica was - so what's the new one like? Can it possibly hold up to the high standards of the first? Let's find out!

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:55 Art
01:52 Music
02:57 Gameplay
04:04 Vehicles
05:32 Dry Land
06:25 Level Design
07:22 Horror
08:57 Bugs
09:18 Story (Spoilers)
11:26 Conclusion

[DeathsHood]

One of my least favorite things about Below Zero (other than lack of horror and smaller map) was the incredibly loud, but not dangerous, fauna.
Cryptosuchus just isn't dangerous enough to warrant that kind of sound.

It _did_ get me thinking, though: If they ever make a 3rd subnautica, they should add a small, innocuous-looking fish (maybe like the noot-fish) that can mimic the sound of leviathans living in the area.

Imagine being 800m down, navigating a murky, open cave, when suddenly *Reaper noises!* from the nothingness.

And then a little fish swims by, roaring at you, lol.

[gabrielpasquino]

one of the worst changed imo was making the seatruck be able to go all the way down to the deepest areas. In the first game, you have to take the prawn (or cyclops) to go that deep, and it makes it feel terrifying; I took the prawn, and the feeling of stomping through the lava zone with a sea dragon chasing you makes you really feel immersed in the environment, like there's stakes. In this game, you can take your cozy little seatruck all the way down, and if any creatures come close, just zap them with the anti-monster mod. I felt safe the whole time, like nothing could harm me, and the end game areas didn't feel nearly as impactful because of it.

[IAmNumber]

The bummer about BZ is, IMO, the lack of scale. Part of what made the original Subnautica so great was those drop-off areas that make you go “Oh shit. I do not like that.”

But then you get the cyclops, and navigating it down through the Lost River tunnels to the Lava Zone is one of the most memorable experiences in gaming. The Sea Truck just does not do it for me sadly.

[CasperCross_]

4:11 I personally like how clunky and slow the cyclops was. That was the trade off for the transportation and inventory it could provide. It made you feel vulnerable, that plus the low amount of visibility you had. Made transporting it through the lost river incredibly tense and immersive. The Sea truck with its full degrees of rotation, and speed completely removes the fear factor that made the first game so great.

[omaba]

I actually really liked the clunky nature of the cyclops and paired with the cameras it was fun to navigate.

[Nopunsforyou]

The original game really gives you that sense of loneliness. You’re the only survivor and you have to build and work toward everything yourself. In below zero, everything just feels so guided and you really lose that horror and lonely element the original was praised for.

[anarchyplus]

The cyclops is one of my most memorable moments in all of gaming, cant believe they removed it and didn't replace it with some new massive late game vehicle. Seatruck replaced the seamoth and i can mostly accept that but it definitely doesn't make up for losing BOTH. Why couldn't they just let you build all of them?

[LotusBoi]

I was an absolutely massive fangirl of the Cyclops. To the point where I'd only build the most bare-bones of bases, really only to store supplies, while I worked on unlocking my Cyclops and then getting it built up into a mobile base. Even in a completely vanilla playthrough, I'd rather park above some lava and work on organizing my inventories rather than surface and plug all my spare power cells into my base to recharge them. I'd even cycle power cells through my Prawn Suit standing on some lava in an effort to avoid returning "home", just because the Cyclops WAS my home.

And none of that joy I could ever get out of the Sea Truck. Sure, it was kinda cool, certainly more maneuverable, and was a sufficient stopgap between bases, but that's all it ever was. Like trying to live out of a pickup truck instead of a proper RV.

[hellocommaspacebitch]

The creepy atmosphere was definitely lacking. I think this was a very important part of the first game

[gabrielpasquino]

You touched on what I thought was one of the biggest weaknesses of the game, which is the final areas don't feel nearly as impactful. The Lost River area from the first game is both bone chilling and gorgeous, it feels truly otherworldly; there's nothing in this game that really matches that.

[amanofnoreputation]

That "dead space" from the first game is actually very critical because an implicit feature of an exploration game's atmosphere is how long it takes to get from place to place. The faster you can get around, the smaller the map feels, so improvements to the player's mobility have to be weighed against the scale of the map: the more accessible mobility is, the larger the map should be to compensate.

Teleportation is a very powerful ability to reward the player with, but it is best applied to locations the player has already been to so that they can benefit from the convenience without losing out on the feeling of discovery.

What might seem like a waste of time is actually part of the core experience and is therefore not a waste at all. _Shadow of the Colossus_ applied this to great effect and _Breath of The Wild_ would appear to have drawn upon the same principles outlined here.

[josephtherusher]

To me the thing that really made me sad was the lacking of hostile fauna. In almost every zone there were the same hostile creatures. Especially the Bruteshark and the Squidshark they were everywhere and it really destroyed the feeling of a diverse ecosystem that the developers tried to create.

[Nadiki]

My biggest complaint about Below Zero is that the aquatic leviathans aren’t scary at all. They’re more annoying than anything. They’re not very numerous, the small spaces allow you to hide from them easily, and they’re not super aggressive. Plus the game literally gives you a seatruck perimeter defense upgrade in the middle of the game, which makes leviathan attacks a joke.

The only thing that managed to recreate as much fear as the Reaper Leviathans were the Ice Worms. They were unstoppable, super aggressive, and you couldn’t see them most of the time, just hear them. They did an excellent job with those.

[typervader]

I think below zero wasn't trying to be the lone survivor horror type of feel. It wants to be something different instead of trending the same ground to me

[classypeanuts]

Long rant you have been warned:
Everyone discusses how the game just cuts off the loneliness factor, which I completely agree with. BZ is very lacking in that sense of "no one is here with me I'm on my own" and having a real tangible threat. No one so far has mentioned the sense of mystery present in the first game though. By this what I mean is you needed to figure out the story for yourself in a way. Yes, there were clues given by the pda, but they weren't exactly clues about specifically what to do. You were given more context as to why you were there throughout the game, why the Arora crashed, why you yourself are infected with this unknown disease, and you have to make your way down to the emperor navigating (for the most part) by yourself. No talking ai, no companions or people talking every 5 seconds, just you and whatever vehicle you may have plunging yourself deeper into this unknown world. You can piece the story together yourself, using your intuition and sense of exploration to figure it out. All the while there are constant threats that you have to worry about, along with an interesting mysterious story, there's a huge sense of dread that drives you forward. Below Zero kind of just.. removed that. You're told exactly what to do, the story is revealed to you about 10 minutes into the game, and you're usually in a completely safe little bubble omce you have a seatruck. With your friendly resident al-an telling you where to go and what to do, there's really no mystery, need, or even want to piece together the whole story.
Of course everyone has a different opinion on the game and that's perfectly valid, this is just my take after all.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk

[magicman]

The cyclops is my favorite thing about subnautica, having a big mobile base is my absolute favorite thing in games. Driving the slow sub deeper and deeper, parking it in a safe location and then taking the prawn suit or seamoth to collect resources, then parking back to recharge, unload, and then head back out again. It is still my favorite thing to do in subnautica, i barely built any actual bases in my runs. I was super disappointed with the seatruck, it doesn't have that mobile base feel. The cyclops felt like a RV adventure while the seatruck is more like car.

[grimms]

Below Zero's biggest shortfall was its scope. The scope of the first game felt incredibly vast, like an entire world was stretched out before you, and you had to figure out where to go and why. Comparatively, below zero feels almost tiny. The world is hugely condensed, not to mention not nearly as deep. As a result, the sense of horrified wonder is lost. At no point during my time in below zero did I get hit by a feeling of awe like my first time finding the grand reef, or entering the inactive lava zone. Closest I came was the vent garden, but once you realize that its a one and done, that there is only a single one of these creatures instead of it being a big important fauna that would be seen across the whole biome, the wonder wears off.

Another issue rises from the condensed size of below zero: the impact of disvovery is greatly lessened. The long stretches of mostly empty space in the original were such a boon to the excitement that came with exploration. Those stretches of nothing made every wreck, interesting landmark, biome transition or crashed lifepod feel so meaningfull, important. But therr are next to no empty expanses of space in below zero. Every biome is full of twisted complex caverns, so bristiling with stimuli that it at times gets overwhelming. Its like the desingers were afraid that if there wasnt something catching our attention every 30 seconds, we'd loose interest and stop playing

[ninjapumpkin]

Below Zero out of early access feels like a DLC honestly. Not on the same level as the OG at all. They also toned down most of what made the OG so good like the mystery, size, and spook factor. And also the focus on underwater.

[rosewaters]

The original being so dark at night and with varied green/blue hues really gives a realistic sense. OST helps but the atmosphere already keeps you on your toes. Taking a long time to find certain resources adds to the feeling that you’re really on uncharted lands and as blind to where things are, just like the character you’re playing.

[Logidrake]

I could not stand the ground exploration in BZ. I really love how Subnautica has Biomes. There was a true sense of rizing in Subnautica. Alwaise going deeper. The true objective in Subnautica is not the story but just exploring, discovering. Your hole progression is trough the upgrades you need to keep going. In BZ, the whole map is basicly unlocked from the start. There is no progression wall since the map is small and there is no danger. In BZ, you just end up going from one progression point to the other