Subnautica: Below Zero Critique - A Misguided Sequel

A critique detailing the many problems I had with Subnautica: Below Zero.

I think Below Zero is both too different and too similar to it's predecessor - it rehashes many of it's ideas while also coming up with new systems that detract from the overall experience. I can't say I know which direction the franchise should go in, but I'm confident in saying that Below Zero is a misstep.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
02:22 - A Problematic Protagonist
06:46 - Unfocused Storytelling
17:38 - Examining Sector Zero
27:33 - Where Below Zero Failed to Improve
33:10 - 7.8/10 Too Much Land
40:41 - Conclusion

[aborikin]

Honeslty the thing that I miss the most about og game is the lonliness. It makes it so much scarier entering the blood kelp biome for example.

[pagatryx]

Finally. I remember voicing my problems with the story focused direction of this sequel (and its lack of content) all the way back when the game released. Yet everybody was singing its praises back then.

There's just too much constant dialogue that it gets in the way of the experience. I'm always amazed by how many game studios/developers fail to realise what made their original games successful. You'd think it was fairly obvious that Subnautica's success wasn't down to its story.

[Juan_V_Herrera]

Greetings, everyone. Following your idea on 6:05 timestamp, the silent protagonist, in my opinion, is what brings the feeling of immersion, as if you really were the person taking action in the game. The same thing occurred in Half-Life. It's like being the main character in a movie. Every time the protagonist in Below Zero open the mouth (or the voice actor, to be more precise) it takes away the immersion factor.

[Thedoctorr]

I feel like this is the first time I've found a channel this polished this young. If you can keep this quality up regularly this channel will be very successful. Good job

[celticdash]

Literally if they had just made the underwater biomes a lot bigger with more poi's like the original with all they had added I would have loved it even more. My favorite biome being the very last one the red crystal caverns it was utterly dissapointing to learn just how small it was and it being bigger and also having a portion like the Al an body part of the purple crystal caverns with the crystals everywhere I would have much further enjoyed it. The biomes are beautiful tho

[MrSpeedysam]

16:31 "He's the architect responsible for accidentally letting Kharaa out of containment in the first place. This intergalactic pandemic started because of his mistake..."

Incorrect. The intergalactic pandemic happened, Kharaa samples were sent to (among other places) 4546B, AL-AN miscalculated, 4546B is now infected and quarantined. He did not start the Kharaa pandemic. Although having reviewed the dialogue with AL-AN, Below Zero doesn't make it very clear.

[RastaRC]

I definitely agree with you on the land part, it was just pain moving through it. What saved it partially for me was the prawn suit. You can use its grapple hook to basically fly around the landscape, which isnt realistic at all, but at least was a little fun to do.

[AzureTheAvian]

Outer Wilds did log storytelling much better by having a mind map you could refer to at any point, and automatically updated with every discovery. Helps a ton.

[delivererofdarknessshoguno]

Funniest thing is that Sam didn't even have any evidence beyond watching the movie Aliens that Alterra was planning on militarizing the alien infection, she was just paranoid, decided to commit terrorism and accidentally killed herself, and if memory serves me right, someone else, while achieving absolutely nothing. Literally the most useless plot imaginable. Also this means that corporation wasn't hiding anything aboout Sam from MC as she did die due to her own incompetence.

[Hammerheadcruiser]

I heard a pretty good idea for the third game. Be the test pilot for a new deep sea prawn suit when your ship crashes, but unlike subnautica 1 where you end up in the nice cosy shallows, you end up stuck on the seafloor in the void. The game consisting of traveling between pockets of light and life, leaving trails of lights like breadcrumbs through the darkness between.

[danytalksmusic]

This might be the best critique on the game I've heard so far. I think you really hit on all the key issues that I experienced but couldn't quite put into words.

I personally only made it halfway through the game and felt guilty for not being compelled enough to finish it, but after watching this review and seeing how much worse the game gets towards the end, I'm actually relieved that I didn't waste any more time trying to complete this ludicrous story line.

[moonasha]

they strayed away from the formula, and the game suffered. I'd rather just replay 1 than ever play below zero.

[Phillibetrus]

What do you mean that finding Leviathans in Below zero is less common? I rarely ran into them in the first game and largely learned to avoid their zones. They are completely unavoidable in BZ and that killed all suspension.

[thunderdrone]

I just finished this game and went to look for a review and this is very well made, and I agree with almost every point you make. The first game was amazing that had a narrative that was not only mysterious but personable as well. This game however did feel more like a dlc than a full fledged sequel and the new ideas implemented like a more character driven story and the land sequences weren't very good. I do have to disagree on the character interactions with Robin and everyone else....I think ALAN was fine, curious but dismissive which makes sense considering his backstory. I believe its Robin who sucked as a character because I found her unnecessarily hostile to ALAN'S worldview. Her dialogue screamed arrogance and hypocrisy and I just found her overall annoying.

[maxxmason]

I think Sam was a simp for Margaret Marguerite anyways so she died trying to impress her

[unknownpack]

0:32 smooth transition, both in editing and commentary!!!

[km]

Agree 100%. I'm a bit late to the party as I've only recently picked the game up on Steam. Initially I was very invested in the game and loved it, because it reminded me so much of the original Subnautica. I also wondered where the story was going, but the more you learn about the story and the longer the land sequences dragged on, the more I lost interest. I only finished it to see the ending, which was pretty "meh".
Let's hope Subnautica 3 gets it right, because the franchise has so much potential.

[aggressivefox]

Honestly I think subnautica is scariest (and therefore most fun and interesting) when you are encouraged/ required to explore wide open, deep, dark ocean environments. All this cave exploring where you always collide with walls and can never look more than like 30 meters in a direction is just not at all capturing that fear of the open water the first game had while honestly feeling too safe. Reapers are so terrifying because they don’t have obnoxious glowing spots on them (just like every other predator on earth) and live in the deep dark water where all you can see is an occasional tail in the distance and when they sneak up on you and make the loudest roar you’ve ever heard it’s terrifying and adrenaline inducing. If there is a subnautica 3, it NEEDS to be predominantly in the open ocean like the first game. It needs to learn to have restraint and leave some barren areas that feel lifeless yet still natural. There needs to be more leviathans (preferably ones that don’t glow for no reason because the player isn’t left to imagine what the monster is and kills any mystery about it)

[Thedoctorr]

Agree with all of this. Exactly my experience

[pixelstorm]

Great vid! I personally wanted a Subnautica sequel to delve into a scary new planet