Nah, that’s valid. I loved it to bits, myself, but what made me love it was how adroitly I felt it curated feelings of dread and sincere awe as I explored deeper and deeper; and that’s highly subjective. I hope you’re finding as much joy in your own fave games as I did in Subnautica!
I also wasn’t a fan, mainly due to how often you need to resupply to stay alive. You get a very small window of opportunity to do actual exploration before you need to go find more food and water, on top of gathering a bunch of other materials.
I liked parts of it, but ultimately just got frustrated with the tedious parts and bailed.
I don’t know how far you made it but if you make the biggest vehicle you can add planters inside the vehicle which significantly cuts down the need to restock. That said, in the end game the survival elements become so trivialize they end meaningless busywork even if you have planters.
I’ll check it out, next time I get a chance to fire it up. Unfortunately, I hate the teleport mechanism of vr games. I love hurtling through the water. Unfortunately, that also makes me motion sickness. I’m slowly training myself out of it, but it takes time.
I found it to be tense and interesting while playing. But looking back, I can’t really put my finger on what made it that way. I swam around and gathered resources to build boats, make food and fresh water - I can’t really ser what the big drive was. But I certainly loved it enough to finish it, which is rare for me regarding most games.
That whole survival crafting genre seems very hit or miss to me, and I’ve noticed that people liking one game in the genre is a very poor predictor of whether they’ll like another one. Subnautica, Don’t Starve, Minecraft, and Ark are all theoretically the same genre but very different games.
However I’ve also seen a lot of people say that Subnautica was the one that clicked for them. I think the story and progression was big for a lot of people.
people liking one game in the genre is a very poor predictor of whether they’ll like another one
I love survival/building games, and so do most of my friends. Even the terrible ones are usually fun. So I’d posit that it’s the opposite with a caveat: liking one for more than its story means you’ll enjoy the others.
I think it’s more indicative of games/hobbies as a whole than the survival genre specifically. People who love the adrenaline of a motorcycle may not enjoy the thrill of going down a mile high mountain on two thin sticks, IF it was the rumble of the engine beneath them that they actually enjoyed. If it was the rush of the speed though (or in the case of survival/building games, the exploration and struggle to stay alive and not lose your stuff), then they’ll likely enjoy the other adrenaline sports.
Seeing the underwater world was so much fun. I got it to play in VR and only did that a couple of times, but I completed the original and Below Zero because the exploration and underwater scenes were just so good.
It was very much not an action oriented game. It was more about building resources and exploration. I can definitely see it not appealing to large swatches of the gaming population. Especially those used to the modern spate of action rpgs.
I feel like I’m the only person on the planet who thought Subnautica was boring and tedious. It was definitely not for me
Nah, that’s valid. I loved it to bits, myself, but what made me love it was how adroitly I felt it curated feelings of dread and sincere awe as I explored deeper and deeper; and that’s highly subjective. I hope you’re finding as much joy in your own fave games as I did in Subnautica!
I also wasn’t a fan, mainly due to how often you need to resupply to stay alive. You get a very small window of opportunity to do actual exploration before you need to go find more food and water, on top of gathering a bunch of other materials.
I liked parts of it, but ultimately just got frustrated with the tedious parts and bailed.
That phase does end. The various vehicles allowed for exploration without returning to the surface, as do deep sea bases.
At the same time, I fully understand why you feel that way. The crunch is required for the fear to be meaningful, it’s not everybody’s cup of tea.
I don’t know how far you made it but if you make the biggest vehicle you can add planters inside the vehicle which significantly cuts down the need to restock. That said, in the end game the survival elements become so trivialize they end meaningless busywork even if you have planters.
Couldn’t get into the main game. In VR, however, just exploring was an unforgettable experience.
It’s just a shame it’s such a half arsed VR conversion. Way too much UI going on for my tastes.
I want to love it in VR. It’s taking me a long time to train my stomach to accept it however. It gives me SERIOUS motion sickness in VR.
There’s an improved motion control VR mod now for it now btw
https://github.com/Okabintaro/SubmersedVR?tab=readme-ov-file
I’ll check it out, next time I get a chance to fire it up. Unfortunately, I hate the teleport mechanism of vr games. I love hurtling through the water. Unfortunately, that also makes me motion sickness. I’m slowly training myself out of it, but it takes time.
I found it to be tense and interesting while playing. But looking back, I can’t really put my finger on what made it that way. I swam around and gathered resources to build boats, make food and fresh water - I can’t really ser what the big drive was. But I certainly loved it enough to finish it, which is rare for me regarding most games.
It’s a popular streamer game, which means long gaps where nothing happens.
That whole survival crafting genre seems very hit or miss to me, and I’ve noticed that people liking one game in the genre is a very poor predictor of whether they’ll like another one. Subnautica, Don’t Starve, Minecraft, and Ark are all theoretically the same genre but very different games.
However I’ve also seen a lot of people say that Subnautica was the one that clicked for them. I think the story and progression was big for a lot of people.
I love survival/building games, and so do most of my friends. Even the terrible ones are usually fun. So I’d posit that it’s the opposite with a caveat: liking one for more than its story means you’ll enjoy the others.
I think it’s more indicative of games/hobbies as a whole than the survival genre specifically. People who love the adrenaline of a motorcycle may not enjoy the thrill of going down a mile high mountain on two thin sticks, IF it was the rumble of the engine beneath them that they actually enjoyed. If it was the rush of the speed though (or in the case of survival/building games, the exploration and struggle to stay alive and not lose your stuff), then they’ll likely enjoy the other adrenaline sports.
I just can’t get into it. I can see there’s a progress path of stuff to do, but it feels like there’s grind to get anywhere.
That grind is also why you actually feel like you are losing something if you die, and consequently makes you anxious about going deeper.
No, sane here. I also didn’t find its gameplay loop fun, although the graphics were incredible.
Edit: I meant ‘same’, but I’m leaving it.
Seeing the underwater world was so much fun. I got it to play in VR and only did that a couple of times, but I completed the original and Below Zero because the exploration and underwater scenes were just so good.
It was very much not an action oriented game. It was more about building resources and exploration. I can definitely see it not appealing to large swatches of the gaming population. Especially those used to the modern spate of action rpgs.
Same here.