Subnautica

[shinymcshine]

Been giving this a go, since it's free on PS4, and after 2x 90 min sessions, seems like a grower.

 

Albeit my first session I started was on Survival mode, requiring you to eat & drink. So I explored around the seabed, found materials created items, unlocked new blueprints, made what felt was decent progress, until:

Spoiler

I started running out of food & water. Food wasn't a problem, loads of fish you can grab, but no idea where to find the salt I needed to create clean water so kept dying from dehydration.

So I restarted on Freedom mode, and pretty much got back to where I was before, but now without needing to worry about sustanance.

 

I'm pretty impressed with how the underwater all looks, and how it's pretty sandbox in terms of doing whatever you like. The lack of a map means there's that vulnerability to get disoriented (beacons can be set to points), and the threat that you never quite know what's in that rock cave...

[shinymcshine]

Making some steady progress, improving my equipment to go further & deeper, and not forgetting to scan everything too.

 

You get the occasional radio call about distress beacons from other wrecked lifepods, which I think it the way the 'storyline' moves on - but otherwise you're left on your own to explore.

 

I finally reached a point where a rescue vessel was dispatched to pick me up and, wow, the game took an unexpected turn:

Spoiler

So I swim in the direction of the rendezvous point, only to find an island, rich in mineral deposits. I explore more and find this huge alien structure, with force fields, teleporter etc. Make steady progress there, only to miss the rescue craft, which is repelled by an energy field. So I guess I've got to figure out, from data collected, how this alien tech all works.

 

So if that's not enough, whilst diving at >150m in a cave I experience a weird 'ghost' type leviathan that says a few words before disappearing.......

 

Getting spooky.

 

[shinymcshine]

The game that keeps on giving - I'm amazed how much depth there seems to be here, both literally (deep sea, >150m) and with the blueprints I've recently collected:

Spoiler

For mini submarines !

 

I found enough materials to create a radiation suit, so have been exploring around the main wreck site, and found even more exciting blueprints to progress to previously inaccessible areas.

 

Just a fabulous, somewhat slow paced, experience - especially with a drop in frame rate in some of the 'busier' areas (PS4).

[one-armed dwarf]

I have this on PC and it has official VR support but it's extremely poor. I'd heard it mentioned in the same breath as other very 'immersive' type games like Outer Wilds and Pathologic so I do want to give it a go but the possibility of doing it all in VR then finding out that the devs didn't do a good job of it was very disappointing.

[shinymcshine]

I'd imagine the free ocean swimming in VR would be fine, but the caves & indoor areas do suffer a bit anyway (in terms of occasion screen clipping) so can't see them coming off too well.

[shinymcshine]

Hitting around 15 hrs and still finding new things to build, new materials to craft, and new resource requirements. I also seem to have progressed to at least have a notion towards getting off the island:

Spoiler

Explored the Captain's Cabin in the crashed Aurora spaceship (after making a laser cutter to get through previously blocked doors) and it says about building a Neptune rocket to blast free. I've now started construction on the launch platform and structure.

 

Also just made my first minisub which at least increases travel speed and can be used as a forward deployed 'base' to replenish your air supply at depth (rather than needing to resurface).

 

This game is so good.

[shinymcshine]

Started some base building too - which then opens up a bunch of additional useful equipment such as a Sector Scanner (to highlight where things can be found) and a Modification Unit (to make better/improved kit) - I still feel at times that I'm just scratching the surface (well ocean floor, down to 300m).

[shinymcshine]

On reflection, I don't really see much added value in the "survival" mode, and am happy I continued in "freedom" mode.

 

Now I'm more familiar with the game I don't think the food/drink elements would actually enhance the experience any, as they seem relatively freely available (once initially located) but would just need a few more inventory slots dedicated to carry some bottles & bars on your trip

 

Spoiler

Also they are often found in  storage containers, within wrecks, that contain water bottles, nutrition bars and first aid kits - albeit the latter are still required under "freedom" mode.

 

[shinymcshine]

28 hrs and have hit a plateau, where I need new materials and blueprints but am getting a bit frustrated by the lack of any in game mapping (to show which areas you've already explored, and where you might have missed). I built a resource scanner at my base but the info it gives is pretty useless.

 

Spoiler

I don't have the right materials to construct a deep sea 'prawn' suit, or all the blueprints for the 'cyclops' submarine (just 1 missing), but it's frustrating not knowing where to look (or just keeping mining different areas hoping something will turn up).

 

 

Think it's time to have a look at an online guide.

 

[shinymcshine]

Arghhhhhh !!!!

 

It's doing my head in trying to find this last engine blueprint that I need to progress - 3 hrs more this morning, even with an online map of likely areas, and still no success.

 

But I did find a couple more interesting things, that are just about keeping me going with this - but I just can't progress the "story" until I get that final schematic.

Spoiler

I've even found the deep water cave section, 500m down, which I could explore, if only I had the final blueprint to allow me to build the Cyclops submarine.

 

[mmmark]

Limmy is obsessed with this and I don’t see the appeal. Is it like an underwater no mans sky?

[shinymcshine]

I've not played NMS, but Subnautica does have a storyline to follow to a conclusion (as I understand it) but you can just ignore it and free roam (until you need to build in order to progress).

 

There's also a finite area to explore, whereas I think NMS is procedurally generated (to 'infinity').

[one-armed dwarf]

Is it 'immersive-sim'-esque, or however you would describe it. My impression of it it's a game for people who like to nerd out and get fixated by lots of weird systems and mechanics but I've not put more than 5 minutes into it.

[shinymcshine]

There's a whole bunch of base building and furnishing you can do, both functional and cosmetic, and (a bit like Fallout 4) I can see how that could appeal greatly to some people - whilst I go just down the 'functional' minimalist building route.

 

It's the exploration elements that have appealled to me more (well, up to the point where I now can't find what I need).

[shinymcshine]

Finally found the missing blueprint, after all my underwater searching there was one on the beach of the mountain island (pretty sure if checked there before, but I was on my way to a wreck just off to the east of the island).

 

So, Cyclops material needed, and Ive already got ready access to most bits, just missing a couple of bits of lithium (usually found in deep caves) and Stalker teeth (to make enameled glass). Hadn't found any of those before, but Stalkers are big aggressive sharp toothed 'fish' and I've got a knife........

 

Spoiler

Yep, that didn't end well for me. Not the way to get the teeth either, which involves dropping metal wreckage in their vicinity, which they bite, and drop teeth - not sure I'd figure that without online guide, but I've got some now. Just to get the lithium now.

 

[mmmark]

Limmy's 

Spoiler

time capsule

 

[shinymcshine]

Cyclops now built (40ft Sub for One, trophy gained, only 12.9% have got that far.....).

 

Thought I'd ffcuked it up too, as I built it near my Neptune platform and when it spawned, the nose was snagged in the air on the platform, but was fine when I reversed it off - fortunately.

 

So a whole new world (well the deeper depths of the existing world) await !!!

 

[shinymcshine]

So there's no point in having a deep water submarine, unless you've also an effective way of mining the deep water resources - hence the need to build the Prawn Suit together with the Drill and Grappling Arm upgrades.

 

So a few more hours spent collecting materials and crafting, and now I'm ready to explore the 'Lost River' area, and hopefully push the storyline on a bit further.

[shinymcshine]

I've enjoyed most of the 35 hrs and thought I was on the glidepath to the end, having both Cyclops and Prawn Suit, but the deep water caves are a miserable experience.

 

In order to progress I need materials only found in this newly accessible area, but manoeuvring a huge sub (in first person view) through twisted caves with craggy rock formations above and floor anchored biodomes below, is pretty wretched - constantly moving positions in order to make small forward progress.

 

Then throw in a bunch of aggressive sea creatures that attack your sub (noting I can't make the defensive items I have the blueprints for, as they use advance materials found only in this region) then it gets a bit frustrating.

 

Odd design choice really - you can't free dive here for long due to threat level, the Prawn Suit only walks along the seabed, and its way too deep to use your highly manoeuvrable mini sub.

 

It's more irksome than challenging, but I'll persevere no doubt. 

[shinymcshine]

As above, but some progress.

 

I've modified the Cyclops so it can go down to 1300m and found an area below the "Lost River" that's full of lava, and the 'kyanite' material that I need to be able to craft advanced modifications to hopefully progress further.

 

Trouble is, the material I've found, in rather abundance, is in clump formation, so I'd need to drill it with my Prawn Suit, but that's got a depth limit of 900m, and the next depth upgrade for that needs.... kyanite, of course.

 

So tried to park my sub as close as I could, 1200m down, jumped out in suit (which then took constant damage because of being over depth limit) and drill as quickly as I could. Which, sort of worked, until I tried to re-enter Cyclops, and a seamonster decided to attack me at the same time, and given suit was already damaged, it ended up destroyed (not helped by the awkward docking process you have to use to re-enter Cyclops).

 

Oh well, that'll be a another* reload, but seems a plausible way to get the kyanite at least.

 

* I lost about 1hr progress this morning when Cyclops snagged on a craggy rock formation, whilst being attacked by a leviathan, hence no way to move to escape, and sub blew up. Really felt like rage quitting then, but gave it another go, as I feel I must be quite near completion. At least this confirmed it doesn't autosave, as I feared it might have upon destruction, but fortunately it was just a reload from saved game slit.