Why BELOW ZERO failed next to SUBNAUTICA 

What I love about the first game is that if you never wanted to return to civilization, you have that option. Even though I left that planet, there's still a little part of me still holded up in my base, waiting for my batteries to finish charging so I can start venturing out into the open sea with my noble Cyclops and valent Seamoss. So damn magical.

I liked the first story line when below zero was in its first alpha stages, her sister was alive aboard the satellite ship and the main character came down to check on the staff who had not reported, when she tried to check on them is when she wws left stranded. Her sister began helping her from up there to find a way to leave. No clue why they chose to scrap that

speaking of the horror vs terror, nothing consistently made me jump as much as the sound of bastard fish banging into the seamoth when you've in the black void of the ocean at night

I think you've hit all the points you raised exactly on the head, especially the leviathans, but one more thing i'd like that made Subnautica significantly scarier than Below Zero were the Warpers. Warpers were my biggest fear, even bigger than the Reaper Leviathans and that's because Warpers could do one thing any other creature couldn't do, remove the safety you felt in your vehicle. I never felt particularly scared when I was in my seamoth or prawn because I knew that it could tank a few hits, or it was fast enough to get me away from it, but the Warper would suddenly dump you in open water, where you were very, very vulnerable. Every time I encountered one and it teleported me out of my seamoth or prawn, I would panic in a way that i had never panicked anywhere else in the game. With Reapers, you could always skirt very carefully around them or hide in a very tight space until they lost interest in you and you could sneak away, but with the Warper, it would literally hunt you down, so if you ever saw them, you knew you either had to run away very, very quickly, before it caught on to you, or die. I would shit bricks and do a complete 180 whenever I saw the tell-tale warp portal in the murky distance, in the corner of my eye, or heard their distinctive chitter behind me. The fact that they weren't restricted to a biome made me tense and nervous everywhere I went, and when I realised they were GUARDING the alien bases, I would actively put off exploring them until I felt prepared enough to try and risk getting their attention. Below Zero has NOTHING like this. As long as you kept your seamoth or Seatruck close to you, you could always run back to it and sit there to calm down and try again. Your vehicles are your ultimate safe space, and because it's so vital to the core gameplay experience of, you know, exploring, you eventually never end up actually feeling truly unsafe in your environment in the same way the Warper made you feel. I knew I could explore any biome I wanted with impunity because there wasn't anything that could kill me in one hit while i was in my vehicle, and alien bases actually became boring, just another waypoint to tick off my checklist. Idk, for me, it's just one small stone on a lot of other small stones that make up why this game was a flop for me, but that's the biggest difference that stood out to me playing these two games. Warpers, man, warpers.

My first time seeing a reaper was when i was trying to get over my overwhelming fear of the game and it's environment, so I decided that the best way to do this was to swim all the way to the aurora and back. I made it to the aurora without incident, but when i looked back down at the water after jumping up onto it to have a second to breathe and ease my anxiety, the mere look at the water sent me into a panic, I stood there for what felt like an eternity before finally throwing myself into the water. Everything was fine for about 10 seconds, before i heard the roar saw it's massive head underneath me. All I could do was just swim and hope that it would leave me alone, which did somehow work out for me. It's one of 2 times I've ever genuinely screamed at a game. I will never forget that experience. Needless to say, it did not, in fact, help with my fear

Personally, I could get over the poor story and somewhat questionable dialogue, but the biggest nail in the coffin for me was the map size - The claustrophobia was just no where near as impactful as those wide-open, can't-see-the-bottom moments in the original that triggered my thalassophobia so much. Being able to see the bottom at almost all times seriously decreased my enjoyment of the game because it just completely put me at ease, which was further compounded by the creatures being far too common and far too aggressive, causing me to - as you mentioned - treat them like an annoying obstacle, instead of a frightening threat. Really, if the map was far deeper, open, and more sparse, I think it would have done a huge favor for the game. There wouldn't even really need to be anything in the newly created space; just spread out the current landmarks (and creatures) significantly, and I wouldn't feel the need to go back to the original game to get my Ocean-survival fix.

If you look at the size of the Chelicerate compared to the character, its MASSIVE. And yeah, when you can see the size difference it _is_ terrifying... But you don't get to feel that sense of size because of the depth of field. It doesn't have that unsettling serpent-like body shape and strangely humanoid face like the Reaper, so it just lacks that aspect of fear the Reaper excelled at.

Subnautica is the only survival game in existence to make me ask the question when building my escape: “Do I really want to leave though?” That, is proof it’s a great game.

Turns out when you fire most of your original dev team due to political issues, you can't make a decent game which captures the spirit of the original 🤷

My biggest issue with below 0 was the shadow leviathan making me have to repair my sea truck every 5 seconds.

The writers killed sub zero. They were so concerned with their character everything else seemed to suffer.

my first reaper attack was back in early access. wayyyy back when the life pod wasn't nailed to one spot and could drift. after going to the new floating island, i was taking my seamoth back to my lifepod, and kept noticing that it was taking longer than usual. the coral and everything in the safe shallows also wasn't rendering in. then i finally got to it and realized, it had drifted all the way to the dunes. i tried to turn around and get right back out of there, but i immediately got grabbed by a reaper. i paused in the middle of the grab, quit, and couldn't open the game for the rest of that night. absolutely terrifying.

I remember the absolute DREAD I felt watching people play the original Early Access version of Below Zero as new content was slowly pumped out, and seeing the Chelicerate my first thought was "I'm so scared of that thing, it barely makes any noise and I'll have no idea it's coming until it eats me." Fast forward to today, the ONLY time that thing has scared me even remotely close to a Reaper was when I was leaving a Vent Garden and it managed to sneak its way around as I tried to reorient myself to get back to my seatruck and quickly nabbed me up for a bite. Any other time I literally just drive on by them with a wave and a "Hi Chelly! Don't come too close or I'll have to smack ya!" And the Shadow Leviathans were SO disappointing. I LOVE the Crystal Caves because they look so nice to me, but it's just so cramped and same-y that it's just. Infuriating. Add in the Leviathans that LITERALLY patrol on invisible rails? Disappointing. I honestly one time just wanted to go into there with an invincibility mode on with a ton of pathfinder tools and just. Attempt to put discs that followed their exact rail so I knew where they'd be so I could avoid them. My only anxiety was from them just patrolling the same area. It wasn't even terror for me, it was just "Alright, when are they gonna wrap back around on their invisible rails?"

Someone send this video to Unknown Worlds! I totally agree. BZ lacked the immense sense of isolation and vulnerability from being alone on a completely unknown and hostile world. Character anonymity featured in the first game contributed greatly to this feeling and having a voiced protagonist in SNBZ, with a back story who willingly chose to go to 4546B rather than being stranded there greatly took away from this feeling. Having AL-an along also detracted from the feeling of isolation. Additionally, the more linear story of BZ no longer felt like I was discovering age-old events at my own pace as I gained the courage and tech to venture deeper into the depths, detracting from the sense of freedom and exploration (and vulnerability) of the original.

Subnautica immersed me so well I frequently found myself holding my breath while diving underwater, only breathing again when I returned to my seamoth or prawn suit.

Marvel has been a disaster for the writing industry

Correction, there are like two 'scripted jumpscares' in Subnautica. However, they are the two Sea Emperor messages you get after doing a certain thing well delayed after that event, with enough so that you're doing something else and get scared by the sudden blue thing obscuring your vision.

Your description for the second character we get to play with, already tells it all, when it comes to why it failed so many points for the fan base.

Below Zero had a different story in the first beta. you were not Sam. you had no dialog. But! you started out by waking up in a bed then go do some research to then find yourself in a storm, and you have to get back. then your path get's blocked off and you need to find a new way back to your base but you get stranded in the ocean next to you and now you have to survive. they then updated the story and made it bad. so right from the start in in the beta it was good.

How does a video of this scale NOT have a few million views. This video is very thorough and descriptive, severely underated, you deserve to be more popular with the massive amount of effort I’m sure you put into this

This is by far the best summarisation of why I felt Below Zero absolutely paled in comparison to the original Subnautica, and nothing I’ve seen in developer interviews or game news has convinced me that the devs have learnt from their mistakes for the next Subnautica either. If anything, it seems like they accidentally stumbled onto the oppressing and terrifying lonely atmosphere of 1 and are actively trying to avoid it. Shout out for really highlighting the incredible impact Simon Chylinski had on the originals atmosphere too. Not enough people draw attention to Below Zeros weak soundtrack and generic alien sound design in comparison. Great video

I have never walked on land on my own legs. I always used the Prawn. Too fast for the worms, too much armor for the little stalkers. That is because I never knew how to get the fur for the suit. Though I'm glad I did not, so the Prawn turned me into a tank on land too.

you’re one of the first people i’ve heard fully well articulate what made the first subnautica so good. great job!

one of tthe best video essays ive seen dude incredibly entertaining keep this up bro

My playtime of both games says a lot about how I felt playing them. Subnautica: 85h Below Zero: 5h I just couldn't get immersed into BZ, because whenever I was starting to get into it, my thought-process was interrupted by Robin's monologues. I finished my session and was in no hurry to get back to it, as opposed to the OG, where I found myself zoning out at work thinking about how I should expand my habitat, what I needed for it and where I should explore next. And chewing off the ears of my cousin and co-worker, going on-and-on about it. Hope I can move myself to give it another shot some day, as I really like the arctic climate setting... On another note: I don't mind a voiced narrative if the story is interesting. The story they had in the early-access version at least sounded more intriguing (from what I heard about it). It feels as though the devs decided to backpedal away from the story-focused aspect of the game, towards a more classic experience but yet again stopped half-way from there, leaving behind a half-baked mess of a story, stuck somewhere in-between "too much story for a survival-focused game like the OG" and "too few story elements to have a decent narrative-driven experience".

Really well structured and explained! Great video :)

I remember feeling whiplash just in the opening moments of the game. *MC gets warned she's putting herself in extreme danger, ignores it, immediately loses control and crashes, strands herself in a hostile environment, meteors crash to earth around her, potentially killing her at any moment* MC: :D That could have gone better :D

Yes, stepping out of my vehicle to repair it in SN 1 was terrifying in that I'd always feel a warper was about to warp me away from its protecting cage even though a warper could warp me from witin a smaller vehicle anyway. This feeling of terror was lacking in BZ. P.S.. The snow stalkers hate flares.

I hope the subnautica team is taking notes for the new game

That was an amazing video, and I am speechless to see you only have 2k subscribers, I was sure, from the editing, the script and everything that you would be a big channel! Well, I subbed, hope to see your channel explode in popularity, you totally deserve it sir!

Thank you for this amazing video !! 🤘🏻🔥 Subnautica is by far one of the best games I’ve ever played. I’ve tried getting into Bellow Zero a few times but I never could. The snow and land will never compare to the moment when you first drop in the water in the first game. I even still remember playing when the game wasn’t finished yet. It was before the alien tablets and infrastructures..I had found an island and I was both so excited and terrified to know what kind of creatures would be there. I was so happy that I’ve moved my full base to rebuild it on the island, piece by piece! I couldn’t stop talking about the game to everyone .. I’d spent hours just building my base , collecting resources. In a weird way , it felt like home. I’m always gonna be grateful for those memories and I might even return in the future, now that they added more base customization! 😊 Outstanding work , I also do videos and your editing and narration are just incredible, great work man !!

I think what was the hearth of subnautica on the first game was, basically, the ambience, when you feel you are not in a alredy known ambient, you feel scared, cautious, you feel the need to be wary of every step (or in this case, swim) you make, afterall, you feel it could be your last. I think one of the greatest proofs of that for me is when you show someone who played subnautica at least once, and show them I don't know, the music that mostly plays on a biome, this person could easily says every aspect of the scene, without even blinking. If you show me a picture of a biome, I remember the soundtrack/ambience music, the creatures, plants, and everything basically. Because every thing in this is memorable, especially if its being put together, So, for me its the ambience that counts, because with a good ambience, you create a (mostly) good experience. In below zero, most of its biomes were... "shallow"... I think on BZ some biomes I can recall everything, but not for the same purpose of subnautica, the exact opposite, because theres not much things to really remember, or in other situations, theres not much of cool of that made the ambience good. Probably for me the best comparison to make is when you go to a completly new local that have "points" of your interest, you go there, you are on a ambient you don't know much, so you are aware of its details, when theres much of what you alredy see (like in a city with not much different roads or neighborhood), you probably don't remember so much, but when is different or unique, you remember almost every detail. I recall this aspects and can compare to subnautica 1.

One thing I will add, the alien structures that served as beacons, and even AL-AN's ship, they both gave off "unofficial" vibes, I don't know why. Just felt wrong? Especially the one with the yellow boxes, fauna examiner or whatever.

Very good breakdown! I'd like to add another layer. When I first started Subnautica, it pretty quickly became clear that i needed a map. So I took a sheet of checkered paper, a pencil, a triangle ruler & a pair of compassess & started charting. And that became amazingly rewarding, triangulating beacons, scetching out & naming biomes in curved strokes, marking points of interest, placing down an X-to-mark-the-spot. It was glorious. True discovery. A real, intricate, hand-drawn map, complete with "HERE BE DRAGONS". The Z-axis didn't matter, I just had to mark depth when it became an obstacle. When I first stumbled upon an entrance to the Lost River, it immediately became obvious that I needed another layer. Another sheet of paper. Which, voilà, aligned perfectly. Below Zero discouraged me to do this. In cartography, outlining shorelines is pretty much the most tedious & frustrating thing, because shorelines are of fractal nature. Throw in dozens of islands & peninsulae, & the task becomes nigh impossible. Cram in countless caves & an emphasis on vertical map design... well, I may be a nerd, but I'm not crazy. Thus, Below Zero took away a whole level of meta-experience that I'd enjoyed in Subnautica so much.

I think the contrast between these two games is a PERFECT example of "show, don't tell."

The anecdote about the reaper is about my experience, even though I already knew it existed because of Twitch. When I first played I went to the back of the ship and that thing came at me, game over. It was still very startling even though I knew it existed already. I think the Reaper wins the horror contest because it has a face that looks vaguely human.

I started playing BZ back when early access first dropped. Maybe I shouldn't have, because I found myself invested in where that first story was going. When it was scrapped completely, I was a little disappointed. It could have had such a powerful twist involving Sam or Alterra. But I continued, anyway. The new story, by release, was lackluster because it lays everything out for you but doesn't make much sense. Why isn't Alterra still down there? Yes, the Ice Worms caused them issues, but one woman seemed to traverse the area just fine with minimal tools. Yes, MM and Sam sabotaged the place, but not enough to discourage the megacorp from coming back in with firepower on top of researchers. That's not the game they wanted to create--an Avatar-like savior vs. the company. The game winds up having two resolutions, one for Robin's mission and one for ALAN, and neither felt like they were that urgent to finish nor were they satisfying when I did. IMO ALAN's revival should have been the focus, and it should have been more dire. Like, we gotta go because Alterra's on their way. We gotta go because MM found out about ALAN and his history and she's after us. We gotta go because the entire area where the virus was being extracted is unstable. Something. My biggest beef with BZ, other than the narrative, is how easy it is for a Subnautica veteran. Survival was never a worry. There was only one moment when leviathans were a threat, and that was only because I didn't have the defense system yet. Even in the area with the most Shadow leviathans, shocking them let you get away practically unscathed. Oxygen vs. the cave systems was a bigger problem. The Ice Worm was just annoying. Not dangerous. Not lethal. Annoying. I stopped bothering with the Snow Fox after one venture through its territory. The Prawn suit was slower on land but 10x less obnoxious than driving the SF and getting bonked off of it. All that said, I don't hate BZ. I've played through it to completion twice, and I'll probably do it again. I just wish there were more to it than what we got.

I watched the whole video with enjoyment. The beginning hooked me, the middle kept me around, and the end made me think. Whilst thinking about the subnautica 3 question (honestly didn’t even know it was a possibility), you mentioned you only had 2000 subs. “No way” I thought, though it’s true. You deserve so much more! Subbed and can’t wait to see what else you cook up! Fantastic work!

Nothing else to say except absolutely loved this video. Pacing was great and going back and forth between OG and BW subnautica was an awesome way to format the video. Earned a sub today can't wait to see what else you put out.

Great take. Well done on this, it's the only video I've seen come close to a documentary about Subnautica.

I still can’t believe that the guys who made natural selection, the half life mod and game, turned out to make this, still throws me off

Superb essay, really well considered and nicely edited to match the narration, well done and thank you. Immediate Sub and Like.

This is such a great video. I hope I'm not commenting too late for you to see this. My buddy told me about Subnautica and even bought it for me, but wouldn't tell me a single thing about it. I almost quit a couple times in the first 10 hours or so, because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. There really isn't much direction, which of course is now one of my favourite things about the game. Then I discovered the Jellyshroom caves, and thought to myself, this has to be where I'm supposed to go. I had nothing more than a seaglide at the time. So I spent the next 25 hours collecting titanium to build hundreds, if not thousands of oxygen pipes to get myself down into the jellyshroom caves. I explored the entirety of the jellyshroom caves with the basic oxygen tank, a seaglide and my oxygen pipes. So many times it was a mad dash back to the pipe to get air. I'd get turned around and panic, or get hit by the big snake things in there. It was so exhilarating. I don't think I've ever had more fun and felt more immersion in a game. Of course when I told my buddy this he just laughed and laughed. I did eventually realize that basically you just want to keep going deeper, and oxygen pipes were not a sustainable way of doing that. I'll always remember my time in the jellyshroom caves as an awesome time of exploration and terror. God I love this game.

There was an announcement recently about Subnautica 2 (that seems to be their official internal title, suggesting they might see Below Zero as a spinoff rather than main series), and let it slip that it will take place on a different ocean planet. The Last Bacon did a video on it. Roadmap was hinted at for late this year (2024) with high hopes for Early Access in early 2025.

Amazing video man, very good watch on my break.

Having a fear of the depths like many people, I decided to play Subnautica exclusively in VR. I reached the reaper. I haven't been able to play in months. I resemble poultry.

i just want to say, this is my first video i've watched from you, and within the first 5 minutes i was subscribed. you make such good points, provide quality content and you're also so entertaining- hope to see more from you soon :) for now, take this sub! (also, i loved the story about your first reaper encounter lol)

In my opinion man I couldn't have said it any better. And as for Co-Op I would like it in the game but it would be best as an optional feature not forced. Many should listen to this guy because he had me immersed in to his point and rant thereof

im terrified of the ocean, and the first game did wonders for that. even watching and playing the game through its development, even knowing exactly what i was going to see, the game was scary and i loved that. the second game? the scariest part for me was the lilypad zone. not because of the atmosphere or the creatures. i just hated the textures of the plants and the thoughts of actually being there. this video puts into words what i have been struggling to explain. the second game just doesn't add up to the first, and it doesnt help that when it reached full release it was so buggy i couldn't even finish it. my save file bugged, and i would've had to restart my entire file just to see the ending. it wasn't worth it. i never finished the game.

Meeting the reaper for the first time is one of the best moment in gaming history, not only for me, but for so many people too

I was going to write out a long comment about how I feel about subnautica and below zero but honestly, you covered most of it. I do have two points that you covered on but I feel like took away from below zero for me the most. 1. You were absolutely right about the caves being too narrow. At some points, I remember having to ditch my vehicle because it was less effort than trying to squeeze it through some of the gaps. It also made the leviathans seem small as well. If I remember correctly, the leviathans are actually much smaller than the ones from subnautica. I remember encountering the leviathan in the crystal caves. I remember thinking that it looked smaller but maybe it was just me. Then it attacked me... over and over and over again as I tried mining for resources. Not only was this creature smaller and therefore less scary, but the constant attacks lowered my fear and turned it into annoyance. Like you said as well, the low visibility was a HUGE reason the reapers were scary in the first game. Hearing the roar for the first time and having no idea where they were. Finding the leviathan in the crystal caves and being able to see it from across the other side of the cave sucked out the mystery and wonder that I enjoy when it comes to discovering new creatures. 2. Progressing the story in below zero felt like a chore. In subnautica, you were able to make the seamoth, a few upgrades and you could rock with that until you needed the prawn suit. It was hours and hours of gameplay with just the seamoth alone. When it was time to go on land in below zero, having to make an entirely different suit and vehicle was so tedious. The islands in subnatuica worked because there wasn't much to explore there. You could be there for one in game day and that was that. In below zero, you're forced to spend such a good chunk of the game on land that it felt so annoying. You mentioned the weird controls and I whole heartedly agree. I do NOT like the land controls, but I also think there shouldn't have been that much important story on land in the first place. Subnautica was so well liked because it was finally an underwater survival game that didn't suck. Why take the water out of the game? If I wanted to play a land survival game with chunky mechanics, I'd play Ark. Both of those being said, I did not finish the story for below zero. I got as far as to get the first body part for Alan and decided it wasn't worth my time. I actually didn't know where the body parts were at all and I looked them up. It's hard to describe the pit that formed in my stomach when I saw they were in more small caves. Trying to finish the story felt like more of a chore than something I had fun doing. I also want to mention the small details in subnautica that really made me love it. There were two parts in the game where I audibly gasped (other than my scream when first attacked by a reaper). The first was when the Aurora blows up. There were a few warnings from the PDA before it happened but I was really blown away how well done it was. The second was when the alien building shot down the landing space craft. That one shook me so much, I stood there for another two minutes trying to figure out what just happened. It's moments like those that make subnautica memorable.

Great work, subbed immediately. Keep on going with that thorough investigation and journalism about (any) topics :)

Subnautica didn’t feel like a story game but more of an actual survival game. While below zero was more of an actual story game showing you waypoints and giving you hints on where to go next. The ending for below zero didn’t feel rewarding at all compared to the first game where you realize you can actually escape the planet and it even gives a choice whether you want to stay or not.

I preferred the first game to the second as well (having played it all the way through a number of times compared to 1.5 times with Below Zero due to never caring to go back into the land section), and I really see a few large reasons. 1) The sense of pioneering discovery. Subnautica really felt like being the first person to survive rediscovery of a long lost civilization, while Below Zero felt a bit less notable in that you were effectively just making another discovery while following up on the first. 2) The perceived chance of rescue. The number of very recent human facilities that already exist where you are going in Below Zero (except for the very last bit of caves) makes it feel like Alterra could return at any time. In Subnautica, the Sunbeam arriving felt miraculous, and losing it felt like being set back years. 3) The goal and stakes. In Subnautica, you were trying to survive and escape against ever increasing and unknown odds up to the point of finding a cure for a civilization ending plague. In BZ, while you did try to survive and learn about the plague and the civilization that was lost through ALAN, the overarching goal was to find out what happened to your sister and determine just how evil the evil megacorp really was.

Both Subnautica and Below Zero's horror in a way reminds me of a first person open world shooter series called Stalker. The first time you encounter a controller, bloodsucker, burer, chimera, pseudogiant, poltergeist, snork, etc. it is terrifying. Some are rare enough encounters in important places you have to visit to progress the story and remain relatively rare throughout. These enemies like the bloodsucker or controller especially use different tactics from the other creatures in the game that can throw you off and make you scared despite having a fully automatic weapon, night vision, and grenades. You always move cautiously into every new area because a bloodsucker can literally stalk you through the map and set up unscripted ambushes, all while being able to turn 99% invisible. They'll wait for you to turn your back, look in your inventory pack, loot a body, or even wait for you to take damage from the environment before moving for the kill. They will coordinate attack with other bloodsuckers if they are around. That is the subnautica style of horror, the actual fear when the attack happens is nothing compared to the suspense and dread beforehand. But then there are enemies like the snorks. They are fairly dangerous and scary, but you deal with them so often they just become a chore when you encounter them. They set up ambushes but aren't subtle about it. You see their hyper selves jumping around in a field likely before they ever reach you. Or they are put in tight caves where their ambushes work but then their long leaping lunge attack isn't as effective. Certain enemies you become desensitized to, or they are incongruent with the moment in time of the gameplay or story, or they're in the wrong location. I'll play subnautica 3 if they focus more on the variety in wildlife and biomes, but even then I worry that their vision of the IP is different than the audience that ended up loving the games. I think the atmosphere and dread of the first game was almost entirely unintended.

Why do we still get protagonists like this despite them being universally hated by everyone? Was Atomic Hearts and Forespoken not enough of a nail in the coffin? People hate loud, cocky protagonists who don’t shut up

13:24 you popped up over the water and I legit gasped and tensed up lol. screaming "get out get out" in my head

That was a great deep-dive into the games! I'm definitely more interested in trying out the original Subnautica now.

Incredible video! Great job.

I can't believe how fundamentally they misunderstood the success of their first game. It would be different if they simply said "we're pivoting focus", but it would be disingenuous considering they clearly tried to mimic the first game by having scary elements at all. Ironically they tried to lean in harder to what they thought those elements were and ended up creating antagonists instead of natural predators. I couldn't stand that it constantly forced control away from you to show you an annoying cutscenes of a leviathan or shark biting or killing you. They patched out the shark animation after a while, but left in all the others. And because you're constantly forced into their paths like you mentioned, you see it a lot. So the frequent encounters are just maddening. It's actually scarier in the first game where you don't necessarily die on contact and even if you get hit, you can still try to run. The only cutscene you get is when the reaper grabs your seamoth from what I remember, but it's because you have a chance to get away and it creates tension while the hull strength diminishes the longer you're in it's grasp. A note on the music, it's not bad in itself, but I feel like the composer wasn't experienced in creating tracks for such an open ended ambient game. That, or the devs didn't direct him properly, or didn't implement his stuff well. I find the tracks extremely repetitive, like I was listening to a playlist of songs instead of ambient music and it got really annoying, especially since they just never stop. I started dreading specific zones because the music is so strictly tied to them and the soundtrack is so...musical. I built my base in the vent garden zone and that track is an example of one with a clear start, middle and end. So it feels like it's looping constantly. I don't know why they didn't at least opt for long moments of ocean ambience before the track starts again. The game improved when I finally turned the music volume to 0.

The lack of speech from the player is something that allows the player to think for themselves. Half-Life did really well with this, with the only thing you know about yourself, is that your a theoretical phisycist at black mesa.

you really hit the nail on the head with this. Thank you for articulating yourself so well when many reviews just say "it's bad because it's smaller"

Great overview on the music! I didn't realize how different they were from Subnautica and Below Zero.

THANK YOU! Talking to the community about these issues is like talking to seagulls.

II completed Below Zero last week. I didn't get the Prawn Suit, I didn't add a single module to my sea truck, I didn't build an expansive base. All the milestones I had in Subnautica were missing here.

Exploration and the mystery of the first game is what had me so obsessed. I couldn’t wait to do more exploring. I played BZ when it first came out and I couldn’t even remember what it was about until I saw this video. I do remember thinking BZ felt more like a dlc than a second game.

This is truly the best review of the two games, balancing the improvements against the shortcomings of BZ. You really found so many small details that created such a large impact overall... I didn't even notice the slow swim speed until you mentioned it in this review, but now I understand why exploration felt so much slower. I think the slowness of the sea truck compared to the sea moth further perpetuates this feeling.

At least the next game is being labeled as Subnautica 2 instead of the 3rd. Further establishing BZ as a small spin off sequel while the next game will give us a better subnautica experience worthy of a sequel.

What absolutely terrified me playing sub nautica was either when I thought I was safe inside my seamoth or whatever and then the squid would teleport me out and my heart would stop because my protective shield was gone and I was vulnerable

This made me want to replay subnautica again, good job :3

yo what-? bro for this quality of video I was lowkey expecting atleast 20-200k subscribers lmao. Like you deserve wayyy more

ill never forget being chased by a reaper into a deadzone after 3 of them destroyed my seamoth. i moved to the surface to get my barings, glanced down, saw a ghost leviathan b lining towards me and genuinely screamed. as much as i loved below zero, im kinda glad i played it first, because i just didnt have those kinds of experiences

The major thing I noticed about Subnatica 1vs2 is how much you can interact with the sea life, like in small ways thanks to the pda. not like if you feed stalkers they will bring you metal scrap because so will sea monkeys, but the deeper stuff, like crabsquid react to light and will attack anything that has one, so if you don't want them to attack you use a seamoth and turn it's lights off when near them and they wont bug you unless you get too close. or my favorite is with the reaper, if you have a peeper on hand it will take it instead of attacking you which makes them a lot easier to deal with. but in below zero, there is no way to get around the leviathans or other threats but to just go faster. which really defeats the point of making a character who is a zeno biology major of some kind who loves finding out about every single thing about every alien animal, but just forgets that too, for some reason.

Great video! My first Reaper encounter was going to the crashed pod where you get the blueprints for the radiation suit. I didn't see it, but I heard it, and I was unbelievably paranoid and afraid of it. It wasn't until I ventured toward the crashed Aurora until I actually came across it. I saw the silhouette in the murky water ahead, got back in my Seamoth, and went back to my base. I took an hour break to calm my nerves. I can't remember how many times I ran away from the Reaper and absolutely hammered on the keyboard in hopes it would squeeze out a little more speed to get away from it--sparks flying from my damaged companion all the more terrifying as it meant it could be destroyed leaving me face to face with that gargantuan. As someone who has A) experienced Night Terrors in my youth, and B) has legitimate arachnophobia (and _had_ a friend who was careless about his pet tarantula), I think the explanation of terror vs horror from the author was fairly apt. I ripped off a fingernail attacking my desk chair thinking it was an intruder in the middle of the night and didn't really wake up until the next morning and discovered blood soaked sheets and a ruined finger. I dragged myself along the carpet to kill an imaginary spider that had bitten my foot, only to discover the next morning that I had given myself severe carpet burns. This to say that the terror I felt is something I'll never forget; narrowed vision, explosive adrenaline, and in some other cases a freezing of everything in the world in that instant. Subnautica definitely tickled those feelings for me in a way that other horror games never have, and its not something a jump scare can ever do.

God you hit the nail on the head. There was so much I love about submautica that I’ve yet to really beat it and love going back from time to time. The feeling of the world and knowing I was the alien, afraid of killing anything without cause; the true, real feeling of thalasaphobia. Terror really is the correct word and it was perfect - so perfect of learning the zones and knowing how to deal with them. The urge to go farther and farther, not because I “needed to”, but because for once I wanted more audio recordings I usually hate and because I felt lured by curiosity!

Feels like Sweet Baby Inc consulted on Below Zero

The only reason I even wanted to play Below Zero was for more of the alien content, but once I bought the game myself I stopped playing when I knew most of my upcoming tasks would be taking place on land. I was disappointed so many people wanted co-op, part of the reason I got lost in the original was because I was alone. I want more biomes, creatures and stuff like the seamoth and Cyclops. The few stills they released for the game seem promising, so...fingers crossed.

Nice writing style dude! Its really captivating I sure you could really make a successful RU-vid channel if you keep trying and improving :D

Can we all appreciate how well those scenes blend together starting from 29:50 ? Great edit and this might be the best narration I've heard on RU-vid. But to me, Below Zero feels more like "Subnautica: The Prototype" than a sequel to the OG Subnautica; if I were to suggest how next game should feel like... well, just let our muted guy explore another water world overly exploited by Alterra.

It's wild to say coop would destroy a game like this when most survival games make the choice to have coop features because being able to play with at least one person usually makes the experience better. After all the subnautica coop mod is freaking amazing and feels better because you can use the cyclops seamoth combo in more fun ways.

I hope to see a lot less intelligent life in the next subnautica regardless of where it actually takes place, I also want more really DARK and unwelcoming places like the blood kelp zone, easily my least favorite part of the game was actually the lost river and lava zones because they were so bright it took genuine negligence to ever be caught off guard by anything and goes completely against what you would expect from going deep underwater where the sun no longer shines and where you are crushed by the overbearing atmosphere and literally crushed by the depth without proper vehicles, that's another thing I want to see I don't care HOW reinforced your suit is or HOW good of a rebreather you have you should not be able to get out of your prawn or cyclops with a kilometer and a half of water above your head and be perfectly fine Edit: I would also like a somewhat different design philosophy with leviathan predators, I think ideally leviathans should be less aggressive but FAR more dangerous, threatening to destroy your cyclops effortlessly, swallow your seamoth whole with you in it, really put the durability of the prawn suit to the test. This philosophy changes the dynamic with them substantially, filling any area with them with a sense of dread as you are terrified of setting them off. It really amplifies the aspect of terror over horror as the frequency of attacks is a lot lower, but the instant and devastating consequences of one leave you terrified of it happening again, and leaves you in a state where you never feel comfortable around them no matter what fancy machinery you have on your side, rather than how they interact with you now where they barely scratch the prawn and can even take a bite out of your unprotected fleshy body and allow you to live and are intentionally programmed to leave you alone after. This would also serve to amplify my point earlier about the consequences for being deep under water. Imagine a common scenario in base subnautica, building the cyclops and making it into a mobile base to take with you to the lost river and cove. Now imagine that leaving the cyclops in the lost river or the cove means instant death, making the cyclops or prawn MANDATORY to be down there. And now imagine that the ghost leviathan can tear holes in the cyclops and sink it almost too fast for you to even react. Being close to it would be pant shittingly terrifying because if you upset it you instantly die, the cyclops is the only thing protecting you from the depth and the only thing keeping you alive so avoiding the leviathan at all costs is crucial to your survival. So now you have to cross the river on the slowest possible speed, silent mode on, all lights off, and just pray it doesn't notice you, the cyclops slowly feeling like a death trap, THAT is terror.

In my opinion, the main thing I want back in Subnautica 3 is a wide open environment. I think enclosed caves can work, but Subnautica is a game where you are trapped in an ocean, and the ocean IS a wide expanse of water. The enclosed spaces we see in Below Zero should only be a small fraction of the map, and they should be inhabited by threats that suit it. I also think they shouldn't give us as much information as they did. The original game sort of replicated the spirit of the Metroid Prime games, where you had some direction, but it was mostly up to you to explore and find things. Below Zero on the other hand felt like I was constantly being railroaded by the story. It didn't feel like I was exploring a vast hostile alien world, it felt like I was on a roller coaster. On the topic of things mentioned at the end of the video: I think co-op has the potential to be implemented well, however the game shouldn't be built around it (like, we shouldn't have a two person seamoth, but it would be funny if another player can hold on to it from the outside and deal with the consequences). When it comes to the idea of "birds", I actually like the idea, assuming they exist as a threat for those who linger on the water's surface for too long, and not as a sort of "replacement" for the ice worm. A sort of "eagle" or "pelican" that scoops us out of the water like a fish.

With a video of this much quality, it won't be long before you hit 100k subs

man this video is super well made, very nice!. I think what made Subnautica so great for me, is the exploration. Im the type of guy to explore every bit of every biome before moving to the next, and the original just had more then below zero. Nonetheless both are great games, there is just a clear better one. But that really apllies to any game series.

One of the biggest hits for me was the sound design. I can’t remember a single sound any of the creatures made in below zero. They are so generic. Whereas in the first game I can distinctly imagine the sounds of reapers, ghost levitations, sea dragons, warpers, crab squids, reef backs, and so much more. The reaper scream/roar still gives me chills. It sounds so angry and its incredibly loud. Hearing that iconic roar in the distance skyrockets my heart rate every time. Nothing like that to be heard in below zero.

I just searched up if the pda was bulletproof, and one of the little tabs that I got under it was "why did they change the voice of the pda for below zero" the answer was "The voice was too good. They had to change it to match the quality of the rest of the game." I genuinely sat there laughing my ass off for like 5 minutes 😂

i saw in an interview with one of the developers that coop will be like a bonus, and single player will still be the main focus of the game

Perfect just Perfect you said everything good job

I was one of the early access testers and I can say 100% where the game failed (for me anyways) was how devoid of life the game felt in regards to story, let me explain. My experience in the first game was one of excitement and terror, wanting to learn all I could, find out the story but terrified to go deeper and deeper, and while the first games story isn't fed to you, you DO have to look for PDA's, read scanner results and so on, it was nonetheless there so that by the time the credits rolled you felt complete and happy. The second game by comparison was saturated with story which on the surface SOUNDS good, until you know the truth behind it. Early in the games access there was a tie to the first game in which the baby leviathans you released in the first game would show up in the deep waters and you could obtain the enzyme from them to deal with the khara on the surface instead of them just handing it to you as they do in the live version. It was cute seeing them more grown up, it felt like a full circle moment but it was pulled when a new director (I believe) who didn't like the story and gutted it, rewriting the ENTIRE story to focus more on the protagonist and her "woman power", their words, not mine. The first rendition of the story had Robin more coy and sheepish, certainly more quiet as she explored around and interacted with people and cared more feeling the depth of both your actions, but your sisters and everyone else too, hell her sister was ALIVE in the first rendition of the story, talking to you from a relay station. All of that went out the window and that's why now she's so overly chatty and quippy, they wanted her to be front and center, but by doing that they missed the whole point of making the world the focus and they had done before. I have generally written off below zero because it feels hollow and yet bloated at the same time, so often companies feel the need to reinvent the wheel and its not always needed PS. I STRONGLY suggest you look at the cut content page on the wiki, you'll get a better how about what I'm talking about and how much they GUTTED this game. Everything you said was on the money though so great video :)

One of my biggest pet peves with BZ is the reduction in Titanium and raw minerals. In SB Sandstone and Shale outcrops had multiple types of minerals, in BZ each outcrop type has titanium and a single mineral type. The lack of debris piles as well makes stockpiling titanium reallly difficult.

Phenomenal video, excellently worded and picked up on a lot of subtle but extremely important factors that lesser video essayists wouldn't. Consider me subbed!

a video essay in line with that of beghast truly amazing

When the only thing below zero is the rating

I rarely comment on youtube videos, but I have to make an exception here. This review was simply amazing. I just played both games after each other's for the first time and all of your points you made about how the second game is being worse I could feel too. If Below Zero was a stand alone game it would be okay, but as a successor of the original Subnautica it just doesn't stand a chance. Thank you for this video, it was nice to see/hear that it wasn't just me who had these points against the second game, let's hope (despite what was shown in the twitter post) the third game will go back to being more like the first game was, instead of trying to continue what the second game gave us!

No... only 5k subscribers? this is criminal! you deserve at least a million for this editing and incredible video! like and sub added, if i could add more I would! good luck on future videos!

one of my all time favourite moments in subnautica was back on xbox when it was in EA, I was scaning myself parts for the cyclops near the Aurora and heard the scream of a reaper and the sheer TERROR of swiming as fast as I could towards my seamoth and hopping in it hidden in the nearby mushroom trees, only to see the tail of the reaper just slowly swim by

As the days go by below zero slowly starts getting less and less relavant since most of its QOL features are being ported to subnautica along with extra base building options, kinda lowering below zero's own achievements in the process.

man, I had no idea Wyll was so good at writing scripts and analyzing video games.. Guess he has to fill the time in camp with something.. excellent video!

I have 3 play throughs on Subnautica and 2 on Below Zero. 3 on the first game, because it was so much fun and fascinating. The world, the exploration, the fear... 2 on the second game, because on the first run my endgame was somehow bugged and I couldn't progress at the very end of the game. So I had to play everything again from the start.

I played subnautica for the first earlier this year and I absolutely loved it, I consider it as one of my favorite games part of why I loved it so much is that I was able to feel like it was really me doing the discovery, I would sometimes look up after hours from my screen just to realize I wasn't in an alien ocean right now I also loved the loneliness of subnautica, you only see the remnants of people, hear their tales that happened without you and see what's left of a civilization that is also long gone. The only being that talks to you happens to be at the very end of the game. The soundtrack, the beautiful surroundings and creatures made this so special, I remember being so scared by JUST a soundtrack that I had to turn back even though there was no threat around. I would give a lot to experience subnautica again, I doubt anything will ever compare