After waiting for what seems like years (and literally has been), Subnautica finally has an official release date. Six days from now on January 23, 2018 Unknown Worlds Entertainment will be dropping their final product for PC. Mostly known for being accessed through the Steam web page, Subnautica has slowly taken over the masses with the ever growing story line, new creatures and simplified mechanics.
Originally released in early access in December of 2014 on PC, Subnautica had the basics down and some of the graphics too. Players are in a position where their ship has crash landed on an alien planet that is almost completely covered with water. From the beginning players have to survive and use their new underwater surroundings to thrive. Building is essential in the game, much like Minecraft, players will get to collect various metals and materials to make bases to quickly access for essentials like oxygen, energy and food.
As the game progressed with many bug fixes and updates of various in-game additions such as difficulty level, Subnautica became more of what an ocean should be. Many different aquatic creatures roam the depths and not all of them are friendly or edible. But for the brave at heart and those willing to test the limits of the suits they are equipped with, creatures wait at the darkest depths to be discovered. For achievement seekers, some of the creatures, if you come close enough will unlock cards too.
Now that the full version is about to be released, some immediate changes that I could see are the graphics and some changes to the PDA. For me, when I first played, the PDA was very time consuming and difficult to understand. There were tabs that expanded horizontally with little to no explanation and there just seemed to be a lot of unnecessary clutter. The system now has a vertical expansion and a PDA that groups the main decisions in a rounded bubble format. Items are easier to categorize and access which makes quick decisions a lot more aesthetically pleasing. Graphically, the water and depths such as plants and creatures are fascinating. Buildings and ships look just as good as the first releases too. This should make exploration much more intriguing.
Hopefully when the game finally launches there won’t be any server crashes and file corrupting bugs but the community is very responsive to complaints and Unknown Worlds Entertainment is actively updating to their posts about what is being worked on or fixed. There is a lot of time to be invested in this game so I suggest that players take their time and just enjoy the environment before continuing with the plot. Once things get going Subnautica will be hard to walk away from.
Subnautica will be available on PC on January 23, and for PS4 and Xbox in 2018.
