Comments about the seaworth update and the future
Sorenzor
Madrid, Spain Join Date: 2020-04-04 Member: 259618Members
Madrid, Spain Join Date: 2020-04-04 Member: 259618Members
I want to say that I am loving below zero. With every new update I have started a new game and finished it (so far as the game lets me go) and I enjoyed every time. I don't care about going there again tomorrow, really, so satisfying it's being.
However, with the last early access update there are a few things that make me worried. Things that I thought were gonna be different in the final game and I am now pretty sure they won't be.
Early in the development I thought I read that we would be able to use the other two main vehicles from the original subnautica. Now it seems obvious they won't be in the game. Only the seatruck. And I'll be honest, I see zero reason to use any module other than the head. They are relatively cool, but useless, the game is way too short to give them use. I got all the materials to finish the game in 5 hours or less, of course, I know where they are, but I needed nothing to carry them. I went to get magnetite once. Once. In the entire game. And that's not uncommon, if that once time I got 25 pieces. But I didn't. Just 10 or so were enough, maybe less. I don't remember. It was... why there are so many materials in the game, when I need so little to finish it? It feels strange. I want to go out there to explore and collect materials but I have no reason to do it. None. I got the module to stock stuff but I have no reason to use it, that much space is useless by the time I got it. By the time I was ABLE to craft it.
Another thing that worries me is how small the map is. They managed to make the lands a maze so they look bigger than they really are, and there are materials there, a lot if you know how to search for them... the thing is, I don't need them either. At all. There is an instrument to keep the worm far away from you, they give the blueprint to the player when the player is already there. It doesn't make sense, give me the module already crafted, I won't be going back to craft it to my base, that's a pain in the ass, I just got through the bridge. Don't make me turn again. Totally useless... I have never used it in any of my playthroughs, It was a pain sometimes going through the worm (a matter of pure luck) but it wasn't impossible. So whatever.
Third thing I am worried about is how easy is the game and the absolute lack of menace. Once you get the perimeter defense upgrade, you are invincible. Congratulations, every travel will be a breeze. I mean, I can go in a straight line to my objective, if something catches me, I just click, the thing releases me and I don't even need to move my trajectory. I don't even move. I just click and keep ignoring the menace. In the original subnautica AT THE VERY LEAST it was disorienting. I had to move to my path again. Here... there's nothing. In the original subnautica they could sink your submarine, specially the big one, or hit you enough times to sink you. Here, they only grab you. So I am effectively invincible, the amount of damage is 1 or 2 per catch. Maybe 3. Out of 100.
Zero menace. I enjoy the game because it's beautiful and I enjoy traveling through the sea, it's a cool experience... but the feeling of adventure is far, far smaller compared to the original.
I am not crying because the game is not scary anymore, it has its moments, few and far between though. I can appreciate the change of tone to a more... joyful one. The problem is that I am effectively invincible in a survival game. That's the problem. The bigger creatures should be more menacing, not less menacing, as they are now.
Lastly, the last thing I am worried about is the story. I am sure there will be some twist or something... there must be... because right now, there's nothing there. So yeah, I am worried. What is there it's cool, but it's not too much if this is the last early access update. Maybe we only saw half of the story, that would be great. But I am starting to doubt it. If you are gonna change your narrative style to make a story driven game, you need a good story or everything falls flat.
In my previous comments about this game, I was more optimistic (I hope). Now, knowing this is the last early access update, I am genuinely worried. Because I love what is here but as a complete game, it falls flat by a lot. It's much, much inferior to the original, it only wins in the base building mechanics, and just because it adds a few cool structures, not too many, just two or three that are actually an improvement. About the rest, it's a different experience, but not only that, it's a lite experience for everything that the original Subnautica brought to us.
I really hope the final game delivers more than I am starting to expect. But I am afraid it won't.
However, with the last early access update there are a few things that make me worried. Things that I thought were gonna be different in the final game and I am now pretty sure they won't be.
Early in the development I thought I read that we would be able to use the other two main vehicles from the original subnautica. Now it seems obvious they won't be in the game. Only the seatruck. And I'll be honest, I see zero reason to use any module other than the head. They are relatively cool, but useless, the game is way too short to give them use. I got all the materials to finish the game in 5 hours or less, of course, I know where they are, but I needed nothing to carry them. I went to get magnetite once. Once. In the entire game. And that's not uncommon, if that once time I got 25 pieces. But I didn't. Just 10 or so were enough, maybe less. I don't remember. It was... why there are so many materials in the game, when I need so little to finish it? It feels strange. I want to go out there to explore and collect materials but I have no reason to do it. None. I got the module to stock stuff but I have no reason to use it, that much space is useless by the time I got it. By the time I was ABLE to craft it.
Another thing that worries me is how small the map is. They managed to make the lands a maze so they look bigger than they really are, and there are materials there, a lot if you know how to search for them... the thing is, I don't need them either. At all. There is an instrument to keep the worm far away from you, they give the blueprint to the player when the player is already there. It doesn't make sense, give me the module already crafted, I won't be going back to craft it to my base, that's a pain in the ass, I just got through the bridge. Don't make me turn again. Totally useless... I have never used it in any of my playthroughs, It was a pain sometimes going through the worm (a matter of pure luck) but it wasn't impossible. So whatever.
Third thing I am worried about is how easy is the game and the absolute lack of menace. Once you get the perimeter defense upgrade, you are invincible. Congratulations, every travel will be a breeze. I mean, I can go in a straight line to my objective, if something catches me, I just click, the thing releases me and I don't even need to move my trajectory. I don't even move. I just click and keep ignoring the menace. In the original subnautica AT THE VERY LEAST it was disorienting. I had to move to my path again. Here... there's nothing. In the original subnautica they could sink your submarine, specially the big one, or hit you enough times to sink you. Here, they only grab you. So I am effectively invincible, the amount of damage is 1 or 2 per catch. Maybe 3. Out of 100.
Zero menace. I enjoy the game because it's beautiful and I enjoy traveling through the sea, it's a cool experience... but the feeling of adventure is far, far smaller compared to the original.
I am not crying because the game is not scary anymore, it has its moments, few and far between though. I can appreciate the change of tone to a more... joyful one. The problem is that I am effectively invincible in a survival game. That's the problem. The bigger creatures should be more menacing, not less menacing, as they are now.
Lastly, the last thing I am worried about is the story. I am sure there will be some twist or something... there must be... because right now, there's nothing there. So yeah, I am worried. What is there it's cool, but it's not too much if this is the last early access update. Maybe we only saw half of the story, that would be great. But I am starting to doubt it. If you are gonna change your narrative style to make a story driven game, you need a good story or everything falls flat.
In my previous comments about this game, I was more optimistic (I hope). Now, knowing this is the last early access update, I am genuinely worried. Because I love what is here but as a complete game, it falls flat by a lot. It's much, much inferior to the original, it only wins in the base building mechanics, and just because it adds a few cool structures, not too many, just two or three that are actually an improvement. About the rest, it's a different experience, but not only that, it's a lite experience for everything that the original Subnautica brought to us.
I really hope the final game delivers more than I am starting to expect. But I am afraid it won't.
Comments
Are you really telling me that I am the ONLY freaking person that finds that annoying?
Right now the worm is the most frustrating part of the game and to be honest, it's a great game in general. A bit lacking compared to the original but pretty damn good in general. However what makes it specially frustrating is that fixing the worm is not so hard to understand: Give the player control. Give the player the ability to feel some control over the worm's attacks. How? Maybe through movement. The player should be able to move slower to keep the worm from attacking to a certain degree.
If that "tool" is already implemented, it's not obvious enough. I still find it a lot even if I just walk slowly.
If the player feels that he or she can do something about the worm, and that the attacks are his choice (because he wanted to run) or his mistake, then the worm changes, it stops being an environmental hazard, annoying and unpredictable, to become a mechanic that the player can master.
You tried to do that with the thumper but I don't think it worked at all. If you still wanted to double down on that, you should give it for free to the player.
I think it's too late for this but anyway, I leave my thoughts. The game is still pretty good. But that worm had a lot of potential to be truly interesting from a gameplay point of view.
Well, the game starts telling you that your sister died, together with another coworker. I asume that Alterra mandated an investigation and the team was retired to some base while the investigation took course, and probably they would think in changing the team, to replace the loses and maybe punish the manager... Those people died under his nose.
That's what I thought anyway.
I have kept playing to this game and I keep thinking that it feels much smaller. And the last biomes, the crystal caverns and the fabricator caverns are cool the first time but... every part of them feels the same, they are mazes that feel unnatural. The lost river felt like a real place, dark and whatever. The crystal cavers don't. They feel almost randomly generated, there's nothing down there, except some resources that we already have (I did except cianite, but it was so easy to get just arriving) by that point and a lot of wasted space. There are two or three scans, and that's all.
You go there to complete the main quest, there's not other reasons.
Someone told me in other forum regarding the critic of mine, about the dark leviathan, that in Subnautica 1 it was the same except for the ghost leviathan. It's not true. The sea dragon could eat you or launch fireballs at you, and better have a very well prepared cyclops or you could easily die down there, in the lava caves. The dark leviathan is just not a menace at any level, he is there just for show.
Subnautica is not a game about menaces, about powerful enemies, it's a very easy game. But the fact the there is the possibility to die and the need to protect yourself, adds to the immersion of the game. Below Zero only has that with the cold in the surface, and that's only before you get the thermal clothes (freaking easy to get).
By the way, the same critic I said about the crystal caverns I can apply to the surface lands in below zero. They look SLIGHTLY more natural but not by a lot. To look natural they should be more open, better connected with each other. The way they are, they feel like rooms.
None of those problems ruin the game. But it's sad to see the huge potential it had wasted. Maybe 2020 was a terrible year for Unknown worlds, because I didn't see a huge difference in the last update. Maybe the game would be much better if not for the pandemic. I doubt it. But who knows.
And I am afraid that it's too late for the developers to fix these problems, to be honest. They may add something more, some late enemy or some new movement to the dark leviathans, I don't know. But the cavern crystals seems to be empty forever, the surface lands seem to be an unnatural selection of rooms forever, etc...
I wish they can improve the story a little bit at least. Make it actually interesting or meaningful. At some level at least...
Read my mind