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Comment by Harmohit | Hacker News Reader

[Spoiler Alert] Subnautica is amazing! I remember the first time I discovered the huge turtle whales - it was such a surreal feeling. The world design of the game does such a good job of offering a guided exploration that feels completely natural. The contours of Subnautica's world guide you into specific areas and every area has something new to offer - it truly feels like exploring another planet.

Moreover, the sense of fear that I felt when I saw a dangerous looking creature was quite stronger than what I have felt playing several 'horror' games.

Unfortunately, I stopped playing when progressing became too dependent on farming and building - two things that I do not like. I would love to play an exploration only version of the game.

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"Unfortunately, I stopped playing when progressing became too dependent on farming and building"

Same for me. The micromanagement of storing stuff needed for new things to build and organizing it all put me off.

There are mods that fix this by allowing you to build things using resources from nearby containers automatically, among other quality of life tweaks. I really wish I had known about them before I finished the game as the endgame would have been a lot better. I probably would have explored more of the base building part of the game.

Still an incredible game.

Oh. I also should have checked for that. Thanks, I will probably give it a second try then.

The game actually does a pretty masterful job of tricking players and convincing them to go way, way overboard in their preparations. The submarine/mobile base and the robotic mining suit aren't even necessary to finish the game. The final levels of the game can actually be finished just by swimming freely with the seaglide. The rare material that's only available in those levels can be picked up as broken pieces laying on the sea floor, and IIRC you only need 6 pieces of it to finish the game.

> The game actually does a pretty masterful job of tricking players and convincing them to go way, way overboard in their preparations.

The serenity of this game, occasionally punctured by jump scares from the deep - yeah, it will do that to you. You better believe I had a goddamn submarine loaded for bear (whatever that means in an almost completely non-violent game) before approaching the final levels.

> The world design of the game does such a good job of offering a guided exploration that feels completely natural.

I must have been too dense to figure this game out. I gave it like 4-5 hours and couldn’t establish a sense of “ok this is the next goal” sense.

In my opinion, the way Subnautica motivates is players to play is through a natural sense of exploration - it wants you to think, "This is such a cool planet, I want to explore it" and not "What is the most efficient way of making these numbers/progress bars on the screen go up."

I totally understand what you mean though. I passed on Dark Souls on my first try due to the lack of a specific goal but it is my favourite game of all time now.

The first rule of Subnautica: if in doubt, go deeper :).

But yeah, I remember there were a few moments I wasn't exactly sure what I'm supposed to be doing; fortunately, the world was interesting enough to explore that I ended up stumbling on "next steps" at random. Probably as intended - the game doesn't really force you into taking a specific path horizontally; the vertical axis provides a natural progression path. See also: the first paragraph :).

<mild storyline spoiler alert> except if You're in the void just outside the main continent </spoiler>

Oh right. "Warning. Entering ecological dead zone." Wait, what?!

Below Zero is easier to play with less building, give it a try.

But the land parts are annoying.

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