Hey there Enthusiacs!

About a year ago I wrote about a game in early access on Steam called Subnautica. I raved about it. I went on about how it was gorgeous and fun and a great survival “sandbox” (pun intended). For a game that had its fair share of bugs and other problems, I loved it anyway. Well, I’m happy to look back at that article now, after recently getting back into it, to see that it’s only gotten better. Sure it still has its little bugs, and a few odd quirks, but it’s very nice to see a company continue to stand by their title, and consistently return to add more features and bug fixes.

It’s worth noting that the bugs I do encounter aren’t game-breaking. You may be able to see through a mountain for a bit, or fall through the floor of your sea base once or twice (this has fixed itself with a reboot of the game) but when you consider that Subnautica is still in early access, this isn’t surprising. I do recommend that you save, and often, but almost every time I’ve had to reload a save has been when I forgot something I needed and didn’t want to waste the power in my cyclops, or when a reaper grabbed my seamoth and we didn’t have the welder tool yet to fix it. So yes, it’s not perfect, but I spent about $15 on it and have now logged 50 hours, so it’s been more than worth my money. And there are many, many bugs they have fixed, so bravo to them on doing their best.

Now let’s get into some of the changes since I played it last. From the graphics themselves to the multipurpose room and its awesome additions, to the welder tool and on, a lot has been added since last year.

I’d like to start off with the overhaul they recently did to the graphics of the water itself, which is no small part of this game. As you can see from the above images, the graphics have improved immensely, and I often find myslef just stopping whatever I’m doing to just look around and take in the sights. What was once a beautiful game is now even more breathtaking.

The multipurpose room is a very welcome addition to Subnautica. Not only is it nice to have larger areas to walk around in, but it is now necessary thanks to two of my favorite newer items. The water filtration machine is such a huge help, and a major time-saver. This handy machine, once crafted and built into the multipurpose room (which is required, because of the size) produces two big bottles of water and two salt deposits every 15 minutes or so. You don’t need to add anything into the machine, as it takes water on its own from the outside, but you do need to make sure your base is adequately powered, as this thing is an energy hog. I have about 4 solar panels, and that is enough for me. The machine will stop working when the 4 slots are full, so it’s worth noting that if you camp out, and keep taking them right away all day, you’re gonna run out of power. But I’ve never felt the need to, as each large water bottle it produces gives you +50 water. In comparison, the disinfected water you can fabricate with bleach grants +40, and using an airsack to craft a small filtered water gives just +20. The salt extracted from the machine is equally useful, when you consider how much cured food you’ll be able to stock up on without needing to spend your time searching for salt.

The topic of food brings me to my other favorite addition: the alien containment tank. This one will require its own multipurpose room due to its very large size, although you can fit in some lockers or other items on the wall around it. The alien containment works much like a large aquarium, but you build a hatch into the side, and can enter it to release live creatures that you catch. As long as you have at least two of any type of fish, they will breed and create more. Before you know it, your containment will be full of fish, and this is a major time-saver as well. No longer will you have to swim about for ages trying to grab those elusive peepers. Once it has reached capacity, the fauna will stop breeding, however, if you build a second multipurpose room above it, and craft a second alien containment tank in there, the tanks will merge automatically, and become one two-story tank which will hold more. I see this as a must-have in Subnautica. I love the survival aspects of this game, but I hate wasting time trying to catch fish that are faster than me and dart side-to-side to get away from me.

The moonpool is a very cool room you can add to any sea base that’s main function is to dock and modify the seamoth. You simply drive it up to the surface, and the mechanical arms grab hold of your craft. While it is docked, it gets charged via the sea base’s power source. There is also a modification station that you can build into the moonpool that will allow you to craft modules for the seamoth. You can even change the color of your seamoth to perfectly match (or tragically clash) with your cyclops. Yes, my seamoth and cyclops are both adorably pink, don’t judge me!

Two other things I just adore are the battery and power cell chargers! Thanks to these machines that you can build into any base, and the cyclops as I did if you wish, you don’t need to craft either batteries or power cells over and over anymore. As long as you have a couple of spare power cells, you can switch them out and charge two at a time, effectively meaning you can keep the cyclops running forever without running out of power. Love heading out with your seaglide but run out of batteries too quickly? Craft that battery charger into your cyclops too, and you’ll never get stranded with a dead seaglide again.

They’ve also added a first aid kit fabricator that automatically produces a med kit about twice a day (in-game time). There is one inside your pod, but you can also add one to the cyclops, or any seabase with the habitat builder tool. And while I’m talking about tools, the welder is FANTASTIC!! Before, I wanted to cry when my seamoth took damage, but now I just hop out, weld away, and move on. I also highly recommend crafting the swim charge fins as soon as you can, since these hand-held tools get recharged simply for swimming around.

As time goes on, I am appreciating more and more the self-sustaining aspect of this game. It’s not just about building a base and your cyclops while barely keeping up on your simple needs anymore. The people at Unknown Worlds are really creating a world in Subnautica that you can not only survive in, but thrive in as well.

Xoxo,
Dark Princess