Subnautica

They told me it was a survival game. Nobody mentioned the survival part was sprint-swimming from a demon shrimp, fighting a sea cucumber with a pocket knife, and being stalked by things that shouldn’t have that many teeth—or that much rage.
11/10 would hyperventilate again

One of the best games I've ever played in my life. Graphics, beautiful, the quality of the music and sound, absolutely amazing. Play the game, it's worth your time and money. Bravo, Subnautica.

I support the original game developers of Subnautica, but I do NOT support KRAFTON for their scummy actions, and I will NOT be buying Subnautica II or anything from those scumbags!
You fired the founders of Unknown Worlds, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, as well as Chief Executive Officer Ted Gill and you are delaying Subnautica 2 just to avoid paying the bonus to the developers.

Why Subnautica Stands Out
Intro & Positives
I played Subnautica for the first time in 2024, and the this game really impressed me. Normally, I am not the biggest fan of the crafting and survival game because all of them feel and look same to me. But Subnautica manages to be different from others in its genre. It's not just about gathering resources and building stuff; it's about exploring this beautiful, mystical underwater world that feels alive. It is a game full of atmosphere, and mystery. The one thing I most liked was the underwater environment: detailed, creative, with various biomes, it really feels like a place. You get this sense of wonder when you swim around, find new areas, and see strange creatures. The story was interesting too and gave me a reason to press onward.
Negatives
With that said, there were certainly a few things I did not quite enjoy as much. There were points when it seemed I spent more time grinding for materials than actually exploring or enjoying the story. Also, some of the survival mechanics-such as managing food and water-actually became quite frustrating at times. The negatives for me were still significantly outweighed by the positives.
Conclusion
Subnautica, for me, was one of those games that felt very different compared to most survival games and had me hooked from start to finish. Having played this game, I'm looking forward to Subnautica 2, even though it doesn't give great signals.
SILVER MEDAL
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This game literally changed my life, it changed the way I view the worlds beauty and gave me a deeper interest in marine life. I'll never forget my first play-through. I can't recommend Subnautica enough, the world building and story telling are amazing, it really makes you feel like you're living on 4546b. The balance of wanting to beat the game and never wanting it to be over because you fall in love with the world is a feeling I don't think will ever be recreated for me quite the same way. I've been playing this game for years and it still hasn't lost it touch even after all this time. You'll enjoy this game for it's game play and mechanics, but you'll fall in love with it for it's rich story, amazing ecosystems, captivating wildlife, and deep world-building. I recommend playing this game not for the ending (though it is amazing) but for the journey there, take your time, explore every nook cranny and tiny cave, listen to the PDA entries, scan the wildlife and read about how they live, build not just a house or a base but a home, look for easter eggs, and dive into every wonder-filled biome no matter how deep and dark. You will be rewarded. It's unique charm is everywhere you look and it's worth every second and penny you spend on it. I could go on and on about how much I love this game but I think it's better you play it for yourself.
It isn't without a bug or flaw here and there, like sometimes the fauna and vehicles can clip through the floor, and I wish there was a way to customize the inside of the cyclops color or the outside of your bases more, and if you could dock your cyclops somehow so it didn't just sit next to your base without much of a true home I would love that, perhaps the sequel can add a larger moon bay. And I'd love more ways to make inventory management easier, like an expandable bag of some kind or simply the sea-glide only taking 4 slots would be great too. But those are really my only nit-picks, this game is amazing and I can't thank the devs enough for making it. I'm beyond excited for Subnautica 2 to release. This game competes with Minecraft, Breath of the wild, and Pokemon for the title of my favorite game. Yet when someone asks me what my favorite game is, Subnautica always comes to mind first. Just play it, it's a 10/10.

I've been playing this game for years, on a variety of platforms. I recently purchased it again on Steam, so it's about time I left a review.
This right here is one of the best survival games I've ever played, which is surprising, as I usually stray away from single player survival games because there is no social aspect involved for them to keep my attention.
However, in the case of Subnautica, the "lonely" and isolated aspects are part of the reason I love it so much. It is really immersive and illustrates the feeling of being stranded by yourself, in an alien planet, perfectly.
There is really no way to describe being at the bottom of the ocean, nothing but pitch black around you, and then seeing the silhouette of a giant sea creature in the distance. It really rattled my bones the first few times I had to make my way to the Aurora.
Graphics are great, considering that it is a game from 2018. Incredibly optimized, and I can run it with ease even on my Steam Deck.
On the other hand, something that really impressed me was the detail and attention that went into the sound design. The soundtrack and general eeriness of the underwater sounds make this one of the most immersive games I've ever played (headphones recommended).
The progression system is also extremely satisfying, and at no point did I feel that the crafting was too tedious or overwhelming.
You can literally play for hours and not get bored, only problem being that good things come to an end (expect 30-40 hours). I honestly wish that I could wipe my memory of this game, just so that I can experience it blindly once again!
Overall, this is definitely one of my favorite games of all time, with one of the most interesting concepts I've ever seen. I would give it a 9.5/10

Subnautica is a "crafting survival" kind of game done right. You won't be farming mobs for XP, punching trees for 10 minutes straight or otherwise grinding ridiculous amounts of materials for basic crafting and upgrades. What you will be doing instead is mostly exploring and uncovering the mysteries of this game's gorgeous depths, utilizing vehicles rarely seen in other games and improving your gear so you could go deeper. You of course could gather lots of materials and build giant bases should you want to but strictly speaking it is neither required nor really meaningfully rewarded by the game. You'll need a starter base and one, at most two more in deeper areas. Subnautica is about going on a journey, quite often in a literal sense, learning about its world and the story behind the player character's situation and ultimately - getting out of there. Resource gathering is simply means to an end and fortunately you don't need that much. Progress is gated by exploration and some gear upgrades as more advanced and rare resources are only found in biomes that are farther away from the starting area.
The atmosphere, music, visuals, setting are all stellar. Story is... functional, I guess. It is there but it doesn't make too much sense. Good enough to not get in the way which is not necessarily bad on its own. Plenty of plot holes if you really care but definitely nothing bad enough to shatter your suspension of disbelief.
I would like to make a separate point regarding the behaviour of other life forms seen in the game world. Most of them are quite simply animals and they behave like animals would. Won't delve into detail as not to spoil anything, but the majority of other living beings are as preoccupied with their own survival as the player is.
It was refreshing to simply be done with this kind the game in 50 hours or so but really it could be finished in around 30. Instead of wasting the player's time in grind-build-upgrade cycles Subnautica logically wraps up and has a defined, meaningful ending.
My two complaints would be performance and inventory management. Subnautica looks very pleasing and even cozy most of the time but also for the game of its age and graphical complexity it is very poorly optimised. I only had a good experience thanks to my system being much more potent than those that Subnautica was expected to be ran on release. As for inventory management, the game simply lacks even most basic QoL features but fortunately there are mods to fix that. One I would wholeheartedly recommend is EasyCraft. Others worthy of note would be Base Kits, Quick Slots Plus, Better Scanner Blips, Tweaks And Fixes and Defabricator.
But overall Subnautica is an easiest recommendation ever, it is one of the best if not THE best game in the whole genre. I wish I played it sooner. Just remember - if you are feeling lost all you need to do is explore and go deeper.