After new playthrough, Subnautica 2 needs to go back to basics....

[diseasedCow]

I love Subnautica. But the allure is how alone you are in the ocean. To top it all off, you will die soon from bacteria if you don't find a cure. Below Zero added an underdeveloped protagonist, some shoddy backstory, horrible above ground sections, a tiny space to nagivate in, and no agency to explore. I mean, what else could go wrong with Subnautica 2? They truly need to understand why the OG Sub worked so well. Doesnt have to be an exact blueprint....just dont turn it into some coop multiplayer live-service garbage. Because those are the vibes im getting from the trailer.

[Pisaro]

Originally posted by diseasedCow:

I love Subnautica. But the allure is how alone you are in the ocean. To top it all off, you will die soon from bacteria if you don't find a cure. Below Zero added an underdeveloped protagonist, some shoddy backstory, horrible above ground sections, a tiny space to nagivate in, and no agency to explore. I mean, what else could go wrong with Subnautica 2? They truly need to understand why the OG Sub worked so well. Doesnt have to be an exact blueprint....just dont turn it into some coop multiplayer live-service garbage. Because those are the vibes im getting from the trailer.

Coop/ when you can play with real life friends makes every game in the world better.

[Top Gun]

Originally posted by トルステン:

Coop/ when you can play with real life friends makes every game in the world better.

Eh, not really. A big part of why I play games is to get away from other human beings for a while.

[sgrey]

Originally posted by トルステン:

Originally posted by diseasedCow:

I love Subnautica. But the allure is how alone you are in the ocean. To top it all off, you will die soon from bacteria if you don't find a cure. Below Zero added an underdeveloped protagonist, some shoddy backstory, horrible above ground sections, a tiny space to nagivate in, and no agency to explore. I mean, what else could go wrong with Subnautica 2? They truly need to understand why the OG Sub worked so well. Doesnt have to be an exact blueprint....just dont turn it into some coop multiplayer live-service garbage. Because those are the vibes im getting from the trailer.

Coop/ when you can play with real life friends makes every game in the world better.

imo if subnautica had coop, it would've ruined the game. You just can't have the same atmosphere if some smartass friend running around cracking jokes when you try to be scared deep in the bulb zone or lost river.
Also, I hate coop. I don't want it. It almost never makes games better. That's what I think.

[[BR]Raonic]

You know co-op is optional right? You can still play alone if you don't like playing with people. As for the live-service part I'm pretty sure they confirmed there will be no micro-transactions, but I don't remember the source so I'll check later.
I do agree that they should move away from the direction Below Zero, but for now it's way too early to tell if whether or not they will.

[dreamrider]

Originally posted by BRRaonic:

You know co-op is optional right? You can still play alone if you don't like playing with people. As for the live-service part I'm pretty sure they confirmed there will be no micro-transactions, but I don't remember the source so I'll check later.
I do agree that they should move away from the direction Below Zero, but for now it's way too early to tell if whether or not they will.

This is not always true. It IS supposed to be a toggle in "SN 2", however.

[johnlucci]

I've rarely ever found a game that does both single player and coop well. Even if its optional, I seriously doubt those looking for a single player experience will enjoy it if its trying to also balance a coop experience.

[Drunkenstein]

Originally posted by トルステン:

Originally posted by diseasedCow:

I love Subnautica. But the allure is how alone you are in the ocean. To top it all off, you will die soon from bacteria if you don't find a cure. Below Zero added an underdeveloped protagonist, some shoddy backstory, horrible above ground sections, a tiny space to nagivate in, and no agency to explore. I mean, what else could go wrong with Subnautica 2? They truly need to understand why the OG Sub worked so well. Doesnt have to be an exact blueprint....just dont turn it into some coop multiplayer live-service garbage. Because those are the vibes im getting from the trailer.

Coop/ when you can play with real life friends makes every game in the world better.

You don't have friends, which is why you need co-op to compensate for it

[Sephiroth]

Originally posted by BRRaonic:

You know co-op is optional right?

Well, not really. A game with coop needs to be designed for coop, else it doesn't work. With games with ressource gathering this usually also means higher amount of ressources needed, aka you have to do more work when playing alone.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by diseasedCow:

I love Subnautica. But the allure is how alone you are in the ocean. To top it all off, you will die soon from bacteria if you don't find a cure. Below Zero added an underdeveloped protagonist, some shoddy backstory, horrible above ground sections, a tiny space to nagivate in, and no agency to explore. I mean, what else could go wrong with Subnautica 2? They truly need to understand why the OG Sub worked so well. Doesnt have to be an exact blueprint....just dont turn it into some coop multiplayer live-service garbage. Because those are the vibes im getting from the trailer.

Yeah... After Below Zero - i'm cautiously skeptical about 2.
They can always do the "oops, crash landed on uncharted planet" thing, but i don't know... Won't work a 2nd time, me thinks.

They could pull a Barotrauma: maybe we are sent here with a mission in mind: gotta find some McGuffin or another. Or maybe they could really double down on base-building elements and our mission is to build an important facility and in order to achieve this goal we need to keep collecting rarer and rarer materials, thus causing us to go deeper in search of better resources. Honestly doesn't sound too good, but i'll take it...
The super mega alien we saw in the trail implies another alien encounter. Maybe we will have an antagonist for once.

[sgrey]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by diseasedCow:

I love Subnautica. But the allure is how alone you are in the ocean. To top it all off, you will die soon from bacteria if you don't find a cure. Below Zero added an underdeveloped protagonist, some shoddy backstory, horrible above ground sections, a tiny space to nagivate in, and no agency to explore. I mean, what else could go wrong with Subnautica 2? They truly need to understand why the OG Sub worked so well. Doesnt have to be an exact blueprint....just dont turn it into some coop multiplayer live-service garbage. Because those are the vibes im getting from the trailer.

Yeah... After Below Zero - i'm cautiously skeptical about 2.
They can always do the "oops, crash landed on uncharted planet" thing, but i don't know... Won't work a 2nd time, me thinks.

They could pull a Barotrauma: maybe we are sent here with a mission in mind: gotta find some McGuffin or another. Or maybe they could really double down on base-building elements and our mission is to build an important facility and in order to achieve this goal we need to keep collecting rarer and rarer materials, thus causing us to go deeper in search of better resources. Honestly doesn't sound too good, but i'll take it...
The super mega alien we saw in the trail implies another alien encounter. Maybe we will have an antagonist for once.

TBH I am highly skeptical of Subnautica 2. It feels to me that the devs do not actually understand why Subnautica was such a good game and a success. Assuming the things shown to us in the trailer, there is a massive flooded alient city there with new massive aliens. But we also have a team working with us, probably other people with coop and/or NPCs. It also feels from the trailer that the game will be a more "feel-good" base builder and "go fetch and/or scan that rare resource thing" kind of game. I think devs looked at youtube videos, collected information about what people did most often there and decided to build a new game focusing on that. Which is exploration and base building. But there is a lot more to why the game is good than that.
Basically all elements that worked in the first game would be gone. And I am all for a lighthearted base builder and exploration game, but that's just not Subnautica.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by sgrey:

I think devs looked at youtube videos, collected information about what people did most often there and decided to build a new game focusing on that. Which is exploration and base building. But there is a lot more to why the game is good than that.
Basically all elements that worked in the first game would be gone. And I am all for a lighthearted base builder and exploration game, but that's just not Subnautica.

A fairly common occurrence actually. Happens with movies too - sometimes people just don't understand what they got right the first time and focus on wrongs things, which causes the Sequel-Downward-Spiral syndrome as franchise becomes a parody of itself.

There's always a chance they'll get it right. But its definitely below 50% at this point.

[sgrey]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by sgrey:

I think devs looked at youtube videos, collected information about what people did most often there and decided to build a new game focusing on that. Which is exploration and base building. But there is a lot more to why the game is good than that.
Basically all elements that worked in the first game would be gone. And I am all for a lighthearted base builder and exploration game, but that's just not Subnautica.

A fairly common occurrence actually. Happens with movies too - sometimes people just don't understand what they got right the first time and focus on wrongs things, which causes the Sequel-Downward-Spiral syndrome as franchise becomes a parody of itself.

There's always a chance they'll get it right. But its definitely below 50% at this point.

Yea, you just basically described the whole of Ubisoft. That's exactly how they build all their games in the last 15 years at least.
And it's really not that hard to figure out what people actually want if you simply look at reviews and comments. They say it directly. I think that Below Zero is a clear indicator that devs do not really understand why the first game was so liked, so I am very worried about Subnautica 2. Hopefully the game will be good.

[dhitch89]

Originally posted by sgrey:

TBH I am highly skeptical of Subnautica 2. It feels to me that the devs do not actually understand why Subnautica was such a good game and a success. Assuming the things shown to us in the trailer, there is a massive flooded alient city there with new massive aliens. But we also have a team working with us, probably other people with coop and/or NPCs. It also feels from the trailer that the game will be a more "feel-good" base builder and "go fetch and/or scan that rare resource thing" kind of game. I think devs looked at youtube videos, collected information about what people did most often there and decided to build a new game focusing on that. Which is exploration and base building. But there is a lot more to why the game is good than that.
Basically all elements that worked in the first game would be gone. And I am all for a lighthearted base builder and exploration game, but that's just not Subnautica.

I don't think those were meant to be a continuation of the aliens from BW; more of a new alien world with its own thing going on. Plus from the teaser trailer, the feeling was still definitely Subnautica with "the ocean is terrifying when you don't know what's there".

Not to mention, BW was meant to be standalone as they tried something new. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the new direction they're permanently going in, or that they didn't understand what was good/what worked overall - that new attempt just didn't land as well, which gives them more insight on what not to do the next time round.

So tbh, I think it's still too early for that fear to be set in stone.

[sgrey]

Originally posted by dhitch89:

Originally posted by sgrey:

TBH I am highly skeptical of Subnautica 2. It feels to me that the devs do not actually understand why Subnautica was such a good game and a success. Assuming the things shown to us in the trailer, there is a massive flooded alient city there with new massive aliens. But we also have a team working with us, probably other people with coop and/or NPCs. It also feels from the trailer that the game will be a more "feel-good" base builder and "go fetch and/or scan that rare resource thing" kind of game. I think devs looked at youtube videos, collected information about what people did most often there and decided to build a new game focusing on that. Which is exploration and base building. But there is a lot more to why the game is good than that.
Basically all elements that worked in the first game would be gone. And I am all for a lighthearted base builder and exploration game, but that's just not Subnautica.

I don't think those were meant to be a continuation of the aliens from BW; more of a new alien world with its own thing going on. Plus from the teaser trailer, the feeling was still definitely Subnautica with "the ocean is terrifying when you don't know what's there".

Not to mention, BW was meant to be standalone as they tried something new. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the new direction they're permanently going in, or that they didn't understand what was good/what worked overall - that new attempt just didn't land as well, which gives them more insight on what not to do the next time round.

So tbh, I think it's still too early for that fear to be set in stone.

I am gonna assume by BW you mean Below Zero. Notice that I haven't really mentioned it at all. I am looking at the trailer for Subnautica 2 only and even the poster for the game have 2 characters on it. Which can only mean one of 2 things: its either coop or there will be a team of NPCs with you. In either case it's not the Subnautica we knew. And btw, is it only me or that alien from the poster looks like a Reaper from Mass Effect?
Anyway, look at the trailer - the characters in it are all happy and smiling and the whole thing feels kind of like an action game. That alien is also kind of weird, feels like it's some kind of intelligent life form which might have it's own civilization and not just a preditor like the sea dragon. Although that alien might very well turn out to be friendly and bring them to the surface.
Basically everything in the trailer implies it will be a very different game. Anyway, I do hope that game will be good as I really like Subnautica, but I can tell you I am not preordering anything and keeping my expectations low because this way it can only get better. They are also switching game engines, which means likely a lot of bugs and longer development cycle, not being able to reuse any code and questionable asset reuse.

[dhitch89]

Originally posted by sgrey:

I am gonna assume by BW you mean Below Zero. Notice that I haven't really mentioned it at all. I am looking at the trailer for Subnautica 2 only and even the poster for the game have 2 characters on it. Which can only mean one of 2 things: its either coop or there will be a team of NPCs with you. In either case it's not the Subnautica we knew.

Well, honestly, I think you're making a lot of assumptions that have yet to have any substantial evidence behind them. Because those people "who seemed happy" were soon faced with an ancient Levaithan-class predator who's implied to be about to eat them, analogous to previous Subnautica trailers were we saw a guy (now known to be Bart Torgal) about to be eaten by a Reaper Leviathan.

And how does a sea animal or two = "this might be its own civilization", instead of a predatory in an ocean system? Legitimately, I don't get how you made that connection based upon the teaser, because there's no evidence of civilization beneath the sea (other than the humans) that I saw. And for it to hint toward such, there'd need to be something big like ruins or what-have-you - not just the occasional bases like the OG game, because that could still be evidence of survivors crashing and/or expeditions from whomever the lead company is (like Alterra).

Plus having more than one person around automatically "doesn't make it Subnautica"? That is a stretch imo, because you can have a similar Subnautica experience - terror of the deep, not knowing what it's like down there as you explore the unknown - even with the occasional person beyond the PC. Even Below Zero had that (any difference in effectiveness aside) because it was a new environment with new places/threats to explore, so I don't think they're mutually exclusive.