Why I love Subnautica, dislike Below Zero, and have no interest in the next game.

[dragonbornzyra]

Originally posted by ⎛ Alucard ⎞ ✟:

Whenever i ask why BZ is so "very very bad" i get silence and the negative reviews aren't any insightful either.

Hello Alucard. How's it going? Are you a fan of the original Hellsing, the Ultimate, or both? =) I haven't seen the reboot, can't say if it's good or bad, but then again never interested in it. I adored Hellsing for what it was in all its glory and for all its flaws.

Well, you may have better luck asking those questions on the Below Zero forum, but what I can do for ya, at least, is to answer your question myself here. I can tell you the reasons for me, personally, that drag Below Zero into the category of "very, very bad"

(Potential Spoilers)

Because you see, it isn't like Below Zero disappointed or didn't impress through any innocent fault of its own. It wasn't trying to "break new ground". It wasn't boldly going where no one had gone before. It didn't blindly strike out on its own path only to find itself met with a terrible fate.

It didn't break new ground, because it rode in on Subnautica's coattails, stood on its shoulders, and hoisted up by its praises, mechanics, solid gameplay loop, and established built-in fanbase and community. They already proved proof-of-concept for underwater survival exploration with Subnautica, and survival games, voiced protagonists, and stories, none of which are new or unique. Below Zero does not break any new ground or try to do anything that hasn't been attempted before, and done, better, with more success.

And it wasn't striking out blindly, on its own. It was in Early Access, and had access to the entire communities feedback, through every step of the process. They weren't "blind-sided" by any of the criticism or complaints. They were in fact, made well aware of them the e n t i r e time.

So, Below Zero did not just disappoint while trying its best to give us what we wanted. It disappointed, knowing what we wanted, but instead gave us what it wanted us to have. It knew vast portions if not majority of its community and player fanbase were against such things and choose to go forward and ahead with it anyway. It was their choice. They choose to fight on this hill. I do not pity them for "chosing this hill to die on"

To phrase metaphorically. Let me list off these things for myself and others:
(In no particular order)

*#1*----The map is smaller, horizontally. The map is also more shallow, never going as deep as the first game. And with so much land mass, both land we can traverse upon, and land mass in the form of impassable terrain, on top of a smaller map that is more shallow, there is even LESS "accesssable" volume of water to swim around than it even appears. It's worse than it seems. Because on top of everything being less, smaller, shallower, the limited space we DO have is clustered up with caves, tunnels, debris, terrain, rocks, ice burgs. There is very little space to actually move around. Subnautica made me feel tiny, insignificant, a speck of dust in the way cosmic order of things. Below Zero makes me feel like King of the aquarium and ruler of my domain. I expected more, and got less. Thus, disappointment. They knew about this.

*#2*----This ties into my previous point. The map is smaller. In every concieveable way. Height, width, depth, it's less on every angle. And everything is slower. Robins base swim speed. Robin's swim speed with fins. Lack of Ultraglide Fins. Seaglides speed. Seatruck's non-after burner speed. Seatruck Modules beyond 2nd w/ Horsepower upgrade. Pre Grapple Hook Prawn Suit. I even really, honestly feel like walking on land is slower. And the most egresious offense: They completely knee-capped the Booster tank, it is no longer either practical, nor fun to use. I can only speculate as to "why" I do know know for certain. But I will bet a lot of chips this is to compensate for the smaller map. To make it feel less tiny, player transportation options were nerfed across the board, so as to create some form of artifical depth to the game.

Perhaps players won't realize how small the map is if it takes them so long to go from point A to B. But some will see beyond that and notice how slow they actually are. I wasn't expecting to go f a s t e r in this game. But I certainly didn't expect to be hit with going s l o w e r. Because fast is fun, and slow is boring. This is a disappointment. No one, not one personed asked: Please make us slower in Below Zero. The speed nerf is a net drop to fun in the game.

*#3*----This ties into my previous TWO points, about map size and reduced speed. Both the enjoy from, and the desire to, explore in this game, are hampered and detrimented. Because the world map is so small, so shallow, and the player moves noticably slower than before, we have less to explore, and it takes longer to explore that less. So we get disappointed at seeing less, and we have no fun during this experience because its so slow.

Sure if we were quicker, it'd just mean players would sooner realize how small the map is, explore faster, beat the game faster, but gosh it might come at the consequence of having some more fun. It is a problem that is compounded by the game's other problems. "Ooo what's down this path" Dead end. "Ooo what's in that tunnel" It circles around. "Okay ooo that looks neat" Nothing in there. You start to realize your sense of anticipation and awe for what you find next is either answered with nothing, or, nothing compared to what you were expecting. Or, for me, at least. In a survival/exploration game, when you lose the desire or interest or satisfaction from exploring, there is a serious problem.

*#4*----This ties into the previous three points I've made (Noticing a theme?). This involves both tool/gear usage and vehicle access and performance as one point. And it's due to the map being so small, so shallow, you're so slow, and it's so unfun to go anywhere, and the sense of wonder and joy from exploration is ruined and soured by lack of "content", that there are several pieces of equipment and vehicles that on paper should be by every means fun and delightful to use but just are not. This is all off the top of my head, so I may forget some things and may need to edit this at a later date.
(This is Equipment/Tools/Deployables that are IN the game, not counting cut/missing/removed content)

Equipment:

Booster-Tank: Used to be fun. SO FUN. Used to feel very satisfying and rewarding to use. MUCH YES. MANY TRIUMPH. It made you go FAST. Speed = fun. Slow = boring. Go faster = more fun. More fun = yes. And it made you do a SUPERMAN POSE. Fly through the water! Bonus points! And it made you go faster, at the expense of Oxygen remaining in the tank. Meaning, you were forfeiting the amount of time you could spend underwater without drowning for the ability to go faster. It was a trade off. One that was both fun to use, and when done "properly", felt EXTREMELY rewarding saving yourself from dying, escpaing the maws of a Chelicerate, or rushing back in base in time to grab a snack to prevent death from starvation (however impractical that scenario may be)

However, it was pointed out that you could spam the Booster-Tank infinitely when at the surface of the water. Since the Booster-Tank used Oxygen as fuel to burn to go faster, and at the surface it was constantly "refilling" Players could zoom across on the surface of the water like they were using Jetskis. Now, that was "broken" in the sense it was not the player's intention for the Booster-Tank to function that way. It's intended use and current implimentation were broken. Not like it was OP, or broke the game balance in general. You could still only use it on the water's surface, it was only good for surface horizontal travel. Useless on land and useless underwater, it was more of a convenience than anything.

But this went against UWE's dogma for slowing the player down in every way possible in hopes no one would notice the pathetically small map. Can't let the player go faster. Can't let them have fun. Can't let them find a way to play or enjoy this game other than the one way we intend. So they nerfed the Booster-Tank. Only "works" under water. Burns through oxygen about 3x faster. Provides about 1/10th of the original thrust. It's useless. It is a literal waste of oxygen and might take you 20-40 feet before giving out. It's remarkably bad. Might as well have removed the Booster-Tank for the game as it serves no purpose, has no practiclity, and is no longer fun to use in any capacity. It's a tragedy what they did to this item, and how much FUN was taken from the game by it.

I really mean it. I can't let go how awful I hate the Booster-Tank now.

Fins: This is all you get. Unless they added in Ultraglide fins since I last played. You have no "options" between fins(I do not consider Swimcharge fins an option in Below Zero). There is no tactical choice or strategic use. You have one type of fins. You make them and put them on and forget about them because they make so little difference at all. They aren't fun. There's no sense of "Yeah ok I can swim a lil better with these" There's no tactical need or benefit from having them either. Disappointing.

Reinforced-Divesuit: It's "fun" enough in the sense it gives me an extra hit against Void Chelis and lets me experiment a lil further and give me more windows for mistakes or errors. But there's no creature in the game so dangerous, or an environment so hot/hostile/hazardous to warrant the use of the Reinforced Divesuit, so it's disappointing. In Subnautica, putting this on I knew I could avoid Acid Mushroom damage all together, and nullify Tiger Plant damage. Things I used to be terrified of. I could spend more time in the Lava Zone, I could more safely place Thermal Plants in geyser hot spots without fear of being one shot by an eruption. In general I could survive so much more with it on than with it off. I felt clever and wise by wearing this suit. I was giving up Radiation protection (lol) and the free water from the Stillsuit, but I got protection in return. It felt like a fair and good choice. In Below Zero, I feel nothing having it on. It's a let down. It has no special unique use. Or area that demands or warrants its use over any of the other suits.

Plus, NO GLOVES for the suit.

Stillsuit: What used to be an option of choice between valid suits and different gameplay styles, there's no reason to ever wear the still suit. There are many more wild flora and food sources everywhere, you are never at any point in water or on land ever far away from food you can just walk up to and pick and eat or a fish you can't just swipe and nom up. On top of quantity and access to so much food, the new food items offer thirst, hunger, health, and body heat bonuses, making them incredibly effective at over coming ALL survival obstacles, including damage. I feel silly drinking my own body fluids in this suit when there is no practical reason so ever to use the suit at all. When all the food I'd eat to recoup the lost hunger would replenish as much if not MORE thirst than the Still suit anyway, on TOP of giving Health/Body Heat bonuses as well.

Cold Suit: I'd feel good about using this suit, if it weren't for many things. The way of obtaining the resources to make it are abhorrently abritrary and unintuitive. All of my instincts on extracting Snowstalker Fur resulted in failure. Everything my instincts told me, my common sense, my years of video game experience, all let me down. Because I didn't know that ONLY a toy Radio Shack remote control penguin could extract and pluck the fur. Not our hands. Not a knife. Not a prawn suit. No other tool we have. But this robot is the one thing that can pull the fur off. A sucker punch is that you don't even NEED THE SPY PENGLING because later on, deeper in the land areas (where if you got that far congrats you no longer need cold protection) you find Snowstalker fur laying around in caves for you to pick up and use.

So when you finally survive the cold to get the resources to make the suit that lets you survive the cold................you got back to base, out of the cold. Make the suit. Then go back into the cold you were surviving in just fine. And think "Okay now with this suit on I can over come the next obstacle gating my progression" Except you realize theres no area so cold so far removed from any other source of heat that you'd need to use the Cold suit. I feel like a git wearing this thing and thinking about all I had to go through to get it and what very little, say, no good it's done me. Because Hot Peppers are everywhere. Heat you up. Nourish and quinch your thrist.

They are op, grow in clusters of 4-6, and are plentiful to find, and "regrow" fairly quickly. On top of this, they are also often found within the safety of warm caves, meaning you don't use them to save your life, but you pluck them and, since they don't spoil, carry them with you as free sources of portable heat when you get out in the cold. Making your Cold suit worthless. The Snowfox can also be folded up and taken with you, and deployed for an instant accessable source of body heat. Makes your Cold Suit worthless. You can carry as many coffee thermoses with you as you want, and each gives you 2 sips to top off your body heat. Why do you need the Coldsuit? Do you have 4-6 titanium and some quartz? Just drop an I Tube down with a Hatch and step inside to warm up. No need for your Cold suit.

And to top it all off, you just bring your Prawn suit instead. Bypassing any need to huddle in caves, drink coffee, shove Hot Pepper in your mouth, wear a cold suit bring your Snowfox, or build a base or outpost. The Cold Suit is not needed. It is not fun to use. I feel like an idiot for having ever made one. It's very disappointing.

[dragonbornzyra]

First-Aid Kit: Food heals you enough as it is, there's so little threat or danger, but even if I wanna use these, I have to make them! No Med-kit fabricator. These aren't fun to use, they aren't fun to make, and it's disappointing they aren't even our exclusive (or even the best) option for healing ourselves.

Rebreather: Oh boy. You need it to get it but you don't because of Oxygen Plants, which, kind of negate needing it to begin with because..........Oxygen Plants. The areas that using this would be useful are filled with Oxygen Plants, and the areas without Oxygen Plants go to depths that a Rebreather alone isn't a make it or break it factor, thus removing the Rebreather as an actual barrier to progression and instead, creating a false sense of urgency that is both misleading and feels dishonest to the player.

Many are more likely to be in their Seatruck or even beat the game before finding it even.

Headlamp: What is it for? We have a Flashlight, a Seaglide light, Seatruck light, Snowfox light, Prawn has built in lights. We have Floodlights. We have Light Sticks we can put down. If we use it below 100feet we have to give up our Rebreather and suffer an O2 pentalty. Above 100feet I can't think of any places I'd need it so badly to free up space for my hands to do something else. You'd think "Oh, surely it's useful on land! Since you don't need the rebreather!" But then you give up the Cold Suit's Helmet and thermal insulation for a light that..........doesn't work during a fog, blizzard, or light out! And at night on clear conditions, there's no reason not to use a Flashlight/Seaglide light or any OTHER light source. It's fun to use. It's not rewarding or beneficial. And the fact that it's a "reward" for finding X amount of Architect artifacts is as insulting as it is disappointing. And even under maximum ideal conditions, at its best, all it does in the end is the same thing other stuff does! It's just a light! I feel like a nincompoop wearing this thing.

Thermos: Pretty much the same thing I brought up regarding Coldsuit. Red Peppers, Snowfox, Caves, Base/outposts, Prawn Suit, Thermal Lillies, Hot air geysers, all warm you up. Thermos is just one option among so many, it just loses its meaning.

I'll touch on this later but I wanna mention it right now first. There are SO MANY options/tools in Below Zero, and yet no reason to use them. Survival tools that make surviving easier in a game that's already so easy there's no need for those items. Even in Subnautica, how many items can you point to and say "I never built that" or "I used that once and that was it" or "I have no use for that" Quite a lot in both games. But in Below Zero it stings worse and it is more obvious.

We have so many options to counter the cold, when the cold was never t h a t deadly to begin with (You can do the land portions without a Coldsuit/Prawnsuit/Anything rely just on Red Peppers, caves, and heat geysers/altera bases) Cold is a novelty in Below Zero, not a threat or a gate to progress.

We have so many options for transportation, but it's convoluted. With a map so small the need to travel faster or more conveniently is less a need and more a trite convenience. There's only 1 set of portals in the game and the distance they bridge together is petty and trivial. The speed we get on a Snowfox is negated by the 100% knock off rate of an Ice Worm attack and its paper mache armor plating which causes it to take damage for simpy existing, requiring frequenty stops to repair it and forcing frequent stops when the Ice Worm knocks you off to get back on. Even without the Ice Worm or taking damage, there's very little room or area to even make use of the Snowfox speed, and to top it off it is the only time in any video game I've ever felt like I was going to puke in my mouth from now sick and nauseous it made me. Tether Tool seems like a great idea, but again, map is so small and points of interest in specific locations, there's no feel good opportunity to use it.

All the options we have for Health/Food/Thirst, and all of them are op and none of those survival factors are serious. Spicy Salad basically turns the game into Freedom mode, removing the survival aspect all together basically.

Why use Mineral Detector when we have the Scanner Room? Like seriously what were they thinking? Lol?

All these options for Oxygen, when there's never a pressing circumstance for oxygen in the game, thanks to Oxygen Plants, land based game play, shallow map, and the Seatruck.

I'll touch on this later, but it's not fun to use the Thermos. I feel silly using it practically to try to stay warm too, because I know where all the red peppers are, I know where the caves are, I won't get lost, I don't need to use it, ever. So I force myself to use it, and everytime, I feel like a dope. It's disappointing.

Tools:

Thermal Knife: It works. It cuts the stuff, stabs the things, and cooks the fish. Albeit, you notice, your effective hitbox range is, like player speed, nerfed from Subnautica. Requiring you to get closer to resources to harvest them, and closer to hostile fauna to slash at them. This also makes slashing fish to cook and eat them more of a chore. And while it still serves this purpose, I do not feel like a clever survivalist in Subnautica, wisely taking the time to stop and nourish myself on the go with a passing Reginald. I feel like I'm just wasting my time chasing down this Arctic Peeper when I can just swim over here to grab something to eat that won't swim away, or swim to base to eat, or climb up on land to grab a fruit to eat, since none of those are ever far away in the smaller map. So....not fun anymore because less range, and disappointing because it's a moot point.

Laser Cutter: In Subnautica, this because a "master key" that you could use to go back and "unlock" previously sealed off doors you came across in wrecks. I remember exploring wrecks early game, coming across a door I realized I could interact with, but had no the item to cut through! Oh boy, what treasures lay in wait beyond that door? The anticipation stayed with me, and each door I cut open in Subnautica felt like tearing open into a Christmas present. Oh boy! New blueprints! New posters! Another PDA log! Oh a Bottle of water, thanks, I was just about to die! Hey I got the last part to the torpedo arms yeah! I felt like I did the thing.

In Below Zero? Well......there is one wreck in this game. In 3 parts. And not every part even has a sealed door you need to the laser cutter for. And the few areas there ARE Laser cutter able doors, they just offer you "another" way around. For example there's an area where you c o u l d laser cut a door if you wanted. Or just use the Propulsion Canon and move a box out the way. Or just swim around to the side and go in through a small opening bypassing the need for ANY tool at all.

The Artic Spires elevator section has an underwater tunnel that leads back out to the Western Arctic region of the water, and is blocked by an Icewall for SOME REASON you can only cut through it one way. The way that isn't useful. See, if we could cut through that Ice wall from the outside it'd be a useful clever shortcut. But by the time we get to the other side of that wall, it's a useless "shortcut" both as a means back out to the open water, and useless as a means back into the Arctic Spires. Since we have the bridge, the Master and Slave alien Portals, and you can just park a Sea Truck in the Penguin bay area of the Glacial Basin and tether tool to it.

That leaves 2 floating Iceburgs with inside cavities that we can cut into. It's nice. Gets us some Diamonds, Gold, Silver, Magnetite.....nothing we can't find anywhere else. No secrets. No unique stuff. No hidden Marg campsite. Nothing. Laser cutter is unecessary, it's like they put things in the game for it to be used on but couldn't figure out how to make its use either required or feel satisfying to go through the effort of scanning it making it bringing it with you and using it. So it isn't fun for me. It's a let down. And it's disappointing to me. It "unlocks" no truly interesting area or item.

Thumper: Lol, how does it work? Does the noise and vibrations it emits drive away Ice Worms? Or do the vibrations and sounds that it emits attract and lure in Ice Worms? Who knows! I sure watched the use and purpose and logic of this item backslip somersault and cartwheel around back and forth several times during Early Access. In the end, it's just as useless as it's been at any stage of development. Why you'd want to lure the Ice Worm to you or a certain spot I don't understand why. Since the Ice Worm does not "exist" and instead of like an animatronic that is triggered when the player crosses over and enters into defined regions that Flag "this type of worm attack" depending on how far into the zone the player went and their velocity and movement.

So you'd think "Oh cool, Ice Worm only shows up at set fixed places. So set Thumpers in those spots right?" Except, the area of effectiveness for each Thumper is ridiculously small, and they only hold a single battery, and it eats through that battery S O F A S T. It's impractical to make and use. It "Works" but only one way. If you wanna come back through that area, the Thumper battery would have died, it stops Thumping, thus it no longer stops the Ice Worm. You'd have to carry like 4-8 of these things to make them practical. And that alone by itself is NOT very practical at all. They are not fun to use. They are disappointing in their use and effectiveness. And I feel like a jerk running around in a blizzard playing around with these things trying to accomplish nothing.

Mineral Detector: It "works" But it uses vague and unreliable visual and audio cues, which ends up making its use and application more frustrating and annoying than useful or beneficial. It's a Battery hog. It eats, and I mean, it EATS through batteries. It has a very limited range. And if you have a Scanner Room/HUD Chip, it's completely obsolete. It isn't fun to use. It's not engaging. When I "find" what I was looking for, it's usually by sight in a different direction and not the hidden resources on the otherside of a rock I'm trying to locate. Swimming around staring down at this device trying to find something I could just swim around and find with my eyeballs makes me feel silly and stupid. Using so much of this game's items and tools makes me feel like a jerk. These items should be making me feel powerful and accomplished, they should be fun and engaging to use. They are none of these things. This item is great on paper but in application it is disappointing and not worth the effort of keeping its Batteries charged.

Tether tool: Pull it out. Use it. Warpy Warps to the Teleport Module attached to your powered Seatruck cabin. Three uses per every one Ion Cube. Much physics. Very Alien. So teleport. The Tether Tool is a cool and neat concept, and.... it is, in fact, actually somewhat fun to use. It performs its function both as described and intended. Being in my Pentagon base I built in the Frozen Forest outside the Frozen Leviathan cave, I can go up to a locker I have set aside and specifically Sign labeled as "Evacuate to Deep Blue 6" It zips me to a LillyPad Island base I have at the cusp of the World's Edge just south of the Mercury II wreck front section wreck.

[dragonbornzyra]

It's a considerable distance. Sadly, it's also disappointing. Because that is the one specific circumstance I found where using it didn't just come across as "blatant waste of Ion Cube" The map (again, it keeps coming back to the small map) is so small, there just isn't enoug meaningful distance between points of interest that really make it feel justified to use the Tether Tool. Plus, the fact that its destination is tied to a Seatruck Module that has to be powered, limits even further how and where you can make use of this. It's a cool idea and it's so neat, and it just has no place in Below Zero as its potential is entirely wasted.

In fact, the more you try to think about ways to use the Tether Tool and still feel good about yourself, the more you realize "Man.....this map is sooooo small" It's not even a way of back and forth travel, it's a one way trip. Yeah it zips you all across the map to where ever you put your Teleporter Module. But to "get back" you still have to manually make that return trip. So it just fills me with regret, instead of the joy it could have.

Deployables:

Seaglider: Made it smaller, split up its light and map functions, and gave it a better and more clear holographic display terrain scan map. Too bad they nerfed its speed. Thus.....slow = boring. When you remove speed from something you are literally taking away fun from it. The Seaglide no longer feels like a meaningful progression and upgrade to speed. I make this and find myself just itching to hurry up and find the Booster Tank and Propulsion Canon blueprints so I can use the Shooting Stars glitch instead. I use the Seaglide because its simply the only option for "more speed" when outside of the Seatruck navigating places it can't go. Just becauses it's "better than nothing" does not make it fun to use.

And the fact that they gave it such wonderful quality of life buffs, only to nerf the speed? It makes it doubly disappointed, as the newer, smaller, better made Seaglide could have been a wonderful point of praise and instead it's just another point of contention among so many others. How could you massacre the Seaglide at the end, after bringing it so far and sabotaging it right before the finish line?

Beacons: Lol. Every beacon I placed underwater, the game gave me a beacon of its own not far away. Beacons on land don't help you navigate twisting and winding cave systems or a blizzard while outside. What a joke. Such a tiny map. I don't need beacons to remember what the rooms of my house are.

Quantum Locker: What a wonderful idea! It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside! Store additional stuff in it! Share storage space between all boxes! Too bad it's garbage! Let's just gloss over how difficult it was to get this thing to finally work right. Let's just focus on the fact it doesn't provide enough "hammer space" additional storage, and the fact that it shares contents between lockers would have been more useful, if not for the fact (you guessed it!) the map is SO SMALL.

I'd feel better about putting items I might need at one base inside a Quantum locker to save space, if, when I got to the other base, I wasn't within like 20 feet of whatever item I put in the quantum locker that I "thought" I might need or would be convenient. All it ends up being for me is a place to store Titanium and Lithium Ingots, so be used in the Recylotron to unpack into raw building materials for building projects. Which (building) is also disappointing but that's for another section! Boy, you wanted to know and you asked to know so now I'm telling ya.

It could be fun and rewarding to use, but it's not fun to use and it's disappointing. No meaningful opportunities to shine. Another good idea on paper, doomed to fail placed in a poorly made game with an offensively incomplete and elementary tier story.

Spy Pengling: Lol take selfies! Ahahah that's actually a function in this game. I cringe. At one point, they had more plans for the Penglin robot, having it "infiltrate" wild Penglings and gain trust or affinity with them, perhaps we could learn or observe new and unique behavior from Penglings they would never display around the player for example? Of all the neat possibilities they could have taken this idea, they just scrapped it entirely. The Spy Pengling does two things, and both of them are unecessary and redundant:

Use it to grab fur from a Snowstalker. (Which you can also find laying on the ground so not only way to get it) To make the Coldsuit (Which you don't need since we have a half dozen other options to counter the cold)

Use it to go through small holes the game arbitrarily declares we cannot enter simply because Robin's legs are fused together at joints and she is incapable of bending her knees or crouching down and crawling through on her. Which is ok, because the only things you going to find in these Spy Penglin exclusively accessable holes, besides disappointment, are a few scraps of magnetite, all the useless quartz you never wanted, and access to a non essential storyline related McGuffin that completes a non essential storyline that isn't necessary to beating the game (Which is and of itself is another series of 2 complaints all on their own)

So it is not necessary to complete the game. It is not fun nor is it rewarding to use. Learning and figuring out how it works with Snowstalkers is infruating and insulting to my intelligence. Discovering that it isn't used to find anything useful fun practical or rewarding is disappointing and the entire thing should have been scrapped. It's clutter. It's bloat. It drags the game and the quality and the fun down.

BUT YOU CHU CAN TAKE SELFIES WIT IT MANG!

(If you want Arucard, I can ...wait. You know what, no. I'm going to go ahead and add it. A whole section covering my disappointment from the stuff that ISN'T in Below Zero)

Missing Equipment:

Ultraglide Fins: Removed as a consequence of the map being so small, and distances between Points of Interest so short. The player is punished for the developers choice of using a smaller map, instead of writing a better engine to handle pop in issues. The burden was shifted from the devs to the players. We must suffer the loss of speed, and thus, fun, to compensate for the developers lazy refusal to fix the problem. Instead, they opted for a work around baid aid solution that doesn't solve the problem, just tries to pretend it doesn't exist. The lack of Ultraglide Fins is a steady reminder of this game's failures in every single aspect across the board. Disappointed.

Radiation Suit: A suit that wasn't needed, but man it sure was USEFUL and HELPFUL for the one thing it was designed to do. Unlike the Below Zero exclusive Coldsuit, the Rad suit actually did its job and was the only thing to give you protection against Radiation. You couldn't just eat some weird fruit and gain a 3 minute rad immunity buff or something. On top of that, it was fun to RP and use it when empying out and refilling the rods in my Nuclear reactor. I liked to go in a connecting room, and done my Rad suit, before entering my Nuclear Reactor room, to open up the reactor, remove the depleted rods, dispose of them, take out fresh rods, install them, then close the reactor back up. I would exit the room, take the Rad suit off, and then go shower.

That was fun. Fun after it lost its practical use. But it had that initial use. We would have no use for the Rad suit in Below Zero, but with all the useless crap they put in there (Do we really need TEN different types of the same bed?) So we get useless bedsheets, but we don't get useless suits to wear. I don't get it.

Fire Extinguisher: Baby's first form of propulsion and increased speed. I'm not even being facetious here. Fire's are dangerous, always, 100% of the time. So putting out a fire feels 100% useful 100% of the time. I neer put a fire in Subnautica and felt "Ah man, I that was a waste of time" Again, a rarely used item, but when it was used, it was useful, good at what it did, and made your life easier when used properly. With so few things in Below Zero that are like that, and all the useless bloat they shoved in, why not include some good stuff? I suspect being able to use it underwater to propell yourself backwards was a no no since UWE seems to be against speed/fun.

Purple/Blue/Orange Keys: These were fun. Finding the first ones, not knowing what they are, scanning them, wondering where to find the resources to make one, making one, wondering where to use it, finding where to use it, wondering what's hidden inside......these are keys. Keys open up locked doors or treasure chests. Good things are behind locked doors and chests. We wanna find locked doors and chests and use keys to open them to get the good stuff! They removed the keys......and for that matter basically the locked doors too. Steering you to AL AN early game doing everything but putting up a beacon and having Robin say "I better go find the source of this Earth SOS immediately!" Since AL AN is your "key" for those doors. The removal of the Keys detrimented the game. It was a rewarding gameplay loop and a core aspect of video game HISTORY and psychology, and they REMOVED IT. Disappointing. Why. Oh yeah that's why. "Accessability"

Missing Tools:

Stasis Rifle: Hey look, a 100% non lethal, passive means of dealing with and avoiding hostile local fauna. It can even be used as a useful tool as a means of safely observing and researching certain dangerous specimens. What an invaluable research and survival tool! In a game that turns its nose up at violence and promotes intelligent, thoughtful gameplay and creating and finding alternative solutions to problems other than kill everything!

Developers: Let's remove it!

Great, they removed one of the game's few non violent ways to deal with creatures, and without it, now people just resort to mowing everything down in the Seatruck. You see, freezing a Reaper in place with the Stasis Rifle and then stabbing it to death, was the player's choice. That was one way they could use a combination of tools of their disposal. But that isn't how everyone used them. I only used the Stasis rifle as an emergency last ditch resort to ensure my own personal safety.

But now, without that, I am reduced to resorting to violence or just "not playing" to deal with the obstacles the game has placed before me in the form of "creatures" So they put a non violent pacifist weapon into the game, but because of the way a PORTION of the players chose to use that tool, it gets removed and taken away from EVERYONE else? How does that make sense? What world is that fair? The end result is more players adopting a more violent playstyle and killing more creaturs than they ever did in Subnautica.

In more than one post, across both Subnautica and Below Zero forums, I gave them ways to balance the weapon so it isn't op. Reduce the duration of the freeze. Make frozen creatures immune to damage until they become unstasis'd. Make each use deplete an entire battery. Make the Stasis Rifle + Knife combo either not work or make it so uneffective it's impractical to use it. But nah they just removed it. Which did not solve the problem (Problem being player violence against the video game animals, which got worse with the removal of a PEACEFUL deterrent)

The Stasis Rifle was fun to use. It was effective. It was satisfying. It felt rewarding. It felt good. They took it away. They took away the fun, the satisfaction, and the good feelings. It's disappointing. Below Zero tells me that some stupid person on the Mercury II somehow "jail broke" a Fabricator to make some fancy dish, but we can't "jailbroke" a Fabricator to make a Stasis Rifle? Yeah. No.

Repulsion Gun: Oh look, another non lethal way of dealing with threats! The YEET Gun was removed for no reason. I guess it was too good at pushing dangerous creatures away without killing them. Oh well, let's take this option away from the player so they are left with two options: Mow everything down in a vehicular homocidal rage in the seatruck or suffer the absolute misery that is the over populated and crowded mess of hostile fauna in Below Zero.

It was fun to use. They removed it. They took the fun away. It was a peaceful alternative to violence. They took that option away from me. I am disappointed. For Unknown Worlds "Entertainment" to be so against violence, they sure leave me with little to no other options than just that, in their games.

Missing Deployables:

Creature Decoy: Oh look. A non violent way of dealing with creatures. It's almost like the Thumper for the Ice Worm on land! But instead it's for the water! Why...........oh why..................did they remove it? They removed........THREE PASSIVE, NON VIOLENT NON LETHAL creature deterrant options from the game. The very same game that is supposed to frown upon violence. *Head explosions, Jackie Chan squinting y u do dis face*

They were not FUN to use, but they were very REWARDING when you did use one and DIDN'T DIE. The removal of them is a disappointment. And a slap to both the face, and the intellect. (One could deploy a Creature Decoy from your hotbar holding it in your hands, it is not required to use a Cyclops)

[dragonbornzyra]

*#5*---- This point as you can imagine ties into and is interwoven with all the previous points.

Vehicles:

I'll tl:dr summarize this part up, it's said so much so many times before already on both forums. Anyone who enjoyed the Cyclops in Subnautica, expected, and wanted it to be in Below Zero. We were excited, and gitty, as we imagined what NEW stuff we could do with the NEW Cyclops. How much DEEPER can it go than before? How much BIGGER is it than before? How many more vehicles can we store in it at once? How many new DEVICES will it let us play with?

Zip. Nah. No Cyclops. Sad face. Big disappointment. Absolutely no fun.

Seamoth. Tl:dr: Nope. Negative edge fun. Disappointing inbetween the feels and straight through my heart.

Snowfox: *Projectile vomits violently and profusely, and spitefully* (I believe I've said enough about the Snowfix when I referenced it earlier in my response to you Alucard.)

Seatruck: Incredible design on paper, and maybe it really is a fun and amazing vehicle but I'll never know. Because they put it in BELOW ZERO and its SMALL, cramped, SHALLOW map. I've seen all the arguments for against the Seatruck. "We can't have the Cyclops cuz its too big!" Ok cool, load up a 7 or 8 module Seatruck and put your Prawn suit on the back and dock it and take your Seatrain around the game, down into the Deep Lillypad Biome, take it into the Deep Purple Vents, drive it around the Crystal Caverns, and I dare you to bring it into the Fabricator Caverns. Doesn't seem practical does it? Well there's your Cyclops.

"Oh but you can deatch the modules and just use the cabin to navigate small spaces!" Oh you mean like how I can deploy myself in the Seamoth from my Cyclops bay to navigate smaller spaces? You see what I mean? Any argument in the Seatrucks favor is an argument in the Cyclops/Seamoths favor. If we are allowed to use the Seatruck at max size and all its glory, we should be able to use the Cyclops. Anywhere we can't take our decked out Seatruck, we can just detatch the cabin and a module instead. Aka, there's our Seamoth. If we CAN take a fully decked out Seatruck down into the depths of Below Zero, so can the Cyclops. If the Seatruck HAS to detatch modules to navigate, then it argues in Cyclops favor of being able to do the same and deploy a Seamoth.

Cyclops had 3 different "Switch-to" camera views for navigation. Seatruck USED to have a "Screen-in-screen" back up rear view camera, but removed it instead of changing it to a "Switch-to" screen. Cyclops has proximity alarm, fire suppression system, 2 floors to it, enough space to run and jump around in. Buildable inside of it. Place growplots and food inside of. Place Aquariums in your Cyclops. Place a Fabricator in your Cyclops. Comes with its own vehicle docking section. Is its own Moonpool, fully interact with, customize, upgrade, and swap out mods from docked vehicle.

Sonar. Silent running mode. 3 speed settings. THE FOGHORN. Lights on/light off. Red lights! Place picture frames everywhere. Put a bed. Yay Cyclops. The one thing a Seatruck does it can't is Teleport module.

There is no other thing a Seatruck can do that a Cyclops paired with a Seamoth/Prawn suit can't do. BETTER. The Seamoth and Cyclops are NOT in this game, and instead we get two disappointing and inferior replaces. The fun was removed, and replaced with regreat and disappointment. Sequeals are meant to improve upon and expand. Everything Below Zero does is a step back and worse in comparison to Below Zero, and arguably the one area it does better in (visuals) is fluff and inconsequential in the grand scheme of the dichotomy between these two games and the player base.

They tried to fix what was not broken, and ended up breaking it. They took away things that were proven to work and proven to be accepted. They added things we told them we didn't want, did not like, did not enjoy. They listened, they heard us, they did it anyway. We were given and told excuses as to why things were done the way they were, but in the end the excuses were seen through and it just amounted to "It's our game, we made it our way"

That's fine. But that's also why I call Below Zero a "very, very bad" game. It isn't just bad on accident. It isn't even sorry. It didn't even make a mistake. It has no regret. This is what it is, and this is what it wanted to be. It hurt us and it doens't care. It did it on purpose.

I hate the Seatruck so much on my 2nd Below Zero playthrough I went without making or using a Prawn/Seatruck/Snowfox and the artifical challenge that created for myself actually provided me a small bit of satisfaction and enjoyment, but it was superficial and as I said, artificially created. I made that fun for myself. It wasn't Below Zero.

Prawn Suit: Still exists. Thank god. Only disappointing thing about it is it's made to stick its face up against the rear end of the Seatruck.

*#6*----Let's see, I've hit the map, the tools/deployables/equipment, the vehicles. Oh yeah, base building! Okay, so this ties into ONE of my previous points, and addresses one other. The map is guess what? There ya go! It's SO SMALL. What are you doing building more than one base? Two if you're fancy? Three if you're a madlad. But beyond the third base you're just a silly nilly. The distance to travel between the points of interest, the spread of resources and materials, and layout of the map itself promotes the use of one single centralized base that services all map-wide operations.

In other words, you build one base in the Twisty Bridges biome aaaaand you're good to go. No biome is so far away from you at this point to necessitate a second base. And if you do, cool. You got two bases. But it really sucks when the map is so small you end up building bases withint eye sight distance of another base you built and then you start to feel weird and perhaps a bit silly.

Another reason is the storyline. The characters, the narrative, the whole thing. I don't WANT to be in Sector Zero. I don't WANT to live there. I don't want to BE there. I don't ENJOY being here. I don't enjoy it. I saw the ending they put and that just "ended" my interest in spending another moment in Sector Zero. Why build a base and be somewhere you don't want to be? I love Subnautica. The Crater is my jam. I waaaaaanna be there. I don't waaaaaaaanna go home. I like who I am, where I am at, what I am doing.

I cured the Kharaa. I saved this whole dang planet! i'm a good person! I DID A GOOD THING. I deserve a vacation!

I play Below Zero. I don't like who I am. I accomplish nothing. I do nothing. I am a terrible person. The people in my family are reprehensible. I admire awful people. I admonish people with no clear reason given. I am judgemental and concieted. I despite who I am. I hate that I am here for one reason, but that reason doesn't matter, and end up leaving on a coincidental side note. I never had to be here to begin with. I hate the way we come to Sector Zero. I hate the reason we come to Sector Zero. I hate being in Sector Zero. I hate the reason we leave Sector Zero. I hate the way we leave Sector Zero.

For all the additions they made to base building, they sure killed my desire and my enjoyment of doing any of it in Below Zero. So, with that out of the way, let me address Missing/Removed/Old base components that aren't in Below Zero, and then address the new additions.

Missing Base Pieces:

Observatory unique biome flag: The lack of Observatory Zen, or an appropriate soundtrack unique to the Observatory itself, flagged as its own biome, is a very small detail and a tremendous disappointment. I spend so much time in Observatories, the very literal Zen of which is gone from Below Zero. Why? Tell me, for what reason? Why is so much of what I love about Subnautica, so much f u n, sucked out of this game? Trust me. This matters. This is a big mood killer for me. I can't not be in one of this and not be reminded, contantly, every moment I'm inside it, that there is no Zen or any replacement for it. The fact that it used to be there. And it has been taken away and is no longer there. That is not fun.

Missing Exterior Modules(?):

Spotlight(?): Last I played the base attached Spotlight was not in the game (Outside of console commands) I actually enjoyed and made practical use of Spotlights, and their mechanic of actively pointing at, and tracking the position of threats and hostile fauna in the area. It's an early warning system that conveniently points itself at possible threats. It didn't even HAVE to do that! It was fine enough as simply either fixed lights we could just reposition its aim, or as lights that move around randomly on their own. But they were given a practical functionality beyond simply providing optional light.

I miss not having them. I miss having all these options that made me feel clever for using them in Subnautica taken out of this game. Replaced with options that make me feel ridiculous for using instead! If they have since patched in and included the Spotlights into Below Zero's Habitat Builder recipes, then disregard this portion. Otherwise, another instance of something fun, rewarding, and satisfying being removed. Disappointing.

Missing Interior Modules:

Radio: For practicality purposes, I understand why it isn't in the game, to an extent. There are no "life pods" sending out distress signals we would need to recieve. However.....given we are able to build so much 100% completely totally useless crap that is only aesthetic, it seems weird we can't make a Radio for "decoration" purposes. And outside of gameplay there would and should be blueprints for a Radio in Robin's Habitat Builder for every reason possible. Alterrans would need it to send and recieve messages. Anyone building on a planet would want a radio. Why wouldn't anyone have a radio? Maybe if Robin had a Radio she could have called that guy that dropped her off to come back and pick her up? Oh well. They coulda given us a reason, or no reason at all, instead we just don't get it. Even as fluff.

Disappointing we get 10 beds but no Radio? (Again, last I played, no Radio. If it's been added, please correct me but please be aware I've not played this game since like October of last year)

Medkit Fabricator: I will sit here and wait and listen to anyone offer me an in game, a story, a lore reason, or a game play balance reason why we aren't able to make a Medkit Fabricator. I'm listening. One could argue they should put it in since they are making it easier and more accessable to a wider range of people to enjoy, having the Medkit Fabricator would essentially do just that. Others could argue the game is so easy you don't need it. But still someone else like me will argue we have so much useless crap we aren't we given useful crap we actually used or stuff a brand new virgin player first time playing Below Zero (With no Subnautica experience) can't get to use.

Planning my willing to take risk around, waiting for, and taking my Medkits from the Fabricator felt satisfying, it was a good animation, nice sound effects, I was grabbing health so I knew it was practical and would help me in the case I messed up. If I didn't need it, great I eat it on the way home like a breath mint. Point is, it was taken away. So much. Taken away. Expections were not for Below Zero to take away so much. People point out all the new stuff Below Zero adds. But I do not over look all that it has taken away. If it's added back to the game since I last placed. Neat. If not, disappointing.

Missing Misc.:

Markiplier Doll: ??? Well, it's gone. An no substitute or equivilant to it. No tribute or thank you or easter egg to any Youtuber that helped to promote Below Zero. No thank you, no trinket, no lil good-will gesture. No knicknack that nods to someone in appreciation. Ooooooooooh wwwweeeeelllllll *Shrug*

Oh, um......Jackseptic Eyetank was removed from Subnautica, it WAS in Phi Robotics base on a shelf in Early Access, but now its removed from Below Zero too. So. Yeah.

Missing Placeables:

Arcade Gorge Toy: Description "Comforting" At least not to those in Below Zero, considering you cannot find, obtain, place, or to my knowledge even spawn this or any others in with console commands. I liked putting the Caps on top of Markiplier Dolls and on the Gorge Toy, but now ya can't do that. No toys for you.

Gray Cap: More like, No Cap.

Blue Cap: See Gray Cap for a mocap of nocap.

Cylindrical Sample Flask: They let us find and pick up and place Small and Large Sample Flasks, but there are no Cylindrical Sample Flasks. So weird. Rather than the whole set being removed or being present, one specific item in the set is removed in Below Zero. Why? Is that a conscious decision? Was it an over sight? Why can I no longer collect Cylinder shaped samples? My research suffers because of this. I'll never discover the phsyics beyond Slinkies now!

Microscope: More like, Micronope. Even though this and the other 2 pieces in the Laboratory set never worked, they were all always neat to find and place and add flair to your base. You could very easily drop these 3 things down in a room and suddenly this room was a "Lab" for research. That bare room because so distinct from the next bare room, and even though the purpose was imaginary, it had a purpose. The player cannot find nor obtain any of the Lab equipment placeables, and trying to spawn any in result in a non placable opaque black cube.

Fluid Analyzer: Ewww, fluids are gross. Like totally totes not cool. Apparently so is science. You know, for being a SCIENTIST, Robin sure has little access to, and zero interest in, doing anything SCIENTIFIC. Ryley, a glorified janitor, had access to a larger range of Scientific equipment, and engaged in far more science than Robin could ever pretend to.

Sample Analyzer: Well, we got 2 types of Sample Flasks, but sadly no way to analyze em without a Spmle Analyzer! I feel like I have been shot by a gun called the "Analyzer" Description: Non-Functional laboratory equipment. Much like my interest for this game. No lab set for anyone.

Carry-all: This actually had a practical purpose to it. It was like a Floating Waterlocker, but more like a "non moving land bag" You carry it around with you. You put it down. You use it to store and hold stuff for ya. It stays there. You come back to it, and it's still got ya stuff or ya. Yay. Neat. Put it next to your bed in your base for dirty clothes and it feels like a bedroom! But it next to a ladder and pretend its a gym bag next to gym equipment.

Put some vehicle mods for it and drop it in your moonpool for easy pick up and drop off of Mods between sorties. It does everything, except what it used to do! Infinite storage! Fill up a Carry-All, then put it in another Carry-All! Then carry all those Carry-All carrying all those other Carry-All carrying all that other stuff! The Carry-All, Ya'll! Ya can't have it! Gone. Oh well. Neither able to use it as a locker nor as decoration.

Various Posters: We miss out on a few posters, but we also get looooooooots of new ones, so tiny petty disappointment but I'm gonna mention it.

Aurora Miniature: None for you. No Mercury II replacement replica. Too bad. No ship in a bottle for you.

Toy Car: Man, Below Zero hates toys! Toys and science! No toys or scientifical stuff for Robin. Kinda strange. Sorta weird. No cars, no toys, no plushies, no miniatures, but several pictures of her CAT. Hmmm........stereotypical cat lady? Who knows.

So that's all the MISSING base building pieces, modules, and placeables that I am disappointed at their removal. Now, let's go over my disappointment with NEW and existing base pieces, modules, and placeables exclusive to Below Zero:

[dragonbornzyra]

Disappointing Base Pieces:

Control Room: It doesn't do everything I expect or want it to do, and it doesn't even properly or correctly do all of what it's supposed to do. The pallette and options/range for the "Color" feature is about on par with a 95 Apple Mac computer. There are mods out there (That I believe inspired this Base Piece) that do everything the Control room does, does it properly, does it better, and then it does additional things on top of it. It's like if Unknown Worlds saw this base control mod for Subnautica, thought it was a great idea, and then put an inferior subpar halfway functioning gimp of a imitation that only attempts a fraction of what the mod does into Below Zero. It's tremendous how disappointing this room is. Especially when you realize and compare it to what inspired it. What the Mods did with it compared to how the official game devs implimented their version of it.

It tells you very little information, it could tell you a lot more. And it's quite questional how useful some of that information is. Also, the very poor gimmicky attempt at imitating a 3D holographic map display of your base doesn't work properly. There is a height, width, and depth dimensional limit to have much the Control Room can track, and as anyone that has played Below Zero and used the Control Room can attest to, using the map rotation feature to select which rooms to turn the power on or off for is horrible. The hit boxes for properly being able to click on each piece is astrocious. It's so bad.

Trying to use it is like trying to seperate fly poop from pepper, while wearing boxing gloves. And yes I'm referencing James. It's so difficult to make it do just such a simple thing. It's implimentation in the game is unacceptable really. It's barely functional. It's malfunctional. There's an entire wall of the Control Room that does practically nothing. There's so much wasted empty space. There's so little going on. They wasted an entire ROOM for what could have and should have just been an Interior Module we place in our base with the Habitat Builder. Just the center console, and a panel that reads out the other "information"

The control room and the crappy over head psuedo interactive base map is begs for there to be an Arcade Cabinet placed in the Control room. I get so bored playing Below Zero sometimes I wish I could play another game. So I do! It'd be nice if I could take a break from playing Below Zero, while playing Below Zero, and play and enjoy a much simplier game for a bit. Get some free stock stuff. Tetris, Centipede, Snake, make up a game who cares. The Control Room gives you very little control, is not fun to use, and aside from letting me name my base and providing a Beacon (Which I could just make a Beacon to do that without a Control room) I am very disappointed with the addition of the Control Room. I'm not impressed. Boo.

Large Rooms: Oh boy. I sure would love these. If they worked. *Throws hands up in the air* Trying to get the partritions to work, as intended in the game, is a gample. It will glitch, bug out, and crash on you. Even if the partritions worked as intended, the intended way they are implimented is very unintuitive and would need a rework/change/update on top of just being made to work as its intended.

Large Room Patritions improperly interact with posters, placeables, Base pieces, Interior Modules, and I've read stories of collision issues and being bumped out of their bases and falling through the water due to Partritions. Videos of people reproducing bugs with 100% reliability of the way the Patrtritions malfunction. They don't stack properly, or if that's the way they are meant to stack it's a terrible way of doing it. The room is true to its name, Large, so large in fact, it's a shame it's such a waste of space, given how very little need we have for a base or anything in it, and how much base materials we have to use and build with that are just fluff. And even then it's not that great a level of fluff to choose from.

The Large Room is just a lot of extra space to remind me how very little I enjoy or reasons I have for building a base in Below Zero. As SO many people have said, they, me, we, want the Large Room in the game we like, Subnautica. And even then, I want it FIXED so that it works properly. I would like to see UWE produce a Subnautica game and release it without so many bugs and not wait y e a r s to start fixing it after the last fix they attempted b r o k e the game even worse. The Large Room's existance in Below Zero disappoints me. It's not fun to have or build in, it's kind of an exciting idea but quickly becomes an embarassing regret.

It reflects alot of how I view Unknown Worlds itself: Interesting and useful in design and concept, shocking flawed and under performing in execution and delivery.

Honorable Mention Moonpool: They put the Seatruck in the game. And did nothing to the Moonpool to accomodate the Seatruck. Great job. Very disappointing. Not surprised at thsi point yet, somehow, still disappointed.

Disappointing Exterior Modules:

Snowfox Hoverpad: If the Snowfox wasn't a revolting convoluted vomit inducing piece of misery, the Snowfox Hoverpad might be a neat, cool, and welcome addition. But considering the Snowfox exists in the state that it does, the Hoverpad is disappointing and useless. Truly, the Snowfox and it's Hoverpad's only use in this game are as a fixed rotating Spotlight for the base you built on land or up out of the water on a Foundation, you strange, strange person you.

Disappointing Interior Pieces:

Vehicle Upgrade Console: Considering they gave the Seatruck Fabricator and Base Fabricator access to this Modules blueprints, it is no longer the exclusive method to accessing vehicle upgrades. It is no longer a unique or useful Module, in fact, building one is a waste, its redundant, and even arguing its ok to keep and place as decoration, just looking at it reminds me of how its now become something with no identity.....well........it disappoints me.

Large Room Partrition & Door: Shame. Shame on whoever created this, coded them, programmed them. Shame on whoever is responsible for bug fixing and trouble shooting. Shame on whoever green lit Below Zero into 1.0 release without fixing these or many other issues. They are a shameful disappointment. They don't WORK properly.

Disappointing Miscellaneous:

Bedsheet covers: All 7 new varieties. What............were they thinking? Is this Below Zero or Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Why is Robin so obsessed with sleeping in other people's beds? (And for that matter WHY does she take Fred's shaving kit? C R E E P Y) This more than just not fun, or disappointing. This is actually strange, and it's weird. And it's just no. You put selfies and Bed Bath & Beyond in Subnautica. Why did you do that? Stop.

Fridge: Useless. What does it do? Keeps cooked food from Spoiling. Ok, you know how you do that? You DON'T COOK it! Uncooked fish never spoil. Don't even need to put in water or aquarium. Keeps picked fruit and food items from Spoiling. Ok, you know how you do that? You DON'T PICK it! Leave the fruit on the plant, don't pick what you aren't going to immediately eat right then and there. Food is everywhere. I can't faaaaathom the practicality is COOKING food you DON'T plan to eat, placing it in a Fridge to PRESERVE IT, and then intend to eat the COLD COOKED food later instead of eating FRESH COOKEKD FOOD later.

I can't get it? Just don't cook food ahead of time. I have not heard any outcry in either game complaining about how hard it is to keep their cooked fish and picked fruits from going bad. It's a solution to a non existing problem. For aesthetic reasons ok sure. Yay I got a fridge for my base. And okay, unlike other items that do NOTHING, the Fridge DOES do something, even if it's pointless and redundant, it DOES do it. But man, what a disappointment. If only fish out of water died and went bad, but no.

Shower: Neat! Does it wash off radiation? Does it wash the salt out Robin's hair? Does it help remove Jellyfish toxin? Does it help relax or give any kind of buff? No? Just a clickable useless water effect? Okay...............kinda glad AL AN has nothing to say about it. As a "reward" for compltely Maida's "sidequest" it truly is a remarkably disappointing thing to come across and be the proud new owner of. Hooray.

Sink: I appreciate being able to wash my hands while living u n d e r water. And it isn't like after eating food our hands are dirty, and dirty hands can lead to gross fingernails, and gross fingernails can develope into full blown nasty. And the sink is the only way to prevent that. Nah. It just runs some water and stops. I use it after flushing the toilet, so that I can pretend I'm alive. Disappointment.

Small Stove: If it wasn't for the fact it lights up I'd HATE this thing. Because see, after using the Toilet, and washing your hands at the Sink, I try my hands at the Small Stove over the heated coils and hotplate. Too bad it doesn't actually................dunno. COOK FOOD. Too bad there isn't some grilled snowstalker steak that requires the delicately heat of a Small Stove that the military grade LASOR BEAMS of a Fabricator just can't properly cook right.

So, instead of being an optinal but unique pathway to an additional food recipe item, it's just a glowy clicky thing. Disappointing. I put Flasks on top of it to pretend like I'm brewing Tea or Coffee. The game has so little substance I have to Roleplay and make believe and pretend any amount of enjoyment out of this game. Anytime I'm having fun, it's me in the sandbox imagining my own story and adventures. the game itself provides not quite enough on its own to derive enjoyment from.

Toilet: We can sit on a chair and a bench, but we can't sit down on a Toilet. Well, maybe its for the best. I don't want to imagine the kind of conversation between AL AN and Robin. It's so huge and difficult to place. It's a disappointment. And also the location of my expectation of the new Subnautica game. In the toilet.

They took out so much that I enjoyed, and they put in so much in its place that disappoints me. Remember, Arucard. You did ask. You asked for this. You wanted to know. So I'm telling you. I'm giving it to ya honest and straight. This is what I don't like what about the game, and WHY I don't like it.

And I'm not done.

*#7*----PDA

Subnautica's PDA felt and came across just like what it was: It artificial intelligence, with limited computational capacity, basic rudimentary decision making, more like suggestion making. The writing for the PDA was believable, the lines and what is said are believable, they come across as something I imagine an assistant device AI to say.

The way the voice sounds, the way the lines are delivered. It sounds cold. Dry. Calculating. Sincere in its naivity and remarkable in its bluntness. It did not seem to be aware of "rudeness" let alone the notion that it itself could be such. It was detatched and analytical, and lent itself well to the dry witty humor of its dialogue. Together, it created it identity, and along with the Peeper(and over shadowing the Peeper I think) it has become one of the recognizable "Brands" of Subnautica. Watch a video or trailer for Subnautica, or put together tribute video for Subnautica. Chances are.....you'll see a Peeper, and you'll hear one of the PDA's voice lines.



""Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it?"
~ Subnautica PDA



Entire threads are created with players sharing their personal stories, friendships created over this voice line, it's one of those "They said it! They said the line!" kind of things. It's a catch phrase. You see someone else referencing half the quote, you just silently nod your head in acknowledgement to your fellow 4546B survivor. It's a secret club password. It's a lifestyle. It's an identity.

Nothing, at any point, no where, in any of the Below Zero PDA logs or lines, is there anything that comes close to being a fraction as monumentally impactful or iconic as that ONE sngle line of dialogue from Subnautica's PDA. And that's just one memorable line among so many.

The PDA spoke to me in a clear and concise voice. It might not have told me everything I wanted to hear, but I really felt like everything it was telling me was something I NEEDED to hear. It truly gave me the impression that it had rebooted in:

"This PDA has rebooted in emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive on an alien world."
~Subnautica PDA

That's exactly, precisely how it felt. It wasn't in buddy mode, or friendship mode, or Spacebook social media mode. It was in "Keep your dum dum self alive" mode. When my PDA spoke to me, I headed its advice. When I was lost, stumped, curious, or bored, I sought out the PDA. And when all else failed, the PDA had a bread cumb to offer me, should I chose to take it, and man that morsel was nourishing, it kept me going.

The.............the uh. The Below Zero PDA? How can I put this delicately.......it comes across as....shady. Literally. When the PDA speaks to me, the way the voice sounds, the choice of dialogue the writers gave it, the way the tts software delivers the lines, the alterations UWE made to the voice.......when the Below Zero PDA speaks to me it sounds like its coming across from a position of moral superiority.

It feels like its throwing shade at me. It feels like it is judging me, like it is being condescending.

I feel like I'm spoken AT, instead of being spoken TO.

I do not enjoy my "interactions" with the PDA. They bother me. It's like a guy following behind you and keeps making these dirty remarks. And they aren't breaking my personal space, they aren't harming me, they aren't threatening me, or putting me in danger. But we're both in public, and they are really bothering me, but I can't DO anything about it. I can't even find somewhere to go to avoid them, and when I do find solice and silence it's usually through inactivity or active avoidance of triggering the PDA to begin with.

Do I have to explain why this is bad? I don't think I have to reiterate how "good" Subnautica's PDA voice was, how much I enjoyed it, how much it pulled me into the story and made the world more believable, and how "bad" Below Zero's PDA voice, how much I despite it, how much it pulled me OUT OF the story and made the world entirely unebelievable.

On top of that, it's not just the way the voice sounds, It's the legibility of the voice all together. The inflection, the indulation, the unusual and unatural pause, breaks, and run outs through the lines of the PDA, they are hard to understand.

Even with subtitles on and replaying a line 2 or 3 times its hard to make out what some of the stuff that is being said is. I immediately stop what I'm doing, and think "What'd it say?" I have to stop and actively exit imersion mode and go into video game menu trouble shooting mode. It's a mood killer. Every time.

Not only that, Below Zero's PDA does NOT reboot into Emergency Mode. Which means, Robin comes to 4546B and brings with her an EMPTY PDA. And she's given it a snarky, snide, and abrasive "voice" It's not meant to help us survive, and that feeling definately comes across in what the PDA says, and HOW it says it.

I feel like the Subnautica PDA is trying to help me stay alive and prefers to see me survive. Where as, I feel like the Below Zero PDA could care less if I got hurt or was dying, and would probably make fun of me for it.

The PDA served a purpose in Subnautica, but in Below Zero, it's inclusion (and change) both feel subsequently arbitrary. Many people wish to have the "old" PDA voice back, but you know what? I'm not so sure that we even need a voiced PDA in Below Zero. It's NOT rebooted in Survival Mode, so why is it talking and quipping up so much? And since it's ACTING like its in survival mode, why doesn't it say and behave more like it is?

[dragonbornzyra]

It just feels like the Below Zero team went "They liked Subnautica. What did Subnautica have? It had a PDA. Let's put a PDA in Below Zero!"

Without understanding why it was in Subnautica to begin with, and why the player base connected with it in such a way instead of it just being one of countless forgotten to time voices or features of a game that is not memorable.

It's imitation.

I don't like it. It's unpleasant. I don't like what the PDA says. I don't like how it says it. And I can't understand the way it says it.

Picking up PDA logs of OTHER people, in Subnautica, we maybe got 2, 3 "casual conversations" But many of the PDA's were during a conflict, right before the moment tragedy struck, during a tense situation, a sad and hopeless surrendering to their inevitable death, or formulating a plan to try to survive. Even the "filler" PDAs made sense, they offered just enough to highlight the "outline" of backstory, but doesn't shine a light too brightly on it so that we can see its flaws.

Below Zero PDA logs, nearly every single one of them is just boring casual filler. There's no PDA referencing the Meteor storm. Any PDA referencing a dangerous encounter talks about it in a joking casual way. Zeta's analysis of the Excavation Site crime scene is cold and professional. And it contradicts Robin's suspicions about Alterra (They are bad and evil and caused her sister's death or covered it up)

The Mercury II PDA logs are so bad I made an entirely playlist of videos going over every single log and picking it apart in great detail, telling you how bad it is, and why its bad. Consistent both with the lore of Subnautica and inconsistent with itself and the lore of Below Zero.

Instead of revealing more and more about a magical world I have come to adore, the PDA in Below Zero is like a series of darts being thrown at the back of my head, each one causing me to dislike Below Zero further and further. Every PDA log, every time the PDA speaks, it just pulls down my enjoyment of Below Zero even more.

It's called that a disappointment. Nothing the Below Zero PDA said will be remembered or talked about down the line.

*#8*----You wanna talk about the story? Ok let's talk about the story.

From concept to credits, Below Zero's story is, top to bottom, bottom to top, poorly written, horribly told, and completely unecessary. It has no reason to be told. Our main character has no character development, goes through no arc, she is the same person at the end of the game as she was at the beginning. She has gained and aquired, no new skills or wisdom. Nothing about her outlook on life or others has changed or been altered by her experiences.

She feel no shame, or guilt, when she discovered the truth about her sister's death. Whom she held in such high regaard with such respect. To realize that she did, in fact, get herself killed due to her own recklessness, and worse yet, caused the death of another person because of it. That Alterra did nothing wrong, hid nothing, and if anything, were trying to spare themselves AND Robin's family the humiliation and embarassment of just reporting "She blew herself up in an explosion and killed a co worker"

"Accident due to negligence" Sounds much better for ALL PARTIES involved. But no, Robin comes into this entire game and story 2,034% confident something is wrong, and there's some great conspiracy afoot, and that for some reason only she can do anything about it, and it's up to HER to go and do something about it.

She has no plan of getting off 4546B, no plan to contact anyone to pick her up. No blueprints in her PDA for constructing a basic short-range warp capable vessel. No preloaded information about the flora, fauna, terrain, or history of 4546B, doesn't download and go over any Alterra documents or video. Doesn't research or ask around or look into anything. Nope. Just hot-headed "AH DAMN I FEEL A CERTAIN KINDA WAY GOTTA GO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT"

She shows up ready to vindicate her sister and expose Alterra for the super mega bad ultra terrible Evil Corporation that they really are, only to end up with EGG on her face when she discovers "Uh yeah" Sam got herself killed, doing something stupid, dumb, and reckless, and killed someone else. After learning this, she makes NO mention of it. Her opinion of Sam does NOT change. IT'S IGNORED once you administer the cure, the way Robin talks on about her sister Sam with such pride and admiration made me sick and disgusted.

She said NOTHING about Parvan, makes NO mention of the man her sister killed. Feels NOTHING for woman who's husband her sister killed. Says NOTHING about the young girl who's Father was taken away from her. Instead she speaks ONLY about her sister and speaks ONLY with pride in her voice. It's sickening. That they wrote such an awful and horrible person, and intend for us to be sympathetic towards them, and play them off with other, equally unbelievable characters trying to demonrate the way we're "supposed" to feel about them.

When in reality, I couldn't feel anything further from it. I can't tell you the last time I ever looked down upon a fictional video game character with such distaste, distain, and contempt as I do Robin.

No remorse for the people her sister killed. No shame for being so very absolutely wrong, about both her sister AND Alterra. No anger or sadness or indignation or justified fury towards Maida for effectively talking her sister into a stupid SUICIDE MISSION. It's like the writers (3 writers) for this game don't understand how human emotions work or how things happen in the real world. They do not know how to write believable characters with personalities that resemble anything more than a gross and offensive, poorly-written shallow stereotype or trope.

They WANT us to sympathize with Robin, working for a small scrappy company that is doing its best to keep from being bought up by the big bad evil Alterra! They want you to root for her, as the underdog. They want you to be impressed with and admire Robin, look how well composed she is, loo how well she handles herself, look how completely indifferent she is to any form of adversity! We're led to beleive from the start that Robin, and her sister Sam, are both good people, We are made to be suspicious of Alterra, and that this entire game, the trip to 4546B, is worth it, and will uncover the answers we are seeking.

They want us to boo Alterra, those evil people working hard and trying to earn a profit and provide for their families. Hiss! We are meant to believe they caught Sam snooping around and finding out their evil diabiological dastardly villanous plans to use Khaara and make it super Kharaa hahahaha!

And it's all................a lie.

Alterra did nothing wrong. Alterra is researching inert harmless samples of the bacteria on an alien world that is a perfect and absolutely safe containment for the Kharaa. A bacteria that any risk of it breaking out or infecting someone is completely negated by the presence of Enzyme 42, and the source of it (Sea Emporer Leviathans) And the only evidence that points to what Alterra's motives are, comes directly from Alterra employees themselves, assuring Sam they are researching the Kharra for possible medical applications.

You know, kind of like how we discovered penicillin and insulin? Researching and experimenting on virus and bacteria? Creating cures and treatments? Like hello? Modern science: EXISTS. Not only that, we discover that Alterra did nothing to Sam.

I end up hating Robin. I think she's an awful person! I think however the way the writers meant for her to come across couldn't be further from the way that she's actually recieved. I'm watching someone hurting puppies at the same time they are looking around and telling us how good of a person they are. I don't buy it. I call shenannigans.

And all that. The whole reason we came to 4546B, Maida, Alterra, Kharra, all that. ALLLLL THAT. Can just be utterly and totally disregarded, considering the player need only to meet AL AN, find and scan his body parts, make them, then put them together at the Fabricator Facility and they beat the game and can access the "ending"

Which, is such an obvious pulled out of their ass Dues Ex Machina I can't even begin to pretend to take it seriously. What a cop out. Robin has no consequences, she suffers NO set backs, she pays for NOTHING. She learns NO LESSON. She was wrong, and succeeded for it! She was rewarded for merely showing up. A literal participation trophy.

You played Below Zero. Did you find out what happened to your sister? No, you didn't? Ah, that's okay, don't worry about it. You can still win! Yay! Participation Trophy! You win just for trying. Everyone's a winner!

Under the impression that good guys eventually win in the end and that evil always gets what it deserves, the story of Below Zero is such a gross perversion of that story telling belief system. The good and the just lose, perish, and are blown away by the sands of time. The meager, the petty, the prideful and vain triumph and succeed, their vile evil deeds rewarded with bountiful gifts, treasures, and boons.

I have a playlist where I spent over an hour talking about the Hero's Journey, describing what it is, and how it relates to a form of story telling, and then using that to help point out and place context on what Below Zero's story is so bad, and why Robin is among the worst Protagonists I've ever seen in my entire life, across ALL FORMS OF MEDIA.

She is never wrong, her stance is never challenged or questioned, she faces no adversity, she faces no set backs, no matter what she does or how horribly she acts, she is always percieved to be in the right, justified, morally correct. She accomplishes nothing, and yet wins anyway. She over comes nothing, yet wins anyway. She goes through no change. Yet she wins anyway. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. She didn't DO anything on 4546B!

The whole game is pointless! It doesn't matter wether we "cute" the dead Frozen Leviathan of Kharaa or not! Kharaa already exists across thousands of planets and solar sytems ALREADY. There's no "killing the virus before it gets loose" We are PAST THAT POINT. It is already LOOSE. If anything, she prevented Alterra from learning more about the Kharaa and possibly better preparing the Human Race for the Kharaa by learning from Precusor Mistakes. But nah. That would actually be a decent story.

So we no point in curing the Frozen Leviathan, but for some reason we can anyway. But even then, we can still BEAT THE GAME and LEAVE THE PLANET without CURING THE KHARAA, which would be the only thing we DO on the planet. Robin's one "heroic act" is completely pointless, utterly unecessary, and even the game/story itself ignores it and doesn't require it to complete the game.

I couldn't write a story this bad if I tried to on purpose. The plot holes. The inconsistencies. All I've been talking about concerning the story so far is ONE CHARACTER. Robin. I can get all over AL AN. Maida. Every Alterra character. Every single PDA log. After the 1.0 release of Below Zero I noticed they removed many articles from the PDA, unanswered questions and plot holes. Because I pointed them out!

"Why is Sector Zero a frozen arctic like landscape if it's on the equator?"

"What is the mystery behind the formation of the Sector Zero landmass?"

"What were the Architects doing in Sector Zero?"

Unsolved mysteries that we will never know the answers to, because they are unresolved plotline lose threads and loose ends with no way to tie them up. Plot holes with no way to fill them. So they were entirely swept up under the rug.

I offered to help! I offered to help fix the story line. I offered and provided ideas to fill in the plotholes. I provided simply and EASY to impliment solutions that required mere TEXT changes. No need to change any assets or script an event differently or add or remove any models or textures. Just "type in box" changes. A couple lines of text changes or added or removed here and there. And suddenly the story would make so much more sense.

The most they'd have to do is pay for a few additional voice lines. But nope! They didn't listen. And yeah, they did hear me. I've been in contact with more than one UWE (Not all currently still employed) and have been told, confirmed, directly by one of the devs, quoted in reply comment and all. That yes. UWE does is in fact aware of me, and my ideas. That my posts are read, and that my videos are being watched. And that while they agree to my right to disagree, they find me very "distasteful"

Fair enough.

That lets me know, all the posts I've made on this forum during Early Access, all the videos I made on Youtube, all the rants I went on. All the speeches I made. All the advice I gave. All the tips I shared. All the warnings I gave. I knew they were not all for naught, for they were not to fall upon deaf ears. They were heard.

And be it as it may, very well within their rights, as it should be, my suggestions and advice were heard, acknowledged, and then dismissed. Again. Fair enough.

And so Below Zero is the way that it is. Disappointing. Not just for being the way that it is, but knowing that there was a chance it could have been different. Could have been better. But it was decided upon and chosen that this is the version we were going to get.

Still on the story. Shall I go on? Sure. Let's talk about AL AN!

What a joke. What is it with people writing Alien - Human interacts almost ALL THE SAME. Alien is portrayed as some technologically advanced and superior race, yet they are spiritually and emotionally primitive compared to us Humans and despite the astronomical incomparable differences in our ablities it is the Aliens and not the Humans are missing out.

How the Alien can tell you the exact chemical composition for every element in the universe and describe to you in perfect detail how reverse transmagraphying sub-luminal travel can be achieved, they have no concept or idea of what "love" or "music" or "laughter' is. Faith, hope, all these are such foreign concepts, such ALIEN concepts to them. And the stories are always about how through some contrived and whacky series of events, the Alien is supposed to learn valuable lessons about what its like to be Human and how super awesome we are and why they should totally be more like us. Don't you know.

Haha please laugh canned audience laughter.mp3 sitcom lulz mid 90's mirite?

ALF, Coneheads, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Mork and Mindy, super easy convenient off the top of my head examples with no thought given. Great Gazoo from Flintstones. Marvin the Martian. It's patronizing. It's condescending. There's a very small window in a person's life, where, under certain circumstances, this can be valuable. Young children growing up, with low self-esteem, poor confidence, lacking assurance or the belief that they can do anything right. Cartoons and shows like this can be very helpful and useful in helping to instill and provide the beginning steps to helping these people grow up and develope healthy relationships with the world and situations they find themselves living in.

Beyond that small window, it's just very boring, uncreative, bland trite story telling hogwash. Like a Comedian with only one good joke that they always fall back on to the point where even that, too, has lost its humor, and they now devolve into a sad and remosrse unfunny and self tortured soul, a shell of their former self. It feels like story tells today are just not capable of thinking out side of a very well and clearly define box, a studio designed set of parameters that must be adhered to to keep the shareholders happy.

For why AL AN disappoints me, I could go into extreme and absurd detail about every voice line, both old and new, Early Access and 1.0 release versions, every interaction, the lines, the dialogue, the change to the voice, his purpose in the story, the way he's used (poorly) as a plot device, I could do all that. But I thought this game and, sadly, AL AN, aren't good enough for that, and would only be fitting I take the entire premise down by removing the very foundation and structure that it attempts to stand upon in the first place.

[dragonbornzyra]

AL AN has no reason or purpose to exist, in any video game, in any story, in any media, for any reason. He serves no purpose and fufills no role that has not already been done before, and far better.

AL AN is a great example and analog for how badly the writers for ths game wrote themselves into a corner, repeatedly. Let's put an alien in the game! Done. Well what do we do with him? Uh......let's do this! Okay done. Wait story change, he does this. Okay done he does that.

Uh oh, new writers, story over all. But we already did the things! We can't just throw out the dirty bath water and start over! What do we do? Uh let's just stich everything together and gloss over it!

And that's exactly how AL AN's role in the story comes across. No direction, no cohesion, just a total ludonarrative dissonance.

We are told how great Sam and Robin are, yet we are shown different. AL AN speaks like, and is portrayed as, an Architect, as this magestic superior being, but is performed as an ignorant, low energy, zero t, clueless git that n e e d s your help! Because tropes.

Maida is....well I'll get to her in a second.

The writers want us to feel a certain way about their game, their story, and the characters in it. And I really feel like they completely failed to meet that goal. That ball was dropped hard. We end up rooting for the "badguys" and despising the "heroes" of this game. I did at least, and for the reasons that I've been listing.

AL AN does nothing. We don't need him to unlock any Precursor locked force fields, because we HAD Key Tablets in the game. Those were REMOVED. We don't NEED AL ANs help to find any Architect Artifacts. He doesn't give us beacons to all of them so we end up having to find the rest anyway. The map is so small and the story so short, I got so bored and I found them all before the becon system was put in the game.

On top of that, they are all disappointing let downs, nothing in the game is as big or grand or well put together or having a purpose that fit so well in the story as the Precusor Facilities in Subnautica. In Below Zero they are all tiny lil thrown together set pieces. 2 or 3 of these artifacts even reuse the same model! Duplicates! How lazy and cheap!

AL AN doesn't help US. We are the ones that help HIM. We save him from containment. We store him in our mind. We find, scan, and build him a body. We (For some reason? For NO reason) help him lift the pillars at the end to activate whatever process to end the game.

How great is a dragon is a man with a mere sword can slay one? How great is an alien being is they need a mere person's assistance turning off the faucet?

It's like I'm being made fun of for being awe inspired and wonder about the Subnautica Precusors, I was so curious about them, I held them in reverence and respect, only to get a glimpse of what they are like through AL AN? What a let down. Disappointing.

AL AN is nothing but the foil for Robin to play off, the "dummy" in a comedy duo. The one that makes mistakes and acts wrong so Robin has an excuse to correct them and them demonstrate or educate them on the PROPER way to do things. Because, if ya don't got a dragon to slay, sometimes you gotta make one up, right?

You must think I'm done, right? Nah I'm not done. What you know about Maida? Well lemme tell you what I know bout Maida.

She's dead. I made about three or four videos talking about her at length. About why she's dead, and there's absolutely no way possible she's alive. If we are to consider Subnautica CANON, and imperical, and infallable, and thus it is Below Zero that must meet the standard of proof, than we cannot argue there is any possibility what so ever outside of outright absurdity that Maida is alive.

I'll spare you another hour of reading and summarize this up for ya since I've went over it in my head so many times already before.

Either Kharaa is as deadly as it is and they messed up retconning her into Below Zero, couldn't come up with a way to make it believable, invested too much time and resources making her a rig, model, skinning and texutring and animating it, and then hiring and paying a voice actress to remove Maida, and coudn't come up with a way to explain or justify her being alive, and just left it in any way, throw their hands up in the air and just say "F- it" OR

Kharaa is NOT deadly as we were led to believe, and that Below Zero is "right" and thus contradicts Subnautica, which doesn't solve the issue instead it merely shifts blame from Below Zero for failing at the story and places it on Subnautica telling us it was SUBNAUTICA that got it wrong, and Below Zero was right all along.

In the end, there's no healthy marriage between Subnautica and Below Zero's storyline. Not even a direct sequel, but like saying 2 movies take place in the same world on the same planet at the same time and yet in one movie people ride horses and have no electricity but the next movie people are riding robot lizards and firing photon pistols I'm confused.

The original 10 Maida Survival PDA logs were reduced to 3-4. So instead of re writing them and making em make sense, they just removed 6-7 and left the poorly written story incomplete as their final decision!

It's like they began to realize how rubbish everything was and couldn't be arsed to fix it or admit they messed up so just "Eh, toss it"

Maida "Acts" so tough and threatening and dangerous, yet because Robin has plot armor and we don't actually fight her and she can't actually hurt us, they couldn't come up with a way to make her feel threatening even in a story sense. We set foot on Delta Station island and trigger some recorded message from speakers from her. Threatening us off her land. If she was serious we'd be taken out at this point.

Then she waits for us to get halfway up the mountain to "ambush us" just to try to flex on us, and act like a Scooby Doo villain, trying to scare us away so they can but the land out from under the local daycare center for the oil beneath! And she'd have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't those meddling Alterrans, and that pesky Reaper, too!

She has every reason, chance, and opportunity to ice us right now, but, plot armor, reasons, can't kill Robin or hurt Robin so, in the attempt to make Maida seem tough but not an impassable barrier, she achieves laughing stock status.

On top of this, we stalk her back to her base, and invade her home, and she's fine. She's okay. She's chill. She lets us in. She cooks us some Marble Melon soup. Lets us pet her Snowstalker Preston. It's cool. She's got a job for us! OOOOOOO NPC sidequests!

Man, who doesn't love Zelda, Ocarina of Time's incredible and complex series of trading sidequests required to get the Biggoron Sword, huh? Let's just replicate that aspect that EVERYBODY loved so much!

And it is all contrived, forced, artificial. It gives us a lame "Excuse" to go diving in a "wreck" just because "Subnautica did it" Subnautica had a talking PDA, let's put one here! Subnautica had wrecks.....uh, let's put one of those in! Oh yeah, what else do those Subnautica kids like?"

So out of touch with what their own success was, they had no idea what they were doing. The success of Subnautica was an ACCIDENT. I am starting to see more and more that it was not by DESIGN.

And at the end of it all? What's our reward? Vague directions to her green house. Then some stuff to scan, the OP Spicy Salad reciple, and then a PDA that reveals Maida's involvement and direct responsibility in our sister's death........

Oh and the exclusive, super premium privilege of scanning her Toilet, Sink, and Shower. (But not her Marble Melon tree) What a satisfying and rewarding experience. And since this game is so poorly put together with so little thought or planning put into it, you can complete all three story lines in any order you want, in any combination you want, and nothing matters, nothing changes. Robin says what she says when she gets where she goes, regardless of wether you've done something or got something or not.

The game isn't aware of itself. Robin has conversations with AL AN wether he's in her head or not wether she's supposed to or not. No interaction between Sam's plotline and Maida's plotline, which you'd THINK after learning what happened to Sam and discovering Maida's role in it, you'd think the logical next course of action would be to listen to Robin opine: "I think I'm going to go and have a talk with that Maida person about Sam again. Something doesn't sit right with me"

Nah, if you expected quality, you're exectations are too high! Below Zero is good enough just for trying.

Do I got to go into detail about EVERY SINGLE SIDE CHARACTER Alucard? I think I'm starting to make good enough points I don't have to over kill it with the detail but believe, I hate every character in this game and can and will tell you why.

There are still more plotholes in the story I have not brought up. I bet you believe me now. I bet you aren't curious anymore. Maybe you even regret asking. Or maybe you just regret me answering, haha. Either way. I've got more to say. More reasons to give as to why I find Below Zero to be a "very, very bad game"

If you want to know more, you can ask, and I'll happily continue to share the rest of the reasons for why I don't like this game, why it disappoints me, why I have no fun with it, and why I have no interest in anymore Subnautica games before the original.

Thank you for asking and giving me the opportunity to answer your questions and hopefully clear up some of the air. This isn't clumsy, blind hatred of the game. It is calm, calculated, well thought-out disgust for the game.

[Dirak2012]

O.O
Holy walls of text...

[QueenPixxa]

Coops how do you know how many posts were blocked?
I can't possibly read all this but I appreciate the effort.

[dreamrider]

If you don't care at all about an SN 3 ... what is the point of this treatise?
Because it seems to be a major effort to turn OFF everyone else on the idea of an SN 3. In other words, a work of intense passion.

[QueenPixxa]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

If you don't care at all about an SN 3 ... what is the point of this treatise?
Because it seems to be a major effort to turn OFF everyone else on the idea of an SN 3. In other words, a work of intense passion.

I agree ;)

[stevasaur]

I agree with most of the salient points in the OP.

Al-AN's behavior in-game would have made a lot more sense if it had turned out that the reason he was always so evasive with Robin about the alien operations of 4546B was because he himself didn't know exactly what was going on, because he was the Architect equivalent of a janitor.

This provides a built-in explanation why AL-AN doesn't provide more helpful information (because he is learning about what exactly his people were doing just as we are), why he is so evasive/terse with Robin (because he is caught trying to act the part of a superior alien being without the actual social rank and technical expertise to back it up) and ultimately gives us a different viewpoint from which to observe Architect society than the top-down perspective of the research notes/administrative directives we read in the original Subnautica. It gives him a relatable, believable reason for low-level conflict with Robin without rendering the character explicitly untrustworthy once the jig is up and the "mystery" is revealed.

Also, I think the point about the new PDA was especially relevant. Obviously, the Alterra PDA's AI did not actually care about the PC: it's probably not sophisticated enough to have full sentience anyway. But its general attitude was "helpful," even if it was sometimes clueless (insert obligatory "data indicates that swimming was your favorite activity" reference). It would generally chime in with encouragement or genuinely helpful advice. Telling us an abridged version of the Craig McGill story and following up with "if he can do all that, you can survive one more day" is the kind of little touch that a stranded survivor needs to keep going.

From both an in-universe and an out-of-universe perspective, the PDA is supposed to be interacting with a customer. Being an aloof or sarcastic AI assistant generally isn't a selling point either for Robin or the player. The "joke" when you build the control room is incredibly tone-deaf, and mocking the player for building a coffee vending machine is just... what? Why? If this is the kind of product Xenoworx is putting out, I'm glad they're being bought out by Alterra.

[MΛRCUS HΞLIUS]

I just found the computer voice too annoying...

[dragonbornzyra]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

If you don't care at all about an SN 3 ... what is the point of this treatise?
Because it seems to be a major effort to turn OFF everyone else on the idea of an SN 3. In other words, a work of intense passion.

My guy, the very first thing in my post is a quote from Alucard asking a question, followed by my addressing them in response. This topic was originally just a comment reply to Alucard's question in another topic. I did not want to derail that thread, so I created this topic to post my reply.

I was answering a question. Alucard really seemed like he wanted to know, stating they got "silence" when they asked others this question. It's the very first thing in this post, it should dictate right then and there what the point of this "treatise" is. It's cool if you don't agree with any of my points, I'd like to talk about that with you and discuss anything you want.

Just please don't derail the subject of conversation by trying to why I'm participating in the forums, especially when it's quite obvious and very clearly stated as the first thing at the top why the post was made.

And yes it's a work of passion. I'm allowed to feel passionate about this game yes? Just like you are right? Why is my passion being called into question? Why is your passion allowed but mine has to be held under a liglht and made to justify itself? I wanna believe I know you better than this Dreamrider.

Do you have anything to say that's on topic? Would you like to address my points, and not the author themself?

Originally posted by stevasaur:

I agree with most of the salient points in the OP.

Al-AN's behavior in-game would have made a lot more sense if it had turned out that the reason he was always so evasive with Robin about the alien operations of 4546B was because he himself didn't know exactly what was going on, because he was the Architect equivalent of a janitor.

This provides a built-in explanation why AL-AN doesn't provide more helpful information (because he is learning about what exactly his people were doing just as we are), why he is so evasive/terse with Robin (because he is caught trying to act the part of a superior alien being without the actual social rank and technical expertise to back it up) and ultimately gives us a different viewpoint from which to observe Architect society than the top-down perspective of the research notes/administrative directives we read in the original Subnautica. It gives him a relatable, believable reason for low-level conflict with Robin without rendering the character explicitly untrustworthy once the jig is up and the "mystery" is revealed.

That certainly comes across as more effort and thought put into the story than what we got. But unless I'm really mistaken, AL AN is the same "scientist" referred to in Subnautica. There's a Precursor stash where other Architects are stored in data caches. Piecing together the PDA info, AL AN was sent to 4546B as kind of a "punishment" He had a different thought/idea and instead of sharing it with the Hivemind and deciding upon it he acted on his own, which is seen as a no no in their culture.

Like getting into an argument with your commanding officers or top brass so they stick you with a back waters assignment to make ya suffer. When the Sea Dragon breached the Alien Research Facility housing its Egg, that's when the contained Kharaa was released into 4546B's ecosystem. The Sea Treader poo hit the fan, I imagine AL AN helped upload any of his collegues, activated Quaruntine Enforcement Platform canon, activated and programmed the Warpers with their task, and Warp Gated or used whatever means to travel to Sector Zero where he stores himself in the Data Cache Robin ends up finding him in.

As it is, AL AN's behavior and personality conflicts with the way Architects are presented to us in Subnautica. However, your explanation, while clashing with Subnautica's depiction of them, does very well to explain and justify his existing behavior and personality and his actions or lack of. Lines of text, a piece of dialogue, a PDA entry to explain all of this would go very far and fill in plotholes.

See? It's not incredibly. If you just sit and take a momment and think, almost anyone can come up with better reasonings than what they gave us in the game. It just seems like a rush job, so incomplete. You tell your kid to go wash the dishes, and they don't do it right, so you try to get them to go back and wash the dishes right. Tell em "If you do it right the first time you won't have to go back over it again" It's a good character straight to instill in someone. Don't do a half arse job.

AL AN should have been a threat, at least a potential threat. Instead he's treated as a Teletubbie the whole game and to the very end there's nothing to condradict it.

You can make a game and a story that are less scary and tailored to kids, and still make it a good game, a good, well written story. I don't know why people think children are so dumb and ignorant they have to dum down content for them to enjoy it. Kids are smarter than you think.

I think people make excuses to deflect from valid criticism that should be accepted and used to improve themselves.

The thing is, the story they wanted to tell could have worked. They just didn't even try hard enough. It's like turning in an essay for a class assignment and you didn't try at all, the teacher grades you very poorly and then you complain about the teacher being unreasonable.

If they put any kind of story in the new Subnautica game, they have Below Zero as a precedent to learn from so I don't think they can get away with the same excuse twice "Oh we're trying something new"

Most franchises wait until they've sold severla successful games before they start to jump the shark and get creative with their franchises.



Another point I didn't bring up in my initial post. There are fewer creature eggs for us to find and use and fewer flora for us to harvest and put in our base. This is just yet another disappointment, having "less" than we did before. Even if we get some "new" fish and plants, there are over all less, and that just feels bad. The Deep Lillypad Biome precursor cache has a crazy lanturn bonzai tree thing that......does nothing and you can't harvest it.

They have voxel shrubs and rattler mushrooms and other Subnautica flora in that cave, but they are not able to be harvested and using console commands you still can't spawn in or use the seeds.

It's so unpolished. It's a car with a nice paint job but under the hood it's not even fully built.

[Alucard †]

Oh i see :<

Thanks for taking your time and answering.

And yup i am fan of both original and Ultimate Hellsing ^^

[stevasaur]

Originally posted by dragonbornzyra:

That certainly comes across as more effort and thought put into the story than what we got. But unless I'm really mistaken, AL AN is the same "scientist" referred to in Subnautica. There's a Precursor stash where other Architects are stored in data caches. Piecing together the PDA info, AL AN was sent to 4546B as kind of a "punishment" He had a different thought/idea and instead of sharing it with the Hivemind and deciding upon it he acted on his own, which is seen as a no no in their culture.

I'm familiar with the databank entry you're talking about: however, I don't think there is any direct connection established between the individual in the "Alien Biological History" data entry and AL-AN himself. All the entry says is that the individual was stored in Sanctuary 3, which could be anywhere on 4546B.

It's certainly possible that AL-AN was the being described in the databank entry, but as far as I know, there's no actual evidence for or against aside from the fact that both Architects were on 4546B and were stored in Sanctuaries that can't be found in the Crater where Subnautica takes place, So AL-AN being a lowly functionary wouldn't conflict with the original Subnautica at all.