How do you learn to play the game?

[Zeev]

I watched some "playthroughs", most of them 1+ hour, the video just starts from clicking on many buttons on the ship.
Are there a campaign, missions, tutorials?
Is it suitable for 1 player or should you find friends to play coop?

[Firaga]

It is possible to play single player if you are not at all planning to play with a regular group. However, the game is really designed for multiplayer and also best enjoyed that way. In solo you would be missing half the fun. Playing the tutorials to understand a few basic things and then firing up the campaign is a very solid way of getting started, just be prepared to have hard time in the beginning while learning the mechanics as the tutorials don't really prepare you for what is to come. Start slowly and after getting the hang of it you can gradually expand to new mission types. Disable the Jovian radiation so that you can really concentrate on the gameplay instead of just coping with the frustration.

The campaign is an incredible experience with a good group of friends.

[Buggy Boy]

I never play with Jovian radiation, it spoils the otherwise relaxing game experience in solo campaign mode.

If you jump into random multiplayer servers just be prepared to grow a thick skin very quickly, you'll likely encounter a full range of player types from the hyper organised, casual laid back, and the downright psychotic toxic players too (these are the ones most people remember, and is what puts plenty of us off the multiplayer experience). Even if you find a good set of friends to play with, be prepared to have a second job as a submariner, those campaigns can be quite gruelling and demanding on your time and sanity! This is why I much prefer the single player experience - you may miss out on that human interaction, but it's also that human interaction (the bad parts) that can really ruin the experience for me, that and having to play to someone else's timetable; in my experience it's often people a lot younger than myself who tend to put in far more hours per session than I have the energy for.

Look for a multiplayer server that states it's casual and newbie-friendly, be prepared to try a few out if you find you're not getting along with the crew or command style.

I've played the campaign through several times in single player mode, I think it's very enjoyable and rewarding, and can be quite relaxing. Commanding your crew of bots has it's quirks and learning curve, but once you get the hang of how they respond they'll do you proud.

[Shift]

Best way to learn is by trying and failing.

There is a tutorial explaining what each job is responsible for. The knowledge here is enough to get you going. The game challenge is more about making the right decision under pressure than knowing how to do the action themselves. For example, as a security officer, do you focus on the enemies outside or leave and fight intruders? As a medic, do you save the engineer or save the security officer?

There's also a campaign with a set ending, complete with a boss fight and cinematic.

Game is suitable for both. If SP or MP is better is up to each player.
On SP, you can take control of the entire crew, but otherwise must rely on AI to do most of the actions, since you just can't pay attention and deal with several issues happening at once. But quite often, when you need something more specific, they'll act a bit too dumb and screw things up.

On MP, you'll depend on your crew mates, which have all the flaws any gamer with online experience already know, from high toxicity, to flat out trolling for giggles and situations where they're so good you don't get to do anything and win anyway. If you got friends, that's the best experience you can have. If you decide to play with randoms, be ready for anything. Also, game don't have official servers, so you'll be connecting with a sever hosted by another player, so know beforehand that you'll be at his mercy and have nowhere to complain.

BTW, if you're starting a campaign by yourself, disable Jovian Radiation. IMO, this feature doesn't do anything to improve the experience unless you want a challenge run.

[Byte]

If you don't mind (potential) spoilers (for what relatively little lore there is), using the official wiki while playing is a great way to learn.

I went from struggling in the second biome to being 2/3rds of the way through beating a jovian radiation playthrough, which is basically a timer that you have to outspeed, just 2 weeks after beating the game for the first time, just by reading through stuff like "if i need xyz resource, how can I get this by buying items from outposts and deconstructing them" and the like.

[Hanz]

In short: Trial and error

[Buggy Boy]

Oh yeah, it helps enormously to have a sub with full deconstruction / fabrication facilities on board. Lugging materials in to a station is a total pain especially in solo mode (Dugong, I'm looking at you!), although you can load up bots with the follow command so they'll carry crates around where ever you go until you release them from that follow (at which point they'll drop their crate and wander off, so best to keep them following you until the job's done).

Even in multiplayer I don't think anyone really enjoys having to lug stuff into the station to use the single fabricator up there, at least if the sub has one then two people can be deconstructing / fabricating at the same time when docked.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Originally posted by Zeev:

I watched some "playthroughs", most of them 1+ hour, the video just starts from clicking on many buttons on the ship.
Are there a campaign, missions, tutorials?
Is it suitable for 1 player or should you find friends to play coop?

There is a campaign mode which involves playing round after round as you navigate your submarine and crew through Europan waters. The tutorials are very barebones, but most of the game is about a bunch of different simple mechanics that come together into something that can be complex for a player to manage well.

One player can complete the campaign but generally there is a lot of 'on the job learning' that needs to be done. In a single player game you can press a key to swap control between the crew members on your sub, in multiplayer you can also change control to npc crewmates but it's a little more involved (uses a console command, and typos can cause problems).

It's best to learn through a multiplayer game with a crew that isn't going to grief you, and good luck with that. A lot of people will join a game just to crash it somehow, so you'll probably want to find an experienced host rather than try to host one yourself until you learn the ropes.

[Falco]

i did the tutorial to understand the basics of each class. Then I played a solo single player campaign as captain. The first few areas are easy. You will mostly learn how to fix leaks and how to stop crashing onto walls.