So... how stupid exactly is the story?

[Kamamura]

I enjoyed the original, but I am reading terrible things about this sequel - the combination of trivial "challenges" of surviving and some super-woke agenda which does not really make sense science-wise.

Anyone who played this game, please, would care to provide a hopefully non-spoilery answer? Thank you kindly in advance.

[Festive Mints]

Story wise, there are a lot of plot holes, important things that are poorly or are completely unexplained, characters doing things and reacting in ways that don't make sense, and you can beat the game without completing a major part of the story and nothing notable happens as a result.

I liked the two main characters a lot, they were just very strangely and poorly written at times.
Robin in particular has some very strange reactions to certain things that happen in the story which make her seem either unhinged or just devoid of emotion entirely. For the most part she's alright, she just has a few moments that make her seem really weird and hard to relate to.
The other main character is much better in my opinion, although he has a decent number of flaws and inconsistencies as well.

The gameplay is still very good, although the map is much smaller and the horror elements have mostly been removed by making areas well-lit even at night and stuff like that.
There are still some pretty spooky creatures and areas, just not as many as the first game.

Overall, the story and characters aren't great, but they weren't bad enough to keep me from enjoying the game from start to finish and replaying a few times since the gameplay still holds up very well.
It also looks and runs waaaay better than the first game which is cool.

Sorry for the wall of text, it's 1am and I'm too tired to make this easier to read :p
I hope this helps and is what you were looking for.

[TG]

Ignore the frustrated men-children talking of agendas and other nonsense. Unfortunately the story is not worth mentioning, the entire game just feels like a school project made to copy the original Subnautica, while missing everything that made it great.

Really disappointing.

[Echelon86]

Seems very contradictory. So the story does suck? So those "frustrated men-children" are right but for the wrong reasons? It's just completely random that all these games sequels just happen to focus tons on political issues (this, BF5, Last of us 2 etc etc) and end up having ♥♥♥♥♥♥ stories also. It's almost like when you waste time & money on pointless crap to please people who aren't even buying your games then the gameplay + story suffers. Who'd have thunk it?

To answer OP: It seems yes from watching reviews. For whatever reason this has the same phenomenon of what happened between Last of Us and Last of Us 2. The original is better.

However still probably worth getting on sale if you LOVE Subnautica. I'm probably waiting for 50-75% sale.

[Pantherr]

Compared to Subnautica, which I REALLY enjoyed, BZ is just garbage... I can't even bring myself to play it anymore...

[admiral1018]

There is no "woke agenda" in this game, but the story does have major issues and is pretty poorly written overall. This is still a very fun game, but it's in spite of the narrative.

[Zarinthal]

BZ definitely not as good imo, resources are too easy, map is too small, story is too simple to play through, but a decent 3rd game to tie it up may help, I just think they shot too high setting that up and it may not work out considering this one

Originally posted by Echelon86:

people who aren't even buying your games

did it really feel smart to pretend to know who buys certain games?

[Bassilth]

The story starts out great, then the plot becomes more and more simple, then ends in an unsatisfying way, leaving you with all the questions you kept collecting through the story without answering most of them.

The characters are interesting but indeed they could have had more conversations, more revelations. They could have been more fleshed out and better written. But they are okay.

I dont mind the smaller map if it wasnt so crowded with hostile fauna. There is no more fear of drowning, no need to fear any hostiles either after you get a specific blueprint. Also, keep in mind that some blueprints are more difficult to find because... no wrecks. There are some quality of life improvements in the game, tho.

All in all, I enjoyed it because of the two memorable characters and the story from near the beginning got me hooked. Until I realized how much potential was lost by not making the plot more detailed.

[Tagard]

You will enjoy this game as well. Pay no mind to what others who are far too invested in a game have to say. The point of games is to lose yourself in magic and entertainment. This game provides that, in some ways moreso than the original.

The main flaw is the devs seemed to have a checklist of open minded ideas that they wanted to include, whether it was incorporated into the story properly or not.

Again, just ignore it and play the game. Its very fun.

[Vesperas]

Overall, I'd say it's much better than the first game. It has A LOT of QoL improvements over the original Subnautica and much better pacing. The story is a little disjointed but it's still more engaging than the original.

I'm not really sure what the "super-woke" agenda would be. You play as a black female? Who cares?

[kevlar]

the biggest disappointment was seeing how they disjointed the entire glacial basin initial story to a gigantic backdrop optional side quest. think I got a permanent *facepalm* mark after seeing that unfold after playing the first time at 1.0.

I honestly thought the cure with the frozen leviathan was going to end up in some end game melting and it coming alive to be 'that' Subnautica shock & awe-esque moment. Or at least somethingggg more than what we got. I would have really enjoyed seeing how loading the samples into the rocket and shipping em up to the Vesper would have played out as well. Sam was obliterated in this final version.

[yes]

basically you play as robin ayou and your sister sam works for alterra and dies on 4546b all the alterra leave and dont explain sams death and robin goes to find out more and something im not gonna spoil about architects

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by Vesperas:

Overall, I'd say it's much better than the first game. It has A LOT of QoL improvements over the original Subnautica and much better pacing. The story is a little disjointed but it's still more engaging than the original.

I'm not really sure what the "super-woke" agenda would be. You play as a black female? Who cares?

Yeah the loud minorities if rightists attack anything that has any person of particular gender, race and sexuality in the lead role of games, movies and other media these days. Cancel culture goes strong on both sides.

Try to ask them what they claim is so "woke" about the game. I tried to ask them this last year when the game released. They totally failed by either strawmanning, or claiming that their reasons for the game being "woke" would be a bannable offense to explain. Then this says more about them than anyone else really.

On the other hand. Whoever came in here just using "woke" as a reason for the game being bad. Please elaborate/explain why. Without any strawmanning or excuse. Or else the word may not mean anything at all.

[Turd King]

Originally posted by Vesperas:

Overall, I'd say it's much better than the first game. It has A LOT of QoL improvements over the original Subnautica and much better pacing. The story is a little disjointed but it's still more engaging than the original.

I'm not really sure what the "super-woke" agenda would be. You play as a black female? Who cares?

Who cares if you play as a white person.

[admiral1018]

Originally posted by Turd King:

Originally posted by Vesperas:

Overall, I'd say it's much better than the first game. It has A LOT of QoL improvements over the original Subnautica and much better pacing. The story is a little disjointed but it's still more engaging than the original.

I'm not really sure what the "super-woke" agenda would be. You play as a black female? Who cares?

Who cares if you play as a white person.

You don't play as a white person in the original Subnautica either, and I don't remember hearing anyone fixate on that.

[Kain]

I think the worse part of the story is her trying to explain to the alien, why it's so good to be human, to be misurdestood and whatnot because of muh feelings.

I'm like, shut up woman. I wish I could have been like the aliens, transfer your mind and travel the stars.

And then there is the lady mercenary from the first game WHO DIED, but somehow survived fighting a Reaper with a knife and travelling kilometers and not die from space aids when cut from the only source of cure on the planet.