Get yer flip-flops out and dirt final 12 months’s sand off the boogie board. Subnautica 2‘s world map might be larger than earlier video games within the soaking survival sequence. Not less than that is what the builders say in a recent Q & A video. They’ve additionally mentioned they’re returning to the storytelling type of the primary recreation, with a silent protagonist and “participant discovery” being the massive driver of the story.
“The playable map measurement might be larger than what we initially launched in early entry on the unique Subnautica, and even Beneath Zero’s early entry launch,” says inventive producer Scott MacDonald within the video. “However simply how large and the way deep you can go over the course of early entry, we’re not precisely certain but.”
“All the world is being handcrafted by a gifted crew of world designers and surroundings artists,” he mentioned, “and so they’re pouring every little thing into the world proper now. We’re aiming for this to be the largest and most enjoyable Subnautica recreation ever as soon as we hit 1.0 in a number of years time.”
It isn’t completely stunning for Unknown Worlds to go larger for the sequel. However outright saying so could also be reassuring to these gamers who complained that Beneath Zero’s map felt smaller and shallower than the unique survival splashabout. One participant, for instance, made comparability pictures to indicate the difference in map size between games.
I wasn’t that bothered, to be trustworthy. A lot of the primary recreation’s map is open expanse and empty ocean – good for evoking a way of vastness however not essentially required in Beneath Zero’s frosty ice fields. The chilly spinoff was nonetheless beautiful and inviting, even when all of the bitter snowstorms raged in a tighter house. However hey, I get why persons are endlessly hungry for extra watery depths to discover. The unique Subnautica stays considered one of our best survival games.
The devs cowl another frequent queries. They are saying lots of gamers wish to return to the environmental storytelling fundamentals of the primary recreation. So the sport is “returning to having a silent protagonist”, somewhat than a tailor-made protagonist as in Beneath Zero. “However that does not imply that we cannot have the chance to showcase some wonderful voice appearing in PDA entries and in different areas,” says MacDonald.
However not every little thing is returning to custom. The autos you will get right here will not embody the nippy Seamoth submersible or hulking Cyclops submarine from the primary recreation, we’re advised, as a result of the crew wish to make “new autos which might be designed in the identical spirit, simply extra suited to the model new surroundings”. In the meantime full character customisation will not be accessible from the primary moments of early entry, they are saying, however it should get added later.
