My friend had a copy of Subnautica and I tried it. It was a lot of fun.
Then the Steam sale happened and I ended up getting No Man’s Sky figuring I could return it if I didn’t like it.
I love it! It certainly isn’t for everybody but for what I wanted, a game focused very heavily on exploring just for the sake of exploring, it is great.
Last night watched a sunset* over on an ocean world as the green sky slowed turned black. It was just so much. Today I stood atop a mountain overlooking a sea of orange and red grass that glowed as it swayed in the sun. Today I also explored an land in a perpetual toxic rain. Dashing from cover to cover. It was great. I’m not recommending NMS just because I totally understand the criticism.
There’s no planetary motion so the sun didn’t actually set per se it is just the effect of going to nighttime.
I enjoyed Renowned Explorers, but it’s not really about “exploration” at all. There are like 8 or 10 total “maps” which are basically just collections of linked nodes with various challenges. It’s more like a more complicated FTL where you take different teams and try to beat the game while dealing with the challenges and opportunities it pulls out of the “pool” than it is an “exploration” game. I would not recommend it for someone looking for a game about exploration. I WOULD recommend it to someone who really likes playing with systems and beating that kind of roguelike challenge.
Bump–I’ve been playing Subnautica for many hours this past week (okay, for me, that means like five hours–my days of hardcore gaming are over). It’s hypnotic. Still in early release, and I’m hoping the final release has a wee bit more handholding (I know from the wiki that there’s an island nearby, but it’d be nice for the game to make that clear, and the tech tips for using various tools leave a lot to be desired), but for now, I love the beauty of the game.