Did you find yourself holding your breath while surfacing to the point of feeling lightheaded, too? Loved the game; can’t play it.
It’s a marvel. Go play it, take your time, go deeper and watch your oxygen levels.
And play with the sound on and in the dark. 
I do have two warnings about the game: First, I’ve encountered game-crippling framerate issues at times despite having a PC that far exceeds the recommended specifications. Since this can happen in places you are required to visit, this can turn a nuisance into a grinding slog. And this is definitely not isolated, as many players reported similar problems but which will never be addressed, despite being known problems since early beta.
Second, it’s still a lot of fun, but some of the game is really frustrating if you don’t use the wiki, although I strongly recommend you avoid it as much as possibly until or unless you just get stuck. The concern there is that some critical tools or information can be missed just if you happen to zig where the game expects you to zag. Part of this goes back to the very long beta period. Aa each new area was released or changes to the game made, veteran players went and combed every inch. For a new player, however, it’s very easy to find yourself completely lost although the game does have ways to nudge you into doing certain things. Still, even after lots of exploring I’ve sometimes had issues with finding the exact thing I needed because there’s a lot to uncover, only to realize that there was something useful just a short distance away I couldn’t see. It can be hard to track exactly where you’ve been. It’s a good idea to carry a beacon with you (no spoilers there) and leave it if you find something so you can come back later.
Apart from that, it’s still an excellent bargain and loads of fun.
Yeah, I reached this problem near then end of the game, where there was one specific item I needed and by chance hadn’t run across in all my explorations. After I spent about an hour or two trying to anti-retrace my steps (i.e., explore in places I hadn’t been before), I finally gave up and used a Wiki. A more robust map would definitely have been a nice feature.
I heard there is a map mod. Would you recommend it?
OH GOOD LORD THAT LOOKS GREAT. Assuming this is what you’re talking about. If you only get it for the Fog of War feature (i.e., showing you where you’ve already been), that alone would be worth it.
I saw it in a list of recommended mods. I’ll probably add it to my version if at all possible. I’m not an expert at adding mods. I did for Skyrim…
I haven’t used any mods, but it sounds like a very good tool. Honestly, I wondered at several points why they didn’t include this as a late-game upgrade. You have a PDA with you at all times and, while you wouldn’t want to hand this out to the player right away, it would make the end stages more convenient once the player has demonstrated mastery of all the basics.
Yes, I’ll probably add the mod right away and see how it works. It appears to be the most commonly installed mod from the Nexus.
I’m trying to hold off until I’ve forgotten most of the stuff before playing again. But it is an awesome game. Nothing scary at all for anyone over 6 IMHO, maybe a few startling moments at best.
Concur on some things being nearly unsolvable unless you have the “Aha” moment or read the wiki:
I mean, who would have thought cave sulfur would only be in the nests of those exploding fish you panic & swim frantically away from?
I always held my breath when he was getting low, purely unconsciously. It made the game better if anything.
I really liked this mod too. It scales the scanner room blip size and adds a range, making it a lot easier to figure out which resources you should be trying to get to, and which are half the map away. Also lets you toggle the blips on & off without having to return to the base.
Is that like the shrine detector in Breath of the Wild? It beeps like radar/sonar when shrines are near, but you can set it to detect any item of use and it will beep when near those things.
You can build a room in the game that’ll provide a not-particularly-useful holographic 3-d map of surrounding terrain; and you can set it to have not-particularly-useful “pings” on that map showing where a chosen resource is. There’s a huge variety of resources you can choose to ping.
Where it gets useful is that you can craft an item that pings those resources on the “real” world, so you can swim directly toward the resource.
Where it’s a problem is that the real-world pings don’t show you how distant the resource is, or if you’ve been there before. It’s hard to know if a particular resource is like 10 meters away or 500 meters away.
The mod, apparently, changes the size of the real-world pings to represent their distance from you. This sounds pretty useful.
I rarely replay games- there are so many new games out there that I usually prefer to grab a new game rather than play one I’ve played before. Subnautica is the first game I’ve ever played where, once I finished it, I *immediately *started a new game.
I’ve already purchased the sequel, Subzero. I haven’t played it yet, though, as it’s still in development and I want the full experience.
Subnautica is one of the main reasons I want to get a VR setup.
By the way, if you’re the least bit thalassophobic, you’re in for a stressful time.
Subzero’s in a weird place. The story is playable to a point that feels like it’s maybe halfway to two thirds through. HOWEVER, the developers weren’t happy with the story, so they’ve hired a new writer who’s building an entirely new story from the ground up, using the locations and graphics and gameplay already established.
I agree that the current story isn’t as good as it should be, but it’s serviceable enough. The game is certainly playable now; and if you buy it now, you get two stories for the price of one. (But the update pushing the new story is due soon; apparently it’s already in the experimental build, which you can switch to in your Steam settings.)
Yes, it adds range info so you can figure out which blips are close and which aren’t. And it also lets you turn it off without returning to the scanner room, so if while you’re prospecting you see something interesting you want to explore you’re not distracted by 30+ circles in your field of view.
I think you could do that anyway just by unequipping the chip, couldn’t you?
I’m torn on this one. Every game that has underwater options, I get out of the water ASAP. Last resort. Having your character running out breath is very uncomfortable to me. But even if you have spells or potions or whatever (like WoW), I just don’t like it. I’m also the not the exploring type. I’ll do side quests and stuff but I typically do not wander around.
That being said, with all the ranting and raving about this, it’s hard not to try.
I honestly don’t remember. I’ll feel really stupid if that’s true. Can you mess with your equipment & mask while you’re underwater though?
My new laptop came today and I installed Subnautica pretty much right away. It defaulted to “high” settings, so I am guessing the computer can run it.
I have to finish up Breath of the Wild first, which is at least 2-3 more weeks of solid play. Kids love the game, I love it, must finish!
Then on to Subnautica!
Yes. One way of diving deeper without using submersibles is to carry extra air tanks in your inventory.