Get yer flip-flops out and dust last year’s sand off the boogie board. Subnautica 2’s world map will be bigger than previous games in the soaking survival series. At least that’s what the developers say in a recent Q & A video. They’ve also said they’re returning to the storytelling style of the first game, with a silent protagonist and “player discovery” being the big driver of the story.
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“The playable map size will be bigger than what we originally launched in early access on the original Subnautica, and even Below Zero’s early access release,” says creative producer Scott MacDonald in the video. “But just how big and how deep you’ll be able to go over the course of early access, we’re not exactly sure yet.”
“The entire world is being handcrafted by a talented team of world designers and environment artists,” he said, “and they’re pouring everything into the world right now. We’re aiming for this to be the biggest and most exciting Subnautica game ever once we hit 1.0 in a few years time.”
It’s not totally surprising for Unknown Worlds to go bigger for the sequel. But outright saying so may be reassuring to those players who complained that Below Zero’s map felt smaller and shallower than the original survival splashabout. One player, for example, made comparison images to show the difference in map size between games.
I wasn’t that bothered, to be honest. Much of the first game’s map is open expanse and empty ocean – good for evoking a sense of vastness but not necessarily required in Below Zero’s frosty ice fields. The cold spinoff was still beautiful and inviting, even if all the bitter snowstorms raged in a tighter space. But hey, I get why people are endlessly hungry for more watery depths to explore. The original Subnautica remains one of our best survival games.
The devs cover some other common queries. They say a lot of players want to go back to the environmental storytelling basics of the first game. So the game is “returning to having a silent protagonist”, rather than a tailored protagonist as in Below Zero. “But that doesn’t mean that we won’t have the opportunity to showcase some amazing voice acting in PDA entries and in other areas,” says MacDonald.
But not everything is returning to tradition. The vehicles you’ll get here won’t include the nippy Seamoth submersible or hulking Cyclops submarine from the first game, we’re told, because the team want to make “new vehicles that are designed in the same spirit, just more suited to the brand new environment”. Meanwhile full character customisation won’t be available from the first moments of early access, they say, but it will get added later.
