Subnautica 2........
I arranged my day so that I wouldn't be able to play Subnautica 2 until the end of the day - to avoid derailing my entire day. I've completed Subnautica twice, and its sequel Below Zero once - they're booth fantastic. I really think these games are among the best of the best in the survival/crafting/construction genre.
I started playing Subnautica 2 hours ago and now that I'm a little ways into it - it seems pretty good so far!! In that it's more Subnautica!!! It's relentlessly similar to the first game, has pretty much all the same mechanics. This is pretty much exactly what I wanted from Subnautica 2.
The first two games were much less about personal experimentation and creativity than a lot of other big games in this genre. They're mostly about solving the world map, if that makes any sense. You can drill holes in the ground, and set up a lot of infrastructure, and build and customize a base, and so on... but the real challenge is "beating the map," I think, and hitting the right challenges in the right order using the right tools to progress.
The experience of discovering how to progress in the right way is very powerful. There are massive "twists" in the environment - particularly as you go down into the crust of the planet. New environmental hazards, new biomes, weird new terrains, and stuff like that. Building the bases and power systems and infrastructure you need to conquer this stuff pushes you further across the terrain and puts you face to face corresponding "twists" in the plot. It's really good shit. The way the story expands along with your exploration feels very natural and resonant. If you haven't played it, I really recommend it.
So basically... what I wanted from Subnautica 2 was a different planet with different challenges. I just kind of wanted a different map to explore! So far, I'm getting that. It's not super different from Subnautica 1, but I'm liking what I'm seeing, and it's fun to see how much more effort they put into the game's story i which you mostly experience through audio logs. Every time I get one, I'm reminded again of how pleasingly weird the game's setting is.
That said... the story is very dense with characters, and I'm swiftly getting to the point where I can't keep all of them straight! They tell you right at the start of the game that there are approximately twenty-six of them. I only have to keep track of six or so right now, and that already feels like a lot. I'm curious to see how the game will handle the rest of the cast.
The one thing I feel that the game is missing in its first few hours is a major mechanical hazard. In the first game, you almost immediately discover that radiation has blocked off a huge section of the nearby map. You immediately develop the goal of building a radiation-resistant wetsuit so that you can go deep into the radioactive zone and figure out what it's hiding. (The answer is: cool setpieces!) There is no immediate mechanical lure in this game. Instead, they mostly use beacons on audiologs to lure you around the map. I'm not hating it yet, though!
Anyway... gonna keep at it! I'll be interrupted by my trip to Santa Fe but I plan on being fairly irresponsible over the next few days and playing as much of this as I can!