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You’ll have the means to build your own giant underwater base and populate it with everything from cosmetic niceties to cultivation stations. Blueprints, maps, items and lore clog your inventory and when you leave the area it constitutes a serious leap forward in complexity. Once you encounter the aforementioned station and its attached story beats, the game quickly throws the book at the player and the pacing takes a hit. I’d recommend it to any survival game fan looking for something fresh to play.īut eventually, you’ll make it out of the early game, and here’s where things get a little controversial. Up-close underwater exploration is such a deeply compelling premise for a video game, even when it’s tinged with so much tension. It’s nowhere near the best-looking game when we get down to the raw textures, but the atmospheric weather, day-night cycle and ASMR sound design make up for it entirely. It goes against your survival instincts, but you simply have to gawp at this game’s vistas, even if it might get you killed.
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Below Zero is full of these marvels of virtual nature that were constantly piquing my interest and draining my oxygen supply. One example is the striking Titan Holefish, which, as the name suggests, has a giant hole in its centre which Robin can swim through. The design team deserves serious credit for coming up with lots of gorgeous new flora and fauna for Below Zero. Be prepared to lose hours on end to it.Īlong the way, you’ll encounter new creatures to avoid, like the charming Sea Monkeys that steal your items and the vicious crocodile monsters. The gameplay loop is just as moreish as the original.
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You’ll follow a charming difficulty curve as you dive, grab resources, upgrade and dive deeper. Below Zero’s opening hours are methodical, moody and very evocative of the original. The game does get off to a good start, though.
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You can definitely still immerse and unnerve yourself in the vast expanse of the sea in Below Zero, but there’s a more structured narrative on top of the exploration – but as interesting as the story is, it does occasionally get in the way. My favourite memories involved floating in the deep with bubbles gliding past my ears. While Subnautica had a very interesting story, one of its hallmarks was its melancholic loneliness. This overall gregariousness was tricky for me to reconcile. As teased by the trailers, another way in which Below Zero attempts to break new ground is through its narrative ambitions, weaving a grander plot than the original, alongside scripted sequences and conversations with charming characters. This is also where you’ll meet your first NPC, who is fully voice-acted and makes quite the startling introduction. At the start, you’ll encounter small penguin-covered sheets of ice that threaten pneumonia, but you’ll eventually find story-rich deserted stations, where you’ll have to dart inside the remaining buildings to stay toasty. The gameplay consequence of this biome change is that players will have to mind their temperature as well as their oxygen levels. As a result, compared to Subnautica, players will spend a lot more time exploring dry land. The planet our voiced protagonist Robin Ayou crash lands on in the opening sequence is frosty and littered with ice caps. It’s an extremely familiar game, but Below Zero does attempt to distance itself from its revered sibling by providing a new biome. Survival is the base game, but there’s also a permadeath Hardcore mode and a Creative suite if you prefer exploring without constraints. At the start, you can pick between four modes depending on your familiarity. Regardless, Below Zero shares a whole lot of DNA with its predecessor, so fans will feel right at home as they dive for Bladderfish, sneak around Creepvine clusters and smash rocks to collect ingredients to craft crucial tools. READ MORE: ‘Resident Evil Village’ review: an open-world theme park of pure terror.Yet, as is the fate of many modern projects, the scope of the game grew beyond typical expectations for an add-on and Below Zero became its own beast. Described as “a new chapter in the Subnautica universe”, Subnautica: Below Zero started life as a DLC for Unknown Worlds’ 2018 underwater survival smash hit Subnautica.