Sniper Monkey

Some games should not be replayed

How Subnautica, one of my favorites, turned into a slog

Subnautica made a huge impression on me; in 2023 I put it in my top 4 favorite games of all time. The underwater world was full of wonder and exploration went hand in hand with a quality story. The atmosphere was immaculate, capturing both the scariness and beauty of the sea. It was very cosy and I looked back on it fondly; so much in fact that I decided to replay it in the autumn of 2024, merely 3 years after finishing the rather average sequel-expansion “Below Zero”.

I’m digressing, but since I will likely never make a separate blog about Below Zero, I will give my thoughts on it here in brief. BZ’s map is a bit too claustrophobic, moving through it gets annoying. The characters are rather unlikeable and there’s little overarching intrigue to fuel player interest. Finally, the story ends up being a bit nonsensical because the purported lie the protag sets out to uncover turns out to be true. The alien plot is very meh and the new gimmicks do run out eventually.

Going back to SN1 though.

I replayed it and had fun… at least for the first 40% of the game. At that point I started to get worn down by resource grinding, story coming down to trickle, and the final parts of the game just being annoying because of its setting being a series of deep caves with multiple obstacles.

But ultimately, the reason is that with prior knowledge of the story and locations, the mechanics just aren’t strong enough to support several dozens of hours of play.

The game turned into a massive chore and at one point I realized that I really did not want to do the final part of it. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an overwhelming “bleugh” moment in any piece of entertainment.

Moral of the story - when replaying a game, be wary of the type of game it is. Sometimes a fond memory is better left as it is - untouched and in the past.

I think I could say something similar about Minecraft, but that is another can of worms that I don’t want to tackle here because it’s a more complex topic.

PS. Regardless of the above, I am still excited about Subnautica 2 being announced!