And Which Narrative Design Company Did Unknown Hire?
Subnautica 2 was just announced and I’m already a bit worried. Yes, it could be just lousy rendering. This is just a teaser afterall. But it can be assumed the two characters are going to be the protagonists.
There isn’t too much information being released and no in-game engine footage at all. Unknown Worlds has dumped the Unity engine (along with everyone else), and the new game will be using Unreal.
This one will offer Co-Op play as an option, which a lot of players of Subnautica (1) wanted, and in fact a few achieved as that game was pretty easy to hack.
For those who aren’t familiar with the first game:
“Subnautica was a horror game disguised as a survival game. Below Zero tries for the same effect but ends up being more of an adventure puzzle game.
Subnautica began with your protagonist, Riley Robinson, having to grab an escape capsule and abandon the star-liner Aurora before it explodes. The pod lands on water. Riley has no resources other than a working fabricator (which frankly is a pretty awesome survival tool). However, the fabricator needs raw materials. Riley gathers these which in turn allows him to build better tools, and thus unlock better resources. In theory, Riley can do just fine living in the Safe Shallows, however, a self-scan reveals that he has contracted a fatal alien virus. He has to solve a 10,000-year-old mystery before the virus can kill him. To do that he will have to reach the bottom of the deepest ocean on the planet.
One of the clumsiest mechanics of modern gaming is how the players are herded. Sometimes it’s simply an invisible barrier with an immersion destroying, “YOU MANY NOT ENTER THIS AREA YET” text glaring at you. Subnautica’s mechanic was surprisingly simple, if you dove too deep, you ran out of air and drowned. Riley had to find plans for better submarines that would dive deeper, thus maintaining the intended progression without breaking immersion.
Along the way, Riley discovers the various fates of his fellow passengers and crew of the Aurora. As well as what became of a previous group of castaways. This is done by means of audio recordings found during the course of play. In addition, he discovers why every ship that comes to this planet is destroyed.
Except for occasional cries of pain or alarm, Riley remains silent throughout the game. This facilitates player identification with Riley. The little vignettes of the people who died on this planet gives the game an overall sense of dread despite the beauty of the art design. It sort of felt like the old F.E.A.R. game in that regard. The writing was tight. You got just a bit of feel for these people’s personalities and you couldn’t help being a little sad when you would find evidence of their deaths.
The game had a very wry sense of humor. Subnautica also poked fun at Wokeness. This is a transcript of a relationship discussion by two women in a relationship.
WILSON: Listen, I know I don’t have the right to make demands of you, but I need you to understand that I want to change our arrangement.
FOURNIER: I hear what you’re saying and I will try to respect it. How would you like to change it?
WILSON: I would like to reduce our contact hours.
FOURNIER: How much further can we do that?
WILSON: To zero.
FOURNIER: You’re dumping me?!
WILSON: I’m changing the terms of our relationship.
FOURNIER: How is it still a relationship if we don’t see each other?!
WILSON: It’s a relationship of a kind. You have so many expectations.
FOURNIER: I feel you just want to spend more time with that dumb guy and his dumb robot suit.
WILSON: That’s not a feeling, it’s a judgment. And I feel hostility in what you’re saying. Perhaps your jealousy is a sign that you need to take another look at your business model. Why can’t you just be happy for me?
FOURNIER: I am happy for you! And I’m happy for all the guys in the Prawn bay! I’m just not happy for me.
WILSON: This is why, I want to change our arrangement.
Good stuff!
Subnautica Below Zero, started life as a DLC for stuff they thought of after the game was launched. And honestly, that was pretty much how it played.
So now we have Subnautica 2, a game that I hope won’t be Woke but the people that run Unknown Worlds were making all the politically proper statements during 2020. Granted that could have been self-defense and the CEO’s Twitter is currently devoid of statements like that. Unknown Worlds is currently owned by the Korean company Krafton. That could be a good sign as the Koreans haven’t been notably down with the DEI program.
Time will tell if my concerns are well-founded.
In other gaming news:
Bandai Namco’s latest offering Unknown 9 launched with the stink of Sweet Baby Inc all over it. They did their narrative design magic on the main character, so the shill sites are giving it better reviews than they should. Granted they were looking for an excuse to give it a slightly better-than-average score because Bandai is huge and they never go too low for a major company no matter how bad the game.
Sweet Baby Inc. appears to have been the least of this game’s problems. It’s a buggy, jank-riddled mess of a game. Bandai disabled the comments on the launch trailer, always a sign of quality. It’s obvious that Bandai knew there was no point in trying to polish this turd so they just shipped as is. At $50 it is an absurd ripoff.
