Coming back to the Subnautica series after playing a variety of other games -- particularly Satisfactory, but there are some common elements of the gameplay loops in Horizon Zero Dawn as well -- I have a different understanding of why the second game got a poor reception.
It really is a different game. There are several things that change it from a long and largely free-form experience into one that is more scripted, with clearer goals and more pressure. There are other decisions that take away from the existential loneliness that characterized the previous game. Largely, this is the current AAA growth path, where games are being shaped to deliver an easier game that can be finished more quickly.
And then pad out the run time with collectibles. But that's another discussion.
For Below Zero, the changes do not begin with the map, but that map is a good route to understanding the huge changes in philosophy.
Above is the Subnautica map. Below is, well, Below Zero. But this comparison is misleading in two ways; first, only the blue areas are actually ocean. The brown land areas are significantly path-biased, to where it is more like travelling down a corridor from one small point of interest to another.
Second, the Subnautica map is underlaid by two other areas that are both larger than the ocean areas of the Below Zero map; the Brine River, and the even deeper Lava. The Below Zero map condenses its deeper levels into largely isolated pockets; post holes instead of trenches.
Lots of people have complained in reviews about the Sea Truck, how slow it moves, how nimble it isn't. But that's just a symptom. In Subnautica, the vast size of the map meant that keeping track of where you were, and traveling to where you wanted to go, was epic. That was what gave the game challenge. Getting about, moving materials about, trying to keep track of where useful resources (or even your own bases!) were.
And this was also sparse, open, with the dangerous depths being particularly huge and dark. This was a lonely world, where the forlorn bits of broken escape pods were tiny and lost. Out of sight, also, was the threat of larger creatures. Only when exploring inside a wreck did the game become claustrophobic. Instead it offered thalassophobia.
Below Zero gives most of the game that claustrophobia. They don't have a faster submarine not because the map is too small, but because that's not how they are using the map. Instead of having a wide-open unmapped space, you have tiny confusing twisting warrens.
You can't see where you are going, the sea truck barely fits at all (and is constantly breaking down from being pounded against kelp and coral), and big parts of the game involve turning tight circles in a space only a hundred meters across trying to find the one spot where you can wriggle behind a frond and find the next part of the passage.
And if you do it without the sub or prawn suit, your oxygen meter is ticking down all the time.
Even on land, hypothermia is coming on you as fast as oxygen depletes underwater. No lonely contemplation of the vastness of the sea and your own insignificance; this has become a twitch game where more often than not you are desperately trying to figure out a twisty path before you die.
Oh, yeah. And lonely? Between Al-lan (the alien in your head) and the voiced protagonist, this is no longer lonely. And there's a plot, and a distinct goal, and everything but waypoints. So instead of being alone to figure out the meaning of your new life under the sea, you are up against the clock with a job to do.
Even depth is downplayed. In Subnautica, depth is a challenge and a constant threat. You are always pressing the limits of your various submarines, listening to that hull creak and knowing you are down too deep to safely swim back to the surface if it fails. And you have to push these depths in order to find the rare materials that allow you to go one step deeper. Again, it is physics that is the challenge.
In Below Zero it is about threading narrow confusing passages and the sense of depth is barely there at all. If you can figure out the navigation, you can in fact swim to most of the locations, even down in the deepest part of the Red Crystal cave (well...it helps to build a couple of bases along the way!)
The Reapers, also, were distant roars echoing through the vast darkness. Out there somewhere. In the confined spaces of Below Zero there is no mystery. The damned thing is right there in your face. You aren't blind, wondering what is out there (the thalassophobia again). You are hiding under a bit of rock with the damned thing overhead. And that actually makes them less scary.
Another limiting factor many games reach for is inventory. One is always confronted with needs that are greater than the space. In Satisfactory many of the tech advances increase your inventory (until Satisfactory 1.0, which by inventing quantum storage removes the question entirely). In Horizon Zero Dawn you increase the size of your bags through crafting -- making for various lengthy hunts after rare bits of fur and string.
Below Zero leaves the sweet spot far behind as it places riches beyond measure in places that are hard to get to. And not just requiring a long trip to shuttle back and forth; in a warren that you will get inevitably lost in, and possibly die from lack of oxygen or food or water. In the former case, you can still ferry materials if you are willing to put up with a little boredom. Put the sub in gear and go listen to the radio or drink coffee or something. In the later, you face so much frustration you decide you'd rather do without.
At least this issue can be solved. I finally modded my copy of the game for double to triple the size of all containers (yes, you get more inventory with the various vehicles...which are even smaller boxes than your personal inventory!)
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So what could be done with the game? Really, nothing much. They had a better story which for whatever reason they decided against. This makes the two plots disconnected; you can actually finish the game while completely ignoring the original storyline.
The pressure of having a clear goal also creates a disconnect with the exploration and crafting. The original Subnautica fell perhaps a little too much on the other side of this; the story was so unimportant to you that, really, you stumbled into bits of it while exploring to find ways to improve your increasingly elaborate base.
Below Zero misses this balance. I literally was just trying to find materials for my prawn suit when I accidentally stumbled on the last of Al-An's blueprints and was offered the final segment of the game to play.
Below Zero can still be played off the clock, not paying attention to the story and just hanging out in the water doing a bit of light crafting. But, you know? The cramped confines of that tiny map (and the increased density of predators) means there's fewer great spaces to build a sprawling base in. And gathering the resources is more of a challenge and a frustration.
Perhaps the third game will regain its proper fluid balance.
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