My impressions about the game (salad update edition)
Sorenzor
Madrid, Spain Join Date: 2020-04-04 Member: 259618Members
Madrid, Spain Join Date: 2020-04-04 Member: 259618Members
Ok, I just got all three pieces of Al-An and got out alive of my encounter with the dark leviathan. A lot of fun, it got me, I freaked out pressing the wrong key... I love that kind of stuff XD
...About the game.
1. The new shape of the bases is great. They all look ruined and I really want to know what happened. In some of them the destruction seem to have been caused by different kind of forces. I really really hope to find some gigantic creature rampant but I know that's not the direction the developers want to take. Anyway, the ruined bases look fantastic and I am very curious to know more about them.
2. Al-An and the artifacts. I really really want to know more about him and his culture. Fuck, I can't know someone from a different country than me and ask him one thousand stupid questions, just imagine if I could chat with a real alien. So much to know... every time Al-An talks and the placeholder message appear, I feel frustrated. I really wish it will be worth the wait.
The artifacts are cool, most of them insinuate their function with their shape, I find that interesting. They are very well placed in my opinion. The green tracks are useful. I got four tracks. They help a lot but they don't give you the artifact... some times it's not obvious the right way to get to them.
3. The creatures: There's a few new creatures I think. The newest one I can think now is some kind of stingray fish, big but not too much. It's ok, I like that he looks alien. The four legs creatures remind me so much of bears and dogs that they just lose the alien look that we love so much from Subnautica. What I mean is... ey, a monster without legs, that's cool XD
Also, I used to get tired of repairing the seatruck due to the humongous amount of medium enemies in some areas. I had no problem since the update. Either the number has been reduced, or I have improved my driving. One way or another, it felt much better to explore.
Maybe I noticed this time that it's really hard to die in this game. Maybe the apex predators should be more dangerous, I don't know, the Seatruck's electric shock is really powerful... I can jump if a dark leviathan suddenly appears but I am not afraid anymore. It happened in the original subnautica too, just not so much because the reaper was a real menace. The ghost leviathan was not so aggressive. In this game there are no reapers and there seem to be... nothing... that could represent a real menace to the player. Not actually, if he knows what he is doing.
Oh, I loved what the developers did with the snow stalker. He really makes me feel uncomfortable, nervous. He really stalks me. One or two times they got me offguard, really amazing. Even with a flare you must not let your guard down near them. They swim amazingly too, I didn't see them swimming before this update.
4. The hoverbike: It's me or it has become easier to drive? I had a great time with the snowfox yesterday. Actually, I broke it anyway XD, but it was absolutely my fault... and the worm's fault I suppose.
5. Empty areas: Ok, I have some doubts here. Is half of the map empty? Or that part of the map will be removed from the final game? What I mean is, what percentage of the complete Below Zero have I seen right now? Because It would influence my judgement, facing the final game, if I think that I still haven't seen half of the game vs if I have seen already most of it. If what we have seen is most of the final game, I have some problems with the biomes. I'll explain... they are really cool... but they may lack some colours.
When I play the original subnautica, you have green areas, blue areas, dark areas, red areas... here, you have some green-yellow with the kelp forest and some green (decaying) in the lilipad area. Then the rest of the game has a lot of white, dark, grey... And for some reason, I never feel in home. I don't know why. When I get to the red grass area in the original subnautica, I feel reasured. I am home. Yeah, I can find a reaper leviathan if they followed me (it happened twice in one game) but it's a big area where I can see in the distance and I have a lot of ground to build my base. Here I am always struggling to find a good place to build.
Pretty personal stuff probably, I don't know, just thought in saying it loud. Maybe it's not only me.
6. Conclusions:
This update is not groundbreaking, but it's really cool. It helps shape the game and the idea I had about it in my head has changed. I really want to see what happens next and I will be counting the days until the next update. I would do it much more easily if I knew the next date XD, but whatever. I am very glad of buying it, looks really cool. Just... hurry up, please. I need this shit very badly.
EDIT: The broken cable. There is a giant alien cable near some island. I followed it to the depths. And at some point it was cut. What cut that thing? Maybe it was on the other update, I don't know. I love mysteries, I hope to be able to solve that kind of things in the final game.
...About the game.
1. The new shape of the bases is great. They all look ruined and I really want to know what happened. In some of them the destruction seem to have been caused by different kind of forces. I really really hope to find some gigantic creature rampant but I know that's not the direction the developers want to take. Anyway, the ruined bases look fantastic and I am very curious to know more about them.
2. Al-An and the artifacts. I really really want to know more about him and his culture. Fuck, I can't know someone from a different country than me and ask him one thousand stupid questions, just imagine if I could chat with a real alien. So much to know... every time Al-An talks and the placeholder message appear, I feel frustrated. I really wish it will be worth the wait.
The artifacts are cool, most of them insinuate their function with their shape, I find that interesting. They are very well placed in my opinion. The green tracks are useful. I got four tracks. They help a lot but they don't give you the artifact... some times it's not obvious the right way to get to them.
3. The creatures: There's a few new creatures I think. The newest one I can think now is some kind of stingray fish, big but not too much. It's ok, I like that he looks alien. The four legs creatures remind me so much of bears and dogs that they just lose the alien look that we love so much from Subnautica. What I mean is... ey, a monster without legs, that's cool XD
Also, I used to get tired of repairing the seatruck due to the humongous amount of medium enemies in some areas. I had no problem since the update. Either the number has been reduced, or I have improved my driving. One way or another, it felt much better to explore.
Maybe I noticed this time that it's really hard to die in this game. Maybe the apex predators should be more dangerous, I don't know, the Seatruck's electric shock is really powerful... I can jump if a dark leviathan suddenly appears but I am not afraid anymore. It happened in the original subnautica too, just not so much because the reaper was a real menace. The ghost leviathan was not so aggressive. In this game there are no reapers and there seem to be... nothing... that could represent a real menace to the player. Not actually, if he knows what he is doing.
Oh, I loved what the developers did with the snow stalker. He really makes me feel uncomfortable, nervous. He really stalks me. One or two times they got me offguard, really amazing. Even with a flare you must not let your guard down near them. They swim amazingly too, I didn't see them swimming before this update.
4. The hoverbike: It's me or it has become easier to drive? I had a great time with the snowfox yesterday. Actually, I broke it anyway XD, but it was absolutely my fault... and the worm's fault I suppose.
5. Empty areas: Ok, I have some doubts here. Is half of the map empty? Or that part of the map will be removed from the final game? What I mean is, what percentage of the complete Below Zero have I seen right now? Because It would influence my judgement, facing the final game, if I think that I still haven't seen half of the game vs if I have seen already most of it. If what we have seen is most of the final game, I have some problems with the biomes. I'll explain... they are really cool... but they may lack some colours.
When I play the original subnautica, you have green areas, blue areas, dark areas, red areas... here, you have some green-yellow with the kelp forest and some green (decaying) in the lilipad area. Then the rest of the game has a lot of white, dark, grey... And for some reason, I never feel in home. I don't know why. When I get to the red grass area in the original subnautica, I feel reasured. I am home. Yeah, I can find a reaper leviathan if they followed me (it happened twice in one game) but it's a big area where I can see in the distance and I have a lot of ground to build my base. Here I am always struggling to find a good place to build.
Pretty personal stuff probably, I don't know, just thought in saying it loud. Maybe it's not only me.
6. Conclusions:
This update is not groundbreaking, but it's really cool. It helps shape the game and the idea I had about it in my head has changed. I really want to see what happens next and I will be counting the days until the next update. I would do it much more easily if I knew the next date XD, but whatever. I am very glad of buying it, looks really cool. Just... hurry up, please. I need this shit very badly.
EDIT: The broken cable. There is a giant alien cable near some island. I followed it to the depths. And at some point it was cut. What cut that thing? Maybe it was on the other update, I don't know. I love mysteries, I hope to be able to solve that kind of things in the final game.
Comments
and don't get me started at a certained person that is badass.... and of course mr Spock over there ;D
YoU are right about me loving the deep lilypad biome / red flowers. The first time I got there I was not expecting something like that. I was just following some red dust and... a new world down there.
I kinda like the crystal caverns but you are right again, it feels pretty empty. When I was playing I thought that was the attractive but just compare with the lost river... It's far more special. I bet the crystal caverns are not so empty in the final game.
But I don't think that the biomes are so alike. They added verticality to the biome so it makes sense for the deeper versions of them to look like the other versions. But the bridges are very different from the lilypad / purple vents / deep red flowers / kelp caves... And due to that verticality, the game is much bigger than it looks: It could be close to be as big as the original subnautica. So many huge caves under the land... that's a lot of space, and the kelp caves are quite completed.
I honestly don't know what's my problem with the biomes. I am not sure. For some reason, I never thought until now in making a base in the big flower biome. Never. But when I got to the lost river, the first thing I thought was "I need to make a base here". Now that the purple vents are easier to traverse, maybe it makes sense to build a base there, I don't know, it was so full of enemies in the last versions that didn't feel like it. Maybe the problem is that everything is in a very early state of development.
The game is developing very slowly, much slower than I thought it would. I hope things are going right in the developer side.
that still leaves the issues of emptiness and similarity, but emptiness will hopefully be solved as the game develops, and similarity isnt the BIGGEST issue, its just a minor concern of mine.
Maybe that would make hard for people to run the game... Subnautica in general is very heavy, much heavier than the specs they say. A lot of people think that there is even some memory leak.
You just reminded me how amazingly unfinished the game actually is. At this pace it maybe would need one or two more years. If what we have seen is more or less what exists.