Subnautica 2 Early Access Review

An all-new alien world awaits with the Early Access release of Unknown Worlds and KRAFTON‘s Subnautica 2.

With a lot riding on this release, see whether players should go under the sea with our Early Access review…

Subnautica 2 Early Access Review

After arriving on a planet filled with water (and little else), players wake up deep underwater in a safety pod.

Tasked with fixing the pod to escape, players will head outside to fix said pod after a quick upgrade to make sure one’s lungs don’t collapse under the pressure.

Blasting off to the surface of the water, Subnautica 2 has players finding out what happened to the crew before your arrival – and finding a way to survive, of course.

Subnautica 2 was played exclusively in co-op for this review – those traveling solo might find things more difficult.

The title features story beats and info on the missing crew, but the crux of Subnautica 2 hinges on survival. This is a difficult title at the offset; you can’t even eat fish at first.

However, through mutations, exploration, and even stealth, players will eventually get the tools needed to chow down and create underwater buildings.

Subnautica 2 building mechanics are fairly straightforward, and finding basic resources are easy enough.

However, trying to power everything up is where things get a little complicated.

When creating an underwater base, all pods require power to both provide air and block water. Power is also needed for one’s workshops, sub bay, mod station, and other spots.

While power options are abundant, only a few options are available in the beginning.

Thankfully, turning stations off is easy; you’ll probably just forget and shut your base down by mistake.

Outside of survival, Subnautica 2 prides itself on its exploration elements. When you get a scanner, that scanner actually helps in gameplay. Fish, plants, objects, and gear can all be scanned, and covering enough equipment lets players gain the ability to make it. Requiring players to explore to proceed, it’s also a race against time due to oxygen.

I liked that added tension!

Chairs can also be found out and about in Subnautica 2 that grant inventory upgrades.

However, when compared to the stellar survival title Windrose, I preferred its method of massively stacking items.

Unfortunately, Subnautica 2’s item stacking pales in comparison.

Some items only have a stack of 10 in one’s inventory before it starts a second stack. In addition, there are 15 slots in your backpack to start, which feels artificially designed to waste time on grinding.

While not as big of a problem once you get the submarine, it’s very annoying early on.

That being said, Subnautica 2’s world and atmosphere are excellent. It truly does feel like an alien world – a later point had me outside the sub, hanging on as we crossed the darkness towards some ancient ruins.

Seeing a brief flicker above, I looked up to see three massive creatures swimming like whales above us. While they didn’t see us, it was a cool scene…until a giant squid creature got our sub.

We stopped exploring for a while after that.

As of this writing in early June, Subnautica 2 features a few minor bugs, including fish and objects clipping. However, for Early Access, things were mostly intact. However, those that go off into the underdeveloped parts of the map might have some trouble.

Even in Early Access, Subnautica 2 provides a great co-op survival experience perfect for a weekend getaway. KRAFTON did good on this one, seeing a bright future in Unknown Worlds’ exotic alien world.

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