Funny enough, at least on console, the overall colour ambiance shifts when you enter a biome. Like the Kelp Forest is always accompanied with a green film. The Crash Zone is brown and cloudy. The Sparse Reef is suddenly dark and oppressive. The Grqnd Reef is etheric blue and the Blood Kelp Zone is also dark but the contrast of the blood vines it feels ominous instead.

If you're on PC I believe you can find a bunch of info by pressing F1

You guess with landmarks and context clues. If you need help there's an online map or two somewhere. There's certain features that give it away but I think the best way would be to read the wiki? Really depends on how fast you wanna get through the game I guess.

Just make up your own name based off the environment. Red grass, blue balls, green river, etc. The only way to know for sure is to look up a map online but that would spoil the mystery.

The terrain changes should be pretty obvious, and each biome has really distinctive features.

You can also use the online interactive map, and if you know what general direction you went from shallows (compass) you should be able to get a really clear idea of where you are.

Unfortunately, BZ 'feels' like the better biomes. I say unfortunately because I equate it to just more experienced game design. They had better experience approaching a second game, and likely a better design team. They also had better experience with optimization and game engines, etc. So they were clearly able to figure out more natural design characteristics like the placement of details, decorations, doodads, etc.

But something about original Subnautica that always gets me, is that it feels less 'lived in'. The very scarcity of human familiarity (where BZ has all the above ground bases, and a physical person you can interface with) fuels how the world feels. Couple that with the fact that it has a larger map horizontally, you're met with much more vast biomes. Much more open feelings of emptiness. You marry that with the fact that you're truly alone in that game, and it feels damn good in a morbid way. I feel more lost and scared in the original game.

Where the details shine in BZ, I find it doesn't quite have that fear factor. You can subconsciously feel better knowing that the area is fairly recently inhabited by other humans. Then once you meet a living breathing one, you feel an even stronger sense of security of not being alone out there.

I do agree that the wildlife feels less alive/natural in the first one.

God, what a really good question honestly.

There are feelings / moods that come with each game that the other just doesn't have.

To put it bluntly, I beat BZ before beating the original game, and I had played the original first, trust me. (And I had watched a few full playthroughs, due to my fear haha). But I didn't feel as scared in BZ, and I was able to do the whole playthrough without taking any scared breaks, and before watching a full playthrough. I still have some freeze in place moments for sure (pun intended), but I can't quite nail it. I just felt 'safer'.

To answer about a favourite biome, it's always the Blood Kelp Trench from original Subnautica for me. The color palette there is mesmerizing, its extremely dark if you're in the right part of it, and the music/ambience is beautiful. It's eerie, yet quite safe. And I love that. It's a perfect balance of what draws me to the series.

A close second for me would be the Tree Spires in BZ. More specifically the southern edge of it, where you can look north and see the vast Ventgarden and thermal vents, but, you face south and you have the void. The feeling there is awe inspiring, especially when you know that merely like 200 meters more north, you've got the Chelicerate lurking.

Not a biome but my favourite place is the cove tree area.

The biomes with many aggresive leviathans

My favourite is the kelp forest in the first game. :)

Honestly I agree. Graphically, BZ looks a little more polished than SN. A lot of the flora and fauna movements seem to flow a little more organically too. Despite SN being better in pretty much every other area imo, this is one thing I agree BZ did better.

It's a little too jarring of a change between each biome.

Every single biome except the twisty bridges and sparse arctic was way to dark and murky. They had diversity, sure, but they all had the exact same vibe. Not a fan.

the ventgarden was my favorite place, even made a base there, the music it plays was great

I'm one of those that loves both games so there ya go

bulb zone or lost river

Lost river and lava zone

The Lost river

The one without death.

The Bloodgrass plains located in a cave in the same area that the >!Alien Thermal plant!< is in

I discovered it randomly, the music got all nice and when i got out the water was a cool 20 something degrees Celcius

The >!Sea Dragon Leviathan!< scared the absolute life out of me, apparently their sounds are tied to the biome so i didnt hear one getting close

How do i get a map? How do i remember where I saw the big leviathan skull. I feel like I somehow did everything out of order I only recently have a base after I went to the first alien base. Am I stupid?

I agree with everything but bulb zone idk if I’m alone on this but it’s more of a yellow area for me personally

White: No real danger. stalkers, tiger plants, sand sharks, and crash fish can all be easily avoided with a Sea Glide. You can trip into the Crash Zone and the Dunes in some areas, but overall they are easy to get out of and don't pose a serious threat.

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Green: Slightly more dangerous then white, you can trip into dangerous locations fairly easily, warpers sometimes spawn in areas, but can be avoided if you move quick.

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Yellow: Somewhat dangerous fauna, more annoying then anything else. Can be avoided if you move away fast.

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Orange: Harder to avoid by moving faster, easy to trip into very dangerous locations, may posses ghosts.

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Orange clarifications: The orange circle in the Grand Reef is supposed to show the Deep Grand Reef. I consider it more dangerous due to the ghost at the entrance and an inability to move fast as you need to >!get the orange tablet from the Degasi base, placing you in critical warper warp range.!<

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The orange blob in the crash zone is the entrance to the Aroura, it's hard to tell where it is on the map, so I just approximated the location. I find it not too hard to get in there without even seeing the reaper.

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Red: Very dangerous, reapers everywhere, some locations have warpers. Cannot move fast, but also can't stay still.

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Dark Red: Don't even think about it.

Me who didn’t know there was a grand reef:

That makes me happy. I’ll actually start playing again.

The crystal caves in below zero were amazing. Super easy to get lost and turned around, beautiful music, super fucking dangerous and slightly annoying with the leviathan. Plus the red crystal caves have a geometry to them that makes determining what is up and what is down really difficult. Hella resources, both in the cave and right outside Marguerite's base.

The mushroom forest was really neat, out in the open and so far down light didn't reach there anymore.

Is it just me or are there a lack of aquatic threats in below zero? It seems to me once you get the seatruck the only thing to worry about are leviathans, and I've only found two leviathan threats, the large chysa something around the purple geysers, and the shadow laciathan in the crystal caves

Lost River. Aside from the two juvenile ghost leviathans, the place is pretty safe. The Ghost Cove Tree is an area that's pretty and completely predator-free, and if you bring a PRAWN, it's resources galore.

Grassy plateau for base, lost river for atmosphere

bloodkelp because soundtrack

Personally, I think the Floating Islands biome is really neat. It is freaky at first, but then has a really solid ambience.

In particular, I like making a research base on the "floating island" that has a heat geyser. I put the floating island in quotes because it actually is connected to the ocean floor. Thermal heating for a research base there is nice. It has a wreck, neat caves, it is fairly close to several key areas, and the color scheme is a sort of purple I vibe with.

Definitely a good thing to me at least. For some reason I didn't find beacon bits for a long time in my recent playthrough...was forever like "where is that one special spot again? Ugh, wish I had beacons"... Really wanna mess with that map mod I seen people using. But I haven't had the patience to dive into mods since I keep seeing something about having an older version for most to work. Is that a thing or can I just go ahead and install em? Am mistaken?

I do this too, and for cave entries, in my first playthrough I didn't do any beacons at all and just spent hours and hours roaming, and then finding Leviathans all the time... lost a couple of Cyclops that way!

if it works for you, its great.

I usually use the aurora as an ultimate recognition point and from there I estimate the angle and distance I need to travel to go whereever I want to.

Pretty much, when I’m low on resources I resort to making bases at the cyan and blue beacon areas and creating lockers and getting resources from nearby outcrops and storing them in the base. Or use the Seamoth to head back to my main GP (Grassy Plateaus) base to get resources.

Which ones? I left out >!Lost River!< and the >!Volcanic!< biomes cause those are mostly endgame and aren’t as commonly travelled to.

To me it is, the outer areas at least. The bulbs are pretty satisfying to wander around and the colours of the rocks are pretty lol, now the Deep Grand Reef is the real scary one Tho

What's the Blood Kelp Trench again? the one with Lifepod 13?

Glad someone agrees with me on the sparse reef, that place freaks me out everytime i travel though it

If it’s nighttime every biome is at the top

Saw this and was excited! Cant wait for the game honestly.