Yeah. OG had me nope the f out of a few areas and remained very cautious.
Took several days before re-attempting the back of Aurora after I was 1 hit KO by the welcome committee.
1st day, came straight at me and ate my face in one go.

Below zero so far, has no way near the same effect. Maybe later, as I progress...

Yep, the seatruck with the afterburner flies right by them. I went into the void by accident in BZ and was like oh shucks and turned around. In the original first time it happened I almost shit my pants.

Way less Leviathans, and the ones it does have are way less threatening and do less damage.

Different game, different focus.

I admit, I didn't find the first game scary. It (BZ included) is the only 'scary' game I've ever played that didn't affect me, because I'm usually very easily scared.

Don't get me wrong, when something did jump out at me I got startled for a moment but for the most part, paddling around the murky depths is more relaxing than unnerving for me. Underwater exploration is an inherently appealing concept

Thalassophobia

The fear of deep unknown water. Just darkness all around you, hearing things you cant see. No knowing what is around you.

OK so we're complete opposites. I can watch any horror completely unfazed and il play the scary bits of resident evil for my fiancé whilst laughing at her reaction but subnautica terrified me. It's the only game that ever has. The first time I went out the shallows and saw the massive reefbacks I spent 15 mins getting up the courage to swim towards it 😅. Reapers give me a full body reaction.

You don't like creepy vibes, but you don't mind giant sea monsters appearing out of nowhere? I guess you're just a little different haha.

In VR- very!

as someone who don't know how to swim, afraid of heights and wide open empty spaces like the ocean or space. I find the game scary and anxiety inducing.

At first I don't know anything about the game, I've just heard of it and found it free on PSN+ and gave it a try. At first no harm done and I was enjoying the game with lights off and with headphones and made a rookie mistake of going around aurora when i got the radiation suit and saw my 1st reaper got killed and resume exploring with that threat lingering at the back of my mind for some reason my body/brain was reacting to the fear. Felt claustrophobic, lightheaded, breathing heavily, so I decided to take a break and tried to check my BP as i don't feel so good which I found it a bit higher than usual. It went on for days until i decided to see a doctor as I thought my asthma is acting up, and found out I was having an anxiety attack which at first I don't know it felt that way. Newer felt that even though I've been playing horror games since I was 12.

I still enjoy the game though, just need to take a break from time to time. This time with the lights on and on speaker.

Yes, if the original was a 10/10 then BZ is an 8/10. More linear and story driven than the first, but still a great game. The base building and decorating aspect is massively improved in BZ

I like it, at least. It has its quirks and annoyances, like the leviathan clipping into my base nonstop. But, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I feel like the people here saying 10/10 vs 8/10 have the right of it.

Definitely worth it!

It’s a great game, and I often jump between the two.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: yes, it's worth it.

Yes, It is worth it

It’s just good for some jump scares. It’s a great game!

99.9% of people who claim they have Thalassophobia are the same people who say they have OCD because they like their house clean lol.

All I can say is that I really enjoy watching Subnautica videos and don’t find them scary at all.

Playing it yourself is a totally different ball game though…

The majority of the game is not scary, but it is very immersive. This heightens the handful scary moments to be very memorable.

The YouTubers overreact for content, the game is only scary when you don’t know where the leviathans spawn

It's a subtle point - *overall* it's not a scary game, and it's not like a horror game with gruesome cut scenes or anything. It's mostly about calm exploration in an alien world where you have to respect the fauna. But indeed, one or two of the leviathans are really well-designed to be scary, and there's one particular attack animation that's a pretty effective jump scare. But it's important to have that threat at places, also because when you first play you don't know where those places are; it's not done "gratuitously". And you can mostly see/hear things coming, it's more about navigating them. I'd give it a go!

Is the game meant to be scary? Is there a real plot? I’ve never played. Whats the combat like i just thought the whole game was finding fish underwater lol

Subnautica is way more scary

Looking forward to more of the same from this developer. The Cyclops was my favorite vehicle. What I'm really hoping is that they will expand upon the planet that they created, personally big fan of lovecraftian horror and scuba diving, this really fits the mark.

It’s a great game in its own right. If you like the first you’ll like the second. The story line just got a bit muddled due to a change in project leadership midway through. I actually still like BZ a lot. Some of the biomes are stunning. My favorite is called Twisty Bridges

In my opinion, I thought the story was good and overall the gameplay was good.

My problems stemmed from the fact that it was originally going to be a DLC and should've stayed that way. The way the game was at release and even the update sometime after, didn't warrant it being it's own game.

I'd advise playing it, I'm sure you would enjoy it based on your thoughts on the first but I'll also say it ain't as eerie nor scary as the first. Maybe on land, but not in sea. No leviathan underwater felt even remotely close to those from the first game.

my honest opinion is it's fine. it does have some issues. the OG does too. my biggest problem with it is the progression is like a firehose at the beginning. you have access to so much in the beginning that once you're past that initial rush of new tech and stuff to build you kind of hit a wall. It slows down.
another is the gatekeeping of the story. if you're like me and love going off in any direction exploring you could actually spoil the story for yourself.
My advice. let the game prompt you as to what to do next. Also take a lot of beacons or pathfinders especially doing the surface parts. the terrain is all white and looks the same and the weather (yeah this one has weather) makes it hard to navigate without landmarks.

Its OK. If you are expecting the same polish and immersion as the first, you won't find it.

Pros: New base building options, QoL improvements and more "streamlined" blueprint process.
Cons: Story is a mess, Main character talks way too much, map is quite small and game in general is much safer.

a few mats are tricky. but yeah it's front loaded. the og had timed beacons with the radio calls though. none really were gatekeeping anything other than the Aurora explosion and the codes for the captain's quarters. and the depth requirements. BZ had so much on the surface.

I don’t think that’s even true of the OG Subnautica

They tried some different stuff - some of it worked well, some less so.

To make it harder, different people like or dislike different things about BZ.

I thought the multi-section sea truck was a great idea! I really loved it. Then I discovered that half of the truck sections are pretty much pointless - felt like they were stuck for ideas and time. Seriously, why the aquarium? 🤔

All to say, like most, I enjoyed the game, but I preferred the first game.

I have thalassophobia and have yet to will myself to play - tho I bought and installed and everything as a way to face my fears.

One day!

I like to describe it as "it's a game that takes place in the ocean. Just so happens that the ocean is a scary place."

I watched a pretty decent video essay on Subnautica in which they described it as a horror game pretending to be a survival game which is actually a terror game.

Edit. Wrong way around.

I think my game glitched one time, it gave me and my cyclops a ride back close to the safe shallows where I belonged

If you go to far out of the boundaries the bouncer comes. I just ended up on its back and it went far past where it usually goes trying to attack me I believe

yeah its a "not intentionally scary the devs just forgot the ocean is literal Eldridge horror-"

Subnautica is a constant battle between curiostiy and fear. And believe me: with this game, curiostiy will always win.

You'll have a great experience. Have fun!

The story will bring you pretty deep and into some fairly scary things, it’s a really fun game though, if you can take the fear, I’d get it, and even if you can’t the starter biomes are safe and calm and beautiful, you can always do things other than the story, I’m just not sure for how long

This game is even better with thalassophobia.

Have you watched many YouTubers play it? Especially ones with real thalassaphobia? Butchx3 has extreme thalassaphobia and if yours is as bad as his, then that's the kind of time you'll have. He managed to finish the game, and gets desensitized sorta. He released a bunch of other content from the game though as well, so as much as it fucked him, he (I think?) enjoyed it enough to push through.

The overall message I've gotten so far is fear is good. The lesser message is don't play. Well I guess I'm going to go buy myself some new underwear

Below zero did not fulfill that itch Subnautica gives me. I think they focused on land too much and didn’t give the ocean more love

Honestly the main problem with Below Zero is that the devs saw all the feedback of everything people adored about Subnautica... and then sprinted as quickly as they could in the opposite direction.

So if you play it the first time, without knowing this, you end up coming across a bunch of decisions that make no sense, a bunch of stuff that destroys the atmosphere, and a bunch of stuff that just feels like a dramatic step back in terms of satisfaction from the original game. Mechanically speaking it was a big step forward. In terms of the overall quality and execution, though, it was a stumble at best.

Problem is you need to give the devs feedback to ensure they know, specifically, what's wrong with the game and what they need to change - and when you're really invested into something, when you're super passionate about it, the frustration you feel when a developer doesn't understand why people are passionate about it is twice as intense. It's like... You made this thing I love, but you don't even understand why I love it? You just fluked your way into a success and the stuff I loved was, what, an accident? That I'll never get the stuff I loved again from you because you don't know what I loved despite me directly telling you?

It's a very love/hate situation - but honestly, that's generally for the best. If someone hates something so vociferously it's because they care about it. That they want to like it but they can't for whatever reason. That they're frustrated that they can't enjoy it as much as they want to. This means your next game - assuming you get the chance - has the opportunity to listen to that feedback and improve. Mostly, though, it's a generally positive thing because the alternative is far, far worse: apathy. Once an audience becomes apathetic you no longer have a second chance. You no longer have them paying attention to you, to see if you succeed, to try to win them back. They just leave and never come back. That's what actually kills games - and franchises - in the end: people stop caring at all.

As far as videos saying "WHY I HATE X" go, that's easy: it's clickbait. Big dramatic titles, big "oh I hate this so much for this reason" gets clicks. People are more interested if they think something significant has happened. If you just say "well it's okay but really disappointing" in the title then people just go "oh. Well. Don't need to watch that because I've got their opinion right there." If someone hates it, though? Obviously there's something big the devs screwed up! Gotta check that out.

Below zero is gorgeous and vibrant. The storyline has a lot more hand holding and the game isn’t as scary as the first, but I still agree that it’s worth playing. Just don’t go into it expecting it to be the same as the first one

i finally finished bz recently and i thought it was pretty good. like yeah the story is awful and they should’ve went with the original one and kept it as dlc and not a standalone game. but the environments are so fleshed out with stuff everywhere and i was constantly getting distracted with cool stuff, the transitions in between biomes feel a little forced sometimes though but i don’t mind much. tldr: play the game

I actually beat below zero today, and I can say I enjoyed it just as much as subnautica 1, only part I hated was when it just stops Hand holding you a little, which makes you lost