Subnautica: Below Zero Image
Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 190 Ratings

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  • Summary: Dive into a freezing underwater adventure on an alien planet. Set one year after the original Subnautica, Below Zero challenges you to survive a disaster at an alien research station on Planet 4546B. Craft tools, scavenge for supplies, and unravel the next chapter in the Subnautica story.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 29
  2. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. Aug 19, 2022
    90
    Subnatica: Below Zero is an excellent survival game, being equally beautiful and terrifying. The narrative is strong but can feel out of place at times.
  2. May 12, 2021
    90
    Below Zero has taken no steps backward and instead offers an even more polished experience than its predecessor. As for gameplay and story, it’s not necessarily a better game, but it is certainly just as good.
  3. May 12, 2021
    86
    Below Zero is a mostly brilliant sequel to the best survival game of all time.
  4. May 21, 2021
    84
    If you liked the first one, you will love Subnautica: Below Zero. It improves everything previously played and adds necessary novelties to this sequel. Everyone who loves underwater world and survival genre will be delighted with this video game.
  5. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 17, 2022
    80
    If you played the original part and you enjoyed it, Below Zero is a good choice. For those who once had enough, there is probably no need to play again. The sequel takes the best from the original game and adds something new.
  6. 80
    Subnautica: Below Zero doesn't reach the same heights as the first game, but it's proof Unknown World's 2018 survival game wasn't a fluke. The act of exploring a mysterious underwater world whilst trying to survive is nearly as captivating in Below Zero as it was then. I'm still not a fan of the survival genre, yet I loved every moment I spent with Subnautica: Below Zero. I may know most of the tricks by now, but that didn't make the experience any less magical.
  7. May 12, 2021
    60
    Subnautica: Below Zero feels like more of Subnautica, and that is only a good thing to a certain extent. Where it falls short by copying its predecessor is in the story and thematic department, making it feel like an uneventful and unimportant step in the series.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 62
  2. Negative: 23 out of 62
  1. Jan 30, 2019
    10
    Subnautica: Below Zero seems like it will be just as good, or better than the original game. The quality is great. It's not quite the sameSubnautica: Below Zero seems like it will be just as good, or better than the original game. The quality is great. It's not quite the same game, but the basics are the same (which I hoped for).

    I hit the content-wall in the early access, and swam around some more after that, and the great atmosphere is just the same. I can't wait to see the story unfold.
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  2. May 21, 2021
    10
    Ich finde es absolut gelungen! Die Welt fällt zwar etwas kompakter aus, doch dafür steckt deutlich mehr drin. Massenhaft Details und vor allemIch finde es absolut gelungen! Die Welt fällt zwar etwas kompakter aus, doch dafür steckt deutlich mehr drin. Massenhaft Details und vor allem Flair. Ich vermissen das große Uboot, doch es würde einfach nicht in diese Eiswelt passen. Super Game Expand
  3. Jun 21, 2023
    8
    A Good Sequel To The Original

    I'd like to start off by saying that Subnautica: Below Zero is less than a sequel as it is more Subnautica
    A Good Sequel To The Original

    I'd like to start off by saying that Subnautica: Below Zero is less than a sequel as it is more Subnautica 1.5, more of a spin off if you ask me.

    The game is the same as the original in the sense that you're stranded in a deep water planet and need to gather resources, upgrade yourself and make vehicles in order to delve deeper into unknown parts of the ocean.

    Below Zero introduces a new mechanic which is effectively "Heat" or "Hypothermia" if you will. You'll spend a bit more time on land in this one than in the previous game and that's where this new mechanic comes into play.

    There's a bunch of new sea creatures and resources to gather in this game which keeps everything fresh and the map itself isn't as convoluted as it is in the first one.

    This could be viewed as a criticism or a positive for some; but Below Zero has a voiced protagonist, who's storyline is effectively to find out what happened to her sister before you arrive on the planet. I say this could be a criticism as usually in these types of survival games I prefer to self-insert a little and make my own storyline intertwined with the games, but it could be a positive as it creates much more of a clear goal in this game which can lend a bit more credence to what you're trying to accomplish. A pro and a con depending on your personal preference.

    The only criticism I have is that some of the parts you need to scan to build certain things are quite spread out and far apart. Some modules I just never simply found and could not create for my Sea Truck, it's not game breaking but it's just a tad annoying. There's more to create in this game but finding the recipe can be more of a chore than a challenge.

    Why is lead, like the last game, so hard to find?

    The storyline in this game is definitely better, three main storylines to go through and they're all pretty magnificent, naturally, they are a little convoluted so don't feel like you're cheating yourself by allowing a peak at a walkthrough to nod yourself on the right path. It's better to follow a river than wander the forest aimlessly.

    There's a really good quality of life change in this game than in the first one, and that is you can pin recipes to your screen so you know when you have everything whilst searching for materials, this is a great change.

    Overall, if you're only going to play one of the games, play this one. But it's not that different from the first game so if you can, play both, they're genuinely exceptional games and I am looking forward to seeing where they'll take the franchise, especially since Subnautica 3 is in development.

    8/10 - Does what the first one does but better.
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  4. Jul 7, 2021
    6
    Was a big fan of the first game, but Below Zero totally disappointed me. I didn't make it to the end, had to watch an ending on youtube. IdkWas a big fan of the first game, but Below Zero totally disappointed me. I didn't make it to the end, had to watch an ending on youtube. Idk what exactly is bad about the game. For sure it has absolutely different atmosphere. I remember i was so scared to explore the planet in first part, but there it wasn't scary at all. A feeling that you are not alone ruined the feelings i had before. The world itself is not much interesting to explore, as well as plot seems to be too boring.

    Still, a pretty nice game for 20-30 hours, i can't say i wasted the time. Its just worse then predecessor.
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  5. Jun 23, 2021
    5
    So disappointing. Half the story is literally useless, as you can skip it altogether.
    A huge part of the assets you can build are literally
    So disappointing. Half the story is literally useless, as you can skip it altogether.
    A huge part of the assets you can build are literally useless also, this game was rewritten, and you can feel it horribly. You will never feel scared or in danger. Vehicles are a downgrade, the prawn suit is rendered useless too. Atmosphere is way below the first one and the map is way smaller.

    You will enjoy this game if you didn't play the original.
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  6. Oct 3, 2021
    3
    I know people who paid and supported the alpha for this game, and if this was Subnautica 1 I would say their patience and money was wellI know people who paid and supported the alpha for this game, and if this was Subnautica 1 I would say their patience and money was well rewarded. Subnautica: Below Zero presents a serviceable story and interesting arctic alien zone yet does virtually nothing to improve the dated gameplay mechanics it established back in 2014.

    You would be forgiven for confusing it with the first game at a glance, especially in the first 2-4 hours of play as it's the same game. the recipes are the same, the oxygen mechanic is the same, you'll hunt for peepers and bladderfish just like you did back in the first game it hasn't changed one iota and it sets a precedent for a new story told with the same tired, old, engine. I wasn't an hour in to the game before I had to summon forth the console (Shift+Enter by the way and that info is only available in a bloody PATCH NOTE) in order to warp myself out of a stuck spot because despite having half a decade of development time to improve things, gravity and collision is apparently still a problem.

    Truthfully, I love the world that the game presents to me, but I fear I am now too old to deal with all of the inconsistencies in Unknown World's design. After a decade of experience as a company, I'm surprised that this game still feels like amateur work. It was cute back in Subnautica 1, but now its 2021 and I don't have the patience for a non-stacking inventory system, one-item-at-a-time crafting(WHY!?), manually hunting out blueprint fragments because the scanning room has *never* been helpful in this regard. By far, the most frustrating thing about this game is that all of the designs problems are about one small change away from being great.

    Take titanium for example, the game literally has a joke in it about titanium being comically easy to find and duh, it's the first material you use, but a few hours in you'll find salvage which you can pick up with a hint that says "can be recycled into titanium", cool so this must be a more efficient method of gathering titanium at the expense of it being bulky, right? Wrong! It takes up 4 slots in your inventory and gives you how much titanium? Well 4, which takes up (wait for it) 4 slots in your inventory, So it's titanium with an extra step and in fact it's actually WORSE than gathering regular titanium because salvage has to be arranged in a square pattern in your non-stacking inventory.

    If you've played the game before you may have noticed I haven't mentioned the temperature meter yet, that's because it's the same as the oxygen meter but above ground, and I would bet money that they inherited it from the same script as the oxygen meter. Copy-pasting mechanics don't make them new, devs, even if you rename the script file.

    The new vehicles are cool, but because this game is forever cowering in the shadow of it's predecessor, none of these vehicles outperform the prawn suit, which is a mech suit that was nigh-unstoppable in the original game and is nigh-unstoppable now, there is no reason to use the seatruck when the prawn suit is more agile and can pick stuff up, there is no reason to use the snowfox because the prawn suit can go on land. The new vehicles feel more like gimmicks than actual additions.

    Honestly, I was excited to play this game because I have such fond memories of Subnautica 1 but I have been thoroughly disappointed by this iteration and all it would have taken to make Below Zero an amazing game is someone giving half of a care about the fundamental mechanics of this no-longer-unique survival series.
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  7. Oct 24, 2022
    0
    This is a downgrade of the original, its like they stripped the game into a DLC and then called it a game.

See all 62 User Reviews