User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 290 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 31 out of 290
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  1. Jun 23, 2020
    10
    One of the best games I've ever played. A few technical issues on console but overall it's a great experience. If you like survinal base building games, this game is one of the best in the market.
  2. May 14, 2021
    7
    Loved this game but despite it being out for a few years now the bugs and glitches are awful, they happen very frequent and they vary from areas not spawning in, not being able to move, the game freezing and crashing and more. The developers really have no excuse for this there’s no reason as to why they can’t fix this but instead they focus on more getting more money by bringing out aLoved this game but despite it being out for a few years now the bugs and glitches are awful, they happen very frequent and they vary from areas not spawning in, not being able to move, the game freezing and crashing and more. The developers really have no excuse for this there’s no reason as to why they can’t fix this but instead they focus on more getting more money by bringing out a sequel, The loading times are awful as well. Expand
  3. May 20, 2021
    10
    One of the best survival games I've ever played, discovered by mere accident, as it was free to download as part of Sony's 'Stay at home' initiative.

    Story is incredibly immersive, developing and full of twists. As it develops, more and more things start to make sense. And in order to develop it -- you have to put in more time/resources, get better equipment, get to the deepest and
    One of the best survival games I've ever played, discovered by mere accident, as it was free to download as part of Sony's 'Stay at home' initiative.

    Story is incredibly immersive, developing and full of twists. As it develops, more and more things start to make sense. And in order to develop it -- you have to put in more time/resources, get better equipment, get to the deepest and scariest biomes and find out by yourself.

    Unlike it's sequel (more of an expansion pack) Below Zero, this game doesn't take you by your hand. Tutorial consists of few sentences and an arrow. Everything else you have to figure out by yourself. And this is what hooked me on to this game even further. I had to Google everything out, do the research as I play. Watch tutorials for each big step in order to make it. And thats why I've had 7+ days of pure game time fun.
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  4. Jan 28, 2020
    9
    Amazing game. Easily my all time top10. Yes, it could be better optimised for PS4 but honestly I didn't mind because of how hard it was for me to put it down.
  5. Feb 8, 2020
    10
    Subnautica is a game that challenged my fears of the unknown, as well as the deepest parts of the ocean. Merge the unknown and deepest parts of the ocean and you are given a whole tank of fresh nightmare fuel.

    But it is what had me enjoy this game the most. It's intense and almost terrifying, having to scavenge for resources in order to survive in the vast ocean of another planet thrown
    Subnautica is a game that challenged my fears of the unknown, as well as the deepest parts of the ocean. Merge the unknown and deepest parts of the ocean and you are given a whole tank of fresh nightmare fuel.

    But it is what had me enjoy this game the most. It's intense and almost terrifying, having to scavenge for resources in order to survive in the vast ocean of another planet thrown under quarantine now that a deadly infection has broken out. The graphics are beautiful, shimmering oceans and various creatures lurking. While a part of me was reluctant to face such terrifying creatures, the gameplay, story and visuals had me pushing through my own boundaries.
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  6. May 11, 2020
    8
    Very engrossing game filled with exploration, suspense and at times, sheer horror.

    The narrative of the game is spot on, explains the backstory with numerous collectibles, a short cutscene at the beginning and hands you this beautiful world to explore at your own pace. While there isn't much dialogue in the game, the narrative is clear. This is a feat not many games have achieved.
    Very engrossing game filled with exploration, suspense and at times, sheer horror.

    The narrative of the game is spot on, explains the backstory with numerous collectibles, a short cutscene at the beginning and hands you this beautiful world to explore at your own pace. While there isn't much dialogue in the game, the narrative is clear. This is a feat not many games have achieved.

    The gameplay itself is good, though there are a few hiccups here and there. The controls can be quite clunky in places, especially with the mech suit. The player character has access to a PDA which acts as the interface for the game. This is quite handy because it gives you access to everything without removing you from the immersion of the game. Also, the base building aspect is one of my favourites of any game of the survival genre. It's simple, easy to use, and the customization is fantastic. I really hope it is expanded upon in future games.

    The soundtrack of this game is absolutely stunning too. It perfectly captures the atmosphere I'd expect from a game set in the depths of the ocean. Combined with the visuals, it truly gives you a sense of loneliness on an alien world. The sound effects however have a few flaws in them, with some sound effects missing entirely and detract from the atmosphere slightly. The main example being the Prawn mech-suit which is missing some booster sounds when using the thrusters and when using the drill.

    Moving on to the visuals. This is another thing the game truly excels in. The water effects are without a doubt the greatest I've ever seen on a video game. The way it reacts to your movements like surfacing for oxygen or when using the oxygen tank underwater, it truly gives you the feeling of being underwater which many AAA titles fail to capture. It is also worth noting that the biomes each have their own lighting effects which sets the mood depending on where you are.

    To conclude, I highly recommend this game to anyone. The exploration aspect is phenomenal and the level of polish is outstanding. The only reason I have not given this game a 10/10 is due to the lack of autosave, which is a problem that hasn't been addressed and I've lost several hours of progress numerous times. Also, the movement can be quite clunky and unresponsive in places, but nothing game-breaking.
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  7. Jun 20, 2020
    10
    Really great game. I'm not the kind of gamer who likes survival games, but it really blow my mind. I play the game for the second time and it still gives me goosebumps
  8. May 13, 2021
    10
    Easy 10 for price akone. It's subnautica in steroids, better graphics snimations sounds textured levels amazing story ends just much.

    There is just so much more detail. It's what a 60 game costs even though it's worth 50 and so are those games. These people are the new CD project red. Releasing GOOD games that are original and cheap but great quality. And their sequel blew it out of the
    Easy 10 for price akone. It's subnautica in steroids, better graphics snimations sounds textured levels amazing story ends just much.

    There is just so much more detail. It's what a 60 game costs even though it's worth 50 and so are those games. These people are the new CD project red. Releasing GOOD games that are original and cheap but great quality. And their sequel blew it out of the park. This is a mist buy. Best preorder for 26 ever had. But it at full price and support the dev because they are giving us a deal on premium is far bug free experience. They are like a unicorn in the industry. "You guys want cheap bomb ass games?" "Hell yeah!" "Well here ya go! Oh and they don't crash or need dlc! Maybe we will add in free stuff but it's definitely a complete game. You can preorder it for $27!".

    Dudes are legends in the gaming industry. We should buy their stock now After resident evil right making another solid 100 from me, thst and Disco Elysium have made spring gsming great. Next week sunless skies comes out console another must buy from me. Recently we have been spoiled with good games. Biomutant is good i preordered it ,shame shame i know. It could be a buggy crashing mess. Side note, check out steep you like snowboarding to chill electro music. Also try Stellaris if you like big sim space empire warfare. My last recommendation is Blasphemous it's my goty before next year's dokm enteral which was a blessing from the literal gods. Don't miss Lara Croft 30woth dlc dungeons it's dope. Finally ion fury if you like duke nukem
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  9. Jul 23, 2022
    7
    The game is absolutely amazing in every point, the only thing that ruined my game experience was the several crashes more than 15 times on my PS4 pro with an SSD hard drive.
  10. Oct 17, 2020
    1
    DON’T BUY THIS GAME ON PS4. I absolutely echo what others have said. I love this game but the bugs are game breaking on PS4. I tried two playthroughs and in both I encountered a save bug that wouldn’t let me save my game. I lost over 50 hours of game time. I’d give this game another shot if they fixed the bugs but I hear the developers have already moved on to other games. Bottom line:DON’T BUY THIS GAME ON PS4. I absolutely echo what others have said. I love this game but the bugs are game breaking on PS4. I tried two playthroughs and in both I encountered a save bug that wouldn’t let me save my game. I lost over 50 hours of game time. I’d give this game another shot if they fixed the bugs but I hear the developers have already moved on to other games. Bottom line: don’t buy this game on PS4, buy it on PC. Expand
  11. Mar 1, 2019
    9
    totally engrossing. I've not been that taken with base building games before but this has a combination of accessibility and difficulty that makes it really easy to get in to.
    Great story and superb sound design, managed to make be genuinely creeped out with little but darkness and sound effects. Superb.
  12. Sep 11, 2020
    0
    A fantastic game that has sadly been left unfinished. The game ended for me when one of the late-game leviathans grabbed my exosuit and threw me clear through a non-existent wall texture and off the map, leading to the loss of many hours of progress. Awful controls and poor optimisation further lead me to believe that the developers never had any intention of turning the PS4 version into aA fantastic game that has sadly been left unfinished. The game ended for me when one of the late-game leviathans grabbed my exosuit and threw me clear through a non-existent wall texture and off the map, leading to the loss of many hours of progress. Awful controls and poor optimisation further lead me to believe that the developers never had any intention of turning the PS4 version into a finished product. Avoid. Expand
  13. Dec 9, 2018
    2
    Fantastic game, I really love it. That being said, the game is a broken mess on PS4. Crashing every couple hours I can handle, but when I save multiple times in order to prevent losing data, it either doesn't save, or loses saves. I had a file I literally saved, a couple minutes later crashed. When I reloaded, it was an hour earlier and all of my exploration in the lost river was gone.Fantastic game, I really love it. That being said, the game is a broken mess on PS4. Crashing every couple hours I can handle, but when I save multiple times in order to prevent losing data, it either doesn't save, or loses saves. I had a file I literally saved, a couple minutes later crashed. When I reloaded, it was an hour earlier and all of my exploration in the lost river was gone. Tons of nickle ore gone. I love the game, but I'm done playing until this kind of stuff is fixed. Expand
  14. Feb 23, 2019
    10
    Great. Probably the best exploration game I've ever played. It was constantly interesting and surprising. The moderate survival/horror elements were perfect for me. One of my favorite games of all time in spite of a few minor bugs.
  15. Dec 2, 2021
    8
    One of the best underwater games ever made and one of the best survival games ever made. A masterpiece of world-building, storytelling, game progression, and balance.

    The visuals are often stunningly rich and beautiful textured and lit. Also fantastic audio - both the soundtrack, and the environmental sounds, made for the best sonic experience of any game I have ever played and this
    One of the best underwater games ever made and one of the best survival games ever made. A masterpiece of world-building, storytelling, game progression, and balance.

    The visuals are often stunningly rich and beautiful textured and lit. Also fantastic audio - both the soundtrack, and the environmental sounds, made for the best sonic experience of any game I have ever played and this made a big difference to the emotional impact and sense of being alone in hostile waters. Use a home theatre system if you possibly can and crank up the subwoofer.

    It would be a 10/10 but read on.

    Subnautica on PS4 is let down by immersion-breaking graphical glitches (clipping, framerate, and pop-in are all problematic). And there are couple of horribly game-breaking bugs. Those issues might be okay on PC where workarounds can be found, but not on console where there's no workaround or remedy. Don't even bother playing on Hardcore mode, and backup your saves once an hour. The PS4 release needed a lot more polish so 8/10 is the best I can do.
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  16. Dec 19, 2018
    6
    Allthough SN is a gripping experience (I've been playing preview since February 2018) the enormous amount of bugs and performance issues take the whole game down. Immersion is constantly and completely broken due to those 2. Still I keep on playing. I want this game to be good so much. But alas the developer chose to put their time into DLC instead of fixing the problems
  17. Jan 14, 2019
    10
    I really can't rate this game highly enough. I'm typically a casual gamer that usually only plays the odd weekend or so, but despite it somewhat slower nature, something about this title had me glued to the screen for 6 an entire weekend. I'm already thinking about how I can sneak extra time in during the week without neglecting my household. It's been 15 years since a game has captured meI really can't rate this game highly enough. I'm typically a casual gamer that usually only plays the odd weekend or so, but despite it somewhat slower nature, something about this title had me glued to the screen for 6 an entire weekend. I'm already thinking about how I can sneak extra time in during the week without neglecting my household. It's been 15 years since a game has captured me like this (Morrowind). So much so that I felt the need to write a review, which I've never done before.

    The environment is beautiful and at times, deeply unsettling as you discover hints of just how diverse, vast, and terrifying the environment can be. More often than not, it's what you can't see that gets the heart racing. An incredible music score goes with each of the individual environments and adds to the sense of awe as you discover new locations. Legitimate challenges are balanced nicely with the rewards received for exploring - the pace of the game is as slow or as fast as you'd like it to be.

    I've been tempted to read guides online but I think that discovering on your own is one of the greatest delights of this game and frankly, when it comes to certain areas, ignorance might be bliss.

    I've seen some folks write about bugs and issues with graphics - while I've definitely encountered some slow environment loading when moving quickly, I haven't experienced any bugs that I know of.

    This game is an absolute pleasure to play.
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  18. Nov 16, 2020
    0
    Riddled with bugs. Not worth playing if your file will just get corrupted after 20 hours.
  19. Jan 11, 2019
    0
    I challenge the gaming community to find a game that runs this poorly on any console. One has to seriously question the morality of the people making money off of this port. Did anyone think to see if the game worked before charging people their hard earned money? Is it really forgivable to put us through this? I want people to know that i spent over 100 hours with this game before writingI challenge the gaming community to find a game that runs this poorly on any console. One has to seriously question the morality of the people making money off of this port. Did anyone think to see if the game worked before charging people their hard earned money? Is it really forgivable to put us through this? I want people to know that i spent over 100 hours with this game before writing this review and tried to reinstall multiple times etc. I platinumed this POS and believe I could have done so in less than 10 hours without performance issues. The game all out crashed 30-40 times. Saves failed to actually save my progress around 5 times and lost me about 50 hours of my life. Objects often don’t render until you are inside them and you will get stuck countless (100s) times because of this. The game half freezes every time you come to the surface and will generally do this regardless of where u are or what u are doing about every 5 seconds. The performance is directly linked to the size of your save file so it takes time for all of this to come to fruition. Like 15 minutes at least before it all falls to bloody hell. Objects get stuck inside your base and sub, sometimes breaking the game. Pet “fish” dissappear every time you leave the base regardless of what you do to protect them. The frame rate is legit 3 FPS for the latter half of the game. I’m infuriated and truly can’t believe you got away with this. How in the actual **** does this game get approved for release. Sure it’s one of the best game ideas ever conceived if it runs well but it hardly runs at all. This game struggles to perform on
    pc. It’s a complete joke on PS4. Sooooo many more bugs I cant fit in this space that are practically game breaking in their own right. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
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  20. Nov 16, 2020
    4
    20 fps PSPro + tons of bugs. I loved this game on PC. But PS experience is awful.
  21. Dec 6, 2018
    10
    Very polished. Lots of fun. Picked it up last night, was still playing at 4am. Feels like what I expected No Man's Sky to offer when it was released, but didn't. I hesitated at paying full price, just before the sales, but don't fear, it's entirely worth it.
  22. Dec 13, 2018
    4
    I really wanted to like this game, I’m a HUGE fan of the concept and content. This in theory was a beautifully designed survival game or if you play in creative mode a beautiful exploration game. Except that it becomes unplayable after about an hour or two, it’ll crash at random despite it seemingly working fine, or it’ll stop rendering the sea floor at all, you’ll suddenly lose a bunch ofI really wanted to like this game, I’m a HUGE fan of the concept and content. This in theory was a beautifully designed survival game or if you play in creative mode a beautiful exploration game. Except that it becomes unplayable after about an hour or two, it’ll crash at random despite it seemingly working fine, or it’ll stop rendering the sea floor at all, you’ll suddenly lose a bunch of resources. If you managed to save before it crashes there isn’t a guarantee it actually saved, it deletes save files left and right, if the developers manage to release a decent patch I would love to rate this much higher but at its current state unfortunately I can only give it a 4 at most. It feels like I’m playing a game that’s still in its beta stage and not a game that’s been out for several years (I am aware that it’s a new release to ps4 but it’s been out on pc for a while). Expand
  23. Jan 2, 2019
    1
    Potential to be an amazing game. wonderful graphics, great premise and setting with in depth exploration and worldbuilding. however this is undercut by constant graphical errors and failure to load textures making exploring in the game a nightmare as your never sure if a wall or leviathan will spawn around you. the save system is terrible as there is no autosave feature and the game willPotential to be an amazing game. wonderful graphics, great premise and setting with in depth exploration and worldbuilding. however this is undercut by constant graphical errors and failure to load textures making exploring in the game a nightmare as your never sure if a wall or leviathan will spawn around you. the save system is terrible as there is no autosave feature and the game will occasionally delete your save file. this is further undercut by the game consistently crashing every few hours to minutes. this game has so much potential but is ultimately a buggy unplayable mess. Expand
  24. Sep 21, 2020
    0
    The has slow rendering and hit detection issues where you can fall out of the world before the environment populates. I sucked it up and kept playing all the to the end where you get to the last location and fell right through the floor. It's shameful how bad this was translated to console. It was an obvius cash grab.
  25. Jan 28, 2020
    0
    Warning, this game has been out for well over a year and, instead of fixing the game breaking bugs that the game has had since launch, the developer decided to move on to a new game.
  26. Dec 9, 2020
    0
    i dont know the people who made this ps4 version... but i do know they are a bunch of incompetent idiots. This version of the game have so many problems...the game crashed so many times...the frame rate is poor... the elements just pop out of nowhere... and after a tons of hours, my save has been corrupted... i was nearly the end. I will never trust this company ever., they just are thieves.
  27. Dec 6, 2018
    6
    I really like the concept and gameplay mechanics. This is what I expected from No Man's Sky. I like the game and atmosphere. It's scary and yet entertaining. Unfortunately, game is not ported well. Even on my PS4 Pro, I have huge FPS drops. After travelling long distance, game sometimes drops to like 2 - 3 FPS and almost completely freezes. It needs to be restarted to work fine again.I really like the concept and gameplay mechanics. This is what I expected from No Man's Sky. I like the game and atmosphere. It's scary and yet entertaining. Unfortunately, game is not ported well. Even on my PS4 Pro, I have huge FPS drops. After travelling long distance, game sometimes drops to like 2 - 3 FPS and almost completely freezes. It needs to be restarted to work fine again. Also, assigning items to quickslot menu is a pain. You can not simply assign tool to specific slot or even remove it. You can only add it on first place, while rest of items is moved one position further and last is removed. Hopefully they resolve performance issues soon so I can improve the score. Expand
  28. Dec 4, 2020
    2
    This game has, by far, the worst performance of any game I've played on PS4. It's an exhilarating, engaging, terrifying and immensely satisfying game. However, even if your save doesn't get corrupted or you don't fall through the seafloor into an unfixable glitch, the framerate on PS4 is such a significant barrier to enjoyment that I do not recommend you play it on this platform.

    The
    This game has, by far, the worst performance of any game I've played on PS4. It's an exhilarating, engaging, terrifying and immensely satisfying game. However, even if your save doesn't get corrupted or you don't fall through the seafloor into an unfixable glitch, the framerate on PS4 is such a significant barrier to enjoyment that I do not recommend you play it on this platform.

    The performance of the game decreases as you make it further into the story, which makes it all the more frustrating. I was invested, because it's awesome, but I was so damn frustrated by the near-single-digit frame rates that can persist for minutes at a time that I had to give up and just watch a YouTube video of the end of the story to get closure on what should have been a totally awesome experience. 10/10 for game design but 2/10 for implementation and optimization on PS4.
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  29. Dec 11, 2018
    8
    Was intrigued with this game from the beginning. My fear of heights also translate to deep water, like the Ocean. What is down there below me ? How far down can i go ? What is lurking in the shadows ? So this could a horror survival for peeps like me.
    If your into the survival crafting genre then you will love this title. Unique alien ocean setting is very cool. Im only about 8 hours in
    Was intrigued with this game from the beginning. My fear of heights also translate to deep water, like the Ocean. What is down there below me ? How far down can i go ? What is lurking in the shadows ? So this could a horror survival for peeps like me.
    If your into the survival crafting genre then you will love this title. Unique alien ocean setting is very cool. Im only about 8 hours in but having a blast. So many different machines for travel and shelter to build for survival.
    Many interesting creatures so far and not even able to dive below 200 meters yet ? Story is good so far, seeking out other survivors of the your huge, crashed spacecraft. Help is on the way early but something has to give. Is that a island out there ? Who's there.
    Lots of mystery. Reminds me of the updated version of No Mans Sky but I like this game much better so far.
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  30. Dec 13, 2018
    5
    I really was anticipating for this game to come out on PS4, but sadly cannot enjoy playing Subnautica. Firstly, this is because of performance issues and secondly, some problems I have with the actual content of the game.

    Here are the performance issues: -The biggest problem is that approximately 40% of the time the game will crash when I save, making me repeat 45 minutes of progress
    I really was anticipating for this game to come out on PS4, but sadly cannot enjoy playing Subnautica. Firstly, this is because of performance issues and secondly, some problems I have with the actual content of the game.

    Here are the performance issues:

    -The biggest problem is that approximately 40% of the time the game will crash when I save, making me repeat 45 minutes of progress multiple times.
    -The game freezes for 2 seconds when I pop-up to breath some air.
    - When I travel faster through the water the frames will drop to single digits or even freeze occasionally.
    - When I dive down from the water surface and look down at a seafloor that is more than 150m deep, there will not be a seafloor at all, but just darkness. Then as I swim closer, the surface will be loaded in with square surfaces at a time (this looks real ugly).
    - Pop-in is reliably immersion-breaking in areas with vines and mushroom-like statures.
    - Sometimes a square surface won't be loaded and you can look through the bottom of the map.

    Now I can imagine the game would be pretty beautiful and enjoyable if it actually functioned, but there are some problems I have with the game's design. First of, I do not like to read in a game. Most information about the game-mechanics are in your menu which you just have to read through. Explain the game to me in a cutscene or dialogue that I actually enjoy listening to. I already found this annoying with Breath of the Wild, so this might be a personal issue.
    However, if you don't read anything there isn't much to do. You go through the water and scan everything to build cool vehicles or a base, but there is no real purpose for the game it seems. There are no characters you'll meet, water and food isn't a real problem, and after a while you have found most of the mechanical parts and it gets kinda grindy to find the ones you haven't.
    Also I have to look up multiple things on the internet as certain aspects are never explained to me. Why can't I recharge my submarine? Where do I find Cave Sulfur? Why can't I build the primary chamber of my base?
    Inventory management is also pretty annoying, because in the first place the inventory is small and secondly you only have 5 hotkeys and 10 tools you'll need. Just give me a wheel where I can select tools from just like any other game? :l

    In the end, I have quite playing Subnautica after 15 hours of playtime as my immersion was continually broken by the pop-in and I kept losing saves and apart from all that I didn't feel pushed by the game to progress. This all makes it hard for me to give the game more than a 5.
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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. CD-Action
    Mar 25, 2019
    80
    The PS4 edition of the brilliant survival game has some performance problems (framerate dropping, environment popping up really badly if you travel fast) and navigating in three dimensions is much less intuitive with a controller than with a mouse, which did cost me my life sometimes. These flaws do not disqualify the console port though, so if you can’t enjoy Subnautica on PC, consider giving it a shot on PS4, as there are very few such games nowadays. [02/2019, p.35]
  2. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Jan 27, 2019
    80
    Few games are this consistently surprising, let alone this well designed. [Issue#158, p.88]
  3. Jan 15, 2019
    65
    I have rarely seen a game go from being absolutely sublime to absolutely awful, but Subnautica manages to pull it off. The first 25-30 hours are a superb sci-fi survival experience that I would happily recommend to anyone, and I’ll cherish that time under the waves for years to come. But the endgame? It really does ruin a good thing. If the first chunk of the adventure were scored on its own, it would rate much higher. But as a complete experience? The issues are too large to ignore.