The Early Access of Subnautica 2 is starting off to great success, returning players to an underwater survival world full of alien wildlife and landscapes to discover. However, as player feedback begins in the game’s early stages, complaints about marine life hostility and self-defense continue to dominate conversations. With the title’s recent update addressing this issue somewhat, a clearer direction established from changes could clue in players to how developer Unknown Worlds is addressing their biggest concerns.
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Players have been frustrated with Subnautica 2‘s lack of weapons, with not even a small knife available to characters like the original Subnautica. This is an old debate from Subnautica‘s history, with developer repeatedly sharing that their intention is to keep players from grasping onto a power fantasy over Subnautica‘s ocean life, but rather have a closer relationship to discovery and conservation. This has made some players feel helpless against hostile wildlife, but the last update has taken away some pressure.
Subnautica 2’s Recent Update Makes Hostile Creatures Less Aggressive Toward Players
The third patch of Subnautica 2 introduced a number of hot fixes to the game, including some changes to creature behavior in the vast oceans of its alien world. The “predator” creatures, or animals that tend to attack players, have had their aggressiveness tuned down significantly from before. For example, Hammerhead creatures no longer attack unpiloted Tadpole vehicles, preventing them from destroying your vessel while you’re outside of it. Some other changes include:
- Marrowbreach creature attack damage has been greatly reduced.
- Marrowbreach creature attacks occurr less frequently.
- Nibbler perception range has been reduced.
- Nibblers now circle players for longer before committing to an attack.
Small adjustments like this have altered a variety of creature patterns, largely making them attack players less often or with far more warning. These life forms also don’t stick around for as long as they once did, typically going back to areas they patrol instead of chasing down your swimming character for hundreds of meters. By mitigating the threat of predators, players have more chances to prepare for eventual encounters, rather than begging for a weapon to provide a quick solution.
The fact that predators no longer attack your unattended vehicle is a great change too, as it takes away the overwhelming pressure of taking something valuable near a dangerous creature. The annoying process of parking your Tadpole incredibly far away from a known Marrowbreach spot is not necessary now, even if you should still be careful. This adoption of feedback in Subnautica 2 feels like a step in the right direction, both keeping to the developer’s vision and responding to fan concerns.
Clear Direction Of This Patch Reinforces The Idea That Subnautica 2 Will Remain Non-Violent
This patch came after many rumors that Subnautica 2 would never change how predators function, as players began to call the title a “pacifism game” online. This update shows how Unknown Worlds is sticking to their vision of zero weapons or violent options for players, instead making the danger of certain creatures clear and focused. According to comments shared in an interview with YouTuber MinnMax, Subnautica 2 design lead Anthony Gallegos states that the game’s intent has always been guided by two principles.
For starters, Gallegos states that “we wanted to not give people the attitude that they were the dominator over the world, because the message of the game was very much people learning to live parallel with the world that they’re in.” This message reflects the original Subnautica in many ways, with the sequel going a step further by taking away player weapons entirely. Gallegos also cites inspirations from games like SOMA and Alien: Isolation, which are so much more interesting because players can’t fight back in them.
Gallegos mentions that “If [SOMA] ever gave players the means to fight things, no matter intentionally miserable they made the experience, players would always be like ‘it’s always better to master the crappy combat than it is to deal with the constant threat intention of a thing.’” This calls back to Subnautica 2‘s lack of combat, as it suggests that even if the game had some form of fighting, players would try to use it no matter how effective it was.
Even if the combat was very poor compared to other mechanics, players would still try to use it to overcome the set ideas of tension the game was trying to convey. As a result, simply reducing predator aggression is a brilliant compromise, giving players what they want without compromising the game’s core vision. It’s likely that more tweaks to creature behavior will take place in Subnautica 2‘s Early Access, leading to a very different ecosystem for players to experience with the game’s 1.0 version.
What do you think of Unknown Worlds’ approach to creature behavior in Subnautica 2‘s latest patch? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!
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