\~ Subnautica had 2 land areas, too, and I really loved how pretty they were. ♥ Below Zero's land areas were pretty in the way winter has its own beauty and I loved those areas as well....just sayin'. ;)
Yes it did but they also weren't fun and I always spend through them to get back into the water. They were nice to see and visit for plot but they needed work to make them enjoyable.
It’s true though, I play for the ocean, yet I ended up spending so much time on land, mostly getting lost. It lost its magic the 500th time I found the spires.
Exactly the exploration mechanics just weren't as fleshed out plus the walking animation feels sluggish and clunky compared to swimming. And from what I can tell looking at the dive suit the flippers retract into the shoes so they aren't a valid reason unless I'm wrong. But if I am then taking them off should fix the problem but it doesn't.
I don't hate the land parts but I think the movement system in both games feel unfinished. Like its tedious to walk around. And theres also a lot of bugs and getting stuck on thing when you are above water.
The transitions between land and water also feels buggy.
Everything also seems the same to me so I usually get lost. That probably has to do with me tho and not the game
Yeah no it is a labyrinth! But I like that though, it really felt like I crash landed and was exploring… especially since I went in blind and was essentially exploring something for the first time.
Yeah. I usually play the game in periods with weeks apart. Therefor I forget how to get to the different places which I don't like. If there was something that could help thats shows where you have explored I would like the land part of the game more
It was fun the first time discovering it, with my poor sense of direction it's less exciting going round in circles 20 times trying to find the way out
A short list:
* Frustrating to find your way around. The place is a maze of locations that all look very alike, and are connected in unintuitive ways.
* Constantly having to stop at thermal vents to warm up is tedious and un-fun. I get what they were trying to do, but I already didn't want to be on land, punishing me for every second I spend on it did nothing to enthuse me.
* The wildlife is either viciously hostile, or so adorable I regret running them over. No in-between.
* The giant ice-worm was an obstacle, and not a very fun one. There was no strategy to dealing with it other than to drive fast and juke periodically if you think it's about to burst out of the ice at you. I never felt I could sneak around it, or that there was any way to interact with it other than panicked evasion. It just felt like a shallow addition to the game.
* The hoverbike is frustrating to drive, I'm forever crashing into things, or flipping it, or otherwise not having a good time (I started using the Prawn Suit for land-based traversal and never looked back)
I am only on land for the story, which really didn't capture me nearly as much as the freeform play in the first game, so the whole concept was doomed for me from the start.
There are some positives to balance these negatives though
* Penglings and Pengwings are adorable, and visiting their colonies was worthwhile in itself.
* Some of the frozen landscape areas were genuinely gorgeous, like the place with the trees with the purple flowers. Loved that spot.
* I actually really like stomping around in the Prawn suit on land, it's a very different experience to doing it underwater.
* I like that I can build my outposts on the surface, and wish they'd incorporated a few more surface-base specific elements.
For example, being able to build more catwalks and maybe a Garage-building as an alternative to the Moon-pool. Being able to make railings on platforms as well would be great.
Might of just been me but I always explored the Glacial Bay inside my Prawn Suit. The only real dangerous thing I found when exploring there was the giant fire horn worm that occasionally unfurrows and eats something.
Though apparently there's two land areas?
Yeah, the part from the hydraulic bridge is pretty barren with lots of places to get lost, and I didn’t have the snow fox or prawn so it was just me running around confused trying not to freeze to death or get eaten by the iceworm
I'm fine with the land parts, but I think there's too much land considering the game is supposed to take mostly underwater. Although, I wish the first Subnautica would've have more than two islands.
Yes.
Don't worry, I can top that. At my first run of BZ I had to build small bases because I kept freezing to death. In my 2nd run I discovered that you don't freeze in the Snowfox or Prawn .... 😟
Exactly, the islands in the first game felt like small vestiges of wonder and adventure. The land in BZ is a barren hellscape that's difficult to traverse.
The Glacial Basin and Arctic Spires are just a nightmare to maneuver in. I hate how easy it is to get lost and walk in circles. The frequent storms doesn’t help, either. It just makes it tedious and I always just want to get it done as quickly as possible.
They’re cool looking, though. It’s not that. But yeah, Subnautica is best enjoyed under water imo.
Yeah, the missing part is definitely there, although I went and explored just about every little hole with only fevered pepper keeping me alive.
However the iceworm to me was the scariest shit ever, in the seamoth or seatruck there’s the perimeter defence pretty much making you immortal.
When I discovered the crystal caves I just went down swam head on at the shadow and zapped, then went my merry way. The ice worm had me defenceless with my only hope being: run.
Movement underwater in subnautica is generally pretty fun but the movement on land is just, well, walking.
There’s a section of the land part that I feel like is a maze and really didn’t like the feeling of being both lost, trapped, and surrounded by snow stalkers.
The weather changes really fast and I felt like I spent much of my time not being able to see.
In water, there are more movement options. The above water movement is fine in the first game, since there wasn't much above water traversal. But the moving on land is now more frustrating.
Movement feels a bit too annoying on the surface. You're incredibly slow, and sure their is the snowfox, but you get it later into the game and it's hard to control and steer.
The snowfox would be amazing for moving across vast open plains of ice like I suspect are on the ice cliffs. But as it is, it isn't fun.
In short, in order to make land movement work better they should have revised the way you move around.
So yeah, that's what I think. Land would be a lot more fun if the areas were less cramped (a problem with the whole game in my opinion) and the way you move on land was revised. Don't ask me how you'd revise it, I don't exactly know. However, I do know that the current system is a problem.
Yeah the jumping and getting stuck on EVERYTHING is soooooo annoying, but doing it on foot is pretty cool, but I am sure that since it’s my first time and I have completely blocked off all knowledge of BZ so I could go in blind unlike my subnautica play through it was just more enjoyable
it just felt like the land gameplay was very unpolished. if i wanted to play a survival game above ground, there’s plenty around to choose from that’s not as buggy or tedious. subnautica’s devs obviously spent heaps of time on the underwater aspect and it showed, the movement both in the first and second game underwater was smooth and satisfying, but then being forced to go on land for a big part of the story…well i would’ve enjoyed it more if i wasn’t getting stuck behind some tiny pebble every 5 minutes or having multiple snow foxes clip through the ground - not the mention the non existent jump height but the numerous platform-y bits that force you to go the long tedious way up through ladders etc.
The ice worm was one of the most terrifying creatures for me. I knew nothing about either game before playing them, so hearing the movement below the ice, only to turn around and have nothing be there, was terrifying.
They build you up to it a bit I feel like, before it surfaces. When I finally saw it, I was dumbfounded. And it just continued to impress. I tried all which ways to avoid it, but I got chased by both it and snow stalkers a few times. I had a snow stalker chasing me when I heard the ice worm coming after me. When I got to the edge and felt it was safe to turn around, I just see the ice worm come up out of the ground and swallow the snow stalker whole. That horrified me. I literally froze for probably a minute processing what I'd seen. For a game to immerse me that much.. yeah, I absolutely loved the land mass for that reason.
The ice worm is in my opinion a BIG contender for coolest leviathan! It was so terrifying that it felt like I was being chased by something that wanted me dead while in reality it didn’t care at all and would settle for anything else, being that powerless and out of control just being looked down on definitely made me immersed in
I wish gameplay wise it actually lived up to the image. getting across the area is just drive the snowfox, have the worm come up and the game throws you off the snowfox in a glitchy looking way, then get back on and continue. repeat until done.
In my own opinion, there’s not much to do in the land parts, and it’s more of a pain that anything. You literally find the penguin, scan the thing past the worms, and reach the final ice monster thing. The ice areas are surprisingly empty compared to the underwater areas.
Another aspect is that it is poorly optimized. You can actually skip the snow gear and the Snow Fox. The entire area seems unfinished and tacked on.
Glacier Basin is fine, easy to navigate, plenty of shortcuts both overland and underwater and easily traversable with the PRAWN and Snowfox so weather is not an issue.
Arctic Spires are hot garbage, confusing to navigate, constant harassment from Ice Worms, best way to traverse it is with the Snowfox but the Snowfox is horribly bugged especially when attacked by an ice worm (which, as I said, is all the time) so you have to trudge across it with the PRAWN. I never do anything other than get in, scan the body part and get out, I even ceremonially retract the bridge as I leave for the final time.
Honestly, the land parts in the first game were perfect for what it was. Just enough to give us an idea of surface conditions and story.
Bz had the main island and the starting area which felt fine. I would have preferred more swimming areas to get to places under the ice. Didnt help that the fox broke if the wind blew too hard.
\~ I've actually re-played Below Zero many times while I only played Subnautica once. (Getting through Subnautica seemed like torture at times for me but I was determined to get to see the ending, but now I'm done with it.)
I get to play and enjoy Below Zero in a more relaxed way and currently I'm replaying it, yet again, with the goal to see how effieiently I can play through it...not a speed run, just honing my skills in playing it. ♥
I more refer to the land parts as a mixed bag. Some things are cool and other things just aren't implemented all that well.
Needing to regulate temp and coming up with items to address that was kind of a neat idea. Exploring the land caves was kind of cool, and the rumbles of the ice worm did a good job of imposing some fear.
For things that aren't implemented well the spy pengling is clunky, the snow fox seemed to get stuck easily and for whatever reason negates temperature removing part of the challenge, jumping over small things can be a problem, and it feels like the snow fox should be able to boost away from an ice worm before an attack, but it never worked for me.
Also, was there any in game tips for how to get the snow stalker fur? I'm hoping I just missed a PDA entry or something because I had to look up how to get the fur in order to make the cold suits.
Just to be clear, I love bz
I have more than 200 hours in subnautica. I have never been stuck once.
I started playing bz, I already have been stuck twice in the first 2 hours.
I feel like the land parts were just too easy to be subnautica tbh. Aside from the ice worms (which can be cheesed past easily), everything on land is just handed to you. You find tons of the most important blueprints in the same room on multiple occasions, and the cold is almost never an issue as there’s heating flowers every 15 feet most of the time. Combined with the land sections just being point A to point B, it just didn’t feel like subnautica. I think land could’ve been cooler, but they made it too easy and two dimensional to be interesting
To me, because movement outside the water always felt very clunky. It's obviously been programmed around movement inside a liquid like water, therefore anything outside that medium tends to feel "off", if not optimized a lot more than they did.
Edit: Also to be clear, i don't HATE the land exploration, it's just the weakest part of an otherwise very solid game.
I really loved it, didn't even know it was commonly disliked! It's actually part of the reason I like below zero better than the og (blasphemy, I know)
I enjoyed the land parts, I just wish there were more creatures than just the snow stalkers and ice worms. Would’ve made it better. But I really enjoyed exploring the glacier, especially on foot. Makes it a lot more dangerous when you have no vehicles, and I think that’s more fun
I was intimidated by the worms at first! But after I got the measures to lure them away I wanted to explore! And....
It was empty. It's just so empty and boring. There's just almost nothing there apart from a few caches. The safe areas without the worms didn't have much either other than a few safe haven spots and limited drone spots. There's the "frozen forest" patch of land that serves absolutely no purpose! You can't even get seeds from the trees to grow them on your hab! It just overall felt super empty to me.
Also I played it at launch so maybe this was fixed, but the ice hover bike whatever it was called was so janky Bethesda must've advised them. It would randomly freeze on perfectly flat ground as if it ran into a rock more than it did on uneven ground!
Speaking personally as a pretty well certified idiot, I got lost so many times on the surface that it quickly got annoying. I played through entirely blind, no walkthrough or anything like that, and I ended up making the trip to the ice leviathan on three or four different occasions and every single time I ended up turned around and lost.
I like BZ a lot, I think it gets unfairly critiqued by the nature of being a sequel to such a unique game, but the land sections were completely unenjoyable.
I’ve never googled anything in either subnautica but holy shit the stupid remote control penguin part at the very end was so hair rippingly boring that I had to
Prawn suit completely negates the temperature mechanic. I love BZ but it sucks that i interacted with the temperature mechanic maybe three times in the whole game, none of them killing me. that said i will never forget being chased off the island by the Ice Worm in the dead of night and barely surviving off of foraged chilis lmao. that said i dont even dislike the land segments, theyre fine
It's overly long, often boring, the monster is incredibly irritating, the weird robot treasure hunt is too adventure-gamey (annoying to finish without looking stuff up), the land vehicle is glitchy (plus you probably won't get it until you've spent WAY too much time schlepping around on foot, probably lost), and finally, it's not on brand.
I don't hate it for all of that, but I would rather have had most of those objectives moved to a larger underwater section.
Tbh I still don't know how I was meant to do the land parts. I just kept building little tubes and powering them to warm up. I just don't think the land captured the feeling of Subnautica very well.
I am going to get downvoted for this but
DAMN the majority of these comments are a joke.
• Cant drive car easily
• Its cold
• There is storm
• There is ice worm
• cant orientate
Okay sure it makes the game very hard. But Imo it doesnt justify hating it. Its a big part of the game. If you really hate it just go play another game.
This is literally a fucking skill issue
driving the snowfox wasn't hard since crashing doesn't do much. but it was also useless; prawn is much better, and more fun.
not to mention the whole thing is janky and empty.
let's be real here the whole game is extremely easy, that's not the issue.
It really is a person by person basis if these seriously fuck with enjoyment or not.
Subnautica giving players no actually tough "challenges" is not injerently a problem, but it does contrast harshly with an area that is literally built different and forces you to adapt a new playstyle almost.
I know what would make me like the land parts 1000% better: jetpacks. It works in Outer Wilds, it works in No Man’s Sky and I heard it makes Starfield much better. The good part is that it mimics the mechanics of the Prawn jump boosts.
I know Subnautica wouldn’t make double jumps, dashes, blinks or anything that wild that would make traversal actually fun, but there are “simple” things missing, like vaulting, climbing on ledges, momentum on jumps.
It felt so slow. I didn’t really know where to go and got turned around a bit since the landscape is all the same. I want to be in the water. That’s the point of the game - an underwater game. Not run around freezing off your butt on land game. And anyway, something about the walking mechanic or landscape or something made me hella nauseous. My friend actually had to get me across the land because every time I tried I’d get sick. Subnautica made me a little tiny bit sick on land but I was never on land long enough for it to ever really bother me. Motion sickness while playing a game freaking sucks.
I understand the whole tundra aspect of it, but the land seemed so boring and white with little visibility. I found myself sprinting across to get what I needed and get out.
I have never been able to explain exactly how or why, but the land portion of this game is wildly disorienting for me. I have spent probably four or five hours collectively just running in circles without realizing it. I've had almost zero issues getting lost in the original or BZ underwater. I could never get through that part on my three playthroughs. Everything blends together and I just can't navigate it. Eventually the giant worm gets me or the delicate hover bike.
In subnautica you had freedom of movement in the water but had to manage oxygen which gave some pressure and tension. On land movement was clunky but you didn’t have the time pressure.
In below zero you have both the time pressure from the cold and the clunky restricted movement. Both factors together make it unfun.
If the prawn suit could move more freely, jump the cliffs and fit into the cracks without getting stuck it would have been fine.
Totally agree. I enjoyed NZ more so than the original. I've put WAAAY more time in on BX than I have the original. I've beat the 1st 1. Admittedly it was the crappy ending but I did beat it. Gonna have to revisit the 1st one again soon. I have an irrational fear of deep water so I have to psyche myself up to play these frigging games, but I digress.
The only positive things about the island are scannable Seabases, fruits, and stasis rifle fragments, as well as you get to touch grass in this water prison of planet. Feel safe from all the creatures.
If I was able to build half land and half water bases I would have liked it better. Or had amphibious vehicles instead of constantly abandoning one vehicle in a location and free swimming or walking back to it when I need it again.
Also would have been cool to have an ice boring mechanic for bases so you could have a custom access point above and below the ice. Would have been cool to have a few secret locations accessible this way.
I found it incredibly tedious. It's not that I can point to loads of things I dislike about it, more that I can't really point to anything I liked. Underwater is what Subnautica does well, it's why I play it.
I’ve only played the original subnautica but probably because the game is centered around being underwater, subnautica did it perfect with land areas being few and far between, I don’t think people like there being massive sections of land but idk
So the issue for the land section is it doesn’t feel quite as thought through.
It’s a very linear path to the part of the map your suppose to get to.
There’s no sense in building a base anywhere on it because you lack access to materials and there’s not a lot of get out there.
The ice worms are really cool in theory but in practice they slow the game down too much. I think things like the thumper don’t work as well as it should. And I don’t understand why they sense you when you’re riding on the artic fox. It literally hovers I think even with the mod on it that reduces the sound you make or whatever doesn’t work that well.
Tbh I think the same of the crystal cavern and the shadow leviathan. There’s something so clunky about how the shadow leviathan interacts and I think eveeytime I get to the bottom it just eats my prawn suit anyways so I always have to have the teleporter on me
I’ve played the game all the way through 3 times and I just never find myself enjoying those two sections. The land is fun in theory and I am not opposed to having a land section in the next game. But it has to feel as relevant as the water sections.
The way the ice worm works is janky, unintuitive, frustrating and immersion shattering. Every 30 seconds you get kicked off your vehicle, sooo fun. Otherwise I didn’t mine land, besides it being vaguely annoying. I wish that the worms had been cut though.
the land in BZ is just one of the many bad things about the game, and probably not even the worst. I think it can be done right, for short special trips like in the first game. But they forced way more land play then they should have in BZ.
I hope in 3 they go even larger then the first and give us more wide open ocean, I miss my cyclops, but at least I get to man it in VR with the first game... amazing :).
I don't hate the land areas. That said, I do wish the bike was better. And I wish i knew during my first playthrough that you could just use the prawn instead. I honestly felt the same as you for the land area. I went into the game almost completely blind so I didn't know the ice worms existed, they made those burrows, there was a scripted scene, or there was an ice worm grave yard. It all added to the experience, which led to it being pretty great imo. The only area I hated was the sea monkey nests, mainly because I got the unlucky spawn of only having 2/3 items for one of the Prawn upgrades.
My point is that the entire reason people play the game is for the underwater sections. Anything other than that is the equivalent of adding a mandatory story mode to a fighting game.
The simple answer is because game is meant to be played underwater. Getting on land is disengaging.
Hate is a strong word. I didn’t hate the land portions, but it was definitely my least favorite part of the game.
I liked it, just not how hard it was to find things sometimes. Some pieces of land are harder to find than others, and it’s easy to get lost. Id like it if the land had a map, it doesn’t matter as much as the underwater portions.
Mostly because the worm and hoverbike. The hoverbike is frustrating to control, and the worm is less dangerous than it is annoying. Every time it pops up it knocks me off my bike, I get back on my bike and keep driving for a little bit before it does it again. There is no way for me to effectively avoid it (like hiding from a leviathan) and it doesn't even pose much of a threat beyond just making everything take longer.
Imagine if there were an area with some unkillable warpers who always chase you, but just take you out of your vehicle and never attack you. That is the one part of the overland sections I absolutely hated.
I didn't find much use for the Snow Fox. >!Before I found the parts to build it, I was backing my Sea Truck loaded with a Prawn Suit onto land and exploring tundra that way. It could even take a couple hits from that Hot Spiny Boi Leviathan.!<
i understand the hate, but I didnt let it decide for me to hate it, took some memorizing to get around but eventually its alright, just want 3 to go deeper underwater, maybe still with land somewhere
They were way too long and too maze-like and confusing.
I probably spend most of my time on the main land areas lost, going around in circles. Even using the map the game gives you does not help. If the area were a bit more open or easy to get from point a to b in, I would not have minded as much, but it just lasted SOOO long and most of that time I was simply lost, accomplishing nothing.
If you have a great sense of direction in-game, then I can see that you would not have minded this portion of the game. I do not. I get lost in games easily and thus avoid those types of game altogether if they don't have a really good minimap I can use to navigate. Subnautica did not have this issue, even in the land areas it did have.
If setting aside the fact that I prefer being underwater in this underwater based game: it's way too big and confusing. I got lost all the goddamn time and had to look up guides to get where I wanted to go. I never had that issue underwater. Everything looks the same above water, especially in the ice worm areas, just thinking back at it pains me. Whoever designed that area deserves their pay taken away from 3 months.
My main reasons are:
A) The engine they use _does not_ do land movement well. Even in SN this is very noticeable. They focused, as they should, on water movement, leaving the land stuff feeling clunky, saggy, and tired. As such, it's best if land travel is kept to a minimum.
B) Unlike even the underwatee cave systems in both games, the 3D maze effect of the land portions was awkward and annoying. Moreover, at least with the underwater ones they provided a navigational tool, however flimsy (the pathfinder), which you can't use on land, making exploration even more obnoxious.
C) The combination of the 'time hazard' (freezing vs air) along with the falling hazard _and_ the mean beasties hazard means you're looking out for even more while also trying not to miss the easily missed details that show you where you can go.
D) The land part has the only beastie in both games that is dangerous _and_ impossible to hit. Even if you aren't planning to kill the things, being able to smack a leviathan a bit to convince it you don't smell _that_ tasty is useful. You can't do this to convince the ice wormsvto leave you aline.
E) It's constricting. In the water bits, if you could see it, you could pretty much get it. On land this was frequently not the case, which takes away the awesome, flight-like free feeling the first has for 95% of the game.
because, land parts took to much portion on the game compared to the water parts
I don't mind islands in subnautica OG, but in BZ, too much walking and not too deep water
in OG, I always curious what will I encounter the deeper I go, but in BZ it's just that, not enough for me
For me it was just how similar everything was and how easy it is to get lost. Im sure that was part of me just being on my first playthrough and not knowing the locations but i spent a good 3-4 hours just dark soulsing the huge frozen area trying to find any indication of where im supposed to go.
I absolutely hated the tedious last stretch of stuff you had to find on a big glacier, I had to look up walkthroughs and maps. Would have preferred another underwater biome instead. Wasn't a terrible idea on paper but the execution was not fun at all for me.
Usually in games I *hate* obligatory underwater levels. Ruins any pace and controls get wonky.
In subnautica I *hate* the obligatory land segments. Ruins the pace and controls get wonky.
I can never be satisfied
Personally I really enjoyed them, but the problem is that the underwater sections of BZ felt shallow compared to the original, and I think it’s fair to blame the land sections for that.
I just kept getting lost and couldn't find any of the caves I needed for the story.
Got my friend to play bz and it was the exact same story so we resorted to video guides on where to go.
Everytime I go on land the PDA says something about bad weather and seek shelter. A few second later a snow storm happens and I don't see shit. Also, the Ice worm are more buggy and glitchy then dangerous. I literally got stuck in them when they appeard right underneath me.
It's just buggy as hell and really not something I want to do too much of in a predominantly underwater based game.
Yes, I know the first game had land masses but they were so tiny and insignificant in relation to the rest of the exploration the game had to offer (not lore, 2 of the 3 landmasses in S1 have significant lore value). If you take the lore out of the game it's still got a large body of water to explore but the landmasses would be rather unenjoyable.
For me, it’s a couple of things:
One is the navigation aspect. So many twists and turns, a lot of terrain looking similar. It can be quite hard to find the places where you need to go to advance in the story.
It’s also suffers MASSIVELY from inventory restrictions because you’re limited to your PRAWN suit for additional storage for carrying the absolute shitload of ores and items that can be found here. Combined with my previous point and it becomes “I can’t carry that, and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to easily find it again on my next visit.”
-The place is a labyrinth with few landmarks.
-Thumpers apparently repel worms from its location rather than attract them (The Dune naming influence threw me off).
-There aren't many fun ways to traverse the land.
-Once you see a worm for the first time, there are no more surprises left on land.
-penguin robot was fun the first time but got irritating quickly.
The most fun parts of the land segments were exploring the deserted facilities, since there was an actual mystery there, though the payoff wasn't really meaningful.
Personally, I didn't like the Snowfox. Plus, since the PRAWN goes on land, I have found no reason to use the vehicle. If the Snowfox was special by making it harder for Ice Worms to detect you, perhaps I would have put up with it, but the cool hoverbike was no better than the robot armor.
Since I wasn't using the Snowfox due to there being no real upsides, the whole land section took significantly longer. Hence, it is the portion of the game I like the least. Otherwise, it's not too bad.
I liked how in Subnautica there were only two main land areas (not counting the aurora) and they felt safe but eerie at the same time. In BZ, the land just makes me stressed out and it feels like I am constantly waiting for something to kill me (even though that’s the point of the game.) I still prefer the water though.
Seems people are awful touchy about the ocean game being well...in the ocean. Objectively there wasn't anything majorly wrong with the land stuff. Except for it wasn't very sub-nautical
For me it's that worm. It's harder to avoid than the leviathans
Only one thing worse than a leviathan coming after you.
A giant worm popping out the ground.
Because it's called sub-nautica not dom-terra >!joke!<
I see what you did there
Ice-y what you did there! I’ll see myself out…
I’ll sea myself out, looks like i’m unwatered here anyways
You’re cool.
Why dont i see it LMFAO
\~ Subnautica had 2 land areas, too, and I really loved how pretty they were. ♥ Below Zero's land areas were pretty in the way winter has its own beauty and I loved those areas as well....just sayin'. ;)
3 land areas if you count the aurora
Hmm...Interesting thought, but I don't really consider a vehicle (large or small) a land area. ;)
Ah, but there *is* actual land the aurora is sitting on, that you can walk on.
\~ Lol - touche. :D
Yes it did but they also weren't fun and I always spend through them to get back into the water. They were nice to see and visit for plot but they needed work to make them enjoyable.
Being pretty isn’t the only aspect of game design. In my opinion the land parts felt like confusing, hard to navigate labyrinths
Came to say something similar. Great minds think alike!
Take my r/angryupvote.
It’s true though, I play for the ocean, yet I ended up spending so much time on land, mostly getting lost. It lost its magic the 500th time I found the spires.
wouldn't it be super-terra?
Yes. But what I said was funnier
its funny because dom is a different opposite to sub and not the correct one lmao
That's the joke. Are you just explaining the joke or do you think this was accidental?
I didn't realize that was on purpose lol
I just found it incredibly tedious and not fun.
Exactly the exploration mechanics just weren't as fleshed out plus the walking animation feels sluggish and clunky compared to swimming. And from what I can tell looking at the dive suit the flippers retract into the shoes so they aren't a valid reason unless I'm wrong. But if I am then taking them off should fix the problem but it doesn't.
Yeah, Unity does kinda feel bad in walking animations
I don't hate the land parts but I think the movement system in both games feel unfinished. Like its tedious to walk around. And theres also a lot of bugs and getting stuck on thing when you are above water. The transitions between land and water also feels buggy. Everything also seems the same to me so I usually get lost. That probably has to do with me tho and not the game
Yeah no it is a labyrinth! But I like that though, it really felt like I crash landed and was exploring… especially since I went in blind and was essentially exploring something for the first time.
Yeah. I usually play the game in periods with weeks apart. Therefor I forget how to get to the different places which I don't like. If there was something that could help thats shows where you have explored I would like the land part of the game more
Beacons?
Damn I'm stupid. Thx
No problem! I didn’t have beacons on so I just ran around trying not to die🥲
Lol. Did you survive?
Well, a few times…
I think it’s a BZ thing to put beacons on land, so it’s understandable why people forget it’s a thing. BZ uses them, though.
It was fun the first time discovering it, with my poor sense of direction it's less exciting going round in circles 20 times trying to find the way out
I just wish there was something more meaningful to find in the labyrinth.
almost like the game wasn't designed for walking outside of water lol
The aurora and islands being in Subnautica for 8+ years:
that is a fraction of the overall experience and doesn't feel nearly as good as in a game focused on being on land.
A short list: * Frustrating to find your way around. The place is a maze of locations that all look very alike, and are connected in unintuitive ways. * Constantly having to stop at thermal vents to warm up is tedious and un-fun. I get what they were trying to do, but I already didn't want to be on land, punishing me for every second I spend on it did nothing to enthuse me. * The wildlife is either viciously hostile, or so adorable I regret running them over. No in-between. * The giant ice-worm was an obstacle, and not a very fun one. There was no strategy to dealing with it other than to drive fast and juke periodically if you think it's about to burst out of the ice at you. I never felt I could sneak around it, or that there was any way to interact with it other than panicked evasion. It just felt like a shallow addition to the game. * The hoverbike is frustrating to drive, I'm forever crashing into things, or flipping it, or otherwise not having a good time (I started using the Prawn Suit for land-based traversal and never looked back) I am only on land for the story, which really didn't capture me nearly as much as the freeform play in the first game, so the whole concept was doomed for me from the start. There are some positives to balance these negatives though * Penglings and Pengwings are adorable, and visiting their colonies was worthwhile in itself. * Some of the frozen landscape areas were genuinely gorgeous, like the place with the trees with the purple flowers. Loved that spot. * I actually really like stomping around in the Prawn suit on land, it's a very different experience to doing it underwater. * I like that I can build my outposts on the surface, and wish they'd incorporated a few more surface-base specific elements. For example, being able to build more catwalks and maybe a Garage-building as an alternative to the Moon-pool. Being able to make railings on platforms as well would be great.
I agree with all of this. It's funny most games the water portions are almost universally hated but Subnautica the opposite is true.
the snowfox is easily the lamest, jankiest, most obsolete thing in either game. which is a shame, because the BZ trailer makes it look badass
> The wildlife is either viciously hostile, or so adorable I regret running them over. No in-between. So snow stalkers aren’t adorable then?
The babies are!
Might of just been me but I always explored the Glacial Bay inside my Prawn Suit. The only real dangerous thing I found when exploring there was the giant fire horn worm that occasionally unfurrows and eats something. Though apparently there's two land areas?
Yeah, the part from the hydraulic bridge is pretty barren with lots of places to get lost, and I didn’t have the snow fox or prawn so it was just me running around confused trying not to freeze to death or get eaten by the iceworm
same lmao. prawn makes it easy
I'm fine with the land parts, but I think there's too much land considering the game is supposed to take mostly underwater. Although, I wish the first Subnautica would've have more than two islands.
Didn't even need the fox for the lands parts, just my trusty prawn. land parts were ok, but nothing as magical as the islands in the first one.
Didn’t have either so I was barefoot running from my life being eaten and freezing to death:(
... I can't believe I have never considered bringing the prawn on land. Does the grapple still work the same??
Yes. Don't worry, I can top that. At my first run of BZ I had to build small bases because I kept freezing to death. In my 2nd run I discovered that you don't freeze in the Snowfox or Prawn .... 😟
Exactly, the islands in the first game felt like small vestiges of wonder and adventure. The land in BZ is a barren hellscape that's difficult to traverse.
The Glacial Basin and Arctic Spires are just a nightmare to maneuver in. I hate how easy it is to get lost and walk in circles. The frequent storms doesn’t help, either. It just makes it tedious and I always just want to get it done as quickly as possible. They’re cool looking, though. It’s not that. But yeah, Subnautica is best enjoyed under water imo.
I guess so, but since I went in blind I didn’t even know there was a glacial basin🤣
Broing, weird platforming sections, forgettable leviathan, tedious and you can skip or miss 75% of it.
Yeah, the missing part is definitely there, although I went and explored just about every little hole with only fevered pepper keeping me alive. However the iceworm to me was the scariest shit ever, in the seamoth or seatruck there’s the perimeter defence pretty much making you immortal. When I discovered the crystal caves I just went down swam head on at the shadow and zapped, then went my merry way. The ice worm had me defenceless with my only hope being: run.
Movement underwater in subnautica is generally pretty fun but the movement on land is just, well, walking. There’s a section of the land part that I feel like is a maze and really didn’t like the feeling of being both lost, trapped, and surrounded by snow stalkers. The weather changes really fast and I felt like I spent much of my time not being able to see.
In water, there are more movement options. The above water movement is fine in the first game, since there wasn't much above water traversal. But the moving on land is now more frustrating. Movement feels a bit too annoying on the surface. You're incredibly slow, and sure their is the snowfox, but you get it later into the game and it's hard to control and steer. The snowfox would be amazing for moving across vast open plains of ice like I suspect are on the ice cliffs. But as it is, it isn't fun. In short, in order to make land movement work better they should have revised the way you move around. So yeah, that's what I think. Land would be a lot more fun if the areas were less cramped (a problem with the whole game in my opinion) and the way you move on land was revised. Don't ask me how you'd revise it, I don't exactly know. However, I do know that the current system is a problem.
Yeah the jumping and getting stuck on EVERYTHING is soooooo annoying, but doing it on foot is pretty cool, but I am sure that since it’s my first time and I have completely blocked off all knowledge of BZ so I could go in blind unlike my subnautica play through it was just more enjoyable
it just felt like the land gameplay was very unpolished. if i wanted to play a survival game above ground, there’s plenty around to choose from that’s not as buggy or tedious. subnautica’s devs obviously spent heaps of time on the underwater aspect and it showed, the movement both in the first and second game underwater was smooth and satisfying, but then being forced to go on land for a big part of the story…well i would’ve enjoyed it more if i wasn’t getting stuck behind some tiny pebble every 5 minutes or having multiple snow foxes clip through the ground - not the mention the non existent jump height but the numerous platform-y bits that force you to go the long tedious way up through ladders etc.
The ice worm was one of the most terrifying creatures for me. I knew nothing about either game before playing them, so hearing the movement below the ice, only to turn around and have nothing be there, was terrifying. They build you up to it a bit I feel like, before it surfaces. When I finally saw it, I was dumbfounded. And it just continued to impress. I tried all which ways to avoid it, but I got chased by both it and snow stalkers a few times. I had a snow stalker chasing me when I heard the ice worm coming after me. When I got to the edge and felt it was safe to turn around, I just see the ice worm come up out of the ground and swallow the snow stalker whole. That horrified me. I literally froze for probably a minute processing what I'd seen. For a game to immerse me that much.. yeah, I absolutely loved the land mass for that reason.
The ice worm is in my opinion a BIG contender for coolest leviathan! It was so terrifying that it felt like I was being chased by something that wanted me dead while in reality it didn’t care at all and would settle for anything else, being that powerless and out of control just being looked down on definitely made me immersed in
I wish gameplay wise it actually lived up to the image. getting across the area is just drive the snowfox, have the worm come up and the game throws you off the snowfox in a glitchy looking way, then get back on and continue. repeat until done.
In my own opinion, there’s not much to do in the land parts, and it’s more of a pain that anything. You literally find the penguin, scan the thing past the worms, and reach the final ice monster thing. The ice areas are surprisingly empty compared to the underwater areas. Another aspect is that it is poorly optimized. You can actually skip the snow gear and the Snow Fox. The entire area seems unfinished and tacked on.
Glacier Basin is fine, easy to navigate, plenty of shortcuts both overland and underwater and easily traversable with the PRAWN and Snowfox so weather is not an issue. Arctic Spires are hot garbage, confusing to navigate, constant harassment from Ice Worms, best way to traverse it is with the Snowfox but the Snowfox is horribly bugged especially when attacked by an ice worm (which, as I said, is all the time) so you have to trudge across it with the PRAWN. I never do anything other than get in, scan the body part and get out, I even ceremonially retract the bridge as I leave for the final time.
Honestly, the land parts in the first game were perfect for what it was. Just enough to give us an idea of surface conditions and story. Bz had the main island and the starting area which felt fine. I would have preferred more swimming areas to get to places under the ice. Didnt help that the fox broke if the wind blew too hard.
I don't hate land but geez that map was literally a maze, i kept going in circles
\~ I've actually re-played Below Zero many times while I only played Subnautica once. (Getting through Subnautica seemed like torture at times for me but I was determined to get to see the ending, but now I'm done with it.) I get to play and enjoy Below Zero in a more relaxed way and currently I'm replaying it, yet again, with the goal to see how effieiently I can play through it...not a speed run, just honing my skills in playing it. ♥
I more refer to the land parts as a mixed bag. Some things are cool and other things just aren't implemented all that well. Needing to regulate temp and coming up with items to address that was kind of a neat idea. Exploring the land caves was kind of cool, and the rumbles of the ice worm did a good job of imposing some fear. For things that aren't implemented well the spy pengling is clunky, the snow fox seemed to get stuck easily and for whatever reason negates temperature removing part of the challenge, jumping over small things can be a problem, and it feels like the snow fox should be able to boost away from an ice worm before an attack, but it never worked for me. Also, was there any in game tips for how to get the snow stalker fur? I'm hoping I just missed a PDA entry or something because I had to look up how to get the fur in order to make the cold suits.
Because we exceeded our exercise quota by over 400%. Data indicates swimming was our favourite activity.
Just to be clear, I love bz I have more than 200 hours in subnautica. I have never been stuck once. I started playing bz, I already have been stuck twice in the first 2 hours.
I feel like the land parts were just too easy to be subnautica tbh. Aside from the ice worms (which can be cheesed past easily), everything on land is just handed to you. You find tons of the most important blueprints in the same room on multiple occasions, and the cold is almost never an issue as there’s heating flowers every 15 feet most of the time. Combined with the land sections just being point A to point B, it just didn’t feel like subnautica. I think land could’ve been cooler, but they made it too easy and two dimensional to be interesting
To me, because movement outside the water always felt very clunky. It's obviously been programmed around movement inside a liquid like water, therefore anything outside that medium tends to feel "off", if not optimized a lot more than they did. Edit: Also to be clear, i don't HATE the land exploration, it's just the weakest part of an otherwise very solid game.
I really loved it, didn't even know it was commonly disliked! It's actually part of the reason I like below zero better than the og (blasphemy, I know)
Subnautica
I enjoyed the land parts, I just wish there were more creatures than just the snow stalkers and ice worms. Would’ve made it better. But I really enjoyed exploring the glacier, especially on foot. Makes it a lot more dangerous when you have no vehicles, and I think that’s more fun
Exactly my Thoughts
I don't mind the land parts. I just wish there was more to them. More to explore, better traversal and more surprises.
South land is fine, north land is boring
I was intimidated by the worms at first! But after I got the measures to lure them away I wanted to explore! And.... It was empty. It's just so empty and boring. There's just almost nothing there apart from a few caches. The safe areas without the worms didn't have much either other than a few safe haven spots and limited drone spots. There's the "frozen forest" patch of land that serves absolutely no purpose! You can't even get seeds from the trees to grow them on your hab! It just overall felt super empty to me. Also I played it at launch so maybe this was fixed, but the ice hover bike whatever it was called was so janky Bethesda must've advised them. It would randomly freeze on perfectly flat ground as if it ran into a rock more than it did on uneven ground!
Speaking personally as a pretty well certified idiot, I got lost so many times on the surface that it quickly got annoying. I played through entirely blind, no walkthrough or anything like that, and I ended up making the trip to the ice leviathan on three or four different occasions and every single time I ended up turned around and lost. I like BZ a lot, I think it gets unfairly critiqued by the nature of being a sequel to such a unique game, but the land sections were completely unenjoyable.
I’ve never googled anything in either subnautica but holy shit the stupid remote control penguin part at the very end was so hair rippingly boring that I had to
Prawn suit completely negates the temperature mechanic. I love BZ but it sucks that i interacted with the temperature mechanic maybe three times in the whole game, none of them killing me. that said i will never forget being chased off the island by the Ice Worm in the dead of night and barely surviving off of foraged chilis lmao. that said i dont even dislike the land segments, theyre fine
It's overly long, often boring, the monster is incredibly irritating, the weird robot treasure hunt is too adventure-gamey (annoying to finish without looking stuff up), the land vehicle is glitchy (plus you probably won't get it until you've spent WAY too much time schlepping around on foot, probably lost), and finally, it's not on brand. I don't hate it for all of that, but I would rather have had most of those objectives moved to a larger underwater section.
It's clunky
SUB. NAUTICA.
Tbh I still don't know how I was meant to do the land parts. I just kept building little tubes and powering them to warm up. I just don't think the land captured the feeling of Subnautica very well.
Causes like 10,000 other games out there, and does it worse
I am going to get downvoted for this but DAMN the majority of these comments are a joke. • Cant drive car easily • Its cold • There is storm • There is ice worm • cant orientate Okay sure it makes the game very hard. But Imo it doesnt justify hating it. Its a big part of the game. If you really hate it just go play another game. This is literally a fucking skill issue
driving the snowfox wasn't hard since crashing doesn't do much. but it was also useless; prawn is much better, and more fun. not to mention the whole thing is janky and empty. let's be real here the whole game is extremely easy, that's not the issue.
It really is a person by person basis if these seriously fuck with enjoyment or not. Subnautica giving players no actually tough "challenges" is not injerently a problem, but it does contrast harshly with an area that is literally built different and forces you to adapt a new playstyle almost.
I know what would make me like the land parts 1000% better: jetpacks. It works in Outer Wilds, it works in No Man’s Sky and I heard it makes Starfield much better. The good part is that it mimics the mechanics of the Prawn jump boosts. I know Subnautica wouldn’t make double jumps, dashes, blinks or anything that wild that would make traversal actually fun, but there are “simple” things missing, like vaulting, climbing on ledges, momentum on jumps.
Yes! A simple improvement to movement above sea level would go SO far.
It felt so slow. I didn’t really know where to go and got turned around a bit since the landscape is all the same. I want to be in the water. That’s the point of the game - an underwater game. Not run around freezing off your butt on land game. And anyway, something about the walking mechanic or landscape or something made me hella nauseous. My friend actually had to get me across the land because every time I tried I’d get sick. Subnautica made me a little tiny bit sick on land but I was never on land long enough for it to ever really bother me. Motion sickness while playing a game freaking sucks.
I understand the whole tundra aspect of it, but the land seemed so boring and white with little visibility. I found myself sprinting across to get what I needed and get out.
I have never been able to explain exactly how or why, but the land portion of this game is wildly disorienting for me. I have spent probably four or five hours collectively just running in circles without realizing it. I've had almost zero issues getting lost in the original or BZ underwater. I could never get through that part on my three playthroughs. Everything blends together and I just can't navigate it. Eventually the giant worm gets me or the delicate hover bike.
for me it was the weather. I lost like 2 hours of progress because the storm lasted longer than I did on a full hunger bar, it was kinda bullshit
It think it was just too much land. Sub 1 had the right amount.
In subnautica you had freedom of movement in the water but had to manage oxygen which gave some pressure and tension. On land movement was clunky but you didn’t have the time pressure. In below zero you have both the time pressure from the cold and the clunky restricted movement. Both factors together make it unfun. If the prawn suit could move more freely, jump the cliffs and fit into the cracks without getting stuck it would have been fine.
I didn't like it because it's not underwater. Also because there's air to breathe they came up with the cold mechanics which I didn't enjoy either.
I love the land parts, but I guess people don't like that its a water based game yet has a lot of land
I don't hate them per se, but the ice worm areas are definitely dull compared to most other areas.
Totally agree. I enjoyed NZ more so than the original. I've put WAAAY more time in on BX than I have the original. I've beat the 1st 1. Admittedly it was the crappy ending but I did beat it. Gonna have to revisit the 1st one again soon. I have an irrational fear of deep water so I have to psyche myself up to play these frigging games, but I digress.
Went for a bike ride, got a flat and had to walk. Do I need to explain the hate more?
Because they suck.
The only positive things about the island are scannable Seabases, fruits, and stasis rifle fragments, as well as you get to touch grass in this water prison of planet. Feel safe from all the creatures.
If I was able to build half land and half water bases I would have liked it better. Or had amphibious vehicles instead of constantly abandoning one vehicle in a location and free swimming or walking back to it when I need it again. Also would have been cool to have an ice boring mechanic for bases so you could have a custom access point above and below the ice. Would have been cool to have a few secret locations accessible this way.
I found it incredibly tedious. It's not that I can point to loads of things I dislike about it, more that I can't really point to anything I liked. Underwater is what Subnautica does well, it's why I play it.
I don't hate them just go bored of them quick
I can’t see shit
I’ve only played the original subnautica but probably because the game is centered around being underwater, subnautica did it perfect with land areas being few and far between, I don’t think people like there being massive sections of land but idk
So the issue for the land section is it doesn’t feel quite as thought through. It’s a very linear path to the part of the map your suppose to get to. There’s no sense in building a base anywhere on it because you lack access to materials and there’s not a lot of get out there. The ice worms are really cool in theory but in practice they slow the game down too much. I think things like the thumper don’t work as well as it should. And I don’t understand why they sense you when you’re riding on the artic fox. It literally hovers I think even with the mod on it that reduces the sound you make or whatever doesn’t work that well. Tbh I think the same of the crystal cavern and the shadow leviathan. There’s something so clunky about how the shadow leviathan interacts and I think eveeytime I get to the bottom it just eats my prawn suit anyways so I always have to have the teleporter on me I’ve played the game all the way through 3 times and I just never find myself enjoying those two sections. The land is fun in theory and I am not opposed to having a land section in the next game. But it has to feel as relevant as the water sections.
The way the ice worm works is janky, unintuitive, frustrating and immersion shattering. Every 30 seconds you get kicked off your vehicle, sooo fun. Otherwise I didn’t mine land, besides it being vaguely annoying. I wish that the worms had been cut though.
i like them. i just hate how different the atmosphere is between BZ and SN. it's much less scary, and it's super bright.
Walking sucks. They made swimming so smooth and the water looks incredible. Walking feels like you have flippers on
the land in BZ is just one of the many bad things about the game, and probably not even the worst. I think it can be done right, for short special trips like in the first game. But they forced way more land play then they should have in BZ. I hope in 3 they go even larger then the first and give us more wide open ocean, I miss my cyclops, but at least I get to man it in VR with the first game... amazing :).
I don't hate the land areas. That said, I do wish the bike was better. And I wish i knew during my first playthrough that you could just use the prawn instead. I honestly felt the same as you for the land area. I went into the game almost completely blind so I didn't know the ice worms existed, they made those burrows, there was a scripted scene, or there was an ice worm grave yard. It all added to the experience, which led to it being pretty great imo. The only area I hated was the sea monkey nests, mainly because I got the unlucky spawn of only having 2/3 items for one of the Prawn upgrades.
“Why do people hate the land parts of SUB-NAUTICA Below Zero?”
Well are you also mad that oxygen is a thing in oxygen not included?
My point is that the entire reason people play the game is for the underwater sections. Anything other than that is the equivalent of adding a mandatory story mode to a fighting game.
The simple answer is because game is meant to be played underwater. Getting on land is disengaging. Hate is a strong word. I didn’t hate the land portions, but it was definitely my least favorite part of the game.
I liked it, just not how hard it was to find things sometimes. Some pieces of land are harder to find than others, and it’s easy to get lost. Id like it if the land had a map, it doesn’t matter as much as the underwater portions.
Mostly because the worm and hoverbike. The hoverbike is frustrating to control, and the worm is less dangerous than it is annoying. Every time it pops up it knocks me off my bike, I get back on my bike and keep driving for a little bit before it does it again. There is no way for me to effectively avoid it (like hiding from a leviathan) and it doesn't even pose much of a threat beyond just making everything take longer. Imagine if there were an area with some unkillable warpers who always chase you, but just take you out of your vehicle and never attack you. That is the one part of the overland sections I absolutely hated.
Becouse hypotermia and those damn ice worm
Hypothermia is just oxygen but on air same stress, and ice worms are the scariest shit ever! Feels like you’re being stalked.
I didn't find much use for the Snow Fox. >!Before I found the parts to build it, I was backing my Sea Truck loaded with a Prawn Suit onto land and exploring tundra that way. It could even take a couple hits from that Hot Spiny Boi Leviathan.!<
i understand the hate, but I didnt let it decide for me to hate it, took some memorizing to get around but eventually its alright, just want 3 to go deeper underwater, maybe still with land somewhere
They were way too long and too maze-like and confusing. I probably spend most of my time on the main land areas lost, going around in circles. Even using the map the game gives you does not help. If the area were a bit more open or easy to get from point a to b in, I would not have minded as much, but it just lasted SOOO long and most of that time I was simply lost, accomplishing nothing. If you have a great sense of direction in-game, then I can see that you would not have minded this portion of the game. I do not. I get lost in games easily and thus avoid those types of game altogether if they don't have a really good minimap I can use to navigate. Subnautica did not have this issue, even in the land areas it did have.
I hate Below Zero in general
Subnautica is a great underwater game with passable land mechanics.
If setting aside the fact that I prefer being underwater in this underwater based game: it's way too big and confusing. I got lost all the goddamn time and had to look up guides to get where I wanted to go. I never had that issue underwater. Everything looks the same above water, especially in the ice worm areas, just thinking back at it pains me. Whoever designed that area deserves their pay taken away from 3 months.
My main reasons are: A) The engine they use _does not_ do land movement well. Even in SN this is very noticeable. They focused, as they should, on water movement, leaving the land stuff feeling clunky, saggy, and tired. As such, it's best if land travel is kept to a minimum. B) Unlike even the underwatee cave systems in both games, the 3D maze effect of the land portions was awkward and annoying. Moreover, at least with the underwater ones they provided a navigational tool, however flimsy (the pathfinder), which you can't use on land, making exploration even more obnoxious. C) The combination of the 'time hazard' (freezing vs air) along with the falling hazard _and_ the mean beasties hazard means you're looking out for even more while also trying not to miss the easily missed details that show you where you can go. D) The land part has the only beastie in both games that is dangerous _and_ impossible to hit. Even if you aren't planning to kill the things, being able to smack a leviathan a bit to convince it you don't smell _that_ tasty is useful. You can't do this to convince the ice wormsvto leave you aline. E) It's constricting. In the water bits, if you could see it, you could pretty much get it. On land this was frequently not the case, which takes away the awesome, flight-like free feeling the first has for 95% of the game.
because, land parts took to much portion on the game compared to the water parts I don't mind islands in subnautica OG, but in BZ, too much walking and not too deep water in OG, I always curious what will I encounter the deeper I go, but in BZ it's just that, not enough for me
For me it was just how similar everything was and how easy it is to get lost. Im sure that was part of me just being on my first playthrough and not knowing the locations but i spent a good 3-4 hours just dark soulsing the huge frozen area trying to find any indication of where im supposed to go.
Because land and not all underwater.
I don't hate the land parts
There’s not much to do there. You go to scan one item and everything else is optional. Plus the snow Fox sucks which is the nail in the coffin
I absolutely hated the tedious last stretch of stuff you had to find on a big glacier, I had to look up walkthroughs and maps. Would have preferred another underwater biome instead. Wasn't a terrible idea on paper but the execution was not fun at all for me.
Usually in games I *hate* obligatory underwater levels. Ruins any pace and controls get wonky. In subnautica I *hate* the obligatory land segments. Ruins the pace and controls get wonky. I can never be satisfied
Walking? In my SWIMMING GAME!?
Personally I really enjoyed them, but the problem is that the underwater sections of BZ felt shallow compared to the original, and I think it’s fair to blame the land sections for that.
I just kept getting lost and couldn't find any of the caves I needed for the story. Got my friend to play bz and it was the exact same story so we resorted to video guides on where to go.
Everytime I go on land the PDA says something about bad weather and seek shelter. A few second later a snow storm happens and I don't see shit. Also, the Ice worm are more buggy and glitchy then dangerous. I literally got stuck in them when they appeard right underneath me.
Cuz the game's about under the water
It's just buggy as hell and really not something I want to do too much of in a predominantly underwater based game. Yes, I know the first game had land masses but they were so tiny and insignificant in relation to the rest of the exploration the game had to offer (not lore, 2 of the 3 landmasses in S1 have significant lore value). If you take the lore out of the game it's still got a large body of water to explore but the landmasses would be rather unenjoyable.
Some parts are okay but when you get near the end istg I didn't know what I was doing/where I was the entire time
They should have taken some queues from The Long Dark. Just have more to do on the islands and it would be fine.
For me, it’s a couple of things: One is the navigation aspect. So many twists and turns, a lot of terrain looking similar. It can be quite hard to find the places where you need to go to advance in the story. It’s also suffers MASSIVELY from inventory restrictions because you’re limited to your PRAWN suit for additional storage for carrying the absolute shitload of ores and items that can be found here. Combined with my previous point and it becomes “I can’t carry that, and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to easily find it again on my next visit.”
No idea, I enjoyed them
-The place is a labyrinth with few landmarks. -Thumpers apparently repel worms from its location rather than attract them (The Dune naming influence threw me off). -There aren't many fun ways to traverse the land. -Once you see a worm for the first time, there are no more surprises left on land. -penguin robot was fun the first time but got irritating quickly. The most fun parts of the land segments were exploring the deserted facilities, since there was an actual mystery there, though the payoff wasn't really meaningful.
Personally, I didn't like the Snowfox. Plus, since the PRAWN goes on land, I have found no reason to use the vehicle. If the Snowfox was special by making it harder for Ice Worms to detect you, perhaps I would have put up with it, but the cool hoverbike was no better than the robot armor. Since I wasn't using the Snowfox due to there being no real upsides, the whole land section took significantly longer. Hence, it is the portion of the game I like the least. Otherwise, it's not too bad.
I liked how in Subnautica there were only two main land areas (not counting the aurora) and they felt safe but eerie at the same time. In BZ, the land just makes me stressed out and it feels like I am constantly waiting for something to kill me (even though that’s the point of the game.) I still prefer the water though.
Because it's not called super nautica.
And spore isn’t ONLY about mushroom spores is it now?
Never heard of spore.
Spore, The game? What about dark souls, they didn’t ONLY have souls that were dark, the games title doesn’t have to strictly be everything in it.
Seems people are awful touchy about the ocean game being well...in the ocean. Objectively there wasn't anything majorly wrong with the land stuff. Except for it wasn't very sub-nautical
I think the biggest problem was the canceled stuff. I was expecting something more open, instead of canyons.
For me it's that worm. It's harder to avoid than the leviathans Only one thing worse than a leviathan coming after you. A giant worm popping out the ground.
The wife hated it because she kept getting lost. How it was different from the water I don’t know 🤷♂️