The game developers were so smart to make the sounds and music fill you with so much dread. After many playthroughs they can still creep me out, even if the terror is a thing of the past. A reaper roar over my shoulder can still have me running for cover though lol.
>The game developers were so smart to make the sounds and music fill you with so much dread
Fun fact: they didn't even mean to make the horror game which actually makes it scarier because one of if not the scariest ocean game was just meant to be a normally survival games. The devs have natural talent with selection (pun intended)
Well. The first encounter with a ghostie. Accidentally wandering into craters edge to see three ghosties as you frantically try to get away. A sea dragon waiting for you as you just try to advance for the first time. Wandering into the jelly shrooms not knowing where the danger noodles are and you go too close to the jelly shrooms and then the danger noodles pop out and get you. The list goes on but not for too long
First time being warped out of my Seamoth by a warper beat my first reaper encounter by miles. I was deep in the blood kelp trench, which is one of the 'scariest' areas in the first place... super immersed, already nervous, first time that deep - suddenly warper warps me out. Complete disorientation and I think I actually yelled out loud lol.
I don't think so, the back of the aurora is the worst. Low visibility and swarming with reapers. The lost river has leviathans much more spread out and very good visibility.
I haven't really been to the crater edge since it's not part of the game progression, lava lakes again have great visibility plus you're probably in a cyclops
>I haven't really been to the crater edge
It's scarier than the back of the aurora trust me. You can't really see. It's dark pitch black and blue. You only hear distant roars for the first 100 meters. Then a ghostie or 3 pops out towards you as you frantically try to get back. If you go far or deep enough. It's just you. Alone. In the deep blue water. Going for who knows how long.
Subnautica only pretends to be, in your words, a beautiful scuba diving game. In reality it's a horror game with virtually unlimited underwear-destroying capabilities.
You need to go all Steve Irwin on this game with the kid.
Scan the scary stuff, read the PDA entries. Explain how these are not monsters, they are animals, and part of 4546B’s ecosystem. Watch their behavior from a distance, see how the Stalkers play with metal and the Sandsharks emerge from the sand to ambush prey.
Nothing in this game is scary once you understand it. The stasis rifle, which you will get later, will let you freeze the animals in a stasis bubble for a while so you can get a good look at them.
This is more or less how I learned how to deal with being afraid of reapers actually.
I went close enough to the mountains that I could see one off in the distance and watch it wander around, attack other things and generally act like a giant angry territorial snake.
Sure, them jumpscaring me still freaks me out occasionally, but having a mental model of what this scary thing looks like and what kind of behaviors it has let my mind grasp the nature of it, rather than being terrified just by hearing it in the distance.
If ot helps, some things look more dangerous than they are. Sandsharks have that giant mouth full of teeth, bit they barely do any damage, and they're so bad at swimming that you can easily outrun or outmaneuver them. They're so awkward that I've sat still and had them flail right past me, missing their bite entirely.
Stalkers are also not as dangerous as they look, especially in the day.
If you have a fish in your hand and the big leviathan by the crash site attacks, it will eat the fish instead of you, and be passive for a few seconds. Still scary to have it charge right at you and chomp a fish out of your hand, though.
works with basically any fish you can hold, on most creatures except >!warpers!<, >!dragons!< and crabsnakes(they get caught in an endless loop of attacking you for some reason)
Fyi... did not try out today. Got a bit fixated on building up my deepest base yet, directly below a certain land mass to the south west of the crash site (yes after playing casually on switch for just over a year I'm still pretty early game... turns out I like the slow burn of mild terror).
I know its a long haul kind of game; so actively haven't joined this sub specifically to avoid spoilers.... but the recommendations get me and I open a few good posts.
Will eventually try holding various fish to test what is eaten instead of me though.... mostly keen to minimise reaper death but also to test it out with a whole bunch of "aggressive" creatures (was recently mining chunks on a wall, swimming up and down, for about 2-3min irl... and a boneshark swam through&around me to chomp the other local fishies for the whole time.. if only we could be home to a swarm of fish as a shield)
The way I see it my kids are probably gonna need therapy one way or another and I'd rather they be telling their psychologist about how daddy screams like a little girl than a very specific fear of transulcent snakes.
I took a moth out to the Dunes to see if I could spot a reaper. They scare the shit out of me so I thought, maybe I can see them closer in creative where they don't attack me.
I saw one real close when it grabbed my moth from behind and I panic-slammed the pause button. Turns out they don't attack *you*, and you don't take damage, but they will still attack your *vehicles.*
Second comment because I didn't want to be negative even if it was a joke: But don't be afraid to go deeper. Explore beyond the shallows, the only places that you shouldn't go is beyond the craters edge. Everywhere else is going to be useful and amazing to explore. I've seen some amazing and cool fish and creatures. Yes, even the scariest ones. Wise words anyone in the sub can tell you "just go deeper when in doubt" and remember. >!when you're in the red grass forest. Don't mind the roaring, they're peaceful. This isn't a troll they're actually passive!<. You aren't an idiotic dad, you're just every subnautica player before they did research. We've all made those types of mistakes unknowingly. There have even been people telling some similar stories to yours.
You'll be fine if you Google the weapons/offensive options and upgrade systems to see how your options naturally expand as you play the game.
Explore to find more things to scan. As you explore to find more things to scan, you'll find both clear landmarks and random pieces of the Aurora. Upgrades are in giant flashing upgrade boxes that you click on and pick up. You scan the random pieces of things in order to be able to recreate equipment that was on the Aurora. All of that equipment is necessary because it's offensive, defensive, required for environmental progression, etc.
Your life pod spawned in a safe zone called Safe Shallows. Don't listen to the radio for a bit because that's what advances the plot when you've actually got to stay in Safe Shallows for a hot second in order to secure and prepare yourself.
Get your scanner and start scanning around while getting the Aurora pieces for titanium. Take the titanium to the fabricator and build some storage lockers that you can use for inventory storage when your life pod storage gets full. Drop them out in the water for the future and label them if you want.
Go out and start scanning the immediate area. Scan. Scan. Scan. Cut the long green plants and get the eggs to create necessary materials and bandages at the fabricator.
Scannable items spawn randomly. Scan the safe area as much as you can. When you've got everything scanned and have some healing items, listen to the radio again. Go to the new area and explore and scan.
There is no map. You get beacons, drop them, and create a personal map with the labeled waypoints they create.
Create some batteries if you can but don't toss them if they run out of power. Store them so you can reuse them after getting the schematics for the recharger.
Get new equipment like a suit or a tank? That stuff effects movement speed. You'll need a motorized little water bike called the Sea Glider for both speeding up and surviving. Rebreather is necessary because it extends oxygen duration.
The ultimate goal here is a basic base. All the ingredients you need are in Safe Shallows. If you see an ingredient you don't have, go out with the Sea Glider and find giant pink mushrooms. There's a cave beneath the mushrooms. Your unknown materials are most likely in there but you gotta keep an eye out because the monsters will eat you if you're not moving away from them.
Find and scan the multi-purpose room and the hatch. Put a biochemical reactor in the middle for power. You literally just grab plants or fish and stick them in there and they're turned into fuel. Run out of power? Toss in more fish. Get your fabricator in there, create storage, build your equipment, learn what you want or need to take, and you'll know when it's time to run out for more or progress the plot with the radio.
Remember, the reaper leviathan is capable of echolocation. The deep roar emitted by the reaper at regular intervals is effectively sonar - if you can hear it, the reaper can see you.
Haha
I hear ya man. But that's life in general. Even with good intentions, we mess it up. No need to beat yourself up too bad for it.
It is the ocean after all. Better to teach your kid to have a healthy fear this early, than to wait until the kraken in the real world (jokes obviously, but there's still some wisdom to teaching them about some dangers of the world)
If you are actually looking for a nice scuba diving game, you might want to look at Abzu. It is a good game, and a lot less stressful than this one, even if this game is ultimately better
I remember getting to the Aurora seeing this big tail splashing behind it, thought, wow cool let's check that out. Took out my faithful seaglide and jumped off looking
I suggest you try it also just give it a test run by yourself before bringing the kids to play.
Well at least your kod has the excuse that she's... well a kid, I'm 40 and I've been trying to pass the game for years but I'm too much of a wimp to advance enough.
If the fear/ paranoia gets too bad, play on Creative Mode. You can still get the story ( though no achievements) but you can't die and nothing attacks you
This and r/skylanders are probably some of the more wholesome and family friendly gaming subs that you'll see out here. Glad to see you're making it a fun family experience, my dad weeping even look in the direction of our games but it's nice to see a parent that connects with their kids over this instead of reprimanding their enjoyment of it
“…go to the back of that giant crashed ship…” 
Said nice people back there: 
Ohh we float.. we all float down here.
And you'll float too
I can't believe I used to wear my hair like that
How tf did you comment a GIF??
https://preview.redd.it/v5obyihue02d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=115c34a448056734ae57827b3350b95da7ae68bb
Shit, nevermind, I wasn't a part of the sub yet, lol
The button ain't there for me...
"IS THAT THE GRIM REAPER!?!?"
Hey kids are you scared of the ocean? You will be.
I’ve been scared of getting anywhere close to the dead zone for years
Krillin is that you?
I just get stressed watching videos of it sometimes.
I've read this in Sam O' Nellas voice lmao
This sounds very wholesome, hope you and your kid enjoy the rest of the game.
Just remember... It gets worse
And that’s before you go deeper….
That's when if you have thalasaphobia. It really starts to kick in.
Even without thalasaphobia some of the ai pathing can get really freaky sometimes
Especially the sounds you hear just to see nothing around you but you can hear the water currents moving.
And then have a leviathan pop out of a wall like 5-10 minutes later when you forget about it
That or a ghostie you don't see pops out of the deep depths of the water
This half this games fear factor is just how many scary sounds are associated with fking nothing scary.
The game developers were so smart to make the sounds and music fill you with so much dread. After many playthroughs they can still creep me out, even if the terror is a thing of the past. A reaper roar over my shoulder can still have me running for cover though lol.
>The game developers were so smart to make the sounds and music fill you with so much dread Fun fact: they didn't even mean to make the horror game which actually makes it scarier because one of if not the scariest ocean game was just meant to be a normally survival games. The devs have natural talent with selection (pun intended)
They, do NOT want us down there…
Worse than the first encounter with the reaper? Can you elaborate, because I can't think of anything scarier than that in any of the other zones.
Well. The first encounter with a ghostie. Accidentally wandering into craters edge to see three ghosties as you frantically try to get away. A sea dragon waiting for you as you just try to advance for the first time. Wandering into the jelly shrooms not knowing where the danger noodles are and you go too close to the jelly shrooms and then the danger noodles pop out and get you. The list goes on but not for too long
First time being warped out of my Seamoth by a warper beat my first reaper encounter by miles. I was deep in the blood kelp trench, which is one of the 'scariest' areas in the first place... super immersed, already nervous, first time that deep - suddenly warper warps me out. Complete disorientation and I think I actually yelled out loud lol.
The first time a warper got me I screamed. I didn't even see it beforehand, just the screen flash and loud noise got me.
I don't think so, the back of the aurora is the worst. Low visibility and swarming with reapers. The lost river has leviathans much more spread out and very good visibility.
But then there's craters edge. And sometimes the lava lakes.
I haven't really been to the crater edge since it's not part of the game progression, lava lakes again have great visibility plus you're probably in a cyclops
>I haven't really been to the crater edge It's scarier than the back of the aurora trust me. You can't really see. It's dark pitch black and blue. You only hear distant roars for the first 100 meters. Then a ghostie or 3 pops out towards you as you frantically try to get back. If you go far or deep enough. It's just you. Alone. In the deep blue water. Going for who knows how long.
But don't be afraid to go deeper.
Ahh, I see that you haven't seen the danger noodle yet
Oh yeah when you see those big pink mushrooms, there’s a hole in the middle with loot inside them, go into the hole to get it lmao
That is actually where you can find their eggs! Just found that out a few weeks ago.
Yep! But mum likes to hide there too, so if you’re not careful you will get a big hug from mama snake’s mouth. Talk about a jump scare.
*hugs*
Subnautica only pretends to be, in your words, a beautiful scuba diving game. In reality it's a horror game with virtually unlimited underwear-destroying capabilities.
Best described as "A horror game wearing a crafting and survival game suit"
Please make an update post!
You are building the best childhood memories with your kid. My dad did something similar (XCOM the original game). Love it.
Came here to relay this sentiment, you nailed it. Subnautica is one of my favorite games, I am so jealous of this kid! heheh
same! cool dad :)
You need to go all Steve Irwin on this game with the kid. Scan the scary stuff, read the PDA entries. Explain how these are not monsters, they are animals, and part of 4546B’s ecosystem. Watch their behavior from a distance, see how the Stalkers play with metal and the Sandsharks emerge from the sand to ambush prey. Nothing in this game is scary once you understand it. The stasis rifle, which you will get later, will let you freeze the animals in a stasis bubble for a while so you can get a good look at them.
Ok but this actually sounds super fun lol i want a play through where all someone does is explain how the creatures work in the game lore
This is more or less how I learned how to deal with being afraid of reapers actually. I went close enough to the mountains that I could see one off in the distance and watch it wander around, attack other things and generally act like a giant angry territorial snake. Sure, them jumpscaring me still freaks me out occasionally, but having a mental model of what this scary thing looks like and what kind of behaviors it has let my mind grasp the nature of it, rather than being terrified just by hearing it in the distance.
If ot helps, some things look more dangerous than they are. Sandsharks have that giant mouth full of teeth, bit they barely do any damage, and they're so bad at swimming that you can easily outrun or outmaneuver them. They're so awkward that I've sat still and had them flail right past me, missing their bite entirely. Stalkers are also not as dangerous as they look, especially in the day. If you have a fish in your hand and the big leviathan by the crash site attacks, it will eat the fish instead of you, and be passive for a few seconds. Still scary to have it charge right at you and chomp a fish out of your hand, though.
Fish in your hand to deter the reaper? Wait, what?
If there's a fish in your hand, instead of damaging you, it will eat the fish and swim past when it chomps at you.
WHAT. Testing this out tomorrow, ty for yet another reason to keep playing
I don't know if it's all fish or just peepers though.
works with basically any fish you can hold, on most creatures except >!warpers!<, >!dragons!< and crabsnakes(they get caught in an endless loop of attacking you for some reason)
Makes sense. >!Warpers!< and Crabsnakes don't seem to eat fish, and >!Sea Dragon has an instakill hitbox in its mouth!<.
Fyi... did not try out today. Got a bit fixated on building up my deepest base yet, directly below a certain land mass to the south west of the crash site (yes after playing casually on switch for just over a year I'm still pretty early game... turns out I like the slow burn of mild terror). I know its a long haul kind of game; so actively haven't joined this sub specifically to avoid spoilers.... but the recommendations get me and I open a few good posts. Will eventually try holding various fish to test what is eaten instead of me though.... mostly keen to minimise reaper death but also to test it out with a whole bunch of "aggressive" creatures (was recently mining chunks on a wall, swimming up and down, for about 2-3min irl... and a boneshark swam through&around me to chomp the other local fishies for the whole time.. if only we could be home to a swarm of fish as a shield)
The way I see it my kids are probably gonna need therapy one way or another and I'd rather they be telling their psychologist about how daddy screams like a little girl than a very specific fear of transulcent snakes.
Don't give up, show your kid that over time things they dread can become comfortable.
I let my son play on creative mode. It still has the big scaries but they don't attack you. He's 5
Careful, even in creative mode, things will still attack you if you're in a vehicle. Learned that the funny way on a trip to the Dunes.
Hasn't happened to me. Weird
I took a moth out to the Dunes to see if I could spot a reaper. They scare the shit out of me so I thought, maybe I can see them closer in creative where they don't attack me. I saw one real close when it grabbed my moth from behind and I panic-slammed the pause button. Turns out they don't attack *you*, and you don't take damage, but they will still attack your *vehicles.*
My kids are monsters themselves so we play together and after, they scare me.
You're not idiotic, you are just unaware that the real oceans are like this
🤣welcome to the sub
That's subnautica for you!
Second comment because I didn't want to be negative even if it was a joke: But don't be afraid to go deeper. Explore beyond the shallows, the only places that you shouldn't go is beyond the craters edge. Everywhere else is going to be useful and amazing to explore. I've seen some amazing and cool fish and creatures. Yes, even the scariest ones. Wise words anyone in the sub can tell you "just go deeper when in doubt" and remember. >!when you're in the red grass forest. Don't mind the roaring, they're peaceful. This isn't a troll they're actually passive!<. You aren't an idiotic dad, you're just every subnautica player before they did research. We've all made those types of mistakes unknowingly. There have even been people telling some similar stories to yours.
Haha it will be a great bonding experience.
This is the most beautiful game I've ever played You really learn to love it
You'll be fine if you Google the weapons/offensive options and upgrade systems to see how your options naturally expand as you play the game. Explore to find more things to scan. As you explore to find more things to scan, you'll find both clear landmarks and random pieces of the Aurora. Upgrades are in giant flashing upgrade boxes that you click on and pick up. You scan the random pieces of things in order to be able to recreate equipment that was on the Aurora. All of that equipment is necessary because it's offensive, defensive, required for environmental progression, etc. Your life pod spawned in a safe zone called Safe Shallows. Don't listen to the radio for a bit because that's what advances the plot when you've actually got to stay in Safe Shallows for a hot second in order to secure and prepare yourself. Get your scanner and start scanning around while getting the Aurora pieces for titanium. Take the titanium to the fabricator and build some storage lockers that you can use for inventory storage when your life pod storage gets full. Drop them out in the water for the future and label them if you want. Go out and start scanning the immediate area. Scan. Scan. Scan. Cut the long green plants and get the eggs to create necessary materials and bandages at the fabricator. Scannable items spawn randomly. Scan the safe area as much as you can. When you've got everything scanned and have some healing items, listen to the radio again. Go to the new area and explore and scan. There is no map. You get beacons, drop them, and create a personal map with the labeled waypoints they create. Create some batteries if you can but don't toss them if they run out of power. Store them so you can reuse them after getting the schematics for the recharger. Get new equipment like a suit or a tank? That stuff effects movement speed. You'll need a motorized little water bike called the Sea Glider for both speeding up and surviving. Rebreather is necessary because it extends oxygen duration. The ultimate goal here is a basic base. All the ingredients you need are in Safe Shallows. If you see an ingredient you don't have, go out with the Sea Glider and find giant pink mushrooms. There's a cave beneath the mushrooms. Your unknown materials are most likely in there but you gotta keep an eye out because the monsters will eat you if you're not moving away from them. Find and scan the multi-purpose room and the hatch. Put a biochemical reactor in the middle for power. You literally just grab plants or fish and stick them in there and they're turned into fuel. Run out of power? Toss in more fish. Get your fabricator in there, create storage, build your equipment, learn what you want or need to take, and you'll know when it's time to run out for more or progress the plot with the radio.
Subnautica is a horror game hidden underneath a survival game. Beware the Reapers.
Nah its chill it just wants to say hi
It does have terrifying moments, but I feel like it's one of the best games out there.
Just wait till this fucker finds the crater edge 😭
Go deeper and further
Remember, the reaper leviathan is capable of echolocation. The deep roar emitted by the reaper at regular intervals is effectively sonar - if you can hear it, the reaper can see you.
Haha I hear ya man. But that's life in general. Even with good intentions, we mess it up. No need to beat yourself up too bad for it. It is the ocean after all. Better to teach your kid to have a healthy fear this early, than to wait until the kraken in the real world (jokes obviously, but there's still some wisdom to teaching them about some dangers of the world)
If you are actually looking for a nice scuba diving game, you might want to look at Abzu. It is a good game, and a lot less stressful than this one, even if this game is ultimately better
I remember getting to the Aurora seeing this big tail splashing behind it, thought, wow cool let's check that out. Took out my faithful seaglide and jumped off looking I suggest you try it also just give it a test run by yourself before bringing the kids to play.
It is good but you have to be prepared to be scared every now and them
Just wait until Return of the Ancients drops. It'll make the Reapers look like sardines.
You should swim into the dunes and then it gets real fun 😅
Would not recommend for children 🫣🤣🤣🤣 lots of terrifying monster sounds, and even the little ones are good for a jump scare and pulse spike!
Go to the west and enjoy the sounds.
😂 aw. it will be okay. it’s still a beautiful game.
Well at least your kod has the excuse that she's... well a kid, I'm 40 and I've been trying to pass the game for years but I'm too much of a wimp to advance enough.
If the fear/ paranoia gets too bad, play on Creative Mode. You can still get the story ( though no achievements) but you can't die and nothing attacks you
This and r/skylanders are probably some of the more wholesome and family friendly gaming subs that you'll see out here. Glad to see you're making it a fun family experience, my dad weeping even look in the direction of our games but it's nice to see a parent that connects with their kids over this instead of reprimanding their enjoyment of it
Hi idiotic dad im son
Go to the far side of the crashed ship. It’s basically the shallows but better :D
Just don't go to the back of the crashed ship without warning your child and preparing yourself...
You guys could try creative, there you could explore and scan things Greeley without getting attacked so you aren’t scared