History VideoGame / Subnautica

* TrashOfTheTitans: [[spoiler:Marguerit Maida]]'s seabase is filthy -- the walls are coated in grime, detritus is haphazardly piled everywhere, and the kitchen is piled with weeks of dirty dishes, old food, and even a giant slab of unidentified raw meat.

A standalone expansion titled ''Subnautica: Below Zero'' was released to Platform/{{Steam}} Early Access on the 30th of January 2019, set in an icy region of 4546B. ''Below Zero'' was later fully released on May 14, 2021. A currently-untitled sequel was confirmed to be in production in April 2022, with a planned release year of 2025; as of yet, no other details have been revealed.

--> '''Paul Torgal:''' I turned 80 years old last week. I thought I had another 80 in me. But marrooned on this planet, there's no swapping out of my liver when the old one fails. Down here, I'm mortal.

--> '''Paul Torgal:''' I turned 80 years old last week. I thought I had another 80 in me yet. Stuck here, there's no swapping out my liver when the old one fails. Down here, I'm mortal.

* ItemFarming: Before you do any ItemCrafting, your fabricator must be supplied with the appropriate raw ingredients. Fortunately, you can find these in the ocean surrounding you, and certain materials are common to certain areas. You'll thus find yourself revisiting the same spots on a fairly regular basis to resupply. Unlike many games, hunting most creatures is not rewarded, because creatures only drop themselves and are only good for food, water, or Bioreactor fuel.

* StrongEnemiesLowRewards: It is possible to kill large creatures (including Leviathans). However you have almost no offensive weapons, so slaying one is [[DeathOfAThousandCuts difficult and tedious]]. And since none of them RandomlyDrops any resources, there is no reward for doing it.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: Implied. While humans are advanced enough to have trivialized manufacturing and engineering thanks to employing direct matter manipulation and have encompassed most of the galaxy, the technology of the Architects remains inscrutable enough that only the most obvious interfaces can be interacted with - the base materials used in construction are completely impervious to all available tools and have not yet been classified by human science, and the nature of their computer storage and energy manipulation systems remains completely unknown.

* ShipwreckStart: The game begins with the destruction and crash landing of the Starship Aurora, with the rest of the plot spent trying to escape the planet you've been stranded on.

''Subnautica'' is an open-world {{Science Fiction}} survival game developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, creators of the well-received ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' mod ''VideoGame/NaturalSelection'' and its sequel. Having spent almost four years in Early Access and with its V1.0 deadline pushed back five times [[note]]From September 2016 to January 2017, then to February 2017, then to May 2017, once more to September 2017, and finally to 2018[[/note]], the game has fully launched on PC as of January 23, 2018, receiving one stable update per month and regular small updates for people who played in experimental mode. The game is available for the PC, Xbox One, Mac, [=PS4=] and Nintendo Switch.

A sequel titled ''Subnautica: Below Zero'' was released to Steam Early Access on the 30th of January 2019, set in an icy region of 4546B. ''Below Zero'' was later fully released on May 14, 2021. A currently-untitled third installment was confirmed to be in production in April 2022, with a planned release year of 2025; as of yet, no other details have been revealed.

* MasterConsole: It is one of the few games to have console commands on the console versions. [[labelnote:Details]] L1+R1+X on [=PS4=], LB+RB+A on Xbox to open the console. Google will find you a list of commands.[[/labelnote]] Enjoy!

* AwesomeUnderwaterWorld

On the way, you will face various {{Primal Fear}}s: swimming through {{Creepy Cave}}s that are dark and twisted enough to get lost in, running AlmostOutOfOxygen and nearly drowning, getting dangerously close to hungry {{Sea Monster}}s, and more. The game leans heavily on SurvivalHorror tropes without quite fully crossing the boundary into the genre, which makes for a tense experience with bouts of both terror and wonder. In short, it is a plot-heavy survival crafting game with [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome added OMG]].

** The Nuclear Reactor is the most powerful reactor in the game, having both energy output and reserves four times greater than any other form of power generation; a single one can power virtually any activity by itself. It's also the most resource-intensive, requiring significant amounts of uranium and lead for the fuel rods that keep it running, as well as producing spent fuel rods as a byproduct, something no other generator does. If you're willing to build up a large stock of materials, you never need to worry about power, but the other generators either require no upkeep (solar, thermal) or merely a steady supply of fish from an Alien Containment (bioreactor). [[DownplayedTrope Subsequent patches]] significantly upped the total energy value of reactor rods to alleviate this problem, allowing a Nuclear Reactor to run at a full draw for five hours straight before it needs to be refilled, double the potential/fives time the speed of a Bioreactor. To put that in perspective, a single reactor rod has double the energy potential of a Bioreactor fully stocked with Oculus as fuel, and generates power five times as fast.

** Thermal Plants. The fragments needed to obtain their blueprints are difficult to find (most abandoned bases are nuclear-powered), they use rare components, and can only be built over high temperature sources, most of which generally aren't near where players would want to build bases. All that said, Thermal Plants have an advantage no other power source does: no upkeep. Once built, they provide a constant stream of energy that doesn't need to be refilled (Bioreactor, Nuclear Reactor), nor does it deactivate periodically like Solar Panels. If placed on a spot with a temperature greater than 60° C, they outperform everything but Nuclear Plants, and you can generally fit several in the same area to take advantage of the hot spot. In addition, the need to build your base near a high-temperature spot can easily be circumvented by building some Power Transmitters to link your thermal plants to your base. Three or four will generally power pretty much any activity you engage in, even high-intensity operations like water filtration.

* NotTheIntendedUse: The Picture Frame is meant for pictures taken in-game. However, since those pictures are stored in a folder, it is possible to take any image that you want, place it in the folder, and then have the game treat it as another in-game picture. This can be used for an extra level of base customization, but the most popular use is to upload a user-made map because the game has no mapping system of its own unless you use certain mods.

** Decompression sickness is not an issue in this game. Given that the protagonist can only stay underwater for 45 seconds at minimum (more with various oxygen tanks), it would be a little much to require you to wait any decent amount of time whenever you needed to ascend 30 meters. [[note]]You can toggle on decompression sickness by entering '[[spoiler:nitrogen]]', but that is through the command console.[[/note]] It is assumed that the hermetically-sealed All-Environment Protection (AEP) Suit compensates for this sudden pressure change, given how it's the first piece of equipment utilized in the event of a [[ExplosiveDecompression starship hull breach]].

** In real life, vehicle crush depth can't be improved by simply improving the technologies involved; that would require (at minimum) a redesign and strengthening of the hull, and same goes for installing torpedo tubes or miniature storage lockers. In-game, most (if not all) creation devices rearrange matter at the atomic level, and so all installed expansions simply provide their benefits via the same process.
** Light and colour don't travel very far through the water, with long wavelengths such as red are the first to be cancelled out. For gameplay purposes and a pretty game world, this is ignored.

** The Dunes biome is home to ''eight'' Reaper Leviathans, and entering it will prompt the PDA to sceptically ask you if what you're doing there is worth the risk.
** The Crash Zone will kill you in under a minute if you enter without a radiation suit [[spoiler:following the drive core of the ''Aurora'' exploding]] and is also stalked by ten Reaper Leviathans. Unlike most of the other deadly biomes, players can enter the Crash Zone very early in the game, forcing them to face Reaper Leviathans without the Seamoth's perimeter defences or PRAWN suit. Prepare to be EatenAlive...

A sequel titled ''Subnautica: Below Zero'' was released to Steam Early Access on the 30th of January 2019, set in an icy region of 4546B. ''Below Zero'' was later fully released on May 14, 2021. A currently-untitled third installment was confirmed to be in production in April 2022; as of November 2023, no other details have been revealed.

** The Bioreactor breaks down ''any'' organic matter as fuel. Including innocent creature eggs, if you wish.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: The Bioreactor breaks down ''any'' organic matter as fuel. Including innocent creature eggs, if you wish.

* TooDumbToLive: The Scottish-accented passenger who escaped on-board Lifepod 6 [[ApocalypticLog apparently]] blew herself, the head of human resources and the lifepod sky-high when she caught the fuel line with a lit flare.

''Subnautica'' is an open-world {{Science Fiction}} survival game developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, creators of the well-received ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' mod ''VideoGame/NaturalSelection'' and its sequel. Having spent almost four years in Early Access and with its V1.0 deadline pushed back five times [[note]]From September 2016 to January 2017, then to February 2017, then to May 2017, once more to September 2017, and finally to 2018[[/note]], the game has fully launched on PC as of January 23, 2018. It receives one stable update per month and regular small updates for people who play in experimental mode. The game is available for the PC, Xbox One, Mac, [=PS4=] and Nintendo Switch.

** Creative Mode: no hunger, thirst, oxygen or health meters so the player cannot die outside of specific bugged situations[[note]]if they're caught in a Cyclops explosion (only doable in Creative Mode via console commands), or stands beneath the elevator on the Neptune Escape Rocket[[/note]], vehicles and seabases don't require energy nor can they be damaged, and you don't need materials or blueprints to craft.

* FrigidWaterIsHarmless: The temperature of the seawater is very low, but (contrary to the game's title) not below zero. In the open air, you are at risk of freezing in minutes, but the easiest way to escape the danger is to hop in the ocean.
** Much of Sector Zero's ocean is about 1° C according to vehicle thermometers. This is low enough be dangerous to a RealLife diver, but maybe your All-Environment Protection Suit offers sufficient insulation. (Or maybe this is simply an AcceptableBreakFromReality.)

** Vehicle thermometers register sub-zero temperatures near brinicles. If you approach these [[InVehicleInvulnerability outside vehicles]], they harm you.
** This is a bit of [[TruthInTelevision truth in television]] since, while nothing limits how low temperatures can drop on dry land, you can be sure that saltwater will at worst be a couple of degrees under 0ºC (otherwise it wouldn't be water anymore). [[ViolationOfCommonSense Unintuitively]], if you're freezing because of -60ºC cold winds, jumping into freezing water will actually warm you up so, assuming your futuristic diving suit can provide enough insulation to survive frigid water, this is actually a case of UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay.

** Alterra found a Frozen Leviathan that [[spoiler:still has traces of the Kharaa Bacterium. They promptly decided to study and [[IdiotBall forcibly MUTATE the bacterium]] in hope of [[JustThinkOfThePotential gaining new medical breakthroughs from it]].]]

''VideoGame/SubnauticaReturnOfTheAncients tropes are not part of the official canon, and should be placed on its own tropes page for said game mod''

* EffortlessAchievement: The full release still has a few of these. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Getting your feet wet]] and consequently building your first base piece, which takes a little effort. You'll unlock achievements for building the three currently implemented vehicles and exploring story-required locales. [[spoiler: Though they seem to be bugged, building the escape rocket and launching the time capsule also are achievements. The Neptune is pretty resource heavy but the time capsule is literally a button press to launch, and usually launches automatically with the rocket's ignition.]]

* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Lethal firearms are forbidden from being created by the fabricator, mentioned from something about a [[NoodleIncident massacre on Obraxis Prime]]). You can arm some of your submersibles with torpedoes, but the only true handheld weapon is the non-lethal stasis rifle.[[note]]There is also the survival knife and the propulsion/repulsion cannons, but these are more tools than weapons.[[/note]]
** The only true firearm is [[spoiler:an alien rifle suspended in an impenetrable display case within the Quarantine Enforcement Platform.]]

** According to in-game temperature readings, harmless Thermal Vents can reach temperatures of almost 100° C, while volcanic vents can other spots that should seemingly be hotter may be as low as 50° C, with no seeming logic to the discrepancy. Since magma on Earth can be over a thousand degrees (hot enough to boil any water it touches), this is an AcceptableBreakFromReality.

** In ''Below Zero'', meanwhile, you have the Titan Holefish, a near-circular, flat fish with a giant hold in its middle that's ''large enough for the player to swim through!''

[[folder:All Games]]