Below the thunders of the upper deep, far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, its ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep Subnautica 2 sleepeth – but not for too much longer, as Unknown Worlds’ open world survival game is due to surface in early access form next year. In the wake of last night’s trailer, store pages have gone live on Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox, shedding a bit more light upon the aquatic monster’s nature and in particular, how it will evolve before the 1.0 release.
While nothing is guaranteed, Subnautica 2’s early access period should last until 2027 or 2028. “It is difficult to accurately predict how long Early Access will last,” reads a note on the Steam page. “Based on previous Early Access games we have developed, we expect it to take about 2 to 3 years.”
The early access version will launch with “a multiplayer mode, several biomes, some narrative, and a variety of creatures and craftables”. Over the course of the early access period, it’ll be updated with “more biomes, creatures, craftables, features, and narratives”. As with many early access games, the price will rise (“and on the surface die”, yes) when it leaves early access.
“It will be imperfect but we invite you to join us in developing a game that you are excited to play,” the devs go on. “Along the way, we will share our thoughts, our best guesses, and our inevitable mistakes. In return, we want to hear from you! You will get our full, undivided attention. Your feedback matters greatly to us and will determine the future of Subnautica 2.”
I wrote a Making-Of for the original Subnautica back in the day. One detail that has stayed with me from those interviews is that the game’s cherished ‘accidental horror game’ status took shape in response to Youtube playthroughs of early access builds, and specifically, shrieky reactions to the Reaper, a nightmare leviathan that loves to seize your Seamoth submarine in its pincers, forcing you to stare into its leering jaws while it thrashes around. The devs subsequently made alterations to dial up the terror, and credit this as a major reason for Subnautica’s success.
I wonder whether something similar will occur here. In particular, the line Unknown Worlds need to walk through early access is ensuring that the game’s multiplayer doesn’t mess with the singleplayer experience. I suspect there will be a few fan complaints which try to link problems with, say, the difficulty curve or the distribution of resources to the game being “secretly designed for multiplayer”.
The other obvious question is how much Unknown Worlds have learned from sumptuous expandalone Subnautica: Below Zero, which isn’t quite as loved, though Brendy deemed it “the perfect continuation of a series”. Speaking as an ardent thalassophobe, I trust Unknown Worlds to put the pieces together. But I’m also glad they’re giving themselves ample time in early access to figure it out.