Maybe it’s just me, but I think it was a mistake to describe it as GaaS. I understand how they’re trying to use the term, but the fact they felt the need to clarify how they meant it should have been a clear enough sign the term is rather tainted.
Worse, it may make some people skeptical & suspect that they intend to change their tune down the line. Their track record notwithstanding, that’s how some may be after having been burnt before with other experiences.
Yeah, that was my immediate response seeing that term here.
Regular content updates aren’t GaaS any more than horse armor was an “expansion pack” for Oblivion.
Wait, what? The updates are paid, but not a subscription? I’m even more confused. Is that not just DLC?
Fucking hell
To be fair it looks like the publisher originally used the term and reading between the lines in this post, the devs seem like they are annoyed by it.
Thanks! I looked into it some more after commenting and noticed that as well.
It makes more sense given that context, and kind of a shame they didn’t find a way to provide that context without sounding like they were knocking their publisher. I suspect that’s why they went with this version of the post anyway.
I’m glad they stated no subscription but just the mention of “games as a service” makes me nauseous.
fuck every “game as a service”
it’s fucking bullshit and always sacrifices game elements
In reference to “Games-as-a-Service,” we simply plan to continually update the game for many years to come, just like the previous two Subnautica games. Think our Early Access update model, expanded. No season passes. No battle passes. No subscription.
Fuck the marketing term, in practice it can be great. Monster hunter world did it great, you got the base game that was a complete product, and then post-launch you got new monsters (like deviljho), new events with new weapons or armor, special hunts (like kulve taroth) or events that flood you with materials to catch up to the end game. And when that was over for the base game you got an expansion with another year of support.
I’m all for “gaas” like mhw got.
It gets thrown around a lot as a buzzword, but it really just means “intended to get post-release updates that go beyond bug fixes.” Nearly every game released these days, good or not, classifies as GaaS. It’s functionally meaningless.
Exactly this. It’s so expected these days that I think it’s a mistake to use the term, as you alluded. It does more harm than good I think.
Eh, some companies do it right. For example: Rock and Stone.
This article really confused me because I thought Below Zero was Subnautica 2, LOL.
I wonder if Youtube will be around long enough for kids born in the 2010s to make “retrospectives” on the Subnautica series and talk about how researching opinions on Subnuatica 2 are difficult because some people referred to Below Zero as #2
So… alway-on DRM and a ticking clock for when it becomes lost media?
Or they were forced to use whatever mouth noises appease the cult of MBAs.
Wow. Never played Subnautica but their website is gorgeous.
The original subnautica game is still gorgeous. I played it for the first time last summer and loved it, spent 80 hours to finish and don’t regret it for a sec, the atmosphere of that game is amazing. Just chilling in the “safe” sections is so relaxing after a long day of work as well
It’s my favorite game to watch other people play. I loved sitting with my flatmate, looking stuff up to help them progress while they did the stuff that would make my thalassophobic ass involuntarily quit
The first game is very good. Go into it as blind as possible and try not to look up a wiki on your first run.
The second game…I think if I was to compile a list of “Ten prettiest screenshots from the Subnautica series” Below Zero would be responsible for at least eight of them. They stepped up the world design a bit. Primary gameplay loop is very similar, the story is a bigger disappointment than me.
The gameplay got worse because they, instead of using their incredible swimming mechanic and undersea worldbuilding, added a ginourmous, empty, and boring bit of walking simulator. Those land areas are a nothing burger of plain white plane. Honestly the Walking in subnautica is pretty miserable but at least you dont notice it much in the bases and vehicles you build.
Given this comment thread started with someone who hasn’t played the first game, I’m just going to say THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS
Of the many things Below Zero does worse than the original, the overland sections are up there. The entire game is full of a lot of twisty turny self-similar maze-like environments, including the snow caves area. It doesn’t help that you can’t get a good look around because of all the weather effects. The way you get UP TO where you’re supposed to go isn’t easy to find. The large open area with the giant worm creature is, as you say, huge, devoid of anything interesting, and it’s full of that worm, which had better be unfinished. If that is what they meant to build…I don’t think I’m going to make any more purchases from this company. Same with the Snow Fox, which is the worst video game vehicle I’m aware of. Instead of a fast paced chase sequence where you look back over your shoulder at breakneck pace to dodge a giant monster chasing after you, instead you awkwardly bumble around an environment in a vehicle that feels broken and malfunctioning, unable to look around while moving or turning while stopped, and occasionally you find yourself standing next to your slightly damaged bike. It is. Utter. Assgarbage.
I also have some fairly unkind things to say about the overall story (which, they had a different story, they threw it out for a stupid reason and then janked out the retail story to fit the set pieces they had already built into the game), the monsters aren’t as imaginative and more annoying than scary, and there are some inexcusable guide dang it moments, like how are you supposed to know where to get the superultramega computer dingus components from the wrecked ship?
though again, I think if I were to choose 10 screenshots to hang in an art gallery from the Subnautica franchise, almost all of them would come from Below Zero. The original game looked very good, but suffers from pretty bad pop-in in the distance, which BZ mitigated by shortening the draw distance. I like both soundtracks for different reasons; Subnautica’s soundtrack is a series of cool songs, Below Zero’s soundtrack is much more atmospheric; I almost don’t process it as a series of songs, just how places in Sector Zero “feel.” It’s very well done.
For real, it feels like I’m back in a time where the internet was fun and websites were unique
I might have to buy Subnautica 2 just to show my support for this site
I thought you were exaggerating, but after checking it out, it really does feel like a mid-late 00’s website, and goddamn do I fucking miss it. Everything online these days is flat, overly-simplified, absolutely corporate and sanitized to fuck and back. I feel like, on an atomic level, I’m closer to a frown than a neutral expression when browsing most of the internet these days.
Also Subnautica itself fucking rules, good to see their website has just as much effort put into it.
I’m confused as to why every article about this is calling it Subnautica 2, like I know Below Zero wasn’t as good as the original but this will be the 3rd game in the series.
Anyway, glad co-op will be a thing, tried the multiplayer mod just before the 2.0 release and whilst buggy it was really fun, looking forward to them releasing the new version which looking at their GitHub, seems to be getting closer
Below Zero was originally planned as an Addon, so not Subnautica 2 but more Subnautica 1.5
Subnautica ei*pi
Two is not below zero. That’s just science.
Below Zero is effectively an expandalone for Subnautica 1.
Because game studios like to number only the main entries of a series? Otherwise the last GTA wouldnt have been GTA:V but GTA:XV
Below Zero was just as good as the first game. It was just different and people didn’t like it.
Just call it “paid updates.”
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to the optional co-op mode. It made Raft a whole lot more fun, and adding it to Subnautica would be great.
to me this reads more like damage control. maybe it’s just my bias from enjoying the franchise a lot, but the fact that unknown worlds is clarifying a statement made by their publisher with this language in it just smells like the publisher had no clue what was actually going on and wanted to leak something that “looked good” (from a business not consumer perspective)
“If you puke in that Seamoth, GaaS will start flowing into the cockpit”
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Really hope the coop isn’t a lie this time too.
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