I just found this forum and on the top I see this thread, perfect:
I'm really trying not to play many games right now, but gave Subnautica a shot last week after going through my untouched Steam games. I played right into the Silent Running update that released just about an hour before I got the Cyclops.
I had to stop myself from playing (and do more work) after accumulating 37 hours in just a couple days. The games atmosphere is crazy and I wasn't surprised once I noticed Unknown Worls was the developer. I've clocked 175 hours in NS2. Also, the sound effects when you're finished repairing the stuff in your crashed capsule are definetly a remix from NS2 when a room is supplied with power ;).
I love the approach that Subnautica takes towards progression. While in most games progression happens through accumulating experience or is in another form randomized (I'm looking at most survival games here, the same genre. Tho a lot of games rely on progression not tied to the world, but to an action. Do/Kill stuff = experience), in Subnautica the player has to go out of their way and actual feel like a survivor. Maybe I've overlooked games that do this in the last months/years, but it stood out to me. The progression is tied to the story in a non-linear way, tho the player is getting lured to important places by adding the distress signals and other story parts. Therefore he has the choice to follow the guides or roam free. The distress signals also hint towards new technologies. No matter which way you "choose", the design of the environment, its inhabitants and actor placement makes it very fast very clear that to progress you need to engage in this world. Staying on the surface won't make for a great experience, since you will miss out on all the technology. At times this game felt like a horror game (and still does), when you dive into the depths without knowing what you might find that could potentially end you. As with all games over time this feeling will fade and faded for me too, when I started mapping out the world in my head, knew that a Stalker wasn't really a danger and that a Repulsion Cannon in my inventory will downgrade Mesmers to mere nuisances (The Leviathan will never get not scary I guess..). But because the game strikes a great balance between safety and uncertainty (and I'm far from having seen everything) and plays in 3D "space" that lets you go in all directions with different biomes and surprises, it feels for a very long time like a tense and fresh experience to leave your home base (if you've built one, I probably should build rather multiple smaller ones).
Surely not everybody has the same experience, but for me it was outstanding. I shouldn't forget to mention again that the atmosphere is amazing, the world feels alive and sounds amazing. I didn't think the difference between seeing a video and playing yourself would be that big. But it is. Hat off to the team for such a great game and also for the publicly availalbe Trello that gives great insight in the development process.
Also I want to add that having played both I don't know how one could compare NS2 and Subnautica. I mean, you can compare everything when it comes to it. But NS2 being a pure multiplayer game and Subnautica being a pure singleplayer game, and both being in different genres one surely can like one or the other more, but I don't think you could say that one is "greater" than the other.