By Ethan Wasserman

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

I’m reporting about one of the newest games of 2018, “Subnautica.” Now, I LOVE this game. I’ve already beaten it twice (once with hacks and once without) so I definitely did my homework for this review.

“Subnautica” is a survival game, but it’s different then other survival games because it’s underwater, opening up a lot of new opportunities for gamers.

The game begins on a space exploration ship, the Aurora, when something happens and the ship almost explodes. You manage to escape but every other crew member on the now destroyed Aurora  dies on impact with an alien planet. After you crash land on an abandoned oceanic planet you start the game by learning to survive–eating fish, drinking water, avoiding radiation poisoning, and finding scrap metal and other materials that will help your odds of survival.

After crafting a submarine or two and making a base, you will probably find one of two things: either a precursor base or a Degasi survival base. The precursors were an ancient alien species that inhabited the planet you are stranded on. The reason that the precursors were there in the first place was because of a mysterious disease (which you later contract) called the Karar Virus and the precursors were trying to find a cure. The other thing you might find is a Degasi survival base. The Degasi was another ship that also crashed on this forsaken planet, but well…the crew all died.

After awhile it becomes apparent that there is a sentient presence hidden deep in the great blue sea of planet 4546B. The being has the cure that the precursors needed, so after a couple more painstaking hours finding this creature, you learn that it’s called the Emperor Leviathan. If you know the game, “Emperor Leviathan” is funny because the name leviathan typically means large deadly fish that kill submarines. Seriously these leviathans are huge! Anyway, this is a nice leviathan and it needs you to fertilize its eggs because it is going to die. When you fertilize its eggs it gives you the cure to the Karar disease.

But I need to go back a bit. Before all of this Emperor Leviathan stuff there was a ship called the Sunbeam that came to rescue you. When the Sunbeam entered the planet’s orbit a giant precursor gun called “The Quarantine Enforcement Platform” shot it out of the air with a laser beam. That’s when you put two and two together. That giant laser beam of death is what got you here in the first place!

If you are like me, you want to disable that stationary death star, so you go to the island that the gun is on, and go through a lot of doors using really rare things called tablets. Eventually you make your way to the disable button and yes you might be thinking, “What?? Super smart ancient aliens with the capability of making indestructible fortresses and other amazing things just have a large ‘DISABLE’ button?!?!”  Well no, when you try to disable it, it locks your hand in position and stabs you, and unless you’re cured of the Karar disease, it doesn’t work.

Another event that occurs is that you can explore the burning Aurora but you will need a couple of different passcodes to get into every room in the Aurora. You can find passcodes in some of the PDAs and messages that the Auroras crew members left behind. But once you get into the Aurora there’s a couple of different rooms you can go into, such as the PRAWN suit bay. PRAWN suits are a type of submersible that are also an exosuit that you can get but… back to what I was saying, there are many rooms such as the PRAWN docking bays, Sea Moth docking bays, the locker rooms, the loading dock and most importantly the crew’s quarters. In the last room of the crew’s quarters you have to unlock a door to the captain’s quarters.

After you do all of that and you find yourself in the captain’s quarters, you will then find something called “Neptune Rocket.” These are the blueprints to the vehicle you will use to escape. But before you can take off in your rocket, after you saved the legacy of the Emperor Leviathan, you will need to build the rocket and its five sections. First you have to make the platform because you can’t launch a rocket in the water. Then you will be able to make a gantry to get up to your rocket. After that you will make the rocket boosters. Then you will make the storage compartment area. Finally you will make the command bay. But don’t think that the Neptune Rocket is a cheap endeavor. Then you have to disarm the gun because well, trying to take off with that gun still active is about as useful as hitting your head against the wall. Trust me, that’s exactly what you will do when you take off and die from the gun. So you need to disarm the gun and THEN you can get off of that terrible fishy planet.

Based on my experience playing “Subnautica,” I would give it a 10 out of 10. It’s an amazing game and I hope all of you enjoy it too.