Below Zero goes in hard on the narrative and it actually works rather well.
The original Subnautica set itself apart from the competition by not only having a (fairly competent) story but a definitive completion point, something many survival games avoid to ensure they rope players in for as long as possible. The most noticeable difference is the front-loaded narrative of Below Zero. In the process, it delivers a game that it’s as good if not slightly better than it’s predecessor while still occasionally suffering from some problems that should have been solved. So of course Subnautica: Below Zero, the standalone expansion to the original game, takes even that small sanctuary away from you. The only true place of safety was on the surface. While you could cruise around in a submarine, you know that there was something much bigger than you trawling through the depths for prey. The ocean, no matter how prepared you were, always felt like a treat. Back in 2018, when Subnautica first launched out of early access, I think what made it special was that the threshold of safety never arrived. There’s always a constant pressure to eat, hydrate, set up a shelter, or rest amongst myriad other factors that need to be accounted for, depending on the difficulty of the game. There’s a funny thing that happens while playing a survival game, and I believe this stands true for a variety of different sources: Every survival game starts off scary or at the very least tense.