Recent reviews by Nitrate Dioxide

There's like five ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tracks in this game.

Oh, where to begin...

Subnautica is one of my most enjoyed games.
I've been playing since 2016 and completed it several times in that period. It's mostly what I want out of a singleplayer exploration game. A rich place full of things to explore, and an incredibly immersive experience.

As a player I adore the feeling of waltzing around and exploring new worlds.
Really playing the part of my character. And it helps if that world is interesting.
Which, to Below Zero's credit, it is.

The issue comes from the story.
I have no issues playing as a female character. Give them a voice, and as a guy I can just brute force them into a guy. Power of the mind and all that. It's when your story is so god awful, so unbelievably terrible, incredulously offensive. That my mind begins to slip.

Think to Subnautica, the original.
The story is told through the bare minimum needed.
Logs tell you something wrong has happened, each and every rescue pod, save yours. Has been destroyed, one of them mentions some unknown disease. Another tells you about an island. But very little more than that. Eventually you get the "Kill Transmission." You start seeing the warpers, hearing them, and you can put together the information yourself. It's very good at letting you both come to conclusions, and lead you in the direction it wants you to go.

Below Zero, treats you like a child who needs to be coddled.

And thanks to the story, you can no longer have the graceful simplicity of the first game. Now, there has to be a reason outside of "This may be my best chance for survival." Which means there needs to be a reason for me to care. I naturally cared in the original because I was a survivor looking for other people, a cure, and eventually a way off the planet.

Now? I'm some generically written woman, looking for her generically written sister, against the generically written evil corporation. I do not, and can not, care about anything that is going on. Since, I barely know anything about any of them. An issue, invited by the fact that there are characters now. I cared to visit the pinged locations because I knew it would help me survive. Now I'm trying to find my sister because I'm told I should care. though this isn't the biggest issue.

There was a point, where I'll admit, I said ♥♥♥♥ the story I'm doing my own thing.
And it was so egregiously stupid, so unerringly dumb, so offensive to my sensibilities as the player.
That I was inches away from choosing to simply drop the game entirely.

Maud, the Degassi survivor, is alive. Alive and has a polar bear as a pet now. Which, if you remember, means that she singlehandedly killed a leviathan by herself, managed to reach the top of the ocean, [/b[]

This terribly written story truly ruins the entire experience.
I can say, without a doubt. The charm that held the first game up is gone.
I respect the ambition, but perhaps what made the original so good. Was the lack of a traditional story.
At the very least, a better writer would have helped.

I cannot, recommend this as a Subnautica fan, off sale. On sale, yes, It's still good for a few hours.

No Levan Polka,

Game's kind of mid, honestly.

Edit; They patched out my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trainer, how am I supposed to cheat now?

This plays like a WC3 or SC custom map turned into a full game. Turns all my childhood dreams into a reality, it's great.

It's got all the staples of a Metal Gear game, hour long cutscenes, weird technology that doesn't really make sense, and an over the top plot. But it isn't a Metal Gear game.

It's good fun, honest but keep in mind that this game should *not* be considered as a Metal Gear game, but instead as a survival game in its own little sphere of existence. Personally I'd have put more time into it if I didn't spend my time staring at my backlog and then playing EUIV for the 800th hour instead of finishing anything.

Negative reviews are from one of two sides,

The good ones that bring about actual criticisms such as the lackluster campaign (I can't really say anything about that, I'm a terrible mapper who's still working on the one campaign they've had since launch.) Or balancing issues which do exist for a few characters, who because I'm a filthy casual haven't really seen.

The bad ones are from a recent scandal involving the head of chucklefish who's name I don't care to remember. Something along the lines of "He didn't pay us for our work." From what I've read there's as much evidence from both sides of the court. That being *none at all.* It's a case of he said she said, something I thought we learned from Projared to keep an unbiased opinion on...

Regardless of that (and feel free to tear me a new one for this comment because I'm autistic and can't write decent criticism on other people's comments.) From what I've played I generally enjoyed it, and if the main campaign isn't your style there are numerous amounts of player made missions and campaigns to play through. Or hell, maybe even make your own and actually release the damn thing!

All in all, if you see this read more comments. My opinion isn't worth much when there are many more eloquent people out there.