Gathering metals and minerals and other crafting materials in Subnautica 2 got me thinking about how weird it is that so many useful things exist in the real world. Like, isn't it odd that something as good as metal exists? And fiber! Where would we be without rope? Certainly not playing Subnautica 2 on a computer. If rope weren't possible, I can't imagine we'd have gotten anywhere as a species.
Half-baked thoughts that make me sound like a high creationist (I've only ever been one of those things, for the record) are to me a sign of a good survival game—or at least the kind that I like, in which I'm relaxed enough for my mind to wander, but entertained enough that it wanders to matters of material science and not, say, doing something else.
Subnautica 2 is a decidedly well-balanced survival game. In a handful of hours of pre-release play, I've never found the scavenging and crafting grueling, but neither have I found it so easy that the expansion of my underwater base feels unearned.
It's generous with intrinsic rewards, namely underwater caves to explore, glowing alien sea creatures to discove...
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