For those who aren’t terrified of the open ocean, Subnautica is a game that skilfully encourages curiosity & exploration. Behind its well-paced survival crafter gameplay loop is a series of design choices that guide the player’s hand in discovering the story of Planet 4546B, whilst ensuring that this discovery feels natural & player-led.
Let’s explore a few of the systems that create this organic progression of the narrative:
The Scanners & Player Rewards
So satisfying!
This feature serves as the mechanical representation of the player’s growing knowledge of Planet 4546B. In practice, it enables a multitude of gameplay and narrative mechanics. When players scan new creatures, plants or technology, they receive scientific data and contextual information that builds the world’s lore. Often-times this piece of lore is accompanied by a blueprint or other piece of information that progresses the game forward.
This reward creates a natural motivation to explore – players want to scan everything not just for gameplay advantages, but because each scan potentially reveals new exciting story elements. It also absolutely triggers the primal urge to collect things.
Gotta-Scan-‘Em-All!
Audio Logs & Organic Discovery
Nothing like listening to your favourite podcast whilst stranded on an alien planet.
The game also uses audio logs and radio messages in a uniquely integrated way. Unlike many games where audio logs feel artificially placed, many of Subnautica’s messages come through your PDA specific depths or locations, or lifepod’s radio at after certain events. This creates a natural breadcrumb trail of story progression that feels organic to the survival situation. Each message potentially leads to a new location to explore, tying narrative progression directly to exploration.
This mechanic is also turned on its head with the addition of the telepathic Sea Emperor Leviathan, which turns what was a safe and reliable source of information into a mysterious open question. The player is used to hearing voices, but not living ones…
Depth, The Kharaa Infection, and Narrative Progression
The game uses depth as both a literal and metaphorical storytelling device. Players are drawn to new and more dangerous biomes for their resources, and as players develop better equipment and larger submarines to explore deeper, they uncover more significant story revelations.
The progression from the colourful Safe Shallows, to the dark and dangerous depths of the Bone Fields mirrors the story’s progression from simple underwater survival game to a quest to uncover ancient mysteries and cure a planet-wide infection.
Speaking of the infection: Further into the game the player will find that Ryley, the main character, will start developing green cysts on their hands. This is a cool but disturbing reality check that creates personal stakes in the game’s story. It’s not just the world that needs saving, but the player themselves!
Spooky, but mostly harmless for the player.
There is only one gameplay feature that changes based on how severe the player’s infection is. Warpers are artificial lifeforms created by the “Architects” to kill off Kharaa infected creatures. As the player’s infection progresses, the Warpers get more aggressive, increasing the challenge of exploring the biomes they live in.
Whilst putting a time-limit or some other lethal stakes on the player would disrupt the slower-paced exploration the game is known for, personally I feel like more could have been done to show the seriousness of the infection in gameplay terms.
For example: the player’s max HP could decrease unless they spend time with the “Hero” Peepers that are carrying the enzyme cure. Or perhaps they would have to be careful not to infect creatures they keep in the “Alien Containment” habitat structure.
Go Peeper Go!
Summary
At the core of Subnautica, the game is about having the player decide their own path through a beautifully foreign environment, stitching together an understanding of the world they landed on in their own order and at their own pace, guided by the gentle hand of resource placement, level design, and narrative incentives.
I’ll finish off by telling a story about one of my favourite examples of this type of environmental storytelling in Subnautica.
The Crater’s Edge.
Crater’s Edge
The player is likely wandering around in a P.R.A.W.N suit, exploring a biome located further away from home base than they ever have been before, when suddenly…
…
They are confronted with an endless nothing. A haunting vista of cold, open ocean.
“Well, I’ve jumped into caves before, there’s got to be something at the bottom!” The player says optimistically.
Jumping off the edge, the player falls, and falls, until the PDA kicks in with a cheery: “Warning. Entering ecological dead zone. Adding report to databank.”.
“Oh, that’s a shame, nothing here I guess.” says the player, slightly disappointed. Until they hear a guttural, echoing roar in the distance.
The player freezes in place, looking for the source of the sound. They can’t see much, only a small blue glow in the distance.
???
The PDA chimes in again: “Detecting multiple Leviathan class Lifeforms. Are you certain, whatever you are doing is worth it?”
Two blue glows, bigger… No…. CLOSER now.
The roar again, like a banshee shrieking through the water.
“They’re coming for me.” the player realises, their stomach dropping.
Scrambling back up the side of the Crater, panicked grapple-hook shots barely hitting their mark, the player makes it back to the edge they dropped off of, only to turn around and face:
!!!
The player sprints towards familiar ground, not daring to look behind until they reach a spot to hide. When they do, and they turn around, nothing is there.
Whatever was chasing you has retreated back into the void, leaving the player unharmed, this time.
Heart racing, adrenaline spiking. The player, just as they were starting to get comfortable exploring the lush biomes of the Crater, is once again thrown back into the reality of their situation on Planet 4546B.
That they are a tiny fish, in a gigantic alien pond.
And yet, a morbidly curious thought crosses the players mind:
“Could I have scanned it?”
As a designer, this is such a fantastic way to turn a technical limitation (the edge of the gameplay map) into a powerful and emotionally striking moment. It acts as a microcosm of the whole Subnautica gameplay loop of encountering and overcoming the unknown, but this time without a solution provided by the game. The player has reached the edge of the game world, but also Ryley & Alterra’s technological limit. Just like the rest of the game, it leaves the player with a niggling sensation of curiosity, and perhaps a healthy does of thalassophobia.
Leave a Reply