Subnautica, to make use of someone else's reductivity, is basically underwater Minecraft, but even though it's still an Early Access game, Ian liked it quite a bit in his preview. And he (and we) will probably like it even more now that the Habitat update is out, because now players can actually build a base on the bottom of the sea, complete with large rooms, panoramic observatories, and even a moon pool. 

A moon pool!

Alas, that isn't quite as cool as I first thought it would be. As Wikipedia explains, moon pools are openings in the floors of marine vessels or underwater installations that provide access to the water in a calm and protected environment. In the case of Subnautica, the moon pool serves as a dry-dock for the Seamoth submersible—practical, but still something of a letdown.

The moon pool, glass-bubble observatories, and generic "large compartments" can be strung together with standard and glass corridors as well as vertical connectors, giving completed bases a look that falls somewhere between BioShock and Habitrail. Compartments have eight attachment points for connecting corridors, dive hatches, windows, and other base modules, and can also be customized (a little bit) with wall-mounted lockers, signs, and even an aquarium.

The update also brings with it a new Biome at the 200-450 meter depth, which includes unidentified flora, resources, and danger. Details on all of it, plus a cool little interactive demonstration of how habitat flooding works, are on the Subnautica Habitat Update page.

Hugh Jeremy works at Unknown Worlds—best known for Natural Selection 2, Future Perfect, and Subnautica—and he's got a rig cholk-full of water cooling. As Hugh explains below, the components of this powerful PC were originally in a case he custom built, which is unfortunately not very portable. Hugh was kind enough to show us his impressive setup and tell us about some of his favorite parts of PC gaming. 

What's in your PC?

• Intel i7-5820k @ 4Ghz
• 32GB of DDR4 RAM
• GTX 980
• 6Tb spinning disk storage
• 1Tb solid state storage
• EK CPU block
• Swiftech 320mm radiator
• EK 5.25in bay reservoir
• Laing D5 w/ EK top
• Laing DDC w/ EK top
• X99 board
• AX1200i PSU
• 4-bank fan controller
• About 1.5 litres of water

All of that feeds an Asus 2560 x 1440 screen at the magical 144hz.

There's also a Razer Blade & Macbook Pro 13 sitting here. I'm in the process of transferring from the former to the latter. Blasphemy, I know. From a parts perspective the i7 5557U in the Macbook is a really interesting little package. It's also pulling 1.1Gb/s read/write off the SSD, so credit to Apple where it's due.

What's the most interesting/unique part of your setup?

This machine is a bit weird, because it's derived from parts transferred from a custom water-cooling focused case I built out of aluminium and tears. At Unknown Worlds, we have a lot of freedom to work wherever we want on the planet. I was using my custom case in the San Francisco office, but at the moment I am working in Australia. I couldn't transfer the rig across the Pacific, disassembling it takes days, reassembling it takes days. So for now many of the parts live on in this Corsair case until I've got the guts to break out the power tools again and give them a proper home. The itch is growing.

What's always within arm's reach on your desk?

At the moment Statistical Analysis by Ya-lun Chou. It's not as boring as it sounds. Crunching data can help make better development decisions, and better games. For example, at Unknown Worlds we collect vast amounts of anonymous data about Subnautica's performance in the wild. From that data, we can work out what we're doing badly. For example, we were able to precisely measure out-of-memory crash prevalence, see that it was affecting large number of players, and devote the resources necessary to remedy it. 

Recently we worked out that 20%+ of Subnautica customers were trying to play with GPUs below min-spec, so now we're doing a better job of communicating min-spec, and assisting customers who don't meet it by providing information about GPU upgrades and so on. Chou makes sure I don't spout statistical lies.

What are you playing right now?

My Steam favourites list currently features Future Perfect, DayZ, Kerbal Space Program, Maia, Natural Selection 2, and Subnautica. A lot of these games aren't finished, or were available initially in a very unfinished state. I think this is one of the most exciting parts of PC gaming. We can be part of and influence the creative process.

What's your favorite game and why?

Right now, my favourite game is  Future Perfect. It's another Unknown Worlds game. I'm not trying to plug it though, I'm being genuine. I don't get time to play it much, and it's at a very early stage. But there is just so much potential. It neatly captures the strengths of PC gaming—access to unfinished games, iteration on those games, modding, openness.

I ve crashlanded in an alien ocean, the sole survivor of a terraforming mission. My life pod floats, luckily, and comes equipped with a high-tech 3D printer and a storage locker. For me to survive, I ve got to pillage the bounties of the ocean floor while trying not to starve to death or get eaten myself.

Subnautica is… well. I could dance around a bit, but it s underwater Minecraft. Reductivity is frequently not a virtue, and describing one game in terms of a recent mega-success always feels a little icky. Like when every startup company describes themselves as Uber for [other thing]. Even so, Subnautica, developed by Natural Selection 2 devs Unknown Worlds, features crafting, digging, monsters, hunger and thirst, exploration, procedurally generated vistas, and dangerous creatures that come out at night. It s Minecraft, except underwater.

That s not a bad thing, though. Minecraft s oceans were always a little sparse, populated by doofy octopi and sand. As massive and uncharted as real oceans are, they deserve the attentions of an entire game. Subnautica is on its way to being a lovely sandbox of underwater exploration.

Sea food

In its current state, Subnautica features two modes: survival and freedom. They are basically the same, but the freedom mode removes the game s hunger and thirst mechanics, and doesn t empty your inventory when you die. I found that, as in Minecraft, once I no longer struggled to survive, I quickly lost interest in the game. Subnautica is a game that begs to be explored, so I appreciate the option to simply turn off the survival mechanics.

In survival mode, a lot is riding on a successful first day. From the moment I wake up in Subnautica, I have a few minutes before I starve to death, and few more before I die of thirst. The immediate business of the day is outfitting myself with salt, freshly caught alien fish, and some gear.

All of the crafting in Subnautica takes place on a 3D printer inside my floating lifepod base, and the progression of raw materials to finished gear is immediately familiar: Organic matter gets printed into raw carbon. Carbon and zinc get printed into a basic battery. A battery and some glass become a flashlight, and now I can see what s going on at night.

It s predictable, sure, but it s still incredibly satisfying. Building a self-propelled, armored, deep-sea capable submarine feels so good because I put it together, piece by piece, while swimming in a sea of predators.

Sunburn

Though it is fun already, Subnautica does suffer from some technical problems. Terrain has a habit of popping in, especially when I got my souped-up submarine to full speed. On one occasion, I drove straight off the edge of the world because the next cluster failed to load. This locked up the game and, because saving and loading isn t implemented yet, I had to start a new game without that badass sub.

In addition to subs, Subnautica has a few interesting toys to play with. Flashlights and seascooters and location beacons are all available to help navigate the alien waters. My favorite gadget is the gravsphere, a plantable trap that captures fish. Deploy it, go hunting for scrap metal and minerals, then come back to a fresh fish dinner. It s that kind of high-tech creativity that draws me away from Minecraft comparisons and makes me hopeful that Subnautica will bring new ideas to the survival sandbox genre.

Surviving can be a struggle in the early days, but a little luck meant I had extra supplies after a half hour. Once a surplus was safe, that was my cue to start pushing myself, diving deeper, swimming farther from the safety of my lifepod. Discrete biomes like mushroom forests, coral reefs, and cave complexes feature local resources and creatures, and they re all amazing to look at.

The designs and art of the alien sea creatures also deserve some praise. I found exploration to be a simple joy, but pulling a double-take when I spot a new animal is more rewarding than locating a new type of terrain. There are fish shaped like boomerangs, trout with one giant eye, razor-toothed predators, and blowfish that explode. My favorite part is that I never know which animals are dangerous. I ll spot a giant, slow-moving whale and watch it, circling, trying to suss out if it s the type to swallow me whole or ignore me completely. The feeling of being an alien interloper, that I am swimming on a world that is not my own, is complete and unlike anything else in the genre.

End game

Eventually, though, my well-stocked inventory started sapping the tension from the situation. Without a clock ticking down to a starvation death, I began having much less fun. My hope is that an end-game goal—be rescued, find land, build an underwater city and proclaim myself king, etc.—will add direction to the parts of the game that follow immediately after don t starve to death.

Another limitation of the current build is that you re effectively tethered to the life pod. You can take your sub miles and miles in any direction, but if you want to cook food ever again, you re going to have to turn around and drive back to the fabricator. I m hopeful that the devs plans for larger submarines will include one with an on-board fabricator to really set you free. Unknown Worlds also has plans for more animals, more crafting recipes, deeper biomes (accessible only with deep-diving subs), and more raw materials. The team is taking the idea of open development seriously, managing its to-do list on a public task board. Players can scroll through and see that the missing inventory icon for the Hoopfish is already fixed, and will be updated in the new build scheduled for January 15.

With an experienced developer at the helm and a limitless variety of the oceans to play with, it s going to take a lot for Subnautica to go badly wrong. As the toolbox gets deeper and the shape of the end-game gets set, Subnautica will be a unique example of the ways survival can be tense, rewarding, and fun.