Below Zero, the arctic-themed standalone expansion for deep-sea adventure Subnautica, is now available in early access on PC - and, to celebrate, developer UnknownWorlds has offered up the very first trailer.

Described as a "new chapter" in the Subnautica saga, Below Zero unfolds one year on from the events of the base game and challenges players to survive a disaster at an alien research station, located in a previously unseen, ice-bound region of ocean planet 4546B.

Up until today, we've only seen the smallest of glimpses of Below Zero's icy new environs. However, now that early access is officially underway and eager fans are finally able to experience the first few hours of the expansion for themselves, UnknownWorlds has offered a slightly more illuminating taste of things to come, albeit in cinematic trailer form. Allow me to summarise the key points: ALIEN PENGUINS!!!

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Developer Unknown Worlds has announced that Below Zero, the ice-themed standalone expansion for superb underwater exploration adventure Subnautica, is entering early access on PC next week, January 30th.

Below Zero was announced last August and is described as a "new chapter" in the Subnautica story, unfolding across a previously unseen, ice-bound region of ocean planet 4546B.

At the time of the reveal, Unknown Worlds confirmed that Below Zero's development approach would be similar to that of Subnautica's base game, and that it would be "carefully crafting" the new experience based on player feedback during a period of early access.

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The superb Subnautica is free from the Epic Games Store.

The undersea survival game is free to download until 27th December. It normally costs 19.49.

The Epic Games Store is the Fortnite and Unreal engine company's attempt to take on Steam. It offers developers 88 per cent revenue share, which is more than Valve's 70 per cent standard.

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Developer Unknown Worlds has revealed first details of Below Zero, its long-teased arctic expansion for superb underwater survival adventure Subnautica.

Below Zero is described as a "new chapter" in the Subnautica universe, and unfolds across a previously unseen ice-bound region of planet 4546B - the ocean world that players explored during the base game.

Unknown Worlds says that it's still developing the concept of Below Zero, but that the expansion will retain the core mechanics of the original Subnautica, including base building and open-ended exploration. These will be joined by new elements, with the developer currently considering the likes of thermal management, and more voiced dialogue for the central story.

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"Never get out of the boat," says Captain Marlowe in Apocalypse Now. "Not unless you're going all the way." It turns out this is just as true of a submarine, and especially at night, 300 metres below the surface. I'm on my way back to base from a salvaging trip, hold packed with lithium from shale deposits on the edge of the reef. The sub - a chubby, whirring frisbee with a bubble cockpit - has taken a few knocks while rooting through the trenches, and in a moment of great wisdom, I hop out to perform some repairs. It's not an entirely idiotic decision. The sea floor ahead is thick with towering ferns that provide cover for a species of coyote-like predator, whereas right here I can see nothing save schools of fish the size of my thumb, twisting in the dark like flurries of snow. In hindsight, the absence of larger fauna really ought to have set a few alarm bells ringing, but all I can think of are the scratches on my Seamoth's lovely yellow finish. Besides, I've got two health packs left, and a fancy thermo survival knife that cooks anything you hit with it. The water holds no fear for me.

I've barely aimed my repair gun at the sub when there is an almighty crunch and it vanishes. Turning, I glimpse the vessel's headlights spinning wildly through the blackness, and in the glare from those headlights, a corkscrew motion and the flash of dense, milky-white flesh. Whatever it is, it's so big that I can't see all of it. There's another horrible metallic screech and the Seamoth is released, to dangle sadly in a halo of debris and spurting gas a hundred metres off. Swimming over to it takes approximately ten seconds and thirty million years. Scrambling inside with my heart in my teeth, I hastily switch off the lights and check the sub's hull strength. Five per cent. The water around me is utterly still. All the same, I decide to head back to the shallows before attempting further repairs.

Terror, wonder, and a generous whack of underwater DIY. This is Subnautica in a nutshell. Available in feature-complete form this week after three years on Steam Early Access, Unknown Worlds' impressive survival sim casts you as a lowly but very able crewman aboard the starship Aurora, sometime in the late 23rd century. As it begins the Aurora crash-lands on a remote waterworld following a mysterious explosion. Regaining consciousness, you find yourself adrift in a damaged escape pod, the Aurora's enormous, burning carcass the only thing visible on a balmy blue horizon.

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Developer Unknown Worlds has confirmed that its deep sea survival game Subnautica will finally leave Steam Early Access this month on January 23rd.

Subnautica first launched in Steam Early Access nearly three years ago, back in 2014, and SteamSpy estimates that it's already been bought by over 1,850,000 people.

Its success shouldn't really be much of a surprise though; even in unfinished form, Subnautica's tightly structured blend of base building, exploration, and survival beneath the waves of a mysterious, alien ocean planet is wonderfully engaging - and the constant procession of development updates, introducing the likes of farming, underwater mech suits, and deeper narrative elements, has only made it more so.

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