Original Subnautica was a good game. It could be so much more, we wanted it to be much more, it never happened. Nontheless, the game was still good.
After its release, various rumors started to appear about possible arctic expansion. Some time later it was officially confirmed. But here are a couple of problems I see with it.
Standalone Expansion
First of all, let’s make it clear. There is no such thing as “Standalone Expansion”. Either it is an expansion, which adds something to an existing game, or a Sequel/Prequel/Spinoff/Remake.
With that in mind, I was optimistic about this so-called expansion, thinking it will turn into complete sequel. Sadly, this is not the case. Below Zero is expected to be 1/6 size of the original Subnautica. And if, like I am, you got exited to see old vehicles that were depicted on the original announcement websites, you will be disappointed, because Seamoth and Cyclops aren’t included. Could be because of the world size as well - there won’t be much places to go to.
Dark-skinned female protagonist
Not even sure why this is a thing. Of course factors such as “gender equality”
and “race diversity” come into mind, but both of these imply that player has a
choice. But there aren’t any choices.
I can imagine, just like I don’t wanna play as dark-skinned old hag, someone
did not want to play the original game as a white male. So this is devs’ answer
to that…
With this in mind, I think having a female protagonist is reasonable, but I
totally don’t see why she has to be made dark-skinned. Especially that a better
solution is possible - just make her always wear gloves and never show her face.
Face already doesn’t appear in game, just need to omit it in consept arts and
add gloves. And BOOM - solved! Black, orange, purple, you can be any color you
can imagine! But no, they absolutely had to bring the skin color issue up -
something that devs should not be concerned about. Because if we talk about a
game as a form of art and not just a cash cow (which Below Zero apparently is),
it should be driven mainly by an artist’s vision and not by whining of some
individuals. You can’t please everyone so at least stay consistent to not
displease the followers you already aquired.
This also brings back that incident when Simon Chylinski - sound designer of the
original Subnautica (later nominated for best audio award by golden joystic) got
fired because someone did not like some of his tweets.
How is this a thing? Not even counting that ones tweets is not your fucking
business, some of his tweets are golden! Like this one:
we need a ‘diversity’ slider in the options. It will make the character progessively [sic] darker more feminie [sic] and less sexy.
Subnautica’s sound is one of the best things the game has. Was it worth it?
But hey, we are talking about Charlie “Propagandist” Cleveland here, who refuses
to add guns to the game as a statement against gun violence. The question is,
why he is allowed to “make statements”, while others aren’t?
More to come?
Maybe I will have something else to say about Below Zero, assuming I will be interested to play it. We’ll see.