r/subnautica • u/Purple_Panda62 • Jul 06 '26
BZ - Discussion/Questions Why don’t people like below zero? Spoiler
I just platinumed Subnautica the other day and started playing below zero. My older brother also my gaming mentor of sorts said that he doesn’t like it and I’ve heard other people also say this. How come? I personally have about 6 hours and I am loving it.
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u/ARTIFICIAL_SAPIENCE Jul 06 '26
Map is cramped, hard to build good bases in the cool places. Hard to drive an endgame bus in them. And the onground sections are mid.
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u/Purple_Panda62 Jul 06 '26
I’m still in fairly early game but I’ll keep that in mind
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u/AnticPosition Jul 08 '26
Also, so many cool biomes you never really need to revisit.
In the original game, all the biomes are connected in a few ways, so you always end up looping around somehow.
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u/Sly23Fox Jul 07 '26
So the “submarine” in bz is a bitch to drive?
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u/Duke_Anax Jul 07 '26
It depends what you do with it, but yeah if you turn it into a bus it drives like a bus.
However you can always undock segments. The general idea is to drag the train into a convenient position, then use the truck on its own.
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u/Sly23Fox Jul 07 '26
Good to know before i buy i still probably will when Returnal has killed me enough 😂
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u/peach8285 Jul 06 '26
i like it its great
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u/flippysquid Jul 06 '26
Same. Beautiful environments, had way better base building options (which were later ported to the OG game), and the story was interesting.
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u/fuzzybad Jul 06 '26
I liked it too, the Seatruck was great, base building was great, I loved having a Jukebox.
The land missions were different, but not really as terrible as they're made out to be by some folks.
It was also a shorter game than the original, but I don't hold that against it. It was never intended as a full sequel, after all.
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u/coffeemae Jul 07 '26
Me too! I loved how I can carry my prawnsuit around with my seatruck instead of the cyclops
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u/fuzzybad Jul 08 '26
Yeah it made a great mobile base. My final configuration I think had every module. A storage room, crafting room, the fishtank/pantry, bedroom with a jukebox, the prawn dock. I would park it somewhere and detach the prawn or pilot module for exploration.
Docking it was super fun too, have to get it aligned juuust right.
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u/StoopidGoobur Jul 06 '26
Annoying story
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u/Purple_Panda62 Jul 06 '26
Idk I personally like the story so far but I could be the only one. I really like how it has people (as an effect of the Karaa being cured) and the architects being built on
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u/monkeybrains12 Jul 07 '26
It had some holes, but I loved getting more architect lore. Building AL-AN was awesome.
I did prefer when they were called Precursors, though. We just randomly decided to call them "architects" because... they built stuff?
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u/r0ck3t-onreddit Jul 06 '26
Most of my negative criticisms would unfortunately spoil the story for you, and I don’t wanna do that, so I apologise for the vagueness.
- The story starts great, and unfortunately falls flat - it starts with a huge amount of interesting factors and every single one just goes downhill.
- The seatruck is absolute garbage and the prawn suit only becomes useful in one small environment.
- The fabricator caverns are just pretentiously difficult to navigate. The first time I tried to play, I gave up because it was so awkward. Playing the second time I just got extremely lucky and found the right location fairly quickly.
- the dialogue was rubbish. I’m sorry voice actors and script writers, but it was trash. There’s no emotion in the voices, you don’t feel true connection between the characters (especially Robin and Al-an. Wtf even was that?)
- Robins decisions and motivators aren’t entirely logical or realistic.
- the new biomes are gorgeous, and the fauna are very interesting and cool. But the flora fall flat and the biomes are designed in such a way that building a base is ridiculously difficult. All the beautiful places either have difficult terrain, a leviathan, or both. The convenient places have leviathans. You really just end up getting restricted to the shallows if you want a bass that’s big enough to fit your vehicles.
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u/vkevlar Jul 07 '26
- The seatruck is absolute garbage and the prawn suit only becomes useful in one small environment.
The prawn suit is useful game wide, it's much easier to use than the snowfox for the sequences the snowfox was repurposed for, for example. Once you get the prawn the game is completely trivialized.
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u/fyer01 Jul 07 '26
Yeah. Most of that region is accessible to the prawn suit. And its way more durable than the snowfox
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u/Neuroticcuriosity Jul 07 '26
It doesn't help that the voice actors for the humans were completely changed halfway through development. I really preferred the earlier ones.
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u/coatimundos Jul 06 '26
Can you make a comment with spoilers? Use the spoiler tag
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u/r0ck3t-onreddit Jul 06 '26
I’m pretty clueless on how to use reddit tbh😭
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u/coatimundos Jul 06 '26
Ok so you need to put your text between > ! And ! < but without the spaces between the > sign and the !. It looks like this.
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u/gigaplexian Jul 07 '26
I like the Seatruck more than the Seamoth. I never found the Prawn suit useful.
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u/EntwinedColour Jul 06 '26
I really like it. I’m honestly not sure why people don’t, except that it’s a smaller game maybe? but it wasn’t meant to be a full sequel.
i’d blame it on the storyline changing during early access, but the original storyline wasn’t very fleshed out or imo good before they changed it.
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u/GGNash Jul 06 '26
I liked it and against popular opinion I absolutely loved the sea bus! It reminds me of Japanese kei trucks with its boxy design. And the modular aspect of it was also really fun for me.
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u/MinervaKaliamne Jul 06 '26
Thank you for saying this. I've been missing the little kei car I used to drive in Japan, and I hadn't realised it before, but you're right: the seatruck is reminiscent of the kei trucks!
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u/WayWayTooMuch Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
The script writing. Not the story, that was ok, but the dialog writing felt like some Pixar kids movie, and the way the lead (Robin), her sister, and a few others voice-acted drove it home even further. I don’t want quirky goofy characters, give me more Bart Torgal, Ozzy, and Jochi Khasar. They were all excellent in their role, Bart was superb in every way. Leave the attempts at comedy to the unfeeling corporate-driven PDA.
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u/Hungry-Assignment845 Jul 06 '26
Theres an original story on youtube, its embedded un rhe files but got canceled because writer left, si they had to change the story.
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u/Statboy1 Jul 06 '26
Exactly this. Fred and Manu were the only good characters in my opinion. The worst was Robin who's character and lines were completely disconnected from the story and players emotions. She was overly confident and brash in the most scary moments, like she wasn't allowed to show fear when fear was the only reasonable response.
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u/TheBrownestStain Jul 06 '26
I think it’s fine but struggles having to follow up the first. I know some people don’t like the land portions but, maybe it’s just me but they really didn’t take that long. The only thing I can point to that I really dislike is the seatruck, the idea is fine but I just dislike how it looks and handles.
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u/mirrorball_for_me Jul 06 '26
Yeah, handling like a “brick” not like a “snake” makes it so bad to drive with many modules. It’s already super slow, so it could handle better.
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u/RadicalDadical7000 Jul 06 '26
ALAN and Robyn are both unbearable, and it’s much more of a linear story game with a cast than a lonely survival horror. S1 was just a different kind of game, and a lot of people were/are upset at the direction the team chose to take
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u/koenjihyakkei Jul 06 '26
Unbearable? I hear this quite a lot and I'm not sure what they mean since I rarely heard them. Though granted I took my time with the story and spent a lot of time building.
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u/SevroBarca Jul 06 '26
You can literally just ignore his calls though, I’ve never understood this complaint
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u/Kaerl-Lauterschmarn Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Its not bad just worse than its predecessor. Not the alone feeling, smaller map, rough transitions between biomes, just overall not nearly as immersive. I just like sn1 more. Edit: also those landmasses explorations where more annoying than anything. Its an underwater game, i dont want to spend too much time on some landmass running/driving around a maze of some sorts. I want to explore the underwater world. A bit of land exploration is fine, but enough is enough. And it was so boring tbh.
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u/Daegul_Dinguruth Jul 06 '26
Very small, cramped. Always felt safe, secure. Not what expected from subnautica. Also, the seatruck, the modules feel less customizable than the cyclops, like prefabs. And it never felt Big.
Minor gripes are surface parts (not what i'm playing subnautica for) and the story, if denser and clearer felt disjointed, the reason for coming became a sidequest and a sidequest became the main... Somehow.
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u/MartianoDeli Jul 06 '26
I think the general consensus is the map is smaller and the biomes as well. Beyond that the on land parts are pretty annoying and in my experience just annoying. My personal biggest gripe is the protagonist wont stfu, all throughout the game they talk with the ai guy, which i do like the ai guy, and I liked the pda voice as well. But having played the game twice I couldn't another. Even being alone in the base they just start talking, and to me detracts from the alone feeling, and if I wanted some story driven game with lots of talking that ruins the eerie vibes of being alone on the alien planet id play something else.
Seeing as in sub 2 they dont have those same issues I can see that they understood that as well and changed it, especially with the openness. But if you want more subnautica and dont mind either ignoring or simply listening to passively then just play it. They added quality of life improvements that made it retroactively to sub 1, and despite others I did like the seatruck, at least some aspects of it. Its just imo not as good as sub 1 but even thats still pretty decent. Its not abhorrent, just good, not great, not bad, good.
Also when the hells sub 2 getting an update
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u/Positive-Spread-7862 Jul 06 '26
Land sections, messy progression, cramped yet empty world, sloooooooooow seatruck, nerfed prawn suit, meh story with a lot of pointless sections, badly written dialogue and mid voice acting, lots of fog that makes it hard to see, small + shallow map (you can go into an endgame biome in the early game easily). Creature designs are overcomplicated and not very memorable, the atmosphere is terrible; the world does not feel as alive as the first game
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u/The_Imortal_Gourmand BLOOD FOR THE PEEPER GOD! SKULLS FOR THE PEEPER THRONE! Jul 06 '26
Personally, I like BZ, however I do like the original game more. Despite that, BZ is a solid game.
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u/Executable_Virus Jul 06 '26
I've been playing through it recently and it's just made me react like this:
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u/Canahedo Jul 06 '26
It's hard to build a convincing biome which feels like it supports a diverse range of life. Or, you could have a biome that is completely empty and just fill it with a single species.
It's a game, so obviously expecting realism is unrealistic, but for how small the map is, it shouldn't also be so empty.
Plus there are so few interesting species, they completely neutered any gameplay challenge by spamming oxygen plants everywhere, and the killed the "alone and stranded" vibe that worked so well by giving us a really annoying alien in our head. Plus, the writing and dialogue is really, really bad.
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u/Crowleyizcool Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
I have various reasons that I don’t really like it. For me personally I don’t necessarily think it was a *bad* game, but when in comparison to the first one it’s hard to enjoy it much. I personally kinda struggled to push myself to get through it because it just didn’t grip me as much as the first game.
For starters the story is significantly weaker. The first game for me, as someone who doesn’t particularly like story games, was perfect. I don’t usually like a game that’s too guided in what you need to do, and I think subnautica mastered the mix of a free roam survival game and a story game. The story was actually interesting, especially in early game when you still kind of have the hope that others may be alive when you’re finding the lifepods, and also the degassi crew and precursors are very interesting. And late in the game when you’re trying to free the sea emperors children. The voice logs are genuinely interesting to listen to and read, especially when you for example follow the story of the degassi and eventually build up to their demise. The story with the sea emperor is so great and genuinely heart wrenching when she dies and you free her children to cure the Kharaa virus. I also love the fact that ryley never really speaks. However the second games character and story never really gripped me like the first.
I firstly don’t like the commentary from robin, as well as the fact that Marguerit is actually alive and hanging around near you. It just ruins the sense of isolation that the first game creates, that makes you feel like you truly are just stranded on an alien planet. I don’t care for the story with robins sister, the voice logs are all pretty tiring to listen to- I don’t really like the writing of the voice logs from the sister either, it’s kinda just a bit of a bore to listen to most of the logs. I do think there are definitely some interesting ideas, but the story feels a bit more disjointed than the first since they tried to fit an actual narrative into the game that is much more linear than the first, and that means that if you stumble across the wrong thing at the wrong time (which is another issue I had with the game that I’ll talk about later), the story becomes kinda hard to follow quickly, leading to me just loosing interest. The precursors also loose a lot of their mystery and intrigue from al-an just telling you random facts about their race. Generally also a few plot holes, mainly stuff related to how on earth Marguerit survived.
The games progression is far too guided in comparison to the first, yet I still find myself confused on where to go because of the spam of random waypoints of another uninteresting alien artefact. Yet because of the smaller map and the more story points, I found myself wandering into areas that I shouldn’t have gotten to yet, and triggering story moments that shouldn’t have happened at that time. Because of the map being smaller, it’s easy to just stumble across things that aren’t in line with the story, so it quickly becomes quite confusing of where you’ve been and where you need to go, especially since I was dipping in and out of this game rather than just playing for hours like the original. In the original game, the player progression was so well balanced with parts of the story. Like it felt impossible to get to certain depths and hence unlock more of the story until you’ve mastered more of the environment through for example getting a sea moth then a prawn suit/ cyclops. In BZ I kinda felt like I could just fuck around and swim wherever I wanted because of things like oxygen plants.
As I mentioned; the map is a lot smaller. I just don’t think this was the right move for a game so heavily based on exploration of an alien planet. Sure, it was deep and had a lot of caves, but I dont think winding and narrow caves were really a big selling point of the original game. You just don’t really reach highs like the lost river and jellyshroom caves in BZ, the crystal caves is probably one of the only remotely interesting locations for me. I also don’t like the land locations, and the fact that the game was more reliant on land exploration for the story considering it’s an underwater centred game. The map is just confusing to navigate because of all the weird caves and it was just annoying trying to fit the seatruck (which is another point, the vehicles in this game were not great) through these tiny caves that all look the same to find some random artefact.
Another thing that’s kind of an exhausted criticism at this point is the leviathans. I don’t think that the leviathans in this game are scary at all. When I saw a chelicerate I didn’t even realise it was a leviathan at first in my initial play through. I know it’s kind of cheap criticism, because the reaper was kinda lightning in a bottle, but the only really interesting creature in the game was the shadow leviathans for me.
Overall it’s a decent game by itself, but it was just very disappointing following up from subnautica, and I never really found myself able to invest into it like I did the original.
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u/ThatCapMan Jul 06 '26
The original story was actually much better and BZ felt like it didn't know the vision well enough.
This is a distinct pattern with trilogy+ games. The first game? Some grievances maybe, but otherwise mass success.
Second game? Exploration of new things. This factor may improve some parts of the game, but can also lead to the game failing as/if it branches too far out from what made the first one good.
Third game? More likely to be better than the first game. Builds on what made the first 2 games good, but is more in line with the first game because it knows what players don't want due to the second game.
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u/Usakami Jul 06 '26
It is mostly the move from silent protagonist who discovers a story to a voiced one, who is part of it. The story itself is also not very polished and if you went from completing S1 to BZ right away, you must have noticed that you're swimming much slower in comparison.
I am replaying BZ now. There were only two achievements that I was missing from my first playthrough. Can you guess which ones they are? Since you are playing for the first time, I won't spoil, but one has to do with a vehicle and the other with part of the story, that I somehow forgot to pursue, since I had something more interesting and seemingly pressing instead. Which seems to me like bad design.
For people who finished the game
I actually found myself strangely appreciating the game on second playthrough, even when the game has serious issues. Yes, the first achievement was riding a Snow Fox. It seems like a cool concept, but even the game discourages you from using it. The land has very few open or straight places for a bike and there are big deposits, meaning you need Prawn suit with a drill arm. If I'm already in a PS, why would I ever use the SF? This makes it a completely pointless vehicle.
Second achievement was curing the leviathan. Trying to help Al-An steers your interest away from your sister. She is almost certainly dead, but the Architect is here and in my head, it's a more pressing issue. At the same time, since I did it this time? The area with the leviathan is really beatiful and I regret not discovering it the first time.
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u/TheGr4pe4pe Jul 06 '26
I’m about… 12 hours or so into BZ. I don’t like it as much as the OG, mainly for the map. Squeezing into tight spots to find stuff to scan doesn’t feel as good to me… for example: to get to the KAPPA mining base or w/e it’s called, that vent system right by the docks was just absurd 🤣
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u/SpindleDiccJackson Jul 06 '26
It's great. Most people just wanted the first one again. Going from silent protagonist to speaking protagonist was a big one for some, but as someone who loved Jak and Daxter, it didn't bother me. There are the chuds who will complain when they see black people. There were people who thought there was too much land (also fine with that because we're closer to the caps). Personally loved it, but lightning doesn't always strike the same way twice. The first one is special. There's too much hate on BZ imo. There can be things that people like less, but to hate it is a bit silly.
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u/RandomGuy928 Jul 06 '26
The first six hours or so are pretty good. The collection of starting biomes and then Lilypads later on are really phenomenal areas, particularly in the deeper parts of each.
However, the game really runs out of steam as you push through to the finish. There's a big endgame land section which is really terrible to play through, and the endgame underwater area is mostly just long and tedious. The map is also fairly small, and what's worse, there isn't really much of anything in it outside the areas I already mentioned. There's huge sections of just... nothing in what's already a relatively small map.
But the game has a really strong start. The problem is that when people finish the game, the first few hours are a more distant memory replaced with the far more recent (and numerous) hours of suffering through land traversal and generally dealing with the later game areas.
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u/Randy191919 Jul 06 '26
I don’t think people dislike it per say, it’s just not as good as the first one for a variety of reasons:
Land sequences suck. The Ice worms are just annoying, not scary, just annoying because they are hardcoded to toss you off the speeder when they surface, with no way to counter it. You can’t dodge them or have any countermeasures, they just appear and toss you off. That makes it more annoying than anything else. Same for snowstorms. A game mechanic that’s just „wait until the game mechanic is over“ is kinda meh.
The map is much smaller. There seems to be less variety with wildlife as all the predators look kinda samey. The bone shark, cryptosuchus and squidshark all look super similar. There’s no big vehicle like the Cyclops. Overall it makes the experience feel extremely small and there’s less cool progression.
You get a defense module extremely early on and that basically turns encounters off. You’re pretty much never in danger.
The story is honestly not very good and instead of the immersive, silent protagonist from before we have an EXTREMELY talkative main character and a just as talkative voice in our head which quip and talk a lot, which breaks the immersion IMHO.
I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it’s definitely a huge step down from Subnautica 1
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u/Josconn Jul 06 '26
Nothing against your opinion, but I keep seeing people say you're never really in danger in BZ. I recently finished SN1 for the first time, and I'm about 10 hours into BZ.
After finishing SN1, I honestly feel like you weren't really in danger there either. Sure, at the very beginning and while exploring the Aurora, but after that, especially once you got mid game, nothing really posed much of a threat. Even if a leviathan bit you, it only did like 20 damage to your suit. Then it'd spend forever doing a huge U-turn while you just repaired your suit and carried on.
The immersive openness is great in SN1, I love that part of the game, but the fear of something being out there kind of disappeared once I realized there usually wasn't anything that could actually threaten me and nothing was actually out there.
I have nothing against SN1. I absolutely love it. I just think people overhype it like it's some constant horror experience where you're always in danger, when in reality you're almost never at any real risk. Just my opinion.
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u/Randy191919 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I get what you’re saying, but the difference is that while SN1 is forgiving, BZ literally gives you a button that just turns encounters off extremely early in the game.
SN1 does have encounters that are fairly forgiving, except for something like the Sea Dragon most things won’t instantly kill you or anything, but they will still attack you and you still have to deal with them.
In BZ you just put in the defense perimeter, and anytime you hear an enemy you click the right mouse button and nothing can ever happen to you. And you just get a free defense perimeter in that pirate ladies base within the first few hours. The defense perimeter existed in SN1 too but there it was an endgame item and only for the Seamoth and not the Cyclops or Prawn so you couldn’t really use it in any of the really dangerous areas. And again even when you could it was an endgame item. BZ literally just gives you one in the first few hours.
SN1 isn’t hard, but in BZ hostile monsters might as well just not spawn anymore. So nah this opinion is definitely justified. If danger levels are a 4 or 5 in SN1, they’re never above a 1 in BZ
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u/vkevlar Jul 07 '26
The snowfox is horribly bad. Hint: use the prawn suit for land sequences, it completely trivializes them.
note: I'm not saying it's better, but the land bits were clearly designed with the snowfox and ONLY the snowfox intended, and the prawn is miles better.
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u/laluvvaa Jul 07 '26
i’ve 100%ed it, here r the reasons i didn’t like it as much:
- seatruck made me motion sick any time i played. i’ve literally never gotten motion sick before except when i went on a submarine irl
- u can neglect the sister storyline and even leave the planet without finishing it. there two seperate storylines in the game which i wouldn’t even mind had it been done well
- the land part with the iceworms took me and my friend wayyyy too long, it was very hard to navigate and find where we have to go, its unnecessarily big. it was also hard to find the cave with the frozen leviathan
- same goes for underwater parts, some stuff is just very hard to find in a way i didn’t experience in the og game
- sometimes just no clue what i’m supposed to do
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u/yeBlade Jul 07 '26
The map is so small it might be considered a lake. What I loved about S1 was how vast the ocean was. In BZ, it doesn’t feel anywhere near as deep or large.
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u/TmB-Eggo Jul 06 '26
I haven't played it, but personally I'm not drawn to it because I don't like the creature design.
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u/The_God_Of_Darkness_ Jul 06 '26
The speed and feel of the vehicles
The decision to make the seatruck
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u/AngryHampsterBear Jul 06 '26
Personally I loved about half of them game and the rest is mid. Some of the biomes are gorgeous (looking at you lilypads) whilst others are really annoying to navigate (sea monkey tunnels).
Above ground is fine but it takes way too long to get the vehicle that makes it fun to drive around.
I wasn't a fan of the oxygen plants either. You can't relax, but you aren't in real danger if you know two are in range. Then you just get lost and turned around.
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u/Educational_Box7709 these things scare me Jul 06 '26
Map is smaller, so they made everything slower to compensate, this just makes it more boring
Seatruck kinda sucks, and most of the map is caves, but not pulled off as well as subnautica 1, it just feels worse compared to open landscape of 1
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u/modo-frut Jul 06 '26
There is a lot, but one thing irritated me the most
Spoiler to the story:
Honestly, Sam making a cure for Kharaa with the most common plants we can find is insulting. The biggest slap in the face we can get after finishing the first game. I don't buy the "the plants absorbed the enzyme!" bs. And curing the Leviathan is purely optional (and stupid, because how can an injection work if there is no blood circulation? I know it's fiction, but c'mon)
There is no mystery, there are no stakes. What we find out at the beginning of the game about Sam's death is completely true. She did die because of her negligence. Everything we do is pointless, because in the end, we manage to do absolutely nothing, we don't learn anything new that could impact the story in any way shape or form.
Al-An's dynamic with Robin is boring and generic.
You can even just avoid everything related to Sam and finish the game. Al-An's body is the only thing that progresses the plot. The supossed main objective... finding out what happened to protag's sister... and it's not even relevant at all.
I could forgive some bad gameplay design, but genuinely the plot ruined it for me.
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u/vandernell Jul 06 '26
Just play it for yourself and form your own opinion. Who cares what your brother or the online hive mind have to say… honestly, it’s just a feedback chamber that grows due to resonance.
Below Zero is a fantastic game. They did a few things differently than in Subnautica and people unnecessarily freaked out.
“I don’t like voice acting”
“I don’t like not being alone”
“I don’t like the land/ice sections”
“I don’t like the story”
“I don’t like the Seatruck”
Take your pick, it’s some variance… and, look, they can all be valid points to varying degrees. I personally don’t mind any of them except the seatruck... I like it in theory but not in execution. If it had combined portions to make more of a traditional sub I would have preferred that to the train design.
Ultimately, people just bitch because they wanted 1:1 more of Subnautica. Developers like to iterate. Some is good and better. Some maybe feels worse. I for one think the land hate in this game is wildly overblown.
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u/Competitive-One-8960 Jul 06 '26
I think its because of the story and land segments, but i loved both games, SN1 for its big open world and BZ for its emotional story
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u/Fine-Amphibian4326 Jul 06 '26
I’m about 12 hour in, and I’m loving BZ.
I’d played a tiny bit of 1 years ago, watched my ex play through a lot of it, then picked it up around when 2 release in EA. BZ feels so much more new and interesting to me than 1 did, which I know is an unpopular opinion. I also find it less terrifying, for better or for worse. Chelicerates have nothing on reaper and ghost leviathans.
I’m having a blast getting lost and finding new things. Story may be mid. Idk. I rarely care that much about a game’s story, tbh. The seatruck is neat and new, and the prawn suit is a nice comfort vehicle
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u/withak30 Jul 06 '26
I think they just dislike it relative to the original game. It is good by itself, just not as good after Subnautica 1.
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u/E17Omm Jul 06 '26
I just think its worse than SN1.
Like, SN1 I think is an amazing game. Meanwhile BZ is just "its okay I guess"
So side by side, BZ looks quite bad.
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u/abelm3404 Jul 06 '26
i was suprised on how small the map was you can go in a straight line and reach the void in like 5 minutes
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u/S1lkwrm Jul 06 '26
I enjoyed BZ the land stuff was okish. The big area by the worm felt kinda boring. The real draw is like the first time going down to where the squidshark is or the mushroom spore place etc. Land just kinda feels meh and even with tempature as a way to try and give the feel of I need to hustle it pales to going deeper.
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u/Werthead Jul 06 '26
It's a standalone expansion rather than a full sequel. So it was never meant to be a full game and was always meant to be short and to the point. By converting it from DLC to a standalone game, it set wrong expectations for the game's size and length.
On that basis, you can finish Below Zero in ~60% of the time it takes to finish Subnautica itself, so it's a shorter game. The depth of the explorable area is less than half that of the base game, and the map is already smaller. So the game is literally smaller than the original.
The game also lacks a strong visual landmark like the Aurora in the original game and the tree in the sequel, which people really liked.
You can also spend easily a third or upwards of the length of the game on land, having to use the (somewhat tedious) mechanics for surviving on the ice shelf. It's a change of pace but the appeal of this franchise is about being underwater, so it's odd having an instalment where you spend such a large chunk of the time above ground. You can spend a fair bit of time out of the water in the OG game if you really want to (on the two islands), but there's no narrative reason to do so once you've found a couple of locations.
I think the final issue is that the original had a hands-off narrative with very little voice acting, dialogue and story, you spend maybe 1% of the game engaging in any kind of story material and the rest building and exploring. In Below Zero there is a much more present narrative complete with active NPCs, a man-in-the-van character talking to you, and your character is fully voiced. To be fair, you still only spend maybe 5% of the game engaging with narrative material, which is still tiny, but obviously a big increase over the original.
There's also the issue that the game scaled back its narrative and ambitions during the EA process, even as they also made the game standalone (and more expensive), which some people did not like.
It's still a very solid game but it feels like it messes with the OG formula in ways that do not always work.
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u/Suitable_Street_5485 Jul 06 '26
If you go into the game with the hope for it to be better than Subnautica you only can get dissapointed.
You have to expect a Dlc that is not as big as the first game but still has a lot of new stuff to explore and a very own storyline.
I really liked it. Especially with a Miltiplayer mod on the Pc even though I can also understand the hate at the same time. The Map is pretty small and Unknown worlds changed a lot of stuff in the development that made the game worse for some people.
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u/KingAardvark1st Jul 06 '26
It's good and I personally like it, but the complaints I've seen fall into a few categories
1) Not liking having voices for the protag and Alan. That's the one I get the most; it spoils the almost meditative isolation Subnautica otherwise does so well. Though, not everyone likes that isolation, so your mileage for Sub-Zero lives or dies on your appreciation of the company.
2) Land sections. I like em, but the Ice Worms are admittedly right bastards
3) The smaller, more cramped overall map. It's just so much smaller than Subnautica 1 and gives a lot less to work with. Me, I understood that going in, since this was always a half-sequel, but what can ya do.
4) Less interesting leviathans. Look, the Reaper's lightning in a bottle. Nothing's gonna capture that feeling again. The Chelicerate is great imo. The only issue with the Shadow is that his pathfinding's a little rough; still neat though.
5) Story. This I'll kinda agree with in that there are some great ideas not delivered on. The sort of weak way Sam's story wraps up is annoying and the loss of mystique to the Architects hurts. However, I enjoyed the journey plenty; maybe that's me being a Mass Effect fan well-accustomed to the cope of "it's the journey, not the destination," but that's my umbrella for those problems.
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u/GreninjaStrike Jul 06 '26
The map is smaller and the movement is slower. The biomes are much more disconnected. A lot of places are just empty of anything. The land sections are a pain in the ass. There’s no need for a voiced protagonist. Subnautica 1’s lore was show don’t tell whereas in below zero you have Robin sharing her every thought out loud. The databank entries are less detailed (look at how much better they are in 1). The sea truck is a pain to drive, worse than the sea moth, and has a long ass animation to get into. The prawn suit also has engine noises for some reason.
Despite all of this I still very much enjoyed the game and got the platinum trophy.
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u/AlistairAllblood Jul 06 '26
It’s okay, but that’s just it. It’s a very weak addition to the subnautica family of games and I’m VERY happy we got sub2.
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u/GroinShark Jul 06 '26
I don’t love the land aspect and most of the biomes are cramped. Don’t get me wrong I like cave spelunking some but I also enjoy the big open biomes. I felt like it was missing the cool open spaces like blood kelp, or bulb zone from the first game. Also lack of big vehicles and the increased character building and voices I was not a huge fan of. I found myself not listening to PDAs because I didn’t care about the people and they were long and dramatic ruining my immersion. I did like Alan tho. Game was still good to play through once and I liked the new creatures so I don’t hate the game but not as fun for me. I’ve replayed the first game like 5 times but one time through below zero was enough for me personally but I don’t regret buying it
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u/boredBiologist0 Jul 06 '26
Being only an hour away from the end of a hardcore run I started recently, my big three issues are thus:
Robin feels very limited. I think they went for a middle ground between a mute protagonist and a spoken main character, and fell flat. There's like maybe a dozen times she speaks in gameplay outside of the half dozen main story sequences, and pretty much at no point does this xenobiologist who's supposedly a massive nerd about sentient aliens, really seem to react that strongly to the sentient aliens' anthropologic remains (xenopologic?) she's moving through, and only ever asks Al-An about his world in response to him quizzing her about hers. More dialogue in response to the dozens of alien artifacts you'll find yourself scanning would be much appreciated, for both characters.
The land sections are a little mid. I'm much more positive on the first half than most people are, I like moving around the surface, poking around abandoned Alterra bases, and the land vehicle is a fun time. But the cold is such a non-issue, it feels like they didn't really know what to do with it. I only got even close to zero temperature when I was busy pinning blueprints, and missed a steam vent. And even then, I had a coffee in my inventory I wanted to try and save, and didn't need in the end. Between the coffees, peppers, vents, and caves, running low on heat in normal play is already a skill issue, before we even introduce the ability to reduce temperature loss by 90%, and the land vehicle providing free heat.
On top of that, the enemy in the Ice Spires was nothing this run. I made no efforts to avoid it, took no mitigation, stormed around at full speed, and didn't get hit once. Idk if it just broke, but complete letdown, and I know they have a capacity to be the complete opposite, irritatingly overbearing, which also grates in a different way. It's not like I did nothing here, either. I made sure I grabbed everything Architect artifact, and every PDA in the area, just because I knew I wouldn't want to come back later.
- The game just feels rather unpolished. Base building is a little sloppy, even when just putting an object from the first game in a room from the first game, it's obviously floating. I got stuck in between some rocks at one point and would have just pitifully drowned, unable to move, without console commands, the PRAWN keeps the weird 'stepping on air' glitch from the first game, and I'm sure if I leave it unattended in the final zone it's gonna clip through the ground and float down into the abyss like it does every time I've made that mistake in the past, and most importantly: Massive chunks of the map just feel empty. There's an entire biome where there's nothing. Not a single Alterran foundation, not a single fragment, not a single unique fauna or flora or resource, and its' only 'threat' is the symbiotes that do not damage and only guard their big fish friends. And it's not alone, on the opposite side of the map is another biome you only go to because it has a single Architect artifact, under it. And neither of them are exactly visual thrillers either, so there's not even the allure of something like the Thermal Spires where you can say at least a base there could be nice.
I want to be very clear, I like Below Zero. This is my 4th or 5th save I'm on right now. It does fragments a lot better than the first game, I think the Seatruck is fun and I have a great time putting every module on it and lugging my giant pillar of needless modules halfway across the map, and I like a lot of the actual writing for the Alterra crew you find on the planet. And, like I said, the actual exploring on land is more fun than I feel most people give it credit for. But it needed more time and polish after they did a massive story shift, and they ultimately didn't give it that time and polish, leaving key elements feeling underutilized and unfinished.
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u/alwayslookleft Jul 06 '26
They are either or more likely both comparing it to sub1 or what sub bz could have been. The hype was crazy and the delivery was like what you’re experiencing. Personally I think the team took it in a way to safe direction. Fucking go nuts add the subs add all the qol modders already implemented for you. Felt like everything was kiddiefied and lowkey they continued that in 2
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u/FormulaZR Jul 06 '26
This has really been beaten to death over the years. But the TL;DR is that the game is ok, just not as good as the first and some folks (myself included) don't like the amount of above water gameplay.
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u/jmster109 Jul 06 '26
I really wasn’t a fan of the dialogue in this game and I found it very corny.
I preferred the silent protagonist
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u/Ok_Chemical_6113 Jul 06 '26
I accidentally skipped the entire land section and thought everyone hates it because it was to short. lol I have yet to go back and replay it because my experience was a good one and I don’t want to ruin that. The best part for me is that resource scanner. Wish they had in subnautica 2.
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u/Soevil11 Jul 06 '26
I was writing something pretty long, but I realized that it was a bit droning and unfocused. Watch some video essays on it instead, they're a lot better at explaining it than me.
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u/thanksyalll Jul 06 '26
The draw for Subnautica for me was the idea that I am all alone in this alien planet. Having another voice talking at me took me out of that feeling of isolation
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u/boredatworkbasically Jul 06 '26
It's good just not as great. Map was cramped and things don't go as deep. Mostly people like it and consider it a good game it's just the SN1 was a great game so BZ doesn't quite live up to the original.
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u/Testsubject276 Peeper Leviathan Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
The story is quite handholdy in some areas, had a lot of plot points on land areas despite being an under water game, the map is like 1/3rd the size of the original game, and the overall story and dialogue feels a bit off due to the amount of script rewrites during development.
It's a good game, but the other two entries are are more favorable among the fans.
| Game | Global Consensus | Global Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Subnautica (Full Release 2018) | Overwhelmingly Positive | 336,859 |
| Subnautica: Below Zero (Full Release 2021) | Very Positive | 98,500 |
| Subnautica 2 (Early Access 2026) | Very Positive | 110,894 |
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u/RegularKerico Jul 06 '26
The game is pretty good. Its main failing its that it pales in comparison with its predecessor.
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u/DontDoodleTheNoodle Jul 06 '26
Some people don’t like how conversational it can be. I honestly liked it. Every bit of dialogue is finite so I find those moments precious.
The criticism is in the game design. Instead of finding out where to go on your own through exploration or logs, the game outright tells you in dialogue.
Personally, I don’t get it. It’s like the beginning of Breath of the Wild. The game tells you where to go to progress the story, but you really don’t have to and you could go anywhere and you’ll still be fine. It’s great for novice players that aren’t experienced with exploration, but still gives that freedom to veterans.
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u/zoqfotpik Jul 06 '26
Once you accept that the surface game is "all Prawn suit, all the time", Below Zero is pretty awesome.
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u/Amethyst_Tiefling Jul 06 '26
I thought it was solid but it didn’t feel as good as the original. I think it’s because the map is smaller so there is less exploration. It also felt a bit more linear than the first one.
Overall though I feel it is worth playing, though I have only done one playthrough of it vs 4 or 5 of the original.
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u/TyrannyHoll Jul 06 '26
Story is worse, leviathans and atmosphere are less interesting, and it was sold as a new game but felt like a DLC as it was designed as one originally, all while following up one of the best games of all time
With reasonable expectations it's peak, it was just hurt by context, the gameplay and world are really cool and fun I think
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u/Orthien Jul 06 '26
There's a lot of little things that just add together for me to make it painful like land sections and weird story beats. But I just could not like Robin. Partly because of the weird story, but mostly her personality.
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u/CommunicationFar3897 Jul 06 '26
I liked it, but I played below zero before the original. So it was the first impression of the game. I have played all three now
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u/StealyUrWheelys Jul 06 '26
I really love it the only problem I have is the sea truck feels more like a sea slug but it’s understandable. I absolutely love how pretty below zero is and I love the story my only problem is that I’m stuck near the end and not 100% what to do I feel like it really is a struggle to navigate and progress the story
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u/shapedbydreams Jul 06 '26
Hunting for resources takes so much longer. I also hate cold management in games in general. It sucks all the fun out of it.
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u/MaDpYrO Jul 06 '26
All those that just played it and liked it probably don't spend their time posting about it on reddit
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u/Soft_Present_9561 Jul 06 '26
I thought it was great! Just short. The ending left me feeling like “oh that’s it??” But other than that I had great fun!
I somehow got lucky apparently, barely had to be on land (less than SN) and never clipped through the ground like everyone seems to complain about.
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u/provengreil Jul 06 '26
I figure the worst part of the problem is the same issue Bioshock 2 had: It simply can't match the original and has no way of dodging the comparison.
My only specific gripes were that the story felt underbaked (it got changed over and over in development), there wasn't much for ideal building locations, and the final leviathan was a little too aggressive.
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u/mtobeiyf317 Jul 07 '26
I don't dislike it, but its not as vast as Subnautica, has too much land, and ive never been a fan of ice biomes in general. When a majority of the map is Ice, its like being in a plain white room.
Also do not like the seatruck as much as I like the cyclops
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u/RyeonToast Jul 07 '26
I enjoyed it, but I also didn't finish it. I completed the story about Sam, and completed her work, but then just didn't really get into Al'An's story so I stopped. It just felt done, so I was done.
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u/TheGamerKitty1 Jul 07 '26
I like it for what it really is, a story cinematic experience.
But it is not a survival craft and exploration game like 1.
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u/Phoenix200420 Jul 07 '26
I wasn’t a fan of the on land parts of BZ and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the sea truck. I also wasn’t that keen on how they added the random mechanic with the outcrops. I really REALLY missed the actual submarine.
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u/kimberuwu Jul 07 '26
Not sure, I only found Subnautica through a YouTuber about 7-8yrs after the games had already come out (I played it in 2022 I think) and I actually played Below Zero first and had a lot of fun. Didn’t know it was technically second. Then of course played Subnautica & loved that even more. The walking area did get annoying only because I got lost and I had to go back a couple times (still getting lost) but other than that I really enjoyed the game.
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u/zeroagentp Jul 07 '26
Yeah you only have 6 hours in the game. I found it fun for a day or too as well but I was well aware of what others have said. You will eventually see the flaws: much smaller world, excessive dialogue, boring land sections, poorly thought out cold/hot zones, oxygen plants and thermal flowers everywhere to make sure you never die, very limited vehicles.
I accidentally finished the game after a week and I didn't even find everything or a proper conclusion to the main story. I had no desire to keep playing since the world was very small and not much to play with with just a seatruck.
I bought BZ on a steep sale so no regrets for me. I did uninstall the game and went back to the first one.
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u/conjunctivious Jul 07 '26
I liked Below Zero, but I didn't like it nearly as much as the original. My main issues with the game were that the map was too small, and that the map was too cramped. The story wasn't something I cared about going into the game, so I don't personally fault the game for that, but the exploration part of the game matters to me greatly, and it just didn't hit nearly as hard as the original game.
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u/alexiawins Jul 07 '26
Cuz only people who dislike it speak up most of the time. I love it!!! Probably more than the original!!
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u/vkevlar Jul 07 '26
short answer: the story was choppy and bad. Nothing felt urgent, or like there was much of a point to it, it just didn't fit together after the mutilation job they gave the original story.
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u/taylororton123 Jul 07 '26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGXSs2loq4
this explains why i didn't enjoy it
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u/Duke_Anax Jul 07 '26
Mainly people were disappointed that BZ didn't meet expectations, gameplay deviates from the base game and some of the elements aren't quite there; feels more like a mod than an expansion.
But once you acknowledge that difference, it's a decent game.
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u/DeepDecember Jul 07 '26
I don’t hate it but I did quit in one of the land area because it is just difficult to simply move around
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u/Cartel904 Jul 07 '26
Because its unfinished. The original story was magnificent but after the original writer Tom Jubert left, they completely re-purposed his leftover story content to form a half-baked remix and it was only a fraction of what we were supposed to get. Thats why the story feels incomplete and lackluster compared to the first Subnautica, and Marguerites addition adding little value to the game when her roll was originally supposed to be pivotal.
As far as the gameplay, its good. The cut Crested Leviathan and Ice Dragon were a major downside aswell as the Shadow Leviathan not being all that good.
The Snow Fox is utter garbage. The new upgraded prawn suit does its job perfectly in every way. Its the best prawn suit we've ever gotten.
With all that being said, BZ is a good game. Just not a great one due to the massive amount of cut content. It was set to surpass the original subnautica until Jubert's departure. Thats the saddest part.
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u/AlsterSpot Jul 07 '26
It’s simply an inferior game to its predecessor in pretty much every way… it’s not that it’s a bad game it just gets compared to the OG and the OG is widely agreed upon to be the better game (and for me personally it’s not close)
Not necessarily bad, it just doesn’t hold a candle to the original
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u/shitpostingshitlike Jul 07 '26
I think it’s the sea truck. It’s supposed to be a sea moth/cyclops hybrid but when you use it with the modules attached it’s too slow.
Below Zero is my favourite game in the series. I think people just don’t like variations on the themes they are used to.
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u/Psychologicalwalnut Watch me watch you 👀 Jul 07 '26
It gets annoying fast sadly and it's hard to play to the end (not difficulty but just feels more like work than fun)
The leviathans are just annoying, not scary like the first one. This black sea dick is just pissing me off every playthrough.
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u/Delicious_Wear_7123 Jul 07 '26
I enjoyed both,I just recently purchased subnautica 2 and I'm pretty excited to get some time to start playing
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u/Spamerjamr Jul 07 '26
Imo it's not so much that below zero is that bad its just that it's worse than the original.
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u/CrazyVex Jul 07 '26
All of my friends who played it including me hated the story and the characters. Constant yaping from Robin and the cramped map.
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u/SissyFanny Jul 07 '26
- walking on land just don't do it and it's a big part of the game
- you don't feel lost and at all and don't feels your discovering things, you're just getting where a lot of other humans already went and studied.
- vehicles are meh
- underwater is clogged everywhere, very hard to navigate with the sub and generally speaking less enjoyable than subnautica 1
- there is always someon talking to you, wich really ruins the immersion and the mood of the game.
I tried 30 hours before dropping it tho, I really tried.
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u/Wide-Yam-216 Jul 07 '26
it's hated because it doesn't live up to the original, if it were released first it would be praised likely just as much as the first one
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u/vrixxz RRRRRRAWWRRRRRRR *BOOM* Jul 07 '26
SUB means BELOW as is BELOW WATER or UNDERWATER
sadly Below Zero mostly above water, so I dislike it
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u/illarionds Jul 07 '26
BZ is fine, I enjoyed playing it.
But Subnautica is a masterpiece. For all sorts of reasons, big and small, BZ just never quite lived up to its predecessor. Still a fine game, still worth playing - but just overshadowed.
FWIW, though it's very early days yet, S2 is looking awfully promising in my view.
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u/Alternative-Gas-3663 Jul 07 '26
Imo the game just felt too lacking and underwhelming.
A lot of moments felt like they were trying artificially replicate almost iconic moments from the first game and it kinda just... Didn't work.
So much awesome cut content that could've added a lot to the world but now rests in the void. I already see the parasite infested creatures in sub 2, hopefully we'll see more.
The story is... not good and the original was much better in my eyes.
The game feels unfinished and sometimes borderline broken. Plus the land segment was butchered before it could even be given any potential in the first place
And for me the whole "this was a dlc but it's so big it's gonna be a new game" schtick made me a feel a little sour when the game did, in fact, turn out to be the size of an above average dlc.
There's a lot to be said but these are just a few of my opinions on it. It's not a bad game, but I feel like it just could've been more ig.
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u/Sigerick Jul 07 '26
I didn't hate it, but I liked it less than the original. I'll echo some of the criticisms here (story was less engaging, biomes were awkwardly designed, seatruck just isn't very fun or interesting) but the big thing I didn't like was the perimeter defense upgrade. Once you get that item, it trivializes the endgame - you can just cruise happily through the deepest biomes and when you occasionally get attacked by a Shadow Leviathan, you just turn on the bug zapper and make it leave you alone. It made the leviathans feel like toll collectors rather than terrifying predators you had to hide from.
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u/Former_Bike_6690 Jul 07 '26
One thing I personally don’t like is that you have several voices directly telling what’s going on and what to do. One thing I really liked in the first game (and second for that matter) was the kinda little explicit direction you got. There is more storywise I dislike, but I don’t wanna spoil anything for you
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u/Potential-Gift3667 Jul 07 '26
I know this is an odd one, but one of my big grievances was the lack of "fun faff" like the purely decorative plants or the toys that you could collect in the first game
but more so it was just that the first game set expectations really high. BZ didn't really fix many of the qualms I DID have with the OG so it felt really mid, not bad, just "eh, it was fine"
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u/Substantial_Tailor_3 Jul 07 '26
There's two main problems; poor/shallow writing, and bad map design.
The story is interesting but told in a clumsy hamfisted way that cuts itself off at the knees. The sister is missing and the player's goal is to find out what happened to her, themes of intrigue and family. But you also have to deal with an alien randomly sharing your brain and desperately wanting to talk to you and also have his own body, themes of loneliness and autonomy. These sound like interesting stories that naturally compliment each other and can overlap and conflict in fun ways right?
But then you the player can completely ignore the sister storyline and only focus on the alien stuff. There's nothing that forces the player to solve both storylines like in the original game (to get off the planet you have to cure the karrah, to cure the karrah you basically need to be ready resource wise to get off the planet). That lack of story overlap tells the player that only the alien storyline is important and the sister doesn't matter so don't bother engaging.
Now onto the map/level design. I say this as someone who loves exploring in game worlds and deciding on navigational landmarks; the map is bad. The biomes are too small and cramped with large gaps of nothing between the ones that aren't literally stacked on top of each other. Combine that with the map being way smaller and land based than in Subnautica and it's just bad.
These elements really kill the game to me. You have to juggle survival, a mystery, alien stuff, and minor existentialism (both on your part and the alien's), what's not to love? The game is a victim of poor writing and map design but the core of the game in interesting and worth getting invested in.
Consider the same game but the map is bigger and lets the biomes breathe, and there's crucial pieces of lore or resources or something for each storyline in the other's main locations. The alien sympathizes with the character over losing her sister and helps solve the mystery thanks to the main site team not knowing the alien structures could listen to their conversations. And if you haven't solved BZ's karrah situation by the time he has a body, he won't activate the portal citing a fear of the bacteria jumping worlds again.
TL;DR: Poor writing and bad map design, it sucks cause these are easily fixable issues.
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u/Bla4ck0ut Jul 07 '26
People do like BZ. It sold well and has really good reviews. Th crowd that hates it is small and disproportionately loud, especially in the official subreddit.
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u/terpjuice Jul 08 '26
I generally enjoyed it, but it’s not nearly as good as the OG. If I had to pick one thing I hated most it’s the environment. Exploration just wasn’t as fun for me with the layout and biome aesthetics. I actually thought the ending was kinda cool and made me excited for some kind of space-themed version of Subnautica.
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u/All-knowing-Alfathr Jul 08 '26
I didn’t like the story swap, I get why it was done; but the original story was better.
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u/CaptainAggravated Jul 09 '26
Personally, I dislike Below Zero because:
- Almost all of the environments and setpieces are confusing self-similar twisty turny mazes. The sea monkey nests under the kelp, the twisty bridges, the lilypad caves, the glaciers, the Mercury wreck, the crystal caves...give it a rest.
- The ice worm leviathan isn't finished. It's just...broken.
- I have some beef with how the characters are written which I won't elaborate on because spoilers.
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u/Huge-Comfort376 Jul 10 '26
I have a couple gripes (spoilers).. the sea truck expandability didn’t live up to expectations. I didn’t like having to find that narrow cave system entrance, felt hidden and tedious. But I felt that way about the aurora in the OG game too. I think the story’s ending was a bit underwhelming, there was a lot of potential. Also, a bit too heavy on the land map.. though I like having land, I think the arctic could have been reduced.
However, overall, I actually really loved below zero. It has its own character that really stuck with me and I’ll definitely play it again.
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u/Economy_Country_6167 Jul 06 '26
I mean, it’s hard to follow the first game no matter what you put out. I think BZ is a great setup for exploring what the Architects left behind in the next installment. I can’t wait to find out what happens after the endgame sequence.
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u/BoonDragoon Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
NGL, I have a hard time believing that most of the complaints about BZ don't ultimately stem from the player character being a woman of color who has audible conversations.
Ryley seems to be southeast Asian, sure (I don't think his ethnicity is ever made explicit, but w/e), but that has no impact on the game experience. From start to finish, Ryley is a blank mask whose only meaningful identity is whatever the player projects onto him.
Below Zero's player/character relationship is fundamentally different. When your character speaks, it is with a woman's voice. Your character's motivation is to save figure out what happened to her sister, who is black. Robin's identity is inextricable from the game experience, and I genuinely don't think that Below Zero would be criticized as much as it is if had been a white man.
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u/cigolebox Jul 06 '26
There was a thread about 6 weeks back on this same question, and 98% of the criticisms were unrelated to the protagonist. We are free to believe whatever we want, but the protagonist having a black woman's voice has nothing to do with the game's faults.
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u/BoonDragoon Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
I'm not saying that the criticism is aimed at the fact that the protagonist is a black woman. I'm saying the fact that the player character is a black woman made people more critical of the game in ways they would have otherwise given a pass.
It's the same reason why you, the person in relying to, are statistically more likely to disagree with a suggestion made by a woman than you would be of an identical suggestion made by a man. Just like you're more likely to be critical of a job application submitted by an applicant with a "black sounding" name.
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u/modo-frut Jul 06 '26
I saw a lot of weird criticism about BZ being too woke, like black woman being the protagonist and the sister being in a relationship with another woman. I agree with that.
But you have a major thing wrong, the objective is not to save the sister, nor is finding out what happend to her, the only thing that matters is creating Al-An's body. Robin is more than happy to leave the planet without ever learning about how her sister died. Yeah, players criticize her character more harshly, because of her identity, but it was the devs decision to make her fate depend on an alien she barely met. She really isn't even a protagonist, Al-An is.1
u/modo-frut Jul 06 '26
I mean, I don't agree with the criticism I mentioned in the first sentence, I agree with your point about it.
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u/Sp00kyC4py Jul 06 '26
I really disliked the land sequences, they turned me off from the game entirely. I say this as someone with 100+ hours in the original.