Subnautica 2 is finally here, and although its launch has arguably been more than successful, with two million copies selling in just 12 hours and thousands of positive Steam reviews, not everyone is happy about the game's lack of violence.
You might be thinking, "Lack of violence? But what about the terrifying sea creatures that threaten to destroy you and your base?" Well, I'm talking "lack of violence" as in lack of our violence. We can't fight back or take on any of the beasts that lurk in the survival game's oft unforgiving waters, and a lot of folks wish we could.
So much so, in fact, that they asked Unknown Worlds over on Subnautica's official Discord server why.
They got a response – but it hasn't exactly gone over well with the community. "We aren't a killing game," a level designer replied. "Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill."
Well, other developers have thankfully fleshed this thought a bit more… reasonably. An environmental artist known as "uly," for instance, admits "there is a lot of focus internally on making dealing with creatures more robust and interesting."
He also says that "the conversation around the ways fish die isn't over," and "there are so many opinions." What does he hope the outcome is? "Personally, I am hoping we can eventually let the little fish die. I'm team no-kill-shark-sized-stuff tho."
That's a good middle ground, to be honest – it might feel a bit too overpowered if we're able to take on Leviathans. That doesn't mean Unknown Worlds isn't working to better deterrents, though.
"When you bump into a predator, you shouldn't be going, 'uuuuuugh, what a pain.' You should be going, 'Ah man… What tools do I have up my sleeve to deal with this guy?'" He continues, "You prob wont be able to kill the shark-sized stuff and larger, but you'll get tools to deter them. Killing little fish? I’m not in charge of that stuff, but it's an active discussion in the team."
Active discussion, eh? That's a start, considering all the current commotion. The artist isn't the only other dev to chime in on the matter, either.
Creative development lead Anthony Gallegos writes in the Discord to hopeful fans, "You're not ever getting actual weapons, sorry. Mods, I am sure will add it, but we're committed to offering more robust mitigation options with making you the sea dominator."
That doesn't mean Unknown Worlds isn't aware of the concerns that fans have regarding creatures.
"Which isn't to say we don't hear the frustrations with creatures people are having," as the lead puts it. "WE DO. We just want to pursue various other implementations and tuning."
He also seemingly suggests perhaps not building bases by predatory creatures. "Many, many more people than we ever saw in playtests have chosen base sites very close to predators or hammerheads. Whereas most of us chose to put our bases away from these."
Erm, yeah, I'd say it's probably better to be safe than sorry when it comes to picking a base location – but I do understand the other side of the coin, wanting to freely build without feeling as though you can't defend your base. This is a survival game, after all.
A different dev explains, "Killing fish and having gameplay tools to defend yourself and gameplay to prevent being harassed by fish are very different things," though.
He later adds that Unknown Worlds is "listening to all feedback, and we have certainly heard the feedback about wanting to kill creatures as well as the feedback about wanting more tools to deal with creatures annoying you" – but, of course, this still "doesn't mean we're going to do everything people ask for."
The team has to "figure out what aligns with both the game vision and player feedback," which is no simple feat.
It's a lot, admittedly, bouncing between what each dev has said thus far – but it does all seem to align quite well. It sounds like we likely won't ever be able to kill Leviathans, we might one day be able to tackle little fish, and we're getting better tools to deter all of the sea's life.
The team previously described how devs "feel strongly" about the sequel not being violent, so none of this is too surprising, honestly.
It's evident that Unknown Worlds is listening to us – and perhaps growing a bit tired of all of the "let us kill" sentiment – which is a decent start to remedying the violence vs. no violence shenanigans. At least, I sure do hope it is.
