Should You Play Subnautica 2 In Early Access? Well, It's Complicated

Early access in modern gaming can be difficult to resist because it monetizes FOMO by charging extra for early play. The first Subnautica succeeded with early access by launching unfinished in 2015 and then improving for three years based on player feedback. Subnautica 2’s earliest form already feels like it will change by the time it is finished, but the current experience may reduce patience for restarting later. The game lacks a repeatable loop and instead reaches a stopping point. Current frustrations include reduced personal storage, slower oxygen capacity improvement, and a linear fetch-quest narrative structure that may be replaced. Despite these issues, the game is already solid.

"There's a lot about Subnautica 2 right now that feels like it'll be long gone by the time the game is done. The far smaller amount of personal storage space than was available in the first game is a frustration, not a feature, and the massively decreased rate at which you can improve your oxygen capacity (you get to 75 seconds in the opening minutes of Sub1, but it takes literally hours here) is incredibly tiresome. I'm also very hopeful that the current narrative structure will be torn up and thrown away by the time the game is finished, given that at the moment it's a string of fetch quests handed out in the most linear way possible."

Read at Kotaku