Subnautica 2 maker Unknown Worlds is adamant that its underwater survival series doesn’t push players towards violence.
Something that struck me about the first game is that it never gives players the tools to kill the deep sea aliens that won’t hesitate to turn you into breakfast. It’s a game about coexistence with the natural world, not the colonisation of it, and that philosophy extends to Subnautica 2 as well.
In a press briefing attended by Eurogamer, lead game designer Anthony Gallegos acknowledged that the game’s non-violent gameplay is a “point of resistance that we’ll get repeatedly while making the game, though we feel strongly about it.” The team at Unknown Worlds instead wants to take player feedback about potentially feeling defenseless and then “ideate on the means in which they can do that, but I think it’s an important and interesting constraint to challenge players on how they can avoid things.”
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Subnautica 2 is a survival game, sure. There’s an oxygen meter and a bunch of crafting opportunities and a sea of bloodthirsty beasts, but the devs also know that a big part of the game’s appeal is the nature itself. “We know a lot of fans treat this game like a David Attenborough Earth type thing, so we really wanted to deliver that as well,” Galligos said.
Speaking on why Subnautica strayed away from the rest of the genre’s focus on violence, Galligos explained that “when the Sandy Hook shooting happened in the United States, one of the studio founders Charlie Cleveland wanted to create a game that didn’t push violence” and that’s how it became “a core tenant of the Subnautica franchise.”
Unknown Worlds doesn’t want players to feel like “a conqueror or dominator” while exploring the ocean, despite the fact that they begin the game on a colony ship that likely houses weapons, though the studio plans “on tackling that in the story over time.”
Subnautica 2 dev knows “pirates are gonna do their thing,” but would rather people play for an hour “and return it than go play it illicitly”
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