Last night I completed Subnautica and I've got to say it's a game that I thoroughly enjoyed playing from start to finish.

I got my first taste while it was Xbox Gamepass and I had a trial sub, so played the first hour or so before my sub lapsed back to Gold...

Then it was given away with Epic but I had a potato of a laptop so that wasn't great (but it did force me into being a patient gamer as I now have a whole host of games that I've bought that I can play including DOS2, X-Com and POEE2!).

I finally built myself an adequate gaming rig a month or so ago and started up Subnautica again and it was as great as I played it on the Xbox.

Now, to caveat the following, I will say that I played the game in freedom mode to avoid any hunger/thirst as that's not an aspect of gaming I'm a fan of.

What I really liked about this game is the sense of wonder as you get to explore the planet and the different biomes, starting out in the relative calm of the Safe Shallows and just trying to get the materials to get some basic gear together...then you get a radio message with some directions - and it's off into the blue unknown to search for other survivors! This is one of the aspects I really liked, the game never pushes you forward (except at one point) and so lets you take it at your own pace but there is always somewhere to go and explore to move the plot forwards, and in order to move explore further you have to go a a bit deeper, and a bit further afield from your lifepod, and in doing so, you discover more materials and blueprints, that lets you go further and deeper, all the while finding more tidbits of various stories about the planet you crashed on.

I really liked the lore of the planet and the different parties involved and what happened to them - it gave you a real sense of discovery at each turn and kept the game fresh and fun.

Crafting was in-depth enough that there was enough ingredients to find and areas to make stuff to gate progress, but not so many stations that I needed to do a small relay amongst stations to build what I needed.

Scanners - a great idea in a game where you need resources of a specific type - this was a huge help when I needed to find smaller, less obvious ingredients (stalker teeth anyone?)

The need to go deeper and push further was also great, before going into a new area I had a real sense of trepidation as I was about to embark on the next stage, which gave way to wonder at the sights and creatures on display.

What I didn't like - bugs, one in particular nearly made me quit the game - instead I ended up cheating to get back the suit I'd had to leave behind (sorry about the vagueness, trying to avoid giving too much away)

Part of the game that made me start taking the game seriously - pootling around in my Seamoth, when I espy some wreckage I want to scan, so I leave the Seamoth and am happily scanning away when suddenly I hear a scream, and everything goes black...I awake back at my seabase and start to head back to pick up my (newly upgraded) seamoth to see it's icon slowly being dragged down to the depths before *blip* the icon disappears... I booked it out of that area so quickly on my seaglide!

To be fair, I also never lost a single vehicle again after that (due to the game, not bugs that is!)

I don't usually stick to a game to completion, especially with open world, crafting games, my Terraria and Starbound saves will attest to that, but this game had the right amount of crafting and story telling to keep me pushing forwards to the end (once I turned off hunger, that's not my idea of fun TBH).

I don't normally post such a gushing review about a game (or anything for that matter) but thought that this game really deserved it

I'm looking forward to hitting up Journey to the Savage Planet next!