I loved playing the game, but when I went back for a second playthrough it didn't have the same spark. I knew I needed an edge to get me back to that happy place where I was consistently crapping myself from fear. Bless whoever thought up Hardcore mode. Highlights, with spoilers:

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• Reapers were fucking terrifying again. I went out of my way to get the Cyclops before visiting the Aurora, so I could just terror-drive past Sammy and park in the ship's mouth. On the way in he passed alongside so close that one of his grappler arms clipped through the cockpit. I just about ruined a brand-new pair of lounge pants from the fear shitting.
• I was going about my business moving gathered resources out of the Cyclops into my shallows base. I dropped out of the hatch, there were suddenly a herd of Gasopods who had already fear-shat and filled the water with acid poison horribleness. Went from 100 health to 25 in about half a second before I could clear the cloud. Never have I pulled up the inventory and used a medpack so fast.
• At one point in the Lost River, I was eating Marblemelons from the growbed I'd built in the Cyclops when I clipped through the Goddamn floor. And the water physics didn't trigger, so I "fell" ten meters, lost half my health slamming into a tree root, and kept going straight for the brine. I hit ESC, told my wife I was about to lose the save because of a bug, and then had a Golden Ray of Hope moment: the acid brine! Anywhere else in the game I might have been totally screwed, but the acid brine is a separate water layer inside the bigger one. I unpaused, used a medpack on the way down, and when I hit the brine the water physics turned back on and I Seaglided back into the Cyclops like my ass was on fire. Manually backed up the save after that, though there was no need to scum.
• Wreck hunting in the Dunes, I left my Prawn sitting just outside the door of a large wreck. There was one of the Reapers nearby - Wrex or Deimos, just eyeballing it - but he was quite a distance above me and seemed uninterested. I went into the wreck, did my business. As I got within five meters of the exit, I heard a bloodcurdling Reaper scream and Prawn alarms. The fucking bastard had snatched the suit up and was chewing on it. When he was done with it, it didn't sink back to the bottom, just hung there in mid-ocean! I seriously considered saying "fuck it" and driving away, but I'd grown attached to it. So I Seaglided back to the Cyclops, brought it up near the Prawn, launched a decoy, and then Seaglided into the Prawn to bring it back inside, quietly screaming to myself so I wouldn't wake my children as the Reaper screamed bloody murder at me.
• After I finally got my Lost River base up and running, I went for the Laboratory Cache. Tangled with Casper, repaired the breaches he gave me, and got all the way there before I realized I'd left the Orange Tablet in my Goddamn base. Turned back around, snuck past Casper successfully this time, grabbed the Tablet... After that I put a Fabricator in my Cyclops so I could just manufacture the damn things if I forgot them. Also made it so I didn't have to leave the Inactive Lava Zone to fabricate the extra blue tablet necessary to get to the Sea Emperor.
• This was not a near-death experience, but after spending multiple in-game days getting set up in the Lost River, going to meet the Emperor, etc., I finally pulled my Cyclops back in to a triumphant return to my home base in the shallows... and it was full of water. Something had punched multiple holes in the Scanner Room. Never did figure out what, and it happened again as I was returning to build the Escape Rocket. Maybe that aforementioned herd of Gasopods? Can acid clouds damage bases? Anyway, just a fun "how long was I gone?" moment.
• I didn't set out to visit every wreck or anything like that, but I just could not for the life of me find the Goddamn Cyclops Depth Upgrade blueprint, and, well, I ended up visiting every Large Wreck looking for it. Its location? The Goddamn Dunes, of course. "Are you sure whatever you're doing is worth it?" GO TO HELL