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Have You Played... Subnautica?

Here fishy fishy

Undersea exploration in a Subnautica screenshot.
Image credit: Unknown Worlds Entertainment

Subnautica sees you play as the lone survivor of a space crew whose ship has crash-landed in the middle of a vast alien ocean. To survive, you'll need to dip into the sea and use your trusty knife to carve kelp and mine rocks to slowly kit yourself out in gear that'll help you survive betterer. But most importantly, dip furtherer.

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The game's watery expanse is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest survival game stages. It plays perfectly into those of us who've got a deep fear of the ocean, or both an affection and respect for what lurks beneath. The surface is a tranquil hub filled with rainbow coral and cute critters. And as you start gearing up, you're forced to probe further and further into a fishy world that still wriggles and writhes with life, yet falls more and more silent.

I will never forget the moment when the seabed vanished beneath my robo-pod for the first time, and I swiveled its torch downwards to reveal nothing but inkier black. All I could hear was the sound of the motor running, and as I tentatively pressed into the darkness, the muffled cry of some martian shark almost gave me a heart attack. To be honest, it's as much of a horror game as it is survival game, but don't let that put you off! This undersea adventure really is special.

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