Unknown Worlds has been dealing with criticism regarding the inability in Subnautica 2 to kill some of its larger underwater fauna. The developers have taken to the game’s official Discord server to explain their reasoning. One level designer said that Subnautica 2 was meant to be a game where players didn’t hunt down the larger underwater creatures, and that they should play another survival crafting game if that’s what they want to do.
“We aren’t a killing game,” wrote the level designer. “Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill.”
The response has caught further criticism, with many Subnautica 2 fans taking to Reddit to discuss the developer’s response. “What’s the point of Early Access if you’re just going to not take criticism or feedback,” wrote one Reddit user.
Others, however, have pointed out that wanting feedback from players doesn’t necessarily mean that Unknown Worlds will change its core design philosophy for Subnautica 2. “‘We want your feedback” is not the same thing as ‘we will cave to every request you make’,” they wrote. “If everyone went to the Early Access and was like ‘we want it to be an FPS, but like set the game on Earth in the modern day’, would they be in the wrong to say ‘go play [Call of Duty] instead’?”
“Am I the only one who thinks the no-killing is fine?” asked another Reddit user.
It is worth noting that the previous two entries in the Subnautica franchise – Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero – have allowed players to kill the larger underwater creatures, dubbed the Leviathans. However, those games still made the process a challenging ordeal.
Interestingly, the community seems to have taken it upon itself to create a mod that allows players to engage the underwater fauna of Subnautica 2 in combat. One mod, named Killable Creatures, allows players to kill just about anything, from Hammerheads to Nibblers, and even larger creatures, like the Collector.
Subnautica 2‘s Early Access release, happening just last week, was met with near-instant success, with Unknown Worlds announcing that it had sold more than 2 million copies of the game in just 12 hours after its release. The studio has also confirmed that it has plenty of content in development for the survival game with a roadmap.
The first major update following the Early Access launch will revolve around quality of life features, with improvements planned for the Biomods system, Blight encounters, Wrecks gameplay, the PDA databank, and more. It will be followed up by another major update that will bring in co-op-centric improvements to HUD signals and the Base Builder tool.
In the future, Unknown Worlds wants to expand the in-game world with new biomes, creatures, resources, tools, vehicles, and the next chapter of the story it is trying to tell.
Subnautica 2 is currently only available on PC and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, take a look at our Early Access review, where, while we praised its state at launch, we also kept in mind that the game will likely see several improvements down the line.
