Currently two games exist in the Subnautica series, each letting the player explore and survive in a distinct area of ocean-covered alien planet 4546-B. The first game featured a lush tropical area while the second took place several years later at the planet’s polar ice cap.
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A job posting advertised on Unknown Worlds’ official social media outlines a position for a senior narrative designer, indicating that the applicant will join very early in the game’s development and be highly influential in the story. The post confirms that the game will be set in the same universe, but does not indicate whether it will be a direct sequel or spinoff. Subnautica is heavily narrative-driven, so a new writer has an opportunity to take the series in interesting directions. Interestingly, the posting specifies “a new science fiction world,” indicating that the game may be planned to take place on a planet other than 4546-B.
Given that Subnautica’s terrifying sci-fi universe contains many indications it could share a universe with Unknown Worlds’ earlier series Natural Selection, a new Subnautica entry could bring the parallels even closer together. Even though the Natural Selection series is focused on competitive play and Subnautica is single-player only, more connections between the games would create a deeper web of lore for fans to dive into, similarly to the way Half-Life shares its universe with Portal despite the games taking place in very different settings and tones.
The Subnautica series is famous for being built heavily relying on player feedback, with both games going through lengthy early access phases to ensure player opinions could be taken into account. Since the new game is in development it could be a long time before any more news breaks, but if Unknown Worlds keeps following the path of Early Access it may be in players’ hands sooner than some may expect. If the previous two Subnautica games are any indication, it will be worth the wait either way.
Even though survival games are a massively popular genre, there are still few games that handle the survival aspects in the same way that Subnautica does. The extra stress of time pressure by needing oxygen underwater and the imaginative yet believable alien worlds are tough to match, and the universe is ripe for many more stories to be told in it. Even with a new game possibly years away, the current Subnautica entries hide many secrets some players have yet to discover.
Subnautica is available now on macOS, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
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