After playing Subnautica pretty much constantly for a few days, I think I'm burned out on the current version of it. I've come across an increasing number of reminders that this is, in fact, an early access game, and that many things aren't complete yet. For example, quite a few objects have placeholder models or textures. Some radio signals lead to absolutely nothing, and only when I look them up online do I learn that they're meant for features that will be implemented in the future.
There are also some rough edges to the game that I think need polishing before an official release. For example, objects in the game world oftentimes aren't spawned/rendered until they're quite close to you. This can directly affect you, such as when a predator suddenly spawns right on top of you, out of thin air (well, water). For an example of this, see Gasbandit's earlier video. Another example would be a biome full of underwater mushrooms. The "stalks" of the mushrooms would spawn first, and then the "caps" of the mushrooms would only show up when you get close enough for them to appear. This means that if you're approaching from above, then it'll look like you have a clear path to that particular resource you want on the sea bed, so you head in that direction, when suddenly LOL NOPE you get blocked by a horizontal wall of mushroom caps.
Another annoying bug would be that underwater wrecks can sometimes double- or triple-spawn, as in the same wreck is spawned multiple times in the same place. Visually it would appear the same as the wreck spawning once, but in terms of gameplay the effect is that every door needs to be opened twice or thrice before you can go through. Not very pleasant when you're 100 meters underwater and burning through oxygen fast.
There are also quite a few minor visual or non-game-breaking bugs that I hope will be eliminated before the full release. For instance, pretty much everything can clip through underwater seabase modules. When it's just sea grass or the sea bed poking up through the floor, fine, that's not too hard to ignore. More disconcertingly, schools of fish can clip through the walls of your seabase. So you'll just be strolling through a corridor one fine day, when suddenly a whole bunch of bioluminescent tropical fish come zooming in through one wall like aquatic Hogwarts ghosts and then out the opposite wall.
Finally, there are some gameplay features that I think need adjusting to make the game more fun. One such feature is the fact that harvested resources do not respawn (with the possible exception of metal salvage), which means that you can easily end up harvesting everything in a region. When you're talking about mineral deposits, fine, it makes sense for them to be gone when they're all mined out. More disconcertingly though, fish can be depopulated entirely from a region. Apparently one guy is capable of eating enough fish over the course of a few days to drive them to extinction.
Despite these flaws though, it's still a good game. The world is visually spectacular and really fun to explore. Many times I've found myself audibly gasping or exclaiming something profane when I discovered something new and awesome. I'm done with Subnautica for now, but if it gets an official release that irons out these issues, I'll happily dive back in again.
