Subnautica 2’s Next Major Update Adds “the Scariest Region We’ve Ever Done,” Frog Mechs and a Long-Awaited Dash Tweak

All aboard for “early access 2.0”

The briskly wet open-world survival game Subnautica 2 is setting sail on its “voyage to early access 2.0” — developer Unknown Worlds’ enthusiastic term for the next round of updates, which will bring a new region, a new creature and the Tadpole chassis, along with some tweaks to biomods and creature behaviour.

I enjoy Subnautica 2 and am glad to see Unknown Worlds appear to have found some stability after all the layoffs and ChatGPT-assisted legal wrangling over publisher earn-outs, but I genuinely dislike “early access 2.0”. I know other teams use nomenclature like this, but honestly, what even is time anymore? You can’t make a sequel to something you haven’t finished. It’s 8.30 in the morning, Unknown Worlds, and I already have a migraine. Let’s move swiftly on to talk of the spooky new regions.

In the first of a new vlog series, creative director Anthony Gallegos calls the next big Subnautica 2 patch “the most substantial update we’ve done since release”. The new region is described as “one of our scariest regions we’ve ever done — it’s dark, it’s threatening, and it’s really beautiful, all at the same time. It’s an odd juxtaposition.” Given how much of existing Subnautica 2 is already dark, beautiful and threatening, I’m keen to see how they plan to raise the stakes.

The new region will arrive alongside fresh servings of Příběh for both the human colonists and the other beings. The team is also adding a couple more biomods — the game’s plug-in special abilities — along with a new round room for bases, so that you can revel in the sensation of being equidistant from every wall. Then there’s the new Tadpole chassis, the Frog — a cousin of the original game’s Prawn Suit, which gives your diminutive submersible arms and legs.

As for what’s being tweaked, the standout change is that you’ll be able to dash while wearing fins rather than having to equip a dash biomod. The Collector Leviathan (now a guest star in Dave the Diver) is also being given some new tricks. Since the Collector is something of an octopus, I’d love it if the beast could squidge into something small enough to slip through hand-sized gaps, limited only by the size of its beak. Actually, I would not love this. I would not love it at all.

Unknown Worlds have not shared dates for any of this. Are you still playing? And what is your least favourite marketing buzzword for a game development thingy?