Subnautica 2 Early Access Review: Better in Every Way

This Subnautica 2 Early Access review lands on an 8 – Great, and the reason matters: judged as what it actually is, the opening chapter of a years-long Early Access project, what Unknown Worlds has shipped is excellent. A brilliant new progression system, gorgeous Unreal Engine 5 oceans, and co-op that enhances the series instead of diluting it. For returning Subnautica players who know what an Early Access start is, it’s an easy recommendation.

What Is Subnautica 2?

Subnautica 2 is the third entry in Unknown Worlds’ underwater survival series and the first built from the ground up for co-op. It leaves the original’s Planet 4546B behind for a new world, the ocean moon Proteus, where you wake from cryosleep alone in deep water after your colony ship breaks apart overhead. The familiar loop is intact (scavenge, build, dive deeper, survive), but nearly every system beneath it has been redesigned. The headline addition is four-player co-op with full crossplay, built as a single-player game you can add people into, so the first game’s isolation is still here if you want it.

Subnautica 2 Early Access Gameplay

The survival loop is instantly familiar: manage oxygen, hunger and thirst, craft tools, extend your safe depth, and uncover what happened before you arrived. What’s changed is the sense of purpose. Exploration almost always rewards you with a recipe, a resource node, or a signal pointing somewhere worth going. There is still no in-game map or minimap, a deliberate and divisive choice that keeps you learning the ocean by landmark and instinct. If you want a reference without breaking that in-game purity, we’ve built an interactive Subnautica 2 map for pinning biomes, wrecks, and resources on a second screen.

The early-game centrepiece is the Tadpole, a compact submersible with a modular chassis you swap to change its role, from nimble scout to multi-seat co-op hauler. The one real friction point is the early economy: a tight inventory and brisk battery drain that turn long dives into supply runs. It’s actively being patched, though, and the late-May hotfix already added more early-region resources to smooth the opening hours.

Exploration & World Design

Proteus is a planet-sized ocean moon orbiting a ringed gas giant, and the game never lets you forget it: surface above the waterline and the planet hangs enormous in the sky. The launch slice is a deliberate opening chapter, with more regions, creatures, and tools promised across the Early Access window; push too far and you hit a translucent border that openly tells you the world expands later. What’s here is well-crafted, from the deceptively calm Sparse Plains to the eerie, wreck-strewn Graveyard, with a spreading bacterium called the Blight making affected areas more hostile the deeper you go.

Creature work is the highlight. The Collector Leviathan is the standout, an enormous intelligent cephalopod with four hunting tentacles that patrols the open water you keep needing to cross. You can’t kill it, only avoid, distract, or outrun it, and a grab outside a vehicle is an instant kill. The pack-hunting Shiver waits beyond the current border, with the Great Jaw and rare Deepwing Brooder rounding out the leviathans. None of the original’s creatures return; this is a confident, clean-slate ecosystem.

The BioMod System & Progression

This is the system that earns Subnautica 2 its score. BioMod, genetic modification using harvested alien DNA, was cut from the original and returns here as a full progression layer: scan a creature, take a DNA sample with the Biosampler, then process it at a Bio Lab into an injectable upgrade. Mods range from active abilities like a dash or short-range camouflage to passives like pressure tolerance and oxygen efficiency, and you can’t run them all at once, so it plays like a build. The ocean stops being an obstacle you out-gear and becomes the source of your evolution, which is the clearest sign this is its own game, not a remake.

Upgrade pacing is slow in the current build, and the catalogue shifts patch to patch, which is exactly why we keep a Subnautica 2 item and creature database tracking scan sources, recipes, and mod effects as they change. The good news: The 1.0 Release will expand passive slots so you can equip multiple at once, lifting the build-flexibility ceiling. The idea is one of the best the genre has produced in years, and it’s being actively deepened.

Base Building in Subnautica 2 Early Access

Base building is rebuilt from scratch around the Habitat Builder and a large library of recipe-based parts, more granular than the original’s free-snap approach. It shines in co-op: bases are shared and storage is pooled, so four divers can feed off one stash (just play with people you trust, since nothing stops a partner raiding your lockers). The one rough edge is onboarding, which is thin on guidance for a system this deep; our Subnautica 2 guides cover the parts the game doesn’t, from your first habitat to power and defence.

Co-op & Multiplayer

The series’ first official multiplayer supports up to four players with crossplay and no PvP, and it adds real dimension: one player diving deep while another runs the base, two scouts trading discoveries over voice chat. There’s no enforced proximity, so solo isolation is fully preserved if you want it. Some launch-window connection instability is being patched steadily, but co-op already reads as a true enhancement rather than a compromise, an option that never forces itself on you.

Subnautica 2 Early Access Story & World

The premise is strong: Alterra’s Pioneer programme sent 40,000 colonists toward a promised new home aboard the CICADA, until the ship’s AI, the Noetic Advisor, altered course and the vessel broke apart over Proteus. Your character is silent, so NoA becomes the main voiced presence, guiding you while insisting the mission continue no matter how hostile the planet clearly is, and whether it’s helping or steering you is a central mystery. You fill in the rest through logs detailing the colonists’ decline, the toll of Masefield Syndrome, and ruins hinting at a far older civilisation.

It’s atmospheric and well-built, with enough laid down to make the coming chapters worth anticipating, but the Early Access caveat is sharpest here: the narrative simply runs out partway through. We don’t dock the score for it, because nobody starts a Subnautica Early Access expecting a finished story; the first game shipped its narrative in pieces over years too. Veterans will read this as a strong opening hand. If you’re new and want a complete arc out of the gate, this isn’t it yet.

Visuals & Performance

The jump to Unreal Engine 5, the first time the series has left Unity, is a clear generational step up. Bioluminescent creatures cast real light, vents glow through murky water with genuine depth, and the gas giant overhead turns the surface into something you stop to stare at. The asterisk is performance: UE5’s overhead is real and mid-range hardware will feel it, though DLSS and FSR help meaningfully and Unknown Worlds has confirmed optimisation is part of the ongoing patch run. A few expected options are still missing, but the brisk hotfix cadence suggests that won’t last.

Audio

Ben Prunty returns to compose, and his synth-leaning score fits the alien ocean perfectly while knowing when to vanish; the deep stretches of Proteus are often near-silent, letting tension build before the music arrives. Creature audio is the real triumph: the Collector’s approach has a signature shift that has you checking your surroundings before you’ve consciously registered why.

Subnautica 2 Early Access Review: Is It Worth Buying Now?

Subnautica 2 will stay in Early Access for roughly two to three years, with new regions, creatures, and story chapters arriving as free updates. The current build runs around 20-plus hours and grows from there. And the model is refreshingly clean: $29.99 (rising closer to 1.0), all content updates free, and no battle passes or microtransactions of any kind, a stated commitment rather than a launch promise. It’s also Day-1 on Game Pass, and it’s clearly resonated, selling roughly 2 million copies in the first 12 Hours since Subnautica 2 Early Access Launch.

The Verdict: Subnautica 2 Early Access Review

After a development period that would have sunk most games, a public fight with its publisher, the removal of its founders, repeated delays, Unknown Worlds has shipped something not just promising but genuinely excellent right now. The BioMod system is a real innovation, the rebuilt base building is the best the series has offered, the visuals deliver on the new engine, and co-op adds to the experience without dismantling what made the original special. The caveats are real (slow progression, demanding performance, an unfinished story), but each is either shrinking under the patch cadence or simply the nature of an Early Access start.

So it comes down to who you are. For returning Subnautica players, this is a clear 8, a superb taste of what’s coming from a team visibly delivering on it, and worth buying in now. If you’re brand new and need a complete, polished, story-driven experience, wishlist it and wait for the full launch. Either way, this score reflects the game as it plays in May 2026 and will be revisited at 1.0.

MetaForge Score – 8 – Great!

Pros & Cons

• BioMod DNA system is one of the genre’s best progression ideas in years
• Rebuilt modular base building with deep customisation and full co-op support
• Series-best UE5 visuals, with stunning bioluminescent depths
• Optional 4-player crossplay co-op that preserves the solo atmosphere
• Honest model: $29.99, no microtransactions ever, free updates, Day-1 Game Pass
• Fast patch cadence already smoothing early-game friction

• BioMod progression pacing is slow in the current build
• UE5 performance is demanding on mid-range hardware
• The story stops mid-thread, a real wall for series newcomers
• Co-op had launch-window instability and is still the rougher part

More Resources

Starting your descent onto Proteus? Our Subnautica 2 coverage can help you find your way, plan your builds, and track every item in the game:

• Subnautica 2 Interactive Map: Biomes, Wrecks & Resource Locations
• Subnautica 2 Database: Items, Creatures & Crafting Recipes
• Subnautica 2 Guides: Survival, Base Building & Progression
• Everything We Know About Subnautica 2: Vehicles, Base Building & Gameplay