Mastodawn

#subnautica #subnautica2 #gamedev #gamedesign

[P] In looking at the SN2 trailer, everyone is stylised in a way that's reminiscent of a higher-fidelity Below Zero, and similar to BZ's trailers. I think stylising is a great way to avoid the uncanny valley. Is UE5 really bad at atylistic ganes? CrossWorlds exists, but the character animations were still oddly wooden even there. A big improvement over most UE5 games, though. Is it a choice or a limitation? I'm kinda curious, now.

-2

#subnautica #subnautica2 #gamedev #gamedesign

[P] I mentioned before that the characters lost a lot of personality in SN2 versus the trailer. I stand by that. They're so generic, homogeneous, and doll-like. But I'm now in this place where I wonder if thie is the UE5 curse too. I mean, people in UE have lived in the uncanny valley since the beginning, this isn't source or unity. I'm just trying to think of any UE5 game where the everyone isn't uncanny valley. I'm... actually coming up blank.

-1

[P] I do feel bad though for those who wabted more stylised, pretty SN1. That... doesn't seem to be a lot of people! But, if you're out there? You have my synoathy. I'm more likely to believe that those who care about aesthetics also care about story, so they might prefer BZ too. It is unlikely we'll get a BZ2, but if we do? Blergh... UE5... Whyyy? Godot is a better option, and I say that without an ounce of irony. Or maybe Source 2? Nit UE5...

-4

[P] It makes me sad, too. I mean, Subnautica 2 isn't for me. It has so little story, it's more influencer fodder like the original. There's a reason influencers were all over SN1/SN2 but not Below Zero. They make money screaming like loons for an allistic audience, they definitely don't play games to be engaged by a story, that isn't what their audience wants. But if an SN2: BZ happens? It'll be trapoed in the nasty UE5 quagmire.

-3

[P] It isn't Subnautica 2's fault, either. UWE are just playing to the dubious "strengths" of UE5. All UE5 games have this grungy, grody, sterile look to some extent. The only exception I can thi k of is CrossWorlds, but SEGA wasn't shy about how they turned off pretty much every feature until it was effectively UE3.5. And it kinda looks like that, too, which is why it can run on a Switch 1. The best use of UE5 tried very hard to not be UE5.

-2

https://youtu.be/1E71B7ipj_4

[P] Subnautica 2 has that UE5 curse.

I loved Below Zero because it had a stylised aesthetic that reminds me a LOT of SEGA's late '90s/early '00s Blue Skies. It'e vibrant, colourful, and feels like a utopia. SN2's outdoors are cloudy, moody, hazy, grainy, and a bit drab. Indoors it has a clerical, clinical, sterile, hollow look that just isn't fun for me. I don't want to live in Steve Jobs's brain. Why is UE5 like this?