Finished Subnautica: Below Zero last night.
This game improved a lot on Subnautica. Stuff was actually visible. Nice instead of scary.
Difficulty can be fine-tuned so you don't have to accept everything being unlocked from the start in order to not have everything try to kill you. So you can still have fun exploring and experiencing the story.
The lack of a proper map or even just coordinates is still an issue. You can find some maps online, but they're hand-drawn. In the places where you need them most (snowy land areas), it's hard to tell visually where you are, so inaccurate maps are bad. Still better than no maps, but not good.
Transportation in-game was much improved with the seatruck combining the maneuverability of the seamoth with the extendability of the cyclops. The snowfox hoverbike was too finnicky though. I ended up walking most places on land.
The story was kinda two separate stories glued together. Sam's story was an interesting mystery that got a little spoiled by discovering parts of it out of order (happens easily if you explore the world without a guide). Al-An's story was more of a go here, then go there, then there, etc., what with Al-An revealing POIs sequentially. They could've done more with that, especially with Robin and Al-An being headmates. The 'aliens have very few shortcomings, but the human keeps arguing that humanity is just so great' trope is overdone. There should've been an option for Robin to keep Al-An, or join the collective. At least the ending leaves that as a possibility.
Below Zero doesn't actually refer too much to Subnautica, so if you have to pick only one, pick Below Zero.
#subnauticabelowzero #subnautica