If underwater exploration is your thing, then Unknown Worlds‘ Subnautica 2 has to be on your sonar. Having been in development since 2022, the game’s brief appearance as part of the Xbox Partner Preview in October 2024 was only the beginning. Now, the team has dropped a new developer vlog charting the game’s course to Early Access.
Design lead Anthony Gallegos was on hand to give fans a taste of what is to come. This includes more new environments on a mysterious alien world, more strange creatures, and expanding the ways that players can interact with their surroundings.
“We’ve taken everything that we’ve learned from our experience on the previous games and we’ve poured it into Subnautica 2,” said Gallegos. In the short video, we also see aspects such as building bases, vehicles, and the scanning of new life forms.
Co-op play is going to be a crucial aspect of the experience, which marks the first time in the series that you can work alongside someone else. There are plans to accommodate up to four players.
An interesting addition in this sequel is that players will be able to “evolve your genetics to adapt your body for survival” in the unknown world. How that will work as a mechanic is something that warrants more information. The video shows the discovery of some slime that could have useful genetics, but we don’t get to see the results of exposing oneself to such material just yet.
The various locations that players can explore are the backbone of what makes a Subnautica game, and it is no exception here. Based on the environments that can be glimpsed, the likes of the Shallows and Plateaus sound safe enough, but there are also the likes of the Graveyard and Observatory to venture towards. Mysteries waiting to be unravelled, that is the name of the game in Subnautica 2.
This is just the first of many developer vlogs that will come our way as the game continues to be worked on. The game is slated for an Early Access launch later this year, with new vehicles, craftables, biomes, and Leviathans to come.
