Since I am a bit disappointed about the No Mans Sky release which does not really offer much to do in the game (at least atm -> maybe there will be updates) I decided to check if I can find something that can offer something similar.

And oh joy.... there it is.
Subnautica.

An early access Sci-fi survival game.
Unlike No Mans Sky which costs 59€ for... very little content, you can get Subnautica for currently 16€ (which in my eyes is ok for such a game).

The story of the game is told very fast.
You start the game in an escape pod where you see that your fancy big spaceship is about to explode. You get hit by something and wake up a bit later in your burning spacepod... just in time to grab the fire extinguisher to save whats left of your pod.
The pod is damaged... and soon you realize that you are stranded on a water planet (which is pretty bad for a land living species).
So the tasks now are to survive, repair the pod... find resources... and eventually build a underwater station where you can live (until somebody decides to rescue you).
At a later point of time you will find out that there are islands (I have found one) and that you can build even underwater vehicles (speeders... and multiple versions of submarines).

The game is still in development and seems to get frequent updates.
Eventhough its a procedural generated world (partly) its one of the best looking environments ive seen so far.
I wish No Mans Sky would look that good and have such a "deep" background.
The amount of plants, fishes and other creatures is incredible... its reaching from small fish over agressive predators to giant whale like creatures.

There are multiple game modes... free play where you dont have to care about food or water, survival mode where you really have to survive with food and water and a hardcore mode the game restarts once you died.

Ive only played a few hours so far but im pretty impressed by the quality of the game.

Pretty addicting this game.

Got tired this night.... closed the game.... and noticed that its less than 3 hours until i have to get up again and prepare for work. O_o

This base building is very cool, specially in survival mode when you have to take care of every shit.
You are constantly busy in that game.

My small base.
I call it... "SWATLANTIS"

its still half a year until version 1.0 of the game gets released and now that the story gets added bit by it its really getting interesting
the prawn update which gave access to the aurora was the first of the story updates and it starts to be a really nice sci-fi story about the future of this planet.

the game however is still far from being really functional.
in my eyes the biggest problem right now is the performance of the game.
when I started a fresh game i got 60-80 FPS

Now that I have constructed a base (fairly large base) I dont get over 15FPS when I am close to that base.
There is a memory leak somewhere related to the base modules that needs to be fixed.
Also does it look like that the whole terraforming part of the game will be removed before the game hits version 1.0.
I think thats a good decision. There is very little reason to dig through the existing ground of the game (except you want to reach the giant care 200m below the escape pod -> but there is a normal entry to it relative close). The removal of the terraforming might fix some performance problems.
Also does it look like the developers are currently working on an upgrade to unity 5.4 which by default should improve the performance compared to version 5.3.

Well, there is still half a year left to get the game running smooth and the stuff thats planned for the endgame is really awesome.
The early access version gets a large update once a month on the stable build. And one update per day on the experimental build.

I will somehow decrease the size of my base in order to raise the FPS again. Hopefull i get everything into the smaller base then.

New update has been released yesterday.

Mysterious creatures, the Tree Cove, rising temperatures, & more. View this email in your browser

Dangerous Creatures Keep one eye on the open sea Hello all! A new update is now available on Steam, bringing dangerous new creatures to Subnautica. The gorgeous Tree Cove is now available to explore, a new Reinforced Dive suit will become your favorite outfit, and more. Click here to visit the Dangerous Creatures site Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, the Sea Dragon Leviathan appears in the world: A monstrous creature with teeth that bite, a penchant for spewing fire, and claws so big that can smash Stalkers out of the way as if they were Peepers. Another new creature, the Warper, wanders the world alone, wreaking havoc as it teleports in and out of biomes. Not all these new creatures are dangerous: the enchanting Ghost Rays found in the Tree Cove will take your mind off the stress of survival. Hang on, you knew there was more! The Dangerous Creatures Update also includes: The Tree Cove area of the Lost River Zone Crabsquids now give off a nasty EMP blast, disabling electronics The third and final abandoned base makes an appearance Lava zones and other hot areas now cause heat damage The Reinforced Dive suit can now be crafted to protect against the that heat More! Find out more about the Dangerous Creatures Update at UnknownWorlds.com Enjoy! - Unknown Worlds This update is for Steam users only. In the future, the Dangerous Creatures Update will also be released on Xbox One. To be notified when we update on Xbox, subscribe the the Subnautica Xbox mailing list.

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lol
mesmers

Subnautica 1.0 release date has been pushed back to May 2017

next regular update should be released on 15th December

the removal of terraforming and other performance related stuff got postponed and are scheduled end of January now.

no it wasnt removed
just the tool was not available anymore
but the terraforming in general was and still is in the game... you can build base structured into the terrain

i once a +200m vertical structure down into a cave

currently on steam for 9,99€