Part of me wishes we could see the Subnautica 2 the devs scrapped: The Dwarf Fortress of ecosystem simulators
A PC Gamer opinion piece explores the road not taken for Subnautica 2, examining a scrapped development vision that would have transformed the franchise into a complex ecosystem simulator comparable to Dwarf Fortress in depth. The article reflects on Subnautica’s core design—an underwater survival experience centered on resource gathering and incremental tool development to overcome environmental challenges—before discussing how developers initially envisioned a more ambitious direction featuring deep ecological simulation systems.
The author expresses intrigue about what a more ecosystem-focused Subnautica 2 might have offered players, while simultaneously acknowledging that the developers’ final design decision was almost certainly the correct choice from a commercial standpoint. The original Subnautica’s massive sales success likely justified the strategic shift away from the more experimental ecosystem simulator concept.