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You should be playing Subnautica. We said as much last year when it was still in Early Access, and the undersea survival game has only gotten better with age. If you aren't already playing Subnautica, you've officially run out of excuses, because you can currently get it for free on the newly opened Epic Game Store. The freebie is good through Thursday, December 27, so get on it. Epic says a new free game will be available every two weeks (seemingly from now on), and on Friday, December 28, Super Meat Boy - another good game - will take its place.
Subnautica is as much a horror game as it is a survival, crafty, buildy game. The ocean is the best place for horror, and Subnautica makes good use of its repertoire of nightmares. A piece of life-saving equipment breaks at the worst possible time (which is any time, really); you catch a flash of teeth in the murky depths; a blood-chilling scrape runs along your meager exploratory vessel. Subnautica's scares are many, varied, and effective, and they elevate every other part of the game.
"Collecting food and water, building an underwater habitat, and surviving the elements are all satisfying aspects of the experience," we said in our review, "but that’s only because Subnautica’s palpable ambience, cerebral story, and powerful fear factor compliment that familiar routine with some of the most memorable moments I’ve played in a game of its kind. It’s very likely that you’ll never want to go near a beach again after playing Subnautica, but soak up its array of nautical sights and sounds, and I promise you won’t regret the dive."
Subnautica is brilliant, and it's free. Go play it.
We're not done gushing about Subnautica: its time capsules are one of our favorite features.
