Hardcore Subnautica players are weird. Not only do they push the supposed fact that the game is super horrifying (which it's not), but they also say it's really, really hard.. Which it's not. I'll admit this thread is partially just in response to some comments I saw a good while back, when I was discussing a point that most, if not all, survival games should have permadeath. I got several replies back saying "Subnautica couldn't have permadeath, it's too hard!". At the time, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, because I hadn't played it. If they said that to me now, though, I'd raise an eyebrow and go like "Excuse me?", because as mentioned above, I beat the game my first time through on Hardcore mode, where permadeath is enabled. In any case, I'd agree with you to an extent, but I actually really like the gameplay. I enjoyed the fact that all of our tools weren't directly offensive, instead having things like the Propulsion Cannon, and Stasis Rifle, and while things would probably get stale if it was you just swimming around all the time, both the Prawn Suit and Cyclops control completely differently from how you move around, so swapping gameplay was quite nice. And while it's not very scary like a lot of folk claim, I actually think they did a very good job with the atmosphere. Not counting one or two biomes, I found myself really enthralled by the new areas whenever I first found them. And on a higher scale, it does a really good job of managing your progression, for the most part. You always have an idea of what you need to do next, without the game feeling handholdy, which is actually quite impressive.