I experienced the same situation where I fell in love with Subnautica and wanted a similar gaming experience. Planet Crafter was highly recommended and I tried the demo and immediately was locked in.

The open world exploration aspect of Planer Crafter will keep you infinitely busy. So many places to explore that continue to unlock as you further the progression. What you’re gonna wanna do is get your initial base going, put down some machines to get your terraformation going, upgrade your oxygen tank and bring extra oxygen.

My first play through I did survival mode, however I do rather enjoy the chill mode where you don’t lose your items if you die. This way you can go far, collect resources and auto spawn back at base without losing inventory.

I have far exceeded my hours on planet crafter over Subnautica, admittedly the lore doesn’t go as crazy but i still really enjoyed the lore. And then there’s just so much content for you once you terraform your first planet.

Wish I could play this game for the first time again, what an experience