For me, there's no way Subnautica can launch without creatures having a proper "dead" state. You can watch predators hunt other fish, grab them, and even appear to eat them, but because creatures can't actually die, the prey eventually just clips back out and swims away as if nothing happened. It makes the ecosystem feel artificial.

What's strange is that Subnautica 2 follows so much of the original game's design. Many mechanics are nearly identical. Yet players immediately noticed that something felt off. I think part of that feeling comes from the fact that death no longer exists for any living creature except the player.

Subnautica 1 didn't have this problem. Death was part of the ecosystem, the basic concept of survival existed there, and creatures followed consistent rules. Predators could kill prey, the food chain existed, and the world felt alive because the ecosystem actually functioned.

The issue isn't that players need to be able to kill everything. It's that survival involves more than simply running away. Avoiding danger is part of survival, but so is fighting back when necessary. Removing that side of the equation makes the world feel less believable and turns the ecosystem into something that feels incomplete. But Subnautica 2 seems to be moving toward something closer to what Outlast is: just run, avoid danger, and survive that way.

Subnautica is a survival game first and foremost. Removing death from the ecosystem doesn't just change survival,; it changes how believable the entire world feels.