Why Subnautica Is The Best Lovecraftian Horror Game Ever Made.

The very first time I played Subnautica, I did not beat the game.
But the reason I did not beat the game isn’t because I did not enjoy Subnautica - on the contrary, I love Subnauticas gameplay loop.
The reason I stopped my first playthrough is something completely different.
Something unusual.
Subnautica was so scary to play for me, that I just wasn’t able to continue playing.
Subnautica was just so tense and playing it so taxing that I couldn’t take it anymore.
Even stranger - the section that absolutely broke me wasn’t about facing a terrible enemy nor was it an escape sequence or a psychedelic horror bit.
It was something much more trivial.
It was simply exploring past a dark cliff.
I just wasn’t able to dive into the darkness here.
I was too scared.

And that kind of raises a question doesn’t it.
Why?
Why did I find Subnautica so terrifying that it completely overwhelmed me even though I usually don’t care much about horror in games?
What was different in Subnautica?
What horror was I experiencing?

This question is what this video is all about.
Because I believe that the horror of Subnautica is Lovecraftian or cosmic horror.
So in this video we are going to embark on a journey.
We are going to dive deep into the depths below Subnauticas ocean.
We are going to discuss the horror of the deep sea, we are going to waffle about all the mysteries of Subnauticas story, we are going to talk about what Lovecraftian horror even is in the first place and why Subnautica is in my opinion such a prime example of it.

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====== Timestamps-----------
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:35 - I: Crashed (Premise and Gameplay)
00:11:58 - II: The Ocean
00:19:47 - III: Cannons (Story and Gameplay)
00:28:00 - IV: Lovecraftian Horror
00:38:26 - V: The Aesthetics Of Lovecraft
00:51:38 - VI: Into The Depths (Story)

====== Sources
Major Sources:
Chapter 2 is heavily based on Chapter 18 of Bill Bryson's fantastic book “A Short History Of Nearly Everything”.
Chapter 3 is heavily based on the fantastic Wikipedia article on H.P. Lovecraft.

Additional Sources:
Wikipedia: Metroid Prime, Lovecraftian Horror, Absurdism
Blue Holes: www.derstandard.de/story/3000000218562
Ocean Mapping: https://noc.ac.uk/news/quarter-ocean-...
Flayra on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/264710... )
Story Discussion: https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/St...
The artwork of Lovecraftian beings are card arts of Hearthstone's “The Old Gods” expansion.

====== Credits for the Music
Subnautica OST: “Original Inhabitants”, “Salutations”, “Into the Unknown", ”Shallows”, “Blood Crawlers”
Metroid Prime OST: “Menu Select Theme”

Additionally the video uses licensed music from productioncrate.com and motionarray.com