While not a bad game, everything Below Zero does right was done similarly, if not better, by the original Subnautica. If you haven't played the original, look there first. If you're hungry for more, Below Zero can work, but lower your expectations a bit.
The basic gameplay loop is fun. Explore, find new upgrades, collect resources to make said upgrades, repeat. This is identical to the original, which is fine, but not impressive. Where Below Zero begins to fall off is, ironically, in depth. The map is smaller and movement speed is slowed to compensate which is insulting because it feels like the developers are trying to gaslight me into thinking the map is larger than it really is. All it does is make navigating a chore. The biomes are pretty, but they're so small and most aren't even connected to anywhere I'd be passing through so I never had any reason to set up base anywhere but the centre of the map.
The creatures are generally really cool, but are mechanically uninteresting. Most passive creatures drift around doing nothing while hostile creatures drift around doing nothing until you get close enough for them to attack once before returning to drifting around doing nothing. In the original you could tame stalkers by feeding them peepers. Why wasn't this idea expanded upon in any way?
The land areas are a pain to navigate and offer nothing but plot progression. No independent exploration or figuring out what happened, you just find the plot item and leave. The idea of avoiding hypothermia is neat, but in practice, it is worthless. You can completely ignore the temperature mechanic with no effort thanks to all the caves that randomly restore your temperature gauge and tons of plants that also restore the gauge. Even if you couldn't ignore it, it doesn't feel satisfying to manage properly. There's also just nothing going on through most of the area, just mindless running or drifting through with the hover bike.
When it comes to story, Below Zero doesn't handle it very well. As mentioned, everything is told to you. You can accidentally skip 90% of it and nothing changes, the characters even act like you know already. All the plot reveals that I did find fell flat because all I had was audio logs of the characters. I felt that I had no stake in their story despite the main character, Robin, having every reason to care. There's also the fact that Robin is occasionally pretty rude to her companion for no reason. I don't like Robin, I don't find her motives or actions compelling enough to appreciate her as much as I want to.
Overall, Below Zero is a fine game. It's playable, I generally had fun, but all the praise I could give to the game I could give to the original. An inessential game.
