Free Subnautica Alternative Is Now Available On Steam

Subnautica fans can now pick up a free indie spiritual successor that’s just become available on Steam.

Subnautica 2 is completely dominating the Steam Charts this month, hitting an all-time peak of over 450,000 players.

Given the popularity of the series, particularly the first game which sold over 5 million copies, fans who can’t yet afford the sequel may want to check out this alternative game that just launched for free on Steam.

OuterTide is billed as a “first-person exploration platformer” about a lone astronaut who crash-lands into an asteroid belt hovering around a large planet.

I know what you’re thinking about the Subnautica comparison. “But Subnautica is set underwater, why is OuterTide being compared to that?”.

Well, just from looking at some of the gameplay footage for OuterTide, it seems that exploration on and between each of the asteroids is done in an “underwater-like” fashion.

This includes large mammals and fish-like creatures swimming through the area, plus floaty movement from you, which gives us massive Subnautica vibes. If you hadn’t even told me it was a game set in space, I would have believed this to be set under the sea.

In OuterTide, you need to grapple through the mysterious environment that you’ve become stranded in, recovering scrap to help you repair your ship, and encounter mysterious alien creatures that can help or hurt you during your journey.

OuterTide

OuterTide Is Proving To Be A Fun, But Short, Subnautica Alternative

While the game doesn’t have a lot of user reviews yet, it seems like players who have taken the time to leave a rating are enjoying what it has to offer so far.

“An inoffensive way to spend ~ 20 minutes to break up the monotony of whatever game you have been playing, to show some love to a team immersing itself into game development and design. Is it time wasted if it's time enjoyed?” reads one positive reviewer, who gave the game a thumbs up to indicate that they recommend it to others.

“Gorgeous graphics, but the game suddenly ended just as it was getting started. I felt like I played half a tutorial,” reads another review.

“I saw the stand at the DreamHack convention in ATL, with them advertising the project, and I love me a space game. As a student project, it's very good, I like it a lot, and the concept is really fun. Totally hope it gets expanded on, since it is tutorial-length short, as I've seen other reviews also state,” a third review reads.

If you want to play OuterTide, you can download it for free from Steam.

The release of OuterTide follows the recent launch of Subnautica 2, which was released on 14 May into Steam Early Access.

Subnautica 2 sold one million copies within the first hour of launch, with two million copies sold after 12 hours.

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