When comparing Subnautica vs Rayman Legends, the Slant community recommends Subnautica for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” Subnautica is ranked 2nd while Rayman Legends is ranked 34th. The most important reason people chose Subnautica is:
The game takes place underwater, and it looks very good especially because of the new candy eye update. Looking up at the sun through the ocean looks pleasant and real. Coral reefs have multiple colors and look real as well. Graphics wise this game looks great and pulls off its theme of an underwater survival quite well.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great theme and looks
The game takes place underwater, and it looks very good especially because of the new candy eye update. Looking up at the sun through the ocean looks pleasant and real. Coral reefs have multiple colors and look real as well. Graphics wise this game looks great and pulls off its theme of an underwater survival quite well.
Pro The sound effects really set up the overall atmosphere
The sound design in Subnautica is amazing. Even though the soundtrack can be bland at times, the sound effects for the ocean noises are incredibly atmospheric and really help to get the player in the mood for exploring a vast, alien ocean.
Pro Interesting creature design
The creature design in Subnautica deserves some major praise. Spotting a new, never seen before creature is extremely rewarding and there's a large variety of alien creatures to look for.
Pro Has a mode for people who just want to explore
Subnautica has four game modes: survival, freedom, hardcore, and creative. The first one pits the player against the elements and forces them to think about food and water through its thirst and hunger mechanics.
The second game mode basically removes every mechanic that is related to surviving, such as the aforementioned hunger and thirst mechanics. It also leaves all the items in your inventory after you die. In other words, it's a game mode for people who want to explore without having to bother with surviving. Which is nice, since Subnautica has a lot of stuff to explore.
The third one, as the name tells us, is more difficult. Not only do you have to worry about health, oxygen, water and hunger, you will have to worry about your life. Since this game mode gives you one chance to live, no respawning. If you die, you'll lose your progress and will have to start over again.
The fourth one will let you build a base of your dreams without worrying about food, oxygen, or thirst. It is the best mode for people who want to build and don't want to gather resources.
Pro No pointless multiplayer
Not every damn thing needs multiplayer, and multiplayer can often ruin an otherwise incredible experience. There's none to be found here, and that intensifies the lonely atmosphere. Also, the creators didn't waste resources on something that would fundamentally undermine the experience so they could focus on making the game the wonderful thing that it is.
Pro Very interesting for both new and long-time players
But it goes faster when you learn the game. Because everything is done manually.
Pro Incredibly satisfying tool-building mechanics
The whole process of creating new tools is mostly done using a sophisticated 3D-printer available from the start of the game. You gather various resources and transform them to create tools that you will need for your survival.
For example, organic matter gets printed into raw carbon, combine carbon with some zinc and you get a battery; combine that battery with some glass and you get a flashlight that helps you see in the dark. It's very straightforward but incredibly satisfying when you build your tools, especially since you are doing all of this while swimming in an ocean filled with predators.
Pro Visually impressive boss stages
The visual mechanics in the boss stages are pretty impressive as they use 3d rendering but still hold to the 2D graphical look of the game. This allows for bosses that weave in and out of stages as well as attacks that can come from the foreground or background depending on where the boss is located.
Pro Daily and weekly online challenges
There are daily and weekly online challenges that users can compete in, against their friends or just the high scores listed.
Pro Fun cute characters
The cartoony design of the characters is animated smoothly and looks great on screen. For each their design is cute an amusing while also showing differentiating characteristics.
Pro Up to four player local Co-Op so you can help children through hard parts
Up to four local players can play sharing a single screen at the same time in Rayman Legends which is great for when kids get stuck on hard parts as another sibling or parent can jump in and help them out.
Pro All powers unlocked from beginning
Unlike Rayman Origins, Legends has all of Rayman's powers unlocked from the beginning. Players are able to jump float, wall run and attack starting at the first level.
Pro One of the best platformers released in years
From the beautiful design of the 2D cartoon graphics to the level design, soundtrack and multiplayer, Rayman Legends is on par with the best of platformers.
Cons
Con Lacks Co-Op
This game was meant to be a survival game (and a bit of horror), most survival games are difficult, may get boring to play alone after time and this game has both. Having a second survivor in the story would mean to rewrite it again, but having a friend in an alien world would be better.
Con No real story
A bit underdeveloped story. Only in notes and some short cgi animations.
Con Jump is floaty
The jump action feels a bit floaty which may take a bit to get use to. Normally platformers will offer tighter controls, which people tend to get used to making games that stray from that more difficult or just not something that appeals.
Con No online multiplayer
In this day and age it is disappointing to see a multiplayer game released that does not support online. For a company like Ubisoft this kind of cost should not be an issue which makes it puzzling as to why such a standard feature is missing.