Subnautica 2 keeps players hooked with alien ocean exploration, survival crafting, co-op potential, and the thrill of diving into the unknown.
Subnautica 2
Release Date: May 14, 2026
Genres: Adventure
The next Subnautica promises a new underwater world, more survival systems, strange ecosystems, base building, and the option to explore with friends. If you are waiting to dive in, these games capture the same mix of crafting, danger, discovery, isolation, and sci-fi adventure.
TL;DR – Games Like Subnautica 2
Table of Contents
Subnautica 2 is exciting because it builds on one of the strongest survival formulas in gaming: explore a beautiful alien world, gather resources, craft better gear, build a safer base, and slowly push into places that feel too deep, too dark, or too dangerous.
The best alternatives do not all copy the ocean setting directly. Some focus on underwater survival, some on co-op crafting, some on alien planets, and others on oxygen management or harsh wilderness pressure. What connects them is the loop of leaving safety, risking the unknown, and coming back with just enough materials to go even farther next time.
Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero
Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero are the no-brainers here. If you are interested in Subnautica 2, these are the games that explain exactly why the series became so beloved in the first place.
The original Subnautica drops you on an alien ocean planet after a crash, then lets curiosity pull you deeper and deeper below the surface. You gather food, manage oxygen, scan strange lifeforms, build underwater bases, craft vehicles, and slowly uncover the mystery behind the planet. It is beautiful, lonely, and terrifying in a way few survival games can match.
Subnautica: Below Zero takes the same core formula and moves it into colder biomes, with more land exploration, a more direct story, new creatures, and a tighter world structure. It feels less overwhelmingly mysterious than the first game, but it adds its own identity through frozen environments, new vehicles, and a stronger character-driven narrative.
Both games fit Subnautica 2 because they establish the main pillars: alien ecosystems, base building, survival pressure, environmental storytelling, vehicles, upgrades, and the constant fear of what might be waiting beyond the next drop-off.
Subnautica
Release Date: January 23, 2018
Genres: Adventure, Indie
Subnautica: Below Zero
Release Date: January 30, 2019
Genres: Adventure, Indie
Why You Might Like It
- The closest and most essential games to play before Subnautica 2
- Excellent underwater survival, crafting, exploration, and base building
- Memorable alien creatures, biomes, wrecks, and environmental storytelling
- Perfect preparation for the systems and atmosphere Subnautica 2 is building on
Raft
Raft is an ocean survival game where you begin on a tiny floating platform with almost nothing. You collect debris from the water, craft tools, expand your raft, purify water, cook food, defend against sharks, and eventually sail toward islands and story locations.
Its biggest strength is how satisfying the base-building progression feels. Your raft starts as a few wooden squares, but over time it becomes a mobile home with storage, gardens, engines, navigation tools, crafting stations, and multiple floors. Every plank and piece of scrap pushes your floating base a little closer to safety.
Raft fits Subnautica 2 because it captures the survival-crafting side of ocean adventure, especially if co-op is one of the reasons you are interested in the sequel. Instead of building habitats under the sea, you build a home on top of it, but the loop of scavenging, upgrading, exploring, and returning to base feels very familiar.
It is also much more social than the original Subnautica. If you want a survival game where friends can gather resources, build together, explore islands, and panic when things go wrong, Raft is one of the easiest recommendations.
Raft
Release Date: May 23, 2018
Genres: Simulator, Adventure, Indie
Why You Might Like It
- Co-op ocean survival with crafting, scavenging, and base expansion
- Your raft becomes a mobile home and long-term project
- Good mix of relaxed building, danger, and story exploration
- Great if Subnautica 2’s multiplayer potential is what interests you most
No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky is a huge sci-fi exploration game about traveling across procedurally generated planets, gathering resources, building bases, upgrading ships, scanning wildlife, and following mysteries spread across the universe.
Where Subnautica focuses on one alien ocean planet, No Man’s Sky goes massive. You can explore frozen moons, toxic worlds, desert planets, lush forests, underwater zones, and strange biomes full of bizarre creatures. You can build bases, pilot starships, drive exocraft, manage freighters, and play alone or with others.
It fits Subnautica 2 because both games understand the appeal of alien discovery. The pleasure comes from landing somewhere unfamiliar, scanning the environment, collecting resources, upgrading your tools, and wondering what you will find over the next ridge, cave, ocean, or planet.
No Man’s Sky is less scary and less focused than Subnautica, but it captures the wonder side extremely well. If you want survival, crafting, base building, vehicles, alien creatures, and co-op on a much larger scale, it is a strong choice.
No Man's Sky
Release Date: August 12, 2016
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Adventure, Indie, Arcade, Shooter
Why You Might Like It
- Huge sci-fi sandbox with countless alien planets to explore
- Base building, vehicles, resource gathering, scanning, and upgrades
- Optional multiplayer and long-term progression
- Great if you want Subnautica-style curiosity expanded into space
Forever Skies
Forever Skies is a survival crafting game set above a ruined Earth covered by toxic dust. Instead of diving into the ocean, you fly across the sky in an airship, scavenging towers, collecting resources, researching technology, and slowly upgrading your mobile base.
The airship is the heart of the game. It works like a vehicle, home, crafting station, storage hub, and safety zone all at once. As you improve it, you can travel farther, survive longer, and reach new locations that were previously too dangerous or too distant.
It fits Subnautica 2 because it has a very similar rhythm of expedition and return. You leave your safe base, enter risky environments, gather materials, scan technology, manage survival needs, and come back with upgrades that make the next trip possible.
The setting is sky-based rather than underwater, but the mood of exploring a hostile, post-collapse world with limited resources feels surprisingly close. It is especially good if you like survival games where your base is not just a house, but a vehicle that grows with you.
Forever Skies
Release Date: June 22, 2023
Genres: Adventure, Simulator
Why You Might Like It
- Survival crafting built around a customizable mobile base
- Exploration, scanning, resource gathering, and technology upgrades
- Strong expedition loop similar to Subnautica’s dive-and-return structure
- Great if you want survival exploration in the sky instead of underwater
Green Hell
Green Hell is a much harsher survival game set in the Amazon rainforest. It is not sci-fi and it is not about underwater exploration, but it is one of the best picks if you want survival to feel demanding, physical, and dangerous.
The game focuses on hunger, hydration, injuries, parasites, infection, crafting, shelter, wildlife, and psychological pressure. You need to inspect your body, treat wounds, manage nutrition, build tools, and learn how the jungle works if you want to survive for long.
It fits Subnautica 2 through survival pressure rather than setting. Subnautica often makes danger feel mysterious and environmental, while Green Hell makes it immediate and bodily. A bad wound, spoiled food, or wrong decision can quickly spiral into a serious problem.
If you want a game that makes the natural world feel hostile and alive, Green Hell is a strong alternative. It is less about wonder and more about endurance, but it captures the feeling of being small, underprepared, and surrounded by an ecosystem that does not care about you.
Green Hell
Release Date: September 05, 2019
Genres: Simulator, Strategy, Adventure, Indie
Why You Might Like It
- Hardcore survival with hunger, wounds, sickness, crafting, and shelter
- Dense jungle ecosystem that feels dangerous and unforgiving
- Strong sense of vulnerability and resource management
- Good pick if you want Subnautica’s survival side pushed harder
Breathedge
Breathedge is a sci-fi survival game set in space, where you explore wreckage, manage oxygen, gather resources, craft tools, and slowly expand your ability to survive farther away from safety.
The most obvious connection to Subnautica 2 is oxygen management. In Breathedge, every trip outside your safe zone is limited by how long you can survive in space. You plan routes, grab materials, search debris, and return before your oxygen runs out. That risk-and-return loop will feel familiar to anyone who has ever pushed too deep in Subnautica.
The tone is much more comedic, with absurd jokes and parody-style sci-fi writing, so it does not have the same awe or horror. However, the mechanical structure of scavenging, crafting, upgrading, and extending your exploration range is very relevant.
It fits Subnautica 2 best for players who enjoy the survival logistics: oxygen, distance, tools, and the thrill of barely making it back with the materials you need.
Breathedge
Release Date: February 25, 2021
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Adventure, Indie
Why You Might Like It
- Oxygen-based sci-fi survival in a hostile environment
- Crafting, scavenging, wreck exploration, and upgrades
- Similar risk-and-return loop to Subnautica’s underwater dives
- Good if you want Subnautica-style survival translated into space
The Planet Crafter
The Planet Crafter is a survival crafting game about transforming a hostile alien planet into a living world. You begin with a barren environment, limited oxygen, and basic tools, then build machines, gather resources, craft equipment, and slowly terraform the planet.
The best part is watching the world change. At first, survival feels dry and lonely, but your progress creates visible results: atmosphere, heat, pressure, water, plants, and eventually a more habitable ecosystem. Few survival games make progression feel this visible.
It fits Subnautica 2 because it shares the alien-world survival loop: gather materials, build a base, craft better tools, expand your range, scan the environment, and keep pushing into new zones. It does not have Subnautica’s underwater fear, but it has a similar sense of building a life in a place that was not made for humans.
If you like the calmer, more constructive side of survival games, The Planet Crafter may be the best option on this list. It is less about being hunted and more about turning a hostile world into something you can understand.
The Planet Crafter
Release Date: March 24, 2022
Genres: Simulator, Adventure
Why You Might Like It
- Alien survival crafting with strong base-building progression
- Terraforming gives visible, satisfying long-term results
- Resource gathering, exploration, upgrades, and environmental scanning
- Great if you enjoy Subnautica’s crafting and alien-world discovery
Which games come closest to Subnautica 2?
Final thoughts
Subnautica 2 is special because it promises to return to that incredible feeling of diving into an alien ecosystem where beauty and danger are always connected. The best part of Subnautica has never been only survival – it is the desire to explore one more cave, scan one more creature, and build one more upgrade before going deeper.
Subnautica and Below Zero are the obvious first choices, while Raft is the best pick for co-op ocean survival. No Man’s Sky and The Planet Crafter cover alien exploration and base building, Forever Skies captures the mobile-base expedition loop, Breathedge brings oxygen-based survival into space, and Green Hell is ideal if you want survival to feel harsher and more grounded.