thinkin about Subnautica and the first time I played it... hahaha, I went in almost completely blind (I'd watched a tiny bit of a YTer play it and loads of ppl were saying, if you like the look of this and wanna play it don't spoil yourself, just go do it rn! so I did, lol).

I LOVE the ocean, first off. I don't think I'd ever be capable of diving? But I love the idea of it and it does not scare me in the slightest. I had ZERO idea the game is considered scary by most people. Absolutely NO idea haha. Even when I saw my first Leviathan/Reaper, I was just kinda like, oh yeah of course there's big predators, better steer clear! Nbd, if I die the consequences aren't too bad so eh. Like they definitely jump scared me a few times, but nothing crazy.

But really what sticks out to me in hindsight... this is SO stupid... it took me forEVER to figure out that I needed to scan stuff to get blueprints.

i fucking SWAM ALL THE WAY TO THE FIRST ISLAND. Or the first island I went to, the north/northwest one. I didn't even question it. I was like, oh yeah it's an exploration they want you take your time. I thought I was being a jerk, skipping all the way to the first big new thing "so quickly". About three quarters of the way back to the pod I was like "Okay, I feel like I've progressed more story, let's check in on that YTer and see what they're doing" to see him riding around with the seaglider!! I was like WTF!!!!

My mistake was SO dumb it was hard to even find like, an explanation of what I was doing wrong. Like, everything I googled said how to find the scannable items, not that you even HAD to scan them or with WHAT. Like telling someone how to make sauce and they don't know how to turn on the stovetop. SO SO silly.

Anyways. What a game.

ALSO. wait sorry this is so long

I NEVER FOUND A SECOND BEACON TO SCAN.

Let me run that by you again. I played the ENTIRE game without beacons. I could probably actually navigate almost the entire map without thinking much irl at this point. I just had to like... use "land" marks and be patient. I had to know where I was at on the map (which I finally started looking up to be able to find the paths to the lower chambers way later in the game) (but before then I just used the Aurora, the cloud glitches around the island and my brain) and triangulate my fucking position like a sailor and be like, okay if I'm here and wanna go here I gotta head in a SWS direction" hahaha.

Anyways. Wonderful game. One of the few games I sincerely wish I could erase my memory of and play blind again. I'm usually not the type to wish that, I'm love replaying stuff. But this was so so special on that first run.