Subnautica 2's New Leviathan: Because We'd All Rather Be Eaten by a Giant Squid Than Deal with Corporate Lawyers
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Subnautica 2's latest dev video reveals the 'Collector Leviathan,' a giant, irritable creature that's a welcome distraction from the ongoing legal battles between publisher Krafton and former Unknown Worlds executives regarding the game's readiness and a hefty earn-out. This deep dive into monster design offers a peek at the game's development while implicitly pushing back against claims of studio instability, reminding us all that sometimes, a massive tentacled beast is infinitely preferable to corporate drama.
Right, so picture this: you're knee-deep in legal filings, probably trying to decipher what 'subrogration' actually means, and then BOOM – a massive, hungry, bioluminescent creature with questionable tentacle count just swims into view. Yeah, that's pretty much what just happened with Subnautica 2.
For a while there, mate, you could be forgiven for thinking 'Subnautica 2' was some new, incredibly niche legal drama, perhaps a term for a particularly nasty spat over a withheld bonus. What with all the incessant lawsuits and countersuits flying between publisher Krafton and a few former Unknown Worlds executives, it's been more courtroom chaos than deep-sea adventure. But hold your seahorse, because a shiny new developer diary video just dropped, and it's here to remind us all that Subnautica 2 is, in fact, an underwater sci-fi survival game. And, thankfully, it seems to have zero lawyers, but a bloody massive tentacle monster instead. A fair trade, I reckon.
This intel, originally dissected with delightful precision by the good chaps over at Rock Paper Shotgun, highlights the star of the show: the Collector Leviathan. Now, if you're picturing a classic giant squid, adjust your expectations a tad. This beast appears to have an embarrassing tentacle deficiency, sporting only four main arms, rather than the regulation ten. (Unless you count all the tiny wiggly bits around its mouth, which, frankly, feels like cheating, doesn't it?).
Given its rather limited appendage arsenal, it's hardly a shocker that the Collector Leviathan is described as 'irritable.' I mean, wouldn't you be, if you were constantly miscounted? If this behemoth spots you, expect a noisy shockwave, followed by it jetting towards you horizontally. Then, just to be dramatic, it’ll rear up vertically, giving you a lovely eyeful of its volcanic split cranium and bioluminescent forehead patterns, before, you guessed it, grabbing you with one of its precious few tentacles and having you for lunch. Being inside a submarine is definitely preferable to being its main course, but – and this is just a pro-tip from your digital wizard pal – not being caught at all is even better. A well-placed flare can apparently distract it, or you can just play a game of deep-sea hide-and-seek until it gets bored and glides off. Typical giant squid behaviour, eh?
My naturally curious brain, forever asking 'what if?', can't help but wander. I dread encountering something this monstrous in a real ocean, but I'm absolutely fascinated by videos of divers interacting with more reasonably sized cephalopods. I've heard octopuses have 'partly independent mini-brains' in their arms, and they use incredible colour changes for everything from deceiving predators to charming mates. Imagine if Unknown Worlds could weave some of that complexity into Subnautica 2! Could we, perhaps, communicate with the Collector Leviathan via chromophore mechanics? The thought of aggravating both *Edge Magazine* and Wittgenstein at once is a tempting challenge, but I've made it a strict rule to never annoy both simultaneously. Also, on second thought, maybe let's *not* give the Collector active camouflage. The idea of it sneaking up on me through murky water is quite harrowing enough without going invisible. Bloody hell.
This video, shared on Krafton's press site, feels like a rather pointed, tacit reminder that 'veteran developers' are still very much at Unknown Worlds, even after the rather abrupt departure of Subnautica 2 director Charlie Cleveland, studio CEO Ted Gill, and co-founder Max McGuire. It's a 10-minute deep dive into the Collector's creation, effectively doubling as a dissection of the production process itself – from initial concept sketches, through modelling and animation, right up to the visual effects and AI behaviours. There's even a teasing glimpse of a September 2024 document by game designer Louis Karim, detailing how the Collector conveys its alertness through posture and sound. Apparently, for some areas, it’ll spawn at a distance and despawn when you're far enough away, and mercifully, there's only one present per session, even in co-op. (Though, fair warning, all this is still a work-in-progress, mind you.)
The doc also casually drops hints about in-game biomes like Sparse Plains and Outer Bounds, plus a tantalisingly blurred-out reference to another Leviathan, and an untitled image of a third creature that looks suspiciously like a piscine aeroplane. And get this: you’ll apparently encounter the Collector during 'pearl interactions.' Does this mean we'll be cracking open colossal clam shells while simultaneously dodging the megasquid's attention? Sounds like a riot, if you ask me.
Now, for the clever observers out there, that September 2024 document will likely be of great interest to the Subnautical subredditors already trying to piece together the completeness of Subnautica 2 from various leaked materials. And this brings us back to the not-so-fun stuff: the aforementioned pie-slinging match between Krafton's lawyers and those of the departed Unknown Worlds executives. The core of this messy dispute? Whether the game was actually fit for an early access release this year.
Krafton's side of the story is that the game needs more time in the oven, partly because the 'bygone bigwigs' from Unknown Worlds were allegedly shirking their responsibilities and only interested in the almighty dollar. The former execs – Cleveland, Gill, and McGuire – beg to differ, insisting the game was absolutely substantial enough for launch this year, and that Krafton only delayed it because they're 'welching on a timed $250 million earn-out.' Bloody hell, that's a lot of zeroes, isn't it? It sounds like less of a creative disagreement and more of a classic 'follow the money' scenario, with both sides spinning a narrative that paints them in the best light. As a curious gamer, it makes you wonder about the internal politics that shape the games we play, doesn't it? Who's telling the full story, and what does this mean for the final quality of the game?
While this corporate drama plays out in the background, making 'Subnautica 2' sound more like an SEC filing than a deep-sea exploration, I'm just here for the tentacles. Give me the vast, terrifying, beautiful unknown of an alien ocean any day, populated by irritable, tentacle-deficient leviathans, over the cold, hard, confusing jargon of a legal brief. It’s a messy reality, this industry, but the promise of diving into those murky depths to face creatures like the Collector Leviathan? That, my friends, is a silver lining worth swimming for, even if it means dodging a few giant squids (and a few lawyers) along the way.
Tags: Subnautica 2, Leviathan, Game Development, Survival Games, Gaming Industry
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun