- Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more - all while trying to survive.
- Riley Robinson is the only survivor of the crash landing ship "The Aurora", a ship assigned with the task of rescuing The Degasi on planet 4546B: An ocean planet filled with marine life. However things are not as they seem on this planet, and The Degasi were not the first intelligent life forms to set foot on this planet.—KnoxTheTooner
- Subnautica takes place in the late 22nd century, when humanity begins to colonize planets in space. An Alterra vessel known as the "Aurora" has been sent to the outer reaches of controlled space to construct a Phasegate and find a lost ship known as the "Degasi". However, the Aurora is struck by an energy pulse of unknown origin, and crash lands onto an ocean planet known as 4546B. While the player crashing is still part of the plot, the Aurora's nature has changed several times throughout the game's development. For a period of time, it was instead a trade ship that was trying to take a shortcut by performing a gravitational slingshot maneuver around the planet when it got shot down, while in the launch version of the game, the Aurora has been built for the sole purpose of constructing a Phasegate in 4546B's system.
As time passes, a series of radio messages from other survivors begins to stream in, sending the player to other crashed escape pods containing information about some of the Aurora's passengers, but no people. A few signals appear to be sent by unknown creatures, which are planning on hunting down the survivors of the crash. Eventually, a passing trade ship called the "Sunbeam" picks up the Aurora's distress signal and comes to help. However, upon attempting landing to pick up the player, the Sunbeam is destroyed, along with its entire crew, by the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. Fortunately, soon afterwards the Alterra Corporation - the Aurora's owner - manages to send through schematics of a rocket ship called the "Neptune Escape Rocket" that will allow the player to escape the planet. Unfortunately, it will not be possible for the rocket to take off while the Quarantine Enforcement Platform is still active.
As the player discovers later in the game, 4546B used to be a research outpost of an ancient alien race known as the "Precursors". The Precursors placed the planet under quarantine after an outbreak of an infectious bacteria known as "Kharaa", which, due to a containment breach due to an attack by a highly defensive mother "Sea Dragon", has by now infected most of the entire ocean. They made several attempts of finding a cure, including dissection of babies of the Sea Emperor Leviathan - the game's largest creature and the being that has been telepathically communicating with the player throughout the game. This 1.6 thousand-year-old beast produces an enzyme called "Enzyme 42" which can cure Kharaa. However, the Empress was too old to produce the enzyme anymore and the babies always died when they studied them. Because of so many fail experiments, the Precursors declared quarantine on the planet before either leaving or dying. Quarantine measures include the activation of the Quarantine Enforcement Platform (massive atmospheric defense gun), which shot down the Aurora, Degasi, and Sunbeam, as well as a group of cyborg creatures known as "Warpers" who attempt to hunt down all Kharaa bearers. The player also becomes infected with Kharaa, forcing them to find a cure while avoiding the Warpers, who will try to teleport the player to the research facility to find the cure, but end up teleporting them a few feet away and hurting them in the process.
The player must then find the Precursors' Primary Containment Facility, where the research to cure Kharaa was being conducted. There, you meet the Sea Empress Leviathan and she explains why the Precursors couldn't obtain the Enzyme. The Empress couldn't speak to them telepathically due to their biology, and told them that forcing the babies out of their eggs will kill them, they need a hatching enzyme to wake them from the eggs. The player then gathers materials to make the Hatching Enzyme. After hatching the Sea Emperor's eggs and receiving the cure in return, the player can disable the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. Once this is accomplished, they can launch the rocket to escape the planet. In a scene after the credits the computer confirms you have arrived back at Alterra, but permission to land will only be granted after you pay your outstanding balance of one trillion credits, presumably for the value of the minerals used during the game.
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