I see at least one other person saying the game was too easy. I have played through the current story three times since release. First time took me 25hrs, second took 12hrs, last playthrough clocked in at 11hrs and I felt like I spent more time on base building so I was surprised. The issue, imo, comes down to two things that have been altered since release: damage and resource prevalence.
I noticed this in the other two games as well, the first time I played it was challenging to get resources to build things to progress the game, but later playthroughs it seemed like the mods had increased the amount of resources throughout the game. The same has occurred in Subnautica 2, with resources everywhere such that my follow on playthroughs I had zero issue finding resources and it made the game faster.
For damage, I know its not a perfect science but it seems like how a creatire damages is not honed quite yet, which makes the game incredibly forgiving as long as you stay away from the only official in-game leviathan that will swallow you whole. A Marrowbreach takes like 10% health, but a Hammerhead takes like 20-25%. And in a game that clearly states how forgiving the death process is and how its a constant part of life on this planet, it should be easier to accidentally get eaten or picked off easily.
Enter the difficulty settings. I see where there is a third game mode currently unavailable, I always assumed it was hardcore mode (which is unforgiving but I fear would not be much of a challenge due to what is stated above). I realize altering a game is a LOT of work, so there is an easy option and a hard one. The hard one is giving the player a number of settings to tailor the game to the difficulty they want. Damage multiplier and resource multiplier are the main things I can think of, im not sure what other settings could be added to change how difficult the game can be. The easy option is just creating a new game mode that halves the resources and doubles the damage taken, which isnt perfect but would alter the difficulty enough I feel.
Love the game, blows my mind everytime I play and I can’t wait to see how it evolves. I appreciate the feedback function in game and here, I hope you take this comment into consideration. Love you guys, keep up the great work ❤️