Water has always held a dual nature in human imagination: it is a source of life and beauty, but also an abyss of danger, mystery, and the unknown. Video games have long drawn from this tension, using aquatic settings to challenge players with hostile environments, resource scarcity, and the feeling of being profoundly out of place. In recent years, aquatic-themed games have surged in popularity, not only because of their atmospheric power but because water itself becomes a gameplay system—one that shapes movement, danger, exploration, and narrative in ways that land-based games cannot easily mimic.
Among the most defining examples of this design philosophy are Subnautica, Subnautica: Below Zero, Raft, and Iron Lung, four games that approach aquatic survival and immersion from radically different angles. Whether the player is stranded on an alien planet, lost in the endless ocean, or trapped inside a claustrophobic metal coffin at the bottom of a sea of blood, these titles collectively demonstrate the genre’s breadth. They show that aquatic environments can be serene, terrifying, or existentially oppressive—and sometimes all at once.
The Allure and Terror of the Unknown Ocean
Before examining each game individually, it’s worth understanding what makes aquatic settings so uniquely powerful in video games. Water obscures vision, slows movement, muffles sound, and introduces an unpredictable, often hostile ecosystem. This creates a natural breeding ground for tension. The player is never entirely sure what lies beneath or behind them, and the vastness of an ocean can evoke a sense of isolation that even the emptiest deserts cannot match.
Aquatic settings also invite exploration. The ocean has verticality, complexity, and ecosystems brimming with life. Game designers use water to introduce layered environments; reefs, trenches, caves, shipwrecks; and create a feeling that discovery is always possible just beyond the next ridge or drop-off. In survival games, water complicates the equation even further: it constrains what resources are available, limits mobility, and forces the player to confront hostile habitats on their terms.
These traits are not simply background aesthetics. They are integral to how games like Subnautica, Raft, and Iron Lung craft their identity. Each uses water not as a backdrop, but as the defining force that shapes the entire experience.
Subnautica: A Beautiful, Terrifying Oceanic Sandbox
When Subnautica released, it quickly became one of the most beloved survival games of its era; not because of combat or narrative twists, but because of its ocean. The game strands the player on the alien world of 4546B following the crash of the starship Aurora. With limited resources, the player begins simply trying to stay alive: collecting fish for food, scavenging metal fragments, and building basic tools. But Subnautica’s true power lies in how its world unfolds.
The oceans of 4546B are a masterclass in environmental storytelling. Colorful coral reefs teem with life, while deeper zones transition into darker, more dangerous territories populated by enormous predators. The game uses depth to create a natural difficulty curve: the deeper you go, the more hazardous the environment becomes; but also the more essential resources you find.
Subnautica’s atmosphere is a blend of serene exploration and genuine horror. One moment the player is marveling at a glowing cavern system, and the next they’re being chased by a Leviathan-class creature that dwarfs their submarine. Unlike many survival games, Subnautica avoids weapon-focused combat. Instead, its fear and tension come from vulnerability; the player is always a visitor in an ocean that does not care about their survival.
Subnautica also delivers a strong narrative through environmental clues, alien ruins, and PDA logs scattered around the world. Over time, the player uncovers the mysteries of the Precursors, the illness that ravaged the planet, and the fate of the Aurora’s crew. The game excels at rewarding exploration not just with resources, but with story.
Thematically, Subnautica explores ecological balance, the cost of survival, and humanity’s impact on alien worlds. It succeeds because it invites curiosity, punishes recklessness, and weaves beauty and fear together with remarkable precision.
Subnautica: Below Zero
Subnautica: Below Zero, the standalone sequel, shifts the tone and structure of the original while keeping its core identity intact. This time the player is not an accident survivor, but a researcher searching for answers about their missing sister. The narrative is more personal, more character-driven, and woven more explicitly into the game’s progression.
Below Zero relocates the action to the frigid, polar regions of 4546B. The ocean is still the main stage, but the expansion into above-water exploration introduces new survival considerations, from freezing temperatures to unstable weather patterns. These changes allow the game to broaden its environmental diversity without losing the feeling of isolation and wonder.
While Below Zero features a smaller map than its predecessor, it makes up for this with tighter pacing and richer storytelling. New biomes like the Crystal Caves, the Arctic Spires, and the Twisty Bridges offer memorable aesthetic and gameplay experiences. The creature design, too, walks a fine line between beautiful and unnerving; many creatures are more defensive than aggressive, but the sense of threat remains.
One key difference is how Below Zero handles fear. It is less overtly horror-driven than the original, relying less on pitch-black trenches and massive predators lurking in silence. Instead, its emotional tension comes from uncovering conspiracies, navigating unstable ice shelves, and delving into alien technology with potentially world-altering implications.
Where Subnautica emphasized cosmic isolation, Below Zero emphasizes human connection. It remains a compelling aquatic adventure, but one with a different emotional core—proof that the series can evolve without losing what made it special.
Raft: Survival on the Endless Blue
While the Subnautica games focus on deep-sea exploration, Raft offers a different take on aquatic survival: the challenge of staying alive while floating on a tiny square of planks in the middle of the world’s vast and seemingly infinite ocean.
Raft begins with the player adrift on a small raft equipped with only a plastic hook. The gameplay loop starts simply: throw the hook to gather floating debris, expand the raft, purify water, grow crops, and defend your floating home from a ravenous shark that circles endlessly. But as the game unfolds, its scale increases dramatically. The player discovers abandoned research stations, deserted islands, radio towers, and ultimately the remnants of a civilization collapsed by ecological disaster.
Raft’s ocean is simultaneously a friend and enemy. It provides resources and allows movement, but it also embodies the loneliness and instability of survival. Unlike Subnautica, where the player dives into rich underwater biomes, Raft emphasizes surface-level tension. The ocean underneath is a threat, not a frontier; darkness and depth in Raft symbolize danger, limited resources, and unseen predators.
Raft’s strongest appeal lies in its creativity systems. As the raft grows from a fragile platform to a multi-story floating base complete with engines, crop fields, and laboratories, the player experiences a unique sense of accomplishment. Exploration, meanwhile, involves navigating the open sea toward story islands and unraveling the collapse of global society through documents left behind by previous survivors.
While cooperative play is optional, it significantly enhances the experience. Working with others to expand the raft, defend against the shark, and explore abandoned facilities turns Raft into a blend of survival adventure and collaborative building game. It occupies a distinct niche in aquatic-themed gaming: the ocean as an isolating yet hopeful frontier where progress floats on the edge of catastrophe.
I found this game years ago through creative gameplays in YouTube!
Iron Lung: The Ocean as a Prison of Horror
If Subnautica and Raft use the ocean as a place of possibility, Iron Lung treats it as a claustrophobic nightmare. This short but unforgettable horror game by David Szymanski is set in a universe where every known star and planet has mysteriously vanished, leaving only moons enveloped by oceans of blood. The player is a convict forced into a suicide mission inside a rusting submarine called the Iron Lung, with the goal of photographing strange anomalies deep beneath this blood ocean.
Unlike the other aquatic games discussed here, Iron Lung offers no freedom of movement. The player is confined entirely within a small, decaying metal chamber with no windows; only old monitors, flickering gauges, and a map that must be interpreted to navigate blindly through the environment. Every sound, every structural groan, every unexplained thud outside the hull contributes to the oppressive atmosphere.
The fear in Iron Lung is psychological. You never see the ocean clearly; you only glimpse snapshots through a camera that takes several seconds to process each photo. The tension comes not from combat or resource management, but from the helplessness of being trapped in an environment where something is always waiting just beyond sight.
This game made such a huge impact in the community, big time YouTuber, video game player, Markiplier, created a movie inspired by the game. Millions of people have tuned into watching his gameplay and seeing the film adaptation.
Why Aquatic Worlds Matter in Modern Gaming
The popularity of aquatic-themed games reflects a deeper trend: players are drawn to environments that evoke both awe and fear. Water represents the unknown, and unknowns make for compelling gameplay. Subnautica invites players to explore; Raft challenges them to endure; Iron Lung forces them to face dread. Water is the connective tissue, but each game uses it to express different emotional tones and mechanical systems.
These games also highlight how aquatic environments push designers to innovate. Issues like pressure, buoyancy, limited oxygen, and obstructed visibility require unique mechanics that cannot be replicated on land. As a result, aquatic games feel distinct; they have their own rhythms, dangers, and aesthetics.
More broadly, aquatic games often carry environmental themes. Rising sea levels, planetary collapse, alien ecosystems, and fragile habitats mirror real-world concerns. Players are not merely surviving; they are navigating worlds shaped by ecological tension, resource scarcity, or cosmic mystery.
Conclusion
Aquatic-themed video games like Subnautica, Below Zero, Raft, and Iron Lung show the extraordinary diversity possible within ocean-centered worlds. Whether offering the wonder of alien ecosystems, the challenge of drifting endlessly across the sea, or the suffocating dread of a blood-filled abyss, these games challenge players to confront the unknown. They also demonstrate that water; beautiful, dangerous, and limitless, it remains one of the most powerful spaces for storytelling and gameplay innovation.
As technology advances and developers continue experimenting with aquatic environments, the ocean will no doubt remain a deeply compelling frontier in gaming. It is a realm where beauty and terror coexist, where exploration meets survival, and where the deepest mysteries still wait beneath the waves.
Below is a Reddit Thread Talking About Favorite Aquatic Video games and some similar themed articles!
