To add: I thought Below Zero felt more “designed” than the original. The biomes feel less natural, the progression is a bit more obvious, the story guides you along quite a bit more. Even just the vehicle progression makes it a little less satisfying to explore around—finding a route to get the cyclops through small cave systems was just amazing.

I ended up treating it more like a game and less like a survival sandbox, if that makes sense. I was given goals rather than finding them.