New Underwater Survival Game Anchor Mashes Rust and Subnautica Together
A new underwater survival experience is on the horizon. Anchor, the upcoming title from developer Fearem, combines the gritty, player-driven survival of Rust with the deep-sea atmosphere of Subnautica, offering a fresh take on the survival crafting genre that moves the chaos and tension beneath the waves.
Set in a dystopian future where nuclear catastrophe has forced humanity to seek refuge beneath the ocean, Anchor challenges players to adapt, explore, and endure in a hostile underwater world. Players can choose to team up with others across 150-player servers or go it alone as a true deep-sea survivor.
The trailer, available now on YouTube, showcases the game’s haunting underwater environments, resource gathering, and intense survival mechanics, including crafting habitats, maintaining oxygen levels, and fending off threats lurking in the dark depths.
Fearem’s Anchor introduces both PvP and PvE gameplay modes to cater to different types of players. Those looking for competitive encounters can dive into large-scale multiplayer survival where players battle not only the ocean’s dangers but also each other for limited resources. Meanwhile, PvE players can opt for a calmer, yet still deadly, underwater experience focused on exploration, environmental hazards, and survival against nature itself.
Managing oxygen, food, and shelter integrity will be essential, with constant risks of environmental collapse and marine predators adding to the pressure. The developers describe it as a “harsh but rewarding survival sandbox,” one where every dive could be your last.
While Subnautica offered a surreal alien ocean full of unknown life forms, Anchor grounds its story on Earth’s own oceans, now transformed by human desperation and radiation. The familiar yet decayed setting opens opportunities for a different kind of tension, one that reflects humanity’s struggle to rebuild in a self-inflicted apocalypse.
It remains to be seen how Fearem will expand the ecosystem beyond sharks and predators, but the potential for crafting, deep exploration, and cooperative base-building offers a lot of promise for fans of survival games.
For now, Anchor is confirmed for PC, with no word yet on a console release. Given the growing interest in ambitious survival titles, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it make its way to other platforms later. Fearem has not yet announced a release date, though many expect more updates or even a demo at an upcoming Steam Next Fest.
Will Anchor sink or swim in the crowded survival genre? The concept alone might just make it one of the most intriguing underwater games since Subnautica.
