Posted on: July 11, 2019

Basol

Games: 54 Reviews: 13

the creators of Amnesia

SOMA is a sci-fi horror game from Frictional Games, the creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It is an unsettling story about identity, consciousness, and what it means to be human. The radio is dead, food is running out, and the machines have started to think they are people. Underwater facility PATHOS-II has suffered an intolerable isolation and we’re going to have to make some tough decisions. What can be done? What makes sense? What is left to fight for? Enter the world of SOMA and face horrors buried deep beneath the ocean waves. Delve through locked terminals and secret documents to uncover the truth behind the chaos. Seek out the last remaining inhabitants and take part in the events that will ultimately shape the fate of the station. But be careful, danger lurks in every corner: corrupted humans, twisted creatures, insane robots, and even an inscrutable omnipresent A.I. You will need to figure out how to deal with each one of them. Just remember there’s no fighting back, either you outsmart your enemies or you get ready to run.

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Posted on: February 28, 2020

PaladinNO

Verified owner

Games: 374 Reviews: 7

An eerie mix of suspense and confusion

To get one thing out of the way at once: There are NO guns in this game (other than a brief, scripted thing with a stun-gun). TL;DR version: It's a fairly linear horror game. As mentioned, no weapons. Sometimes, you need to explore and interact with an area to proceed. In others, you need to crouch and sneak around in a section to avoid a monster. Long version: You play most of the game underwater. Not having played Amnesia, which this game is frequently compared with, that claustrophobic feeling creeped me out on its own. Both the visual effects and sound effects of echos whenever metal clanks against metal really makes you think you are in a confined space. ...Which is not a good feeling, especially not in the parts you know there is something lurking about, sharing the limited space you have to move around in. You rarely see it, but you can often hear it when it is nearby. Some technical downsides: The game does not have any index, quest log or map that I have found, that tells you where you need to go, to remind you what you need to do, and it is often confusing what you need to do to move on. There are many instrument lights that doesn't sufficiently stand out compared to the ones you can actually interact with, which to me takes way a lot of the interest in the game. I either want to interact with everything or having it utterly plain what I can and cannot interact with. There are a few 2-choice options, however neither impacts the game other than triggering some additional voice acting, which always is only a little additional piece of the backstory. Being a completionist, I liked being allowed to explore whenever I wanted, except for the couple of part-ending scripted chase scenes where a line from "The Mummy" is called for ("Run, you sons bi***es! Run!"). With the music changing pace as well, they really did get my heart pumping on those occasions. Overall, the game was fine, but was sadly too linear and confined to hold much replay value for me.

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Posted on: January 10, 2021

AltoArcade

Verified owner

Games: 36 Reviews: 1

yes

I have a phobia to water and large body of water so the horror of this game double up to me. the game will attack you to the question of what made you real and what makes everything around you real or if you are truly real or if you really perceive that you are real. the horror it gave is not jumpscare-ish, the horror it gave is giving you scary possibilities of what technology stuff can do if it went wrong. my only problem is the lack of subtitle cause im playing on a loud environment so i had to pump the volume way up but that's not a case or a big problem. i'm fan of horror games and atmospheric and SOMA successfully deliver those kind of stuff that we've been missing since Silent Hill. also i'd recomend playing this in dark, way up volume, and full focus, and of course, blind.

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Posted on: October 12, 2021

styku

Verified owner

Games: 107 Reviews: 2

Existential dread at its finest

Soma is a story-telling masterpiece on almost all possible levels. The story itself is profound, leaving an everlasting impression if only one stops to ponder upon grave questions it poses. Then, the way the games conveys the story is almost perfect. The main part is told in a direct way and it is enough to appreciate it. But when you start filling in the details from audio buffers, logs, notes and black boxes, you get a much more complete picture of the existential horror you are facing. One of the worst things? (CAREFUL, MAY BE A SOMEWHAT OF A SPOILER!) The protagonist does not seem to grasp the meaning and implications of his endeavors, so you start to subconsciously anticipate the end may be a very tragic one. The only other game that managed to leave a similar impact on me was Planescape: Torment. The jump scares are scarce. The tension caused by the monster encounters is somewhat dependent on your level of immersion and understanding on what is actually happening. Many think this is the weakest and most tedious part of the game, but I personally did enjoy and appreciate it. If you either are too stressed out by hide and seek sections of the game (or find them boring and unnecessary), you can always start the game in safe mode. This will still allow you to meet the monsters but ignore completely the stealth part. Finally, the art direction, visuals, audio, voice acting, writing - they are all top-notch and coherent. I can't recall thinking at any point "this is out of place, it breaks immersion, I would prefer it to be done differently". This game is carefully crafted, cohesive masterpiece.

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Posted on: October 20, 2021

DarkRootGabriel

Verified owner

Games: 46 Reviews: 9

Hide-and-Seek Done Well

This will get your mind going and possibly your heart! It's less about being overtly scary and more about uncomfortable thoughts about the lengths people may go in the aftermath of a terrible event. The enemy interactions are more like puzzles than reactions and quick decisions, so while some people say that lessened their fright, I guess it was still enough for me to get the pulse rate up. There is also a Safe Mode where the creatures will be freaky but not killer-y, if that's more your speed. The environments were well done I thought, and the environmental puzzles, while not too difficult, felt like reasonable actual things you might have to do in the circumstances, and I liked that a lot. For me four stars means "very much enjoyed it but not sure if I'll play it again". I still am not positive I won't play it again though...

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