SOMA

The game starts very strong and is dripping (no pun intended) with atmosphere. The design of the environments, characters, and technology is fantastic. I love the lore and the story is good, but it doesn't explore the concept of 'being' and 'conciousness' as well as other existing media. It's definitely overrated in this aspect at least if you are already a big fan of science fiction. The monsters are often more annoying and tedious than scary. I often was looking forward to the next story element but had to come to a halt to repeatedly sit in a corner while a monster passes by, or just take a long (but not very tense) detour to avoid it, and the monsters will constantly teleport to your location in a way which feels more unfair than terrifying. Overall I found it overrated considering all the glowing reviews, and not at all worth the full price. But I bought it at 90% off and for that it wasn't too much of a letdown.

My feelings on SOMA changed a lot over the course of my playthrough. Initially, I was fully invested in the survival horror gameplay, immersed in the oppressive deep sea atmosphere. This atmosphere is excellent and ever-present, and the descent into the abyss later on is as awesome as it is terrifying. As I neared the middle and end though, the simplicity of the gameplay wore thin and I was ready to be done with it. The actual game consists mostly of avoiding monsters as you locate the objective or exit to the next area; it's not a game with much "game" and has very little replay value, in my opinion. But after SOMA was over I realized that it had left me with lingering doubts that gave it surprising staying power in my mind. The abyss and deep sea monsters certainly contribute to the horror of this game, but SOMA's big scare came in a different form: existential dread, which only really settled in well after I put the game away. It presented me with situations that forced me to evaluate my own definitions of consciousness, humanity, life, and what makes a "good" life. As time went on, I became less and less certain of my choices. Though the gameplay itself is flimsy, I admit that the story wouldn't work as well in another format, as participating in these events from Simon's perspective and making these choices for yourself are essential to the experience. The ending is a tragedy; based on what we know about the world and Simon's character, we see that it couldn't have possibly ended any other way, but Simon couldn't, and that hurts. It's not perfect, but overall I enjoyed it and don't regret my purchase. I still recommend SOMA for its story, though anyone seeking a deeper gameplay experience should probably look elsewhere. Runs flawlessly on Linux with native support, which is always greatly appreciated.

The only horror in the game is the existential questions that follow up after finishing the game. This is a masterpiece that takes a walk with you down the rabbit hole. Whoever reads this and did not play the game, seriously, get it now. The only thing you need to know, after you finish it, is that you will stay in a loop for a while and your mind will start grinding important questions. There are a few books that inspired this game, one of them is Blindsight by Peter Watts, definetly check them out.

I just can agree to the many reviews about the atmosphere and the great story. Some positive technical stuff: Absolutely no issues on on arch with the open amdgpu driver and Mesa 13 on a 380x.

Nice amount of scary things and dark creepy surroundings will keep you edge on the seat. As well as good story about "define human being" in near future world that is wiped out by huge comet. But once you made past to end, there isn't much to going again because route isn't multiple and choice you make isn't doing anything much. Other than simply try to find what you missed (those scrap of paper or voice recordings isn't really doing anything to story flow at all), one play will satisfy everything. For that I gave this game 4-star.