SOMA

SOMA is an intriguing game. Starts a bit slow, but when you get into the feel of being underwater it grows on you. No spoilers here. I’ve played it several times. Great!

Game is nice, the story is excellent, some funny moment, some scary ones, great game Le jeu est joli, l'histoire est excellente, il a des moments marrant, des moments flippants, très bon jeu

As a horror game, SOMA is scary for the first half of the game, but then once you observe how simple the monsters are to outsmart and navigate around, they become nothing more than annoyances - on top of which the monster encounters become a little formulaic and very predictable: you start to recognise the layouts of areas and realise that similar layouts are used for the same kinds of encounters throughout the game. I played on "Normal" mode (with monsters), but given what I just wrote, I would instead recommend "Safe" mode, which simplifies and nullifies a lot of the monster encounters. Don't feel like that would kill the horror at all though, the monsters do not provide the game's horror. Ultimately, by the time you get to the end of the game the monsters just feel like they are annoyingly interrupting your exploration and story. By this point, they have lost all fearsomeness, and the real horror in the game doesn't come from the monsters, but instead from the disturbing atmosphere and the turns taken by the story. It also seems that Frictional themselves realised this, since the monster encounters get shorter and shorter as the game goes on. The game's value comes from a story which is perfectly paced and makes you really think about the game's premise (with horrifying implications). The story-telling here is among the best of all in of video-games and really should be experienced. Unfortunately I can't write what makes the story so great without spoiling it. Sorry.

A better examination of identity and consciousnes than a lot of lauded TV shows and films. A super spooky atmosphere mixed with a bit of macabre humour and a story with some genuine twists. My only issue with the game was that the tiresome forced chases and stealth sections ruined the pacing for me. So I modded them out... but now you don't have to. Turning them off is an official feature of the game, and it's still plenty scary enough without them. Or leave them on if you're not a baby like me.

The story of Soma dials with interesting yet uneasy topics, both philosophical and psychological. It is not monsters that scares you, but the very idea which lies behind this game. Everything is crafted with high attention to details. Frictional Games invested a lot in level and sound design, creating very immersive and realistic environment. You will be walking much on a seabed through the beautiful scenery both natural and industrial. Exploration is often rewarding and provides you interesting pieces of the backstory. Soma is a well-paced game. It never feels rushed, it does not suffer from tons of backtracking or endless cutscenes. Voice actor of the main character had made a remarkable job depicting his personality and emotions. HPL engine provides both high quality picture and good performance. The only technical issue is that several times the game stopped responding, forcing me to kill the process. In one of the buildings I managed to trap an enemy in a room, but he somehow slipped through the locked door. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional. Some ingame displays seems to be unfocused even when your character is in full health. Therefore texts on them are hard to read, and they are not complemented with closed caption. It's been a long way since Penumbra technical demo. Frictional Games has made a great progress in story narration and game design. An updated HPL engine looks very impressive as well. I wish they would opensource it, so anyone can contribute to development and use it for personal projects. Soma is one of the few games that can be considered as an art. I think, it will become classic in years to come. ;)