SOMA

Story: 5/5 Worldbuilding: 4/5 Art Design: 5/5 Graphics: 4/5 Sound: 4/5 Gameplay: 4/5

This ticks all the boxes for me, not too many jump scares, great voice acting and a captivating story. Recommended.

This game's description looks so generic. I can't believe it. The game itself however is on a totally different level in my opinion.

I have actually already watched the entirety of this game played through on YouTube once before, many years back. When I realized there was a "Safe" difficulty, I put aside my reservations and finally put in my own 8h30m to beat the game myself. The Safe difficulty certainly takes away a lot of the tension and (obviously) difficulty of the game, but I don't actually ever play horror games to be scared. I play them because they have interesting worlds, characters and concepts, which means I tend not to play many of them at all because they're designed around tension and extremely dangerous enemies that will instakill you the moment you get in their sights. But enough about that, my preferences for difficulty aren't that important because I'm here to talk about how well-written the story for this game is. Simon might come off a bit whiny, but I feel like he's a fairly likable person at his core. The game will, of course, test your own moral code at several places in the story. There are no right or wrong answers, philosophers would argue about which is the better option all day like it's the trolley problem, but you will have to make some hard calls. The game will also force you into a few right at the start because of Simon's ignorance about his situation and the requirements to progress. That is probably my least favorite part of the story, that you are given no choices in that regard, but it's very early on in the game and is set aside. The game will ask you to make decisions, though, that I would argue should be difficult (and if they aren't difficult for you, then I don't think I want to know you as a person because either you're incredibly boring and can't connect with a piece of fiction or you're a sociopath and neither is appealing). I know you're probably thinking "I don't want to", but I feel like if you want to engage with a good story a little mild discomfort shouldn't dissuade you. It's up to you, but I loved Soma. I have very VERY few complaints.

SOMA is a horror walking sim from the creators of Amnesia, and probably one of the best of its type. You play as Simon Jarrett, a man who woke up in an underwater facility overrun by mutated humans, machines, and sea creatures. It's kinda like if BioShock 2 was a horror game. The overgrown underwater aesthetic, mutated humanoid enemies, even has the "seawalking" chapters. You might wonder why SOMA is so good. Simply put, the setting is great, but of course this may differ if you don't like creepy underwater areas. Enemy design is really great as well. And then there's the theme about consciousness and perception of "self" that will make you think... I won't say anymore though as it might spoil your experience. If you want to experience the story and setting but cannot handle horror games, fear not as there is a safe mode. In this mode enemies won't kill you, but they'll still be all scary and follow you around if you are spotted. Honestly, I like this game more than the Amnesia ones, and if you like those you'd most likely love SOMA as well.