SOMA

SOMA does one thing especially well: the enviromental design. The horror from part is truly top-notch. The developers truly knew now to make the environments look fantastic (in a horror kind of way). That would be completely enough to make and sell the game. Unfortunately, for a reason I can't quite fathom, they still felt the need to rely on traditional horror 'game' themes, such as monsters, scripted chase scenes, sound of heartbeat, lights going off, puzzles forcing you to quickly solve some nonsense before the monster comes and such. They even compromised their great enviroments to create hard to navigate mazes which is a damn shame. And the hell why is there no map? Another thing the game suffers from are puzzles which are akin to pixel hunting in old point and click adventure games where you know what you need to do (having figured it out half an hour ago), but can't find that one item you need and having to go through all the rooms and halls to find it. Other easily missable items are not mission-critical but still important for backstory and such. So at the end I gave up and just played the game with a walkthrough open so I don't miss anything important or get stuck for half an hour. The interface and controls don't help. Sure, the basic movement is fine, but all the physics nonsense is just annoying and breaks immersion. In short, when the game is an experience, it's amazing - but as soon as it tries to be an actual game, it just falls apart with pointless cliches and annoyances. Shame. Also, the reason why I bought the game because everyone has been praising this part - the story - is really not that special. Certainly cool enough for a horror game but definitely not he philosophical masterpiece some make it out to be. Basically SOMA is too much of a traditional horror to be a classic. And it could have been much more than that.

Right now SOMA is free, and I am loving GOG. Reminded me of Alien Isolation; game has great atmosphere and is genuinely scary. Plays wonderfully on a Toshiba laptop with Windows 10 x64 and nVidia GTX 950m. Has minimal user interface, few keys to remember (can be customized), overall awesome playing experience. Happy 2019 everybody, and thank you GOG!

I wasn't expecting much after Amnesia AMFP and mixed reviews for SOMA. Man was i wrong. The narrative is amazing, the ambience is seedy and spooky, controls are great, graphics and audio as well. I won't spoil anything about the game, just play it, it's awesome and i'll remember it for a long time.

First off, I typically don't play First Person games... I have played a few select ones that I have enjoyed, and they are usually along the same vein: horror story/exploration games. I hadn't really ventured into Science Fiction Horror, and honestly probably wouldn't have if GOG hadn't given this game away over a year ago. It's been sitting in my library forever and I decided to give it a shot... Wow. This game scared the crap out of me. So much so that I had to stop playing it in the dark. About half-way through I was seriously regretting not having used the "Safe Mode" option which would have turned off the monsters that you encounter, However, once I actually finished it I'm glad I left them on for my first run through. I actually feel very accomplished that I completed it. Ok, so I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this game. Having played it all the way through I feel it would have been well worth the asking price, which makes it a steal if you get it on sale. Let me tell you why: -The atmosphere is second to none. I have never played a more detailed, believable game in my life. That's why the fear was so intense. It really did feel like I was there. -The story was fantastic. A little gut-wrenching, but fantastic none the less. It definitely sticks to it's sci-fi theme in it's working-out. It definitely plays with the question of "What makes a human a human?" (As such it has no religious or theological soundness to it at all, as it does view people as evolved beings.) The game doesn't seek to explain any of this, but just provide a story which causes one to think. -The voice acting is superb. I felt the emotion, the sarcasm, the fear. It was great. -Puzzles. Along with dealing with monsters you have to solve a few puzzles along the way. Not too difficult, and well placed. Ultimately, I'm going to play this again, but on the Safe Mode. The monsters made it a great experience, but I want to explore the atmosphere more. It's a great game.

I don't write reviews. For SOMA I will make an exception. I played this game without knowing anything about it at first. I also never played a horror game before - it is not quite my type of genre. I was looking for something with a decent immersion factor, and - oh dear - did SOMA deliver. I was completely and utterly terrified by the world this game took me into. I got lost in there. In the darkness. But despite being thoroughly repelled by the atmosphere (because it is delivered so effectively) there was a curiosity in me that was stronger than my fear. If you want creepy, if you want weird, if you want to completely eject from your daily life for a moment, this game can give it to you. I do recommend though, to play it alone, in the dark, with headphones turned up a bit louder than usual, and to surrender to its story and let it pull you in. Identify with the main character and the completely horrifying situation he is thrown into. And take his journey as seriously as you would, in his situation. Then you can have the maximum experience. I do have to add though that on a second playthrough, the creatures were a little less frightening, although still very disturbing. People in reviews sometimes complain about them being annoying. I personally think that is exactly as it should be. As this is not a shoot and run game, it needs to draw its awe-inducing qualities from other sources, such as instilling the feeling of helplessness, which is amplified by the fact that you have absolutely no way of defending yourself. If the creatures weren't annoying, they wouldn't be taking their jobs very seriously. At any rate, I found the balance in this game, of all its components and styles, absolutely perfect. SOMA, with its top-notch story, has made it to the number one of my inner favourite games list and I have some serious doubts it will ever drop down from there. That all being said, I wouldn't recommend it to a kid.