So I just finished SOMA and it was excellent; easily the best story based game I've played in years. The Witcher 3 might be my favorite game released this year, but SOMA is my favorite piece of narrative fiction. There's a dark fever-dream quality to this title that the devs just nailed!

I'm not usually the biggest horror game aficionado, and I don't do particularly well with constant jump scares, so it was refreshing to play a horror game which subtly worms its way into one's head. This is not a haunted house of horrors & grotequeries like Amnesia but rather an introspective look at existentialist dilemmas under the most dire and nightmarish circumstances. What it means to exist, and the moral implications of experimenting with awareness & consciousness are both touched upon. Sure, there are occasional monsters that need avoiding and there are a few puzzles that need solving, but both take a far back seat to the story and the mission.

The atmosphere is thick and the feeling of cold, pitch black, isolation as you follow the dim glow of distant lanterns on the Atlantic abyssal plane is just... nuts. By the game's end I was rooting for the main characters so hard, and the mission you take on is so much bigger than what I expected at the very beginning of the game... and the ending is, well, both terrifying and bittersweet (pre-credits and post-credits).

I wish I had somebody to discuss this title with. Most of my best friends aren't really gamers, and the one's that are play maddon and stuff.

No one played or is playing this ? I hope people are playing it and are avoiding this topic to avoid spoilers. :-)

I liked this game too. I enjoy very much the survival horror genre, but can see how they might get uninteresting because they chose to focus on a specific type of scare. This game instead choose to tell a good story without leaving the horror genre . I liked that very much. There should be more games like this I think. Really kept me thinking about the situation.

PS: I'm trying to say without spoiling too much but it's hard because anything someone says might be taken as a spoiler from a perspective. Sorry if this was the case for anyone.

Eh not my kind of horror game.

And its just one of many horror games that completely removes combat which has become the norm in the Indie Horror Gaming scene.

I'm not saying just add combat, I want that "survival" element to it. Make resource scarces, emphasis that running away is a better option, and shoot when you need to.

I trust fortune's opinion so on the wishlist she goes.

hmmm is it more a jump scare or atmo- horror?

Thanks for the info! I'm definitely interested in this game but probably won't get to play it for some time. Atmospheric horror with a good story is right up my alley.

I would say definitely Atmo-horror with some philosofical questions thrown in it. But Thats my view of it, others may disagree.

Same here...... I hope its not too scary.

Thanks for the thread. I simply LOVE horror themed games. You made me seriously tempted to try it.

That's what I'd like to know too.
I hate jump scares but I like stuff similar to "The White Chamber".

will check the game out soon, hope there is a double barrel shotgun

Ah, good to hear it isn't so much a "walking simulator". Watched a bit of a livestream of it when it came out. A bit annoyed with some areas that just felt like lots of space but nothing really 'in' them. Think that was mainly ones doing with water ( trying not to say too much about it...sorry if that's considered a spoiler ).

Still not my cup of tea since I'd rather be doing more than running around back and forth to places. Didn't feel like there was enough to actually do.

But it's more than a walking simulator at least so do feel better about that.

Also..puzzles. I fucking hate puzzles. Fuck puzzles. Fuck 'em all.

Im having a kind of love/hate thing with it, Its a good story but I dont like some of the mechanics, I think they are filler to make the game seem longer.
I havent got very far though, just to got to the underwater ummm "structure" that should have something to get me to the next place.
Not exactly racing through it though due to some mechanics that make me quit out and go play something else.
Glad you enjoyed it though, its things like that which make me push on :)

Sounds fantastic. But does it have a small quantity of jump scares, or no jump scares at all?