SOMA

I was initially a little worried going into Soma, having heard when the game originally came out that it was less horror-centric, with its influences clearly being gleaned more from Asimov and sci-fi stories than the Gothic chills of 'Amnesia: The Dark Descent', the studio's previous game. Indeed, Soma sheds some of that creep-factor but, in doing so, manages to streamline Frictional's fantastic interactive systems and injects it into a superbly-crafted story that focuses on identity and finding a place in a very, very different world to the one you left behind. The voice acting is solid across the board, and delivered within a story that gradually reveals itself over the 8-10 hours or so you'll be putting into it. You'll be pleased to know that Soma, despite wearing its sci-fi influences on its sleeves, still has plenty of chills in it as you scramble to hide from monsters, peering around dark corridors on underwater ships. In fact, I'd say this game got to me a little more than Amnesia did! Frictional continues to deliver impressive horror experiences, which are refreshingly free of weapons or any kind of action at all. If I had any complaints, they'd be fairly minor, but chief among them would the insistence on blurring the screen whenever you've taken damage. If there aren't any health points to jack into nearby you'll be stuck running around with distant objects looking very blurry until you've topped up again. I was also quite surprised that the game gives you so much to interact with, yet very little of it contributes meaningfully to the story or your character all. The world is just full of bits and bobs that you can pick up and lockers you can look through, but I found that 95% of those items were useless and most of the drawers and lockers were empty. Overall, Soma is absolutely worth your time and delivers in pretty much every way you'd want it to. It's a more polished experience than Amnesia and makes for a superb Halloween treat.

The overall feel of the game is pretty fantastic. You get sucked in quickly with everything going on around you and most of the items in the map able to be picked up. There are no weapons so you'll be sneaking around to avoid the few monsters that exist throughout these maps, but as long as you follow the simple rules that come along with the these things you should be fine. The only real downside is that the game tends to freeze when it's saving which can be a bit jarring, but still comforting due to the lack of a true save and continue mechanic in the menu. The other draw back (not something worth penalizing the game for) is that the main character, Simon Jarrett, becomes a bit unlikable right there at the end. That's all part of the story, though, so maybe it was done on purpose.

There isn't many games giving such deep experience like this. This is definately the game not based on jump scares. It has moments when it keeps you stressed and moments when you can take a breath and wonder. as much as you can feel good and safe in grim environment underwater. What I loved about it too is the storyline. For quiite long time I've been guessing what is going on with the main character. Like it almost never happen for me it was pleasure to read notes and listen to recordings left in Pathos II. And making you start to ask yourself some questions what is life and what it's worth. After finishing this game and having ending hard to say good or bad, I've been left in a bit melancholic state, Not many games did let me go so deep into their world and play with me emotionally. Graphically game isn't mastery, but it's detail is on level high enough to enjoy it. Especially when you take on thought that it's made by small studio. Only thing that was eventually wrong technically were FPS drops. They were significant, but it wasn't happening often and this way it didn't affect my good experience with the game. I guess it was caused by some game elements loading in background. Textures, models etc. Also loading game at start is long but such thing isn't big pain because it happens only once :)

I love the horror game genre, and this game ranks at the top. It's incredibly beautiful and immersive. The story is top-notch and has a strong sci-fi presence. I've found it to be more enjoyable than Bioshock or Last of Us and on-par with System Shock 2 simply because the story is that strong. It's a long exploration game; after hours, it just feels like you're there.

I don't recall ever playing a game that had me sit back and ponder what it was saying long after I was finished. Especially, with a topic and story idea of what it means to be Human and Sentient. A fantastically thrilling game that not only scared me quite well at times due to characters, environment, visuals, voice acting, and sound, but also provided an amazing story and premise that tickled my brain and my adoration for Science Fiction. SOMA, is an incredible experience, despite its few faults with the enemies (as others have pointed out), this game is that sleeper hit for me. It's writing is the tour de force and the writers should be very proud of themselves for talking about a subject that not only is possible as technology progresses, but also in a mature manner asks us: if we were copied/cloned that would be us, but it also would not really be US. It would be a copy with it's own thoughts and experiences. I could easily fathom this story manifested into a big thick Sci-Fi book. SOMA, is very much a great game and one that any Sci-Fi fan would enjoy. Well done to the developers, writers, and the rest of team for this amazing game.