SOMA

I came for the horror and I left with an admiration for the storyline. Movie A+ grade material.

This is a good game with a great subject, in my opinion the all important question that makes for great Science Fiction: what does it mean to be human? I was also impressed about by its aesthetics. The deep ocean levels were outstanding, the blurry water, the unseen dangers, the far away lights you must follow. This made the game for me. The voice acting is also awesome and truly professional. I loved the conversations between Catherine and Simon. I only deduct one star because it relied a little too much on cheap scares. While there are objectively few monsters (possibly too few for horror fans), it's still a horror game at its core, with all the usual tropes: scares, loud noises at unexpected times, lights that go out, hideously deformed/mutated humans chasing you, ghostly apparitions, etc. I'm easily scared and didn't like the horror aspect of it too much (though again, I did enjoy the scary sea creatures!). Some scares are necessary, but I would have included more puzzle minigames (maybe harder ones) and more focus on exploration and less on monsters, leaving them for very isolated moments. Still, these are minor objections. This is a great game -- it reminded me of System Shock 2, only better! -- and I wish they make more like this.

I feel guilty because of some of the choices and actions I had to attend during this game. They didn't affect the story (maybe some dialogues), but they had a huge impact on me. Also, I got the game during a giveaway. And I feel guilty for having it for free. It is worth every cent of its full price. Maybe at a certain point you can be a bit annoyed by the monster hide and run. But even playing in plain day, they scared and disturbed me, as long as the places I visited: I felt trapped, under water, inside facilities, inside my damn body.

I love classic horror games, but you have to admit the genre has so much more potential nowadays. It is no longer necessary to purposely handicap the player in order to create a "scary" situation, nor is it as necessary to sacrifice gameplay for the sake of performance on an early 3D console. That is why it is so disheartening to see many modern horror games rely mostly on jumpscares and graphical trickery at the expense of everything else. You also tend to see the same sort of plots over and over; if anything, horror game designers seem to view plot and characterization as a hindrance to horror, and tend to dispense with them whenever possible. That is why a game like SOMA is so refreshing. Simply put, it has the best story and writing of any horror game, superior even to vaunted classics like Silent Hill 2. Like that game, SOMA understands the concept of subtlety, and rather than over the top scares, what you have instead is the ever-present feeling of dread. This makes the eventual payoff even more effective than just throwing spooky stuff at the screen constantly. Technically, the game is also an improvement over its predecessors in the genre. Camera and player control is mostly seamless and doesn't hinder the fun, and the level exploration is satisfying. Puzzles don't get too crazy, but more than get the job done. Despite the fact that its a linear adventure with nothing in the way of "extras," I've replayed it simply because the core game is so satisfying. I cannot recommend this game highly enough.

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.