Reviews - SOMA

Шедевр.
Некто Саймон, чтобы излечить травму мозга, полученную во время автомобильной аварии, унёсшей, к тому же, Жизнь Любимой Девушки, подписался на необычную процедуру. Она довольна проста, хоть и эксперементальна - простое сканирование поможет создать компьютерную симуляцию, на которой будет проверено множество комплексных вартантов лечения без вреда для пациента. Но он-то думал, что его лишь просканируют. Не ожидал, что мозг перенесёт его на 100 лет вперёд на какую-то подводную станцию, в которой группа учёных спасалась от кометы, уничтожившей всё Живое на суше. Но именно, что спасалась когда-то - теперь станция заселёна застрявшими в машинах страдающими Душами. Вскоре Саймон, не сумев выбраться из тонущего отсека, с ужасом и радостью вперемешку, обнаруживает на себе непонятно откуда взявшийся скафандр с фонариком, что заставляет его не доверять своим глазам, а попытаться разобраться - как он сюда попал и кем он стал. А заодно выбраться и выжить. Ведь любой сильный стресс способен, в его состоянии, вызвать кровоизлияние в мозг. Попутно он знакомится с, похоже, единственной выжившей - Катериной, которая готова ему в этом помочь, если он, в свою очередь, окажет ей одну маленькую услугу: поможет завершить проект Ковчег, с которого начался весь этот кошмар.
Но чтобы это удалось, им предстоит ответить на один непростой вопрос - целесообразна ли погоня за вечной Жизнью с помощью искусственных методов, если есть риск добиться лишь вечного существования? Что, в таком случае, будет с Душой?
- "Это не больно - представьте, что Вас фотографируют".
- "Знаете, доктор, индейцы верили, что фотографии крадут Душу".
- "Хех..... будем надеяться, что этого не произойдёт".

I'm seeing not much transhumanism explored in this or the apocalypse, so the context of the situation is left very vague. There is hacking but its very repetitive, so I think they could have done more with that. It would have been good if there was a way to replace your limbs with new tools, or switch bodies to solve puzzles. So you don't know where you are and where your going and it lacks weight, like these dying half robots half humans but you don't know or care whether they die or not, and if it really means anything. The whole touching the weird glowy holes. Voice acting is quite average and there is no real antagonist which hurts the game more because of the other issues with gameplay/lack of context/weight of actions.

The story takes awhile to uncover which is also an issue. I think it could have fleshed the world out more way sooner.

The thing it does have going for it is the atmosphere, which I always know that Frictional Games delivers on. I will have to give it a more concrete review once I reach the end but overall, it feels like a step down story/gameplay wise from Amnesia. And I thought Amnesia was a step down story wise from Penumbra, but was slightly better gameplay wise in terms of userfriendliness, puzzles, monster design, level design for hiding/sneaking and players sense of purpose. So overall I feel like Soma is probably the weakest of them all.

I can say however that Soma is slightly better in terms of body horror, as its kinda of trying to blur machine and alien/man but it doesn't really take that far enough IMO nor the transhumanism and end of the world potential for story or gameplay.

I'm pretty sure that Soma is not meant to be as scary as Outlast and Amnesia. Its supposed to feel alien, disgusting and confusing more than anything else, so you feel detached from your surroundings and not absorbed in them. Its a mindset change to get into this game. Your there to uncover who these robots are, alien technology, whats happened to the world and what is happening to you. You are here to figure out what is going on primarily, not as revenge story like in Amnesia or trying to defeat a ghost or record everything like in Outlast, so there is no antagonist. But you have someone helping you so a hint of Penumbra there. The fact that its not as absorbing/atmospheric/oppressive is not a good criticism because we can tell right away that its a completely different environment, timeline, story which produces a different themes and its own feeling.

You have to go into the game with a different mindset. My criticisms of the game are a little different, there is not enough done with the gameplay to change things up considering the transhumanist element and hacking thing it has, body horror is there but they could have taken it further. Essentially the gameplay feels rather disappointing.

Wow, first there was Penumbra series I was so excited to start playing those.. played all the series and love it. Then frictional released Amnesia which was super-exciting, thrilling, amazing and one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I ever felt in my whole life and this continued years, because people created so original and unique mods and used different experiences, things and I played those over nearly 1000 stories from beginning to an end. What a gem amnesia still is.

Then.. SOMA was released! I watched every freaking trailer and I loved how different this is going to be and IT IS. First couple hours I feeled the atmosphere how unique it was and when I was progressing even further then everything feeled I wasn't alone and I was really scared at this point. FG manages again to make something so scary I never expected to fear that much in some areas where enemies were lurking and walking slowly. This game has so nerve-wracking moments too and unpredictable moments I never expected, I hided too many times in a corner and weeped like a bitch it was that SCARY. I applaud FG again, because they did it again and I ******* my pants literally too many times. I loved so much that design and how every underwater part was maded all the chases, intense moments, puzzles and that story with Catherine and working together and figuring everything out, how we come to this? How we espace? and all the other mystery questions waiting to reveal.

Monsters are really terrifying and that "Scary effect" when screen is tearing it was really good idea to put that and make something different and not using same bluriness what Amnesia has when enemy is too close.

I never been more sucked-in story what this game is, it's beautiful, it's depressing at times, really sad and player really can feel the sorrow, but still brave enough to continue it and end it all.

Pos:

- Story
- Music
- Monsters (really scary ones too)
- Atmosphere
- Intense and terrifying chases
- Puzzles (really challenging ones too)
- Complicated map design which is awesome and unique
- Never expected and nerve-wracking moments

Neg:

- Sometimes I got FPS drops and not smoothly gameplay (average 40-50 fps)
- Maybe little longer it felt short after all

Amazing work Frictional again! This team got so much potential I'm eager to wait what they will create next! I'm proud to be long-time Fricitional fan and I always will be! Fantastic!

Amazing ride with new things and unique approaches - 10/10

Incredible art design and atmosphere, powerful storytelling that tops the vast majority of games. It may not seem as scary as Amnesia: The Dark Descent or Penumbra at first, but just keep playing... on that same superficial level it is significantly more terrifying than any other game as a whole, yet it extends much deeper still. I previously considered Penumbra and Amnesia: The Dark Descent to be the best horror games ever made, but SOMA is an significant improvement in almost every way.

Full review: Gnd-tech.com

This will be the first ever video game I have played that I feel deserves a perfect score. While others will disagree, for me at least, everything Frictional has promised with this game has been delivered, and then some, and in my eyes is better than any of their previous works by a long shot. As a horror game, it's excellent: Looking back at tactics they used for Amnesia, they have improved greatly in my opinion. While I found Amnesia absolutely terrifying, there were two things about Amnesia that made it lose a bit of its terrifying experience for me: the despawning of enemies. Eventually you would know when you were safe because the hunting music would stop, letting you know the monster has despawned. The part other being hiding. The creatures in Amnesia weren't very bright, so unless you made any noise or screwed up along those lines, hiding in a closet or behind boxes would guarantee you safety until they despawned. With SOMA, the monsters are smart, don't despawn, check everywhere, are able to open doors without breaking them down, and there really weren't any places to hide. For me, that was a huge improvement; as I heard the creatures step closer to my location, I would be filled with absolute dread and terror as I played out the possible scenarios in my head and because you couldn't really hide anywhere, you would either have to act, trying to outsmart the said creature, or just sit there as it discovers you (granted, each monster had some sort of flaw making it a little easier to outsmart them.) The puzzles were good too, the game never once held your hand, and as long as you put some common sense into each puzzle based off of your surroundings, you would get through in a reasonable amount of time. As for atmosphere, Frictional nailed it. Mikko Tarmia makes another great soundtrack, and they've always been masters of sound design so nothing new here. As for graphically, the improved engine for this game made the whole thing come out beautiful and grim at the same time, far better than anything they've made. Voice acting was top notch, and the character(s) in the game were really well done and made me really attached and empathetic. For me though, the one thing that stood out more than anything was the game's story. As someone who's followed Frictional for a long time, I knew they wouldn't disappoint with the horror, but the entire story blew my expectations out of the water. Not only is the story original, which is often rare for a horror game, but it's very thought provoking and mind-blowing, and it, along with the affects of your choices, which for me, stayed in my head even after I was done playing for the night, make you extremely uncomfortable while at the same time makes you seriously contemplate the themes displayed in the dialogue and scenery. The story itself puts the psychological in psychological horror, which is what their aim was all along. It really makes you think about what it truly means to be "human," to be "alive" and "conscious," and adds those themes up with your morality. Because they've never really attempted to portray this kind of story before, I expected them to come up short, but I was dead wrong. There are no spoilers in this review, but I just want to say I've never played a game with an ending that's made me both devastated and happy at the same time. For me, this game had nothing wrong with it, except for the length, at ten hours or so, and that's only because I was so sorry I ever finished playing it fully through. To some people I may be over-exaggerating, and I can understand why they'd think so after reading this, but this is honestly and genuinely how I feel about SOMA. It's an absolute masterpiece in my mind, and by far the best gaming experience I've had in memory. Because of this game, I will now be behind Frictional with one hundred percent of my support. They really outdid themselves with this game, and I can't wait to see the games they've made after improving even more.