Reviews - SOMA

Wow. This was an awesome game, best I played this year. I am glad I knew very little about it, so I could follow all the plot beats, and they were all excellent. A game with a story that makes you think about deep human questions, like all good sci-fi is supposed to do. Score: 94/100.

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.

great game like amnesian but with npc

(Originally written the 23rd of Sept. 2015)

Like a lot of players, I wanted to put my claws on SOMA for quite some time now. Yesterday I launched the game and finished it in one session. It took me exactly 10 hours to finish it. A night has passed and I think I can share my thoughts now:

// GOOD ASPECTS

-When you look back to Penumbra and Amnesia games, SOMA offers an enormous evolution visually speaking. The underwater world is very nicely done, whether it's in the ocean or in the facilities. A labyrinth area reminded me of a map near the end of Penumbra BP.
-The story is all about sci-fi and psychological themes about life, death and continuity. It takes its importance within the game and I must say I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
-The monsters you'll have the pleasure to meet have different behaviors and attacks, which is better than just the classic "I patrol, I see/hear you, I search you, I run at you". Nice designs.
-Ambiance in the levels is often close to some areas in Doom 3, Bioshock and even Dead Space, level design speaking. A nice thing.
-The voices! Voiiiices!! Very nice addition!
-Sound effects are well processed, you can feel the hard work here.
-Choices & actions can be hard to make at different times!
-If you suffer from claustrophobia, the more you progress in the game, the deeper you'll get in the ocean and it's a great feeling! Is it?
-Modding tools included!
-The ending!!

// NOT-SO-GOOD ASPECTS

-Textures are sometimes very low: is it a bug or not? Will it be corrected? We'll see, after all, game just came out.
-Optimization problems: SOMA worked without ANY problem for me but I see that some people have poor FPS problems on decent configurations, so this will be improved and patched soon of course.
-Puzzles a bit simple.
-No classic inventory. This will annoy some players for sure, personally it did not.
-Monsters are easy to avoid/escape if you're accustomed to Penumbra/Amnesia games.
-Game is too easy... well it's focused on story... so I guess it's ok?
Less horror... but it has its stressful moments.
The ending!!

To conclude, you don't need to be a fan of previous Frictional Games works to play SOMA.
This game is an ambitious turn for its creators and I believe it is a successful one, good job!
Visually, it's lovely. The SOMA universe & story are pretty fine.

If you are a fan of Bioshock and other games I named earlier here, you should give it a try, you'll like the ambience.

// Mandatory recommendation to the lovers of the genre!

Where do I begin with this game? I went in, expecting a plesent horror game developed by one of my favorite Indie developers. What I came out with? Something completely different. SOMA brings a new meaning to life, death, and what exactly a state of being is. SOMA stretches out to a terrifying branch of what one could call Cyberpunk. SOMA not only touches on type of philosophical questions that Cyberpunk media may ask, it hits the questions hard. This game doesn't use the common in your face horror, and scares, this game gives you ideas, and theories to think about that are so..Terrifying. This game gets under your skin and craws there, not only the story, but the gameplay too. It's really anxiety horror, it makes you fear what could happen. The storytelling in this game is wonderful, the gameplay is fun, the level design is brilliant, and the visuals are beautiful. There is really nothing bad I have to say about this game.

A gorgeously crafted story about humanity, consciousness... so beautifully and gracefully executed... true to Frictional. Expect to be touched by the story.