Soma: Amnesia in Space! (new horror game from Frictional)

Gameplay video

http://www.somagame.com/index.html

The viral videos are also interesting

http://www.somagame.com/files.html

Other thread? What other thread? I don’t know what you are talking about!

  1. Seems a bit early to be promoting it IMO.

Promote it twice, even ;-).

Looks nice, but PS4 only, so too bad,

PS4 and PC, of course.

SOMA is a sci-fi horror game from Frictional Games, creators of the groundbreaking Amnesia and Penumbra series.

Coming to PC and PS4 in 2015.

The radio has gone silent on PATHOS-2. As isolation bears down on the staff of the remote research facility, strange things are happening.

Machines are taking on human traits and alien constructions have started to interfere with routine. The world around them is turning into a nightmare.

The only way out is to do something unimaginable.

Oh, my bad, video on youtube said PS4 only. Good! :-).

It sure does…

The promotional videos were fantastic, and I’m really excited to see the Amnesia devs make a game set in space, but I must admit I’m a little disappointed that the footage they’ve shown is mostly more dank corridors. I realise that’s because the facility is old, (maybe) and I know there’ll be more interesting environments in the final game, but I’d rather have seen some of those.

Oke, not the video then, but the caption right beneath it, which you continually see while watching the video. “Sci-fi horror SOMA coming to PS4, from the creators of Amnesia…”

Again: my bad.

Aside from the “here’s something you can’t have for a year”, I am just wondering how many times they can make what appears to be the same story/game in different drag. I’m not sure there’s anything WRONG with that, but after watching those great YouTube videos, I was a little disappointed to see the gameplay look like “A Machine For Pigs In Space”.

Looking forward to being totally wrong, though!

Frictional goes through the history of horror games (seriously, it’s good read) takes a look at Alien: Isolation, and reveals some cool ideas for SOMA.

I now need to briefly discuss a design concept called “mental modeling”. A concept that is closely related to the difference between horror wrapping and horror simulation. When you play a game like Resident Evil, every encounter is a very tactical and precise decision. You look at what kind of opponent you are facing, what weapons you have, the current ammo supply, health levels, etc. The model in your head is much less about the appearance of the creatures, and much more about pure numbers. This can be very stressful, and combined with a horror thematic the total experience can feel quite scary. But on the whole very little is left to the imagination and narrative-related intuition. In a game like Siren however, you are much more worried about what you cannot see, and your mind is racing with trying to predict future happenings. Combine this with a map that forces you to think yourself as part of the environment, and monsters that you mostly keep track of by inferring their position, and you get a mental model that is far more horror-like and vivid. The problem is that since you lack the sense of numerical certainty that Resident Evil supplies, it becomes much harder to formulate correct tactical decisions. This is a fact that I think has a part in making these kind of games so frustrating. It is clear that the mental modeling that Siren has is better suited for a horror game, but it was not yet working properly gameplay-wise.

Funny title I did, given that in the end Soma is Amnesia underwater, and Amnesia in Space is Alien Isolation.

Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/syhcF0Mx0j0

Mmmm. They really do the isolated dread thing so very well.

Eurogamer Video
RPS
The Verge
Kill Screen

Releasing 22nd September on PC and PS4.

  1. We now know that’s not in space.

  2. The page is up on GOG. http://www.gog.com/game/soma

  3. Not on Steam yet.

The setting looks great. Is there any info on weapons in the game? I’m not a fan of horror games without weapons (#1 reason why I haven’t played Amnesia), no matter how shitty they are. I think Alien: Isolation struck an excellent balance between their usefulness and uselessness.

All points out to not being that different from Amnesia. I very much doubt it will have weapons.

PC gamer hands on : http://www.pcgamer.com/soma-hands-on-dark-beautiful-and-horribly-atmospheric/

New trailer is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26vIpVjCh9g

Story Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WO2SxMum20

Reviews

Gamespot - 9/10
Eurogamer - Recommended
IGN - 8.1/10
Gamesradar - 3.5/5
RPS