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

Yes, vision still does that blur thing, not sure about tensing up. I did notice his breath quicken too. I think all that changed is that their attacks do no damage, as best I can tell.

For me, the tension and dread came from the story itself and the monsters were just an irritating obstacle.

Now they’re just irritating.

I thought they’d be removed entirely. Seems kind of half-baked, but I try not to pick at developers.

It does seem like kind of a worst case - the monsters are still there, can’t hurt you, but still try. I think I would have preferred just aimless wandering over this, but I’ll see how the rest of the game goes. Fortunately, in my case at least, the monsters are not the main draw of the game and I’m sure I’ll enjoy either way.

Yeah, that would have been my preference as well.

Must… resist… replying!

Go ahead and make your “if only we could talk to the monsters” joke.

I thought that’s why people played Undertale.

It’s kind of funny, getting further into the game using the new mode - I still avoid the creatures. I just got into Theta and I still avoided the teleporting guy, the combination of its unsettling appearance, the sound effects, and the fact that it’s still wandering around seeking me out just plugs right into my reptile brain, I just don’t want to get the monsters’ attention. It’s weird.

I’m yeaaaars late to the party because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like Soma, but it’s worse than I thought. I just checked the reviews again, and I think Tom has it backwards: this is the two-star game and Resident Evil 7 is the five-star game.

I’ve never seen a case this bad of “find the fusebox, switch the fuse” and “let’s repair and use the [x], nevermind it doesn’t work anyway, you have to go the long way around”. 6 hours of it. Tons of games do that, but when there’s no other mechanice except fuse-switching, it’s impossible to overlook. I’ve never seen a game switch so fast from “too dark and cramped” to “waaay to big (and dark), I’m lost”, either.

I’m a huge horror fan, but I just don’t get games where there are zero stakes and no real mechanic. You can pick up and rotate items, which comes in useful zero times. I understand why they added a safe mode: it really doesn’t matter either way. After a while, I just ran full steam ahead at the monsters. All that happens is the monsters disappears and you get a limp for a little while. Even if you do die, what happens is… nothing. Monsters are just an extra hassle between you and the next fusebox.

The story’s payoff is pretty nice and the devs know how to do foreshadowing right. Too bad about the other 5h40 minutes. So many developers want to remove everything from video games to make them more “artsy” or palatable to the general public or something. But we already have those games: they’re called movies. It’s not like doomed spaceship/base is a new genre either. So you can watch something like Sunshine. It even has bits of “find the [x] to repair the [y]”! Minutes of it, mind you, not hours. If you want an actual game, there’s the vastly superior System Shock 2.

Arise! I finally got a chance to play through this. Big fan. Loved the setting, the themes, the narrative, everything. It was a fun ride.

It is definitely a shift from Amnesia: The Dark Descent (which had a much more abrasive Survival angle to the Adventure elements and heavier puzzles) but one thing I love that both games do really well is bookending these really tense and unsettling sections with a “monster” that really gets the blood pumping with relaxing “quiet time” exploration and discovery, sometimes with a quasi “hub” area and involving a puzzle. The flow of this in SOMA is so good I blasted through the game.

Wrong. Rotating objects is occasionally important for discovering easily missed details! SOMA speaks the native language of videos games, which IS environmental storytelling. Furthermore interacting with the environment is hugely important in SOMA: It is the core gameplay!

Maybe you just suck at SOMA…?

Yeah the area after the invisible water creature gauntlet was magical. There’s a lot more dangerous areas in Amnesia but I do recall several safe hubs. It’s been a while though. Games released since then have only seemed to have gone completely overboard, like Outlast. All I remember from that game was constant hide and seek, overwrought chase sequences, and not going 5 seconds without a jump scare…which only makes SOMA feel like breath of fresh air.

Thank you for reminding me that I want to go back and play this with the non-deadly monsters mod so I can actually see the rest of the world/plot. I got in one section that is just too disorienting to get through while a monster is also chasing you and gave up the first time.

I remember being tenser in some parts devoid of any monster than in some where one was lurking around.

I started playing this on Xbox after hearing so many good things about it in the days leading up to Halloween. I’m not far into the game yet, but I can already tell it’s going to take me forever to finish because I’m compelled to translate all the Chinese writing all over the place, on signs and such.

Just finished the game. I went in totally blind and enjoyed the story and the slow reveal of said story. The scary monsters detracted from the experience because of how silly they were. I think the scariest/most riveting/contemplative moments for me were very late in the game when traversing the ocean floor during severe water currents blowing in from and out to the black.

Also enjoyed Catherine 10x more than Simon. I kinda wish he wasn’t so bitchy.

I never played Amnesia, but I think I own it somewhere. I’m tempted to play it now if the story is as interesting there as here.

(psst, put some blur on some basic stuff like where you walk, for people still going at it blind).

I really enjoyed that Simon wasn’t caught in the Holywood version of the archemedian principle. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was very stimulating.

Wow is this game good, not sure how far in I am, just got to Lambda.

Glad I picked this out of the backlog, so far it is shaping up to be a must play game!

It is a must play. I hope you are playing non-safe with monsters as originally intended. Each one has different mechanics and are worth experiencing.

@Left_Empty, I am re-installing the game, as promised. I’m going to open drawers with gusto and enjoy doing it!