The level design isn’t that complicated, but the game doesn’t have hud indicator, compass, journal, or anything that helps you, which makes you do a few laps around sometimes.
Yeah, the maps seem pretty simple for the most part (though I’ve gotten disoriented a couple of times in the water sections and just had to wander around for a while) but I often feel like I don’t have a clear idea of what I should be doing or where I should be going. And that’s not helped when there’s a monster around I have to avoid while I have to accomplish… something?
Hey! Good news for scaredycats!
If you wanted to play SOMA for the plot and atmosphere, but didn’t want to bother with the RAWWR MONSTARRS! bits, then this mod may be your answer!
Wuss Mode: Monsters Won’t Attack
This addon renders nearly all enemies in the main story non-hostile during regular gameplay.
What a bunch of haterz in this thread! Me and krayzkrok are gonna start a Soma fanclub and you’re not invited!
I love that it was a horror game that relied on metaphysical horror instead of jumpscares, which is what so many dumbass videogamers expect. I blame dumbass horror movies. And Let’s Plays, as Telefrog mentioned. You can blame most things wrong with videogame coverage these days on Let’s Plays! Junk like Five Nights at Freddie’s has guaranteed that most videogame horror is terrible. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some crap “horror” based solely on forced reloads and jump scares. Soma is so good partly because it doesn’t need that junk.
Turin, thanks for your breakdown of what you called the B plot stuff. Much of that stuff kind of faded into the background for me as I played. The WAU and the gel and the team carrying the ARK down and then back up was basically pre-Fall backstory, dusty remains. To me, its main relevance was discovering Catherine’s fate. That it was sort of anti-climactic reminded me of Firewatch. In fact, a lot of Soma reminded me of Firewatch. Specifically, a lot of Soma highlighted my problems with Firewatch.
-Tom
Really enjoyed your review. Especially the last paragraph.
It took me a long time to realize that Soma is not a horror game. But once I took my expectations out of it and played it on its own terms, I really got into it and enjoyed it quite a lot.
That said, there were several times I nearly did crap my pants. Because by that time, I was certain this was not going to be a horror game.
Soma has a lot of layers. And yes, I’d agree it’s best played going into it with no knowledge of it. Or expectations. Remove all of those and just let it happen.
I wish that after I completed the survey at the end of the game, they would have let me compare my answers to the same survey I took earlier in the game.
Dammit Tom, I did not need another game on my radar right now! I just finished Firewatch and really enjoyed (mostly for the voice acting and the story it was telling) it but also agreed with pretty much everything in your review. I don’t want to know anything about Soma except for roughly how long is this game and how much of a horror game is it? I’m the guy that can’t really watch any horror movies without hiding behind my hands (which is why I don’t really watch any horror movies) so if this game has jumpscares or other suitably “scary” interactions it might not be for me.
Dammit. I thought I could safely ignore this game, since I don’t like horror games and Frictional’s previous game Penumbra seemed to me to be way overrated. At least it’s still at an unaffordable price for me right now, so I can wishlist it and wait for a sale. Sounds real real good though.
Frictional’s previous game isn’t Penumbra, but Amnesia.
Turin, previous just means prior. It doesn’t have to mean immediately prior.
Nightgaunt, I didn’t get very far in Frictional’s Amnesia, but didn’t care for the parts I played. Nice atmosphere, but the puzzles and “escape teh MONSTAR” bits didn’t work for me.
Mr. Pilot, my Steam account said ten hours after my first playthrough. And krok is right about the horror. It’s not at all the usual jumpscares (I’m playing Layers of Fear right now which is nothing but jumpscares; fuck that game…). I think there’s one jumpscare early on with tubes falling out of the ceiling. The usual “oh no it’s a monster no it’s not” gimmick. But just that once. Really, Soma is metaphysical horror, and arguably not so much horror as despair. Honestly, I’d call it 90% sci-fi with really dark elements that quality as horror.
-Tom
Thanks, purchased! I’ll try and fit this in somewhere between Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Crew:)
The most logical thing I thought was he just had a lapse and was really thinking in Amnesia but wrote Penumbra by mistake. It didn’t make sense to me for someone to refer to Penumbra, which was released several years ago, instead of the game in the same subgenre which is much more famous and more modern, Amnesia. In fact he calls it “way overrated”, but Penumbra was never particularly loved, and it had a metacritic of ~70, in the other hand Amnesia was much more well liked.
I read this thread after I started it and was mystified by the meh response. I mean, whatever…it’s a really fantastic, creepy little game. Glad to see it getting some due.
Isn’t this review a little late, though?
I knew about Amnesia, but never played it. I only played Penumbra which, even viewed through a “first game from indie devs” lens I thought was lacking (more than a 70-ish% rating would indicate). Particularly in the “environmental storytelling” arena, which seemed like what it should have been striving for. I skipped Amnesia because seriously scary games are not my bag and because I wasn’t confident they were interested in improving that kind of environmental storytelling, just making creepy situations. But I trust it’s a much better game and generally deserves its reputation among horror game fans.
I’ve been wanting to play this one since I first heard about it, just don’t have a machine that can run it right now. Based on what I’ve read, it sounds like it covers similar thematic territory that one of my favorite movies of recent years did, though it occurs to me I can’t mention it since I could spoil people who haven’t played Soma as well as those who haven’t seen the movie I’m thinking of. Anyway, I envy those of you who are playing.
One of the luxuries of having my own site is that I can run reviews whenever I feel like it. :) But, yeah, I’m definitely late to the party on this. That said, I feel strongly that a review should be a good read even for people who have already played a game, seen a movie, listened to an album.
I don’t really care that it won’t get Qt3 any traffic, but I do wish I’d reviewed this in a more timely manner because it would have knocked something off my top ten list from last year. I hate that! I hate going back and playing something or seeing something and realizing too late that it belongs on my personal “best of” list!
I’m pretty sure I know the movie you’re talking about! :) It also reminded me of another videogame that I can’t mention without spoiling things. Suffice to say the other videogame did a terrible job with the concept by just using it as a throwaway plot point.
I got discouraged pretty early in Amnesia. I felt like it was just a puzzle game with an indestructible monster occasionally frustrating you. But given what Frictional did with Soma, I’m wondering if I should go back and give Amnesia another chance. However, since so much of what made Soma work for me is the storytelling, the concept, the overall metaphor, and especially the superlative atmosphere and setting, I’m wondering if Amnesia would just pale in comparison to the point that it’s hardly worth bothering. Thoughts, as a fellow Soma fanboi?
-Tom
We just picked this up last weekend, and would like a ticket to board the SOMA hype train. I didn’t care for Amnesia, and I can’t say the concepts were anything new or earth shattering, but we went in cold and were able to really appreciate how the story unfolded as you progressed. This is the first game in awhile where we made a point to read every document and log we could find.
I also really enjoyed the puzzles in the game. We didn’t have to look up a FAQ on anything, but we were really stuck on some of those rooms, and enjoyed digging for answers. I’m really happy I was turned on to this one.
Welcome aboard!
Normally, I’d say this is one of those games that has no replayability. But like a good movie, Soma is worth playing once to discover, and a second time to more closely appreciate.
-Tom
And done! What a great game this was. I think I got about halfway a few months ago and then ended up taking a break for various reasons but came back to it recently and couldn’t put it down until I finished. I really liked the relationship between Catherine and Simon and how it was obvious Catherine had her own motivations and was willing to use Simon (and the player) to accomplish her goal. What I really need to know though is who was the disappearing man/monster who convinces Simon to kill the Wau? Was that the engineer who came back from Alpha dead? The one who died first I guess and who wanted to shut down the WAU while he was still alive? If the game explained who that was I must have missed it. Overall one of the better stories I’ve experienced in a game in awhile.
May I join the SOMA fan club? :) I am only halfway through the game, but for now this is a masterpiece of atmosphere and narration in the gaming medium.
SOMA is more than the sum of its parts, and that is why it is so effective. Some people like to describe it as a “walking simulator + survival horror game”, but I think it can be called that only on its most primitive and formal, mechanical levels. Like others here have said, it serves the game and our understanding of it better if we put it under the metaphysical and existential horror descriptors. And ‘walking simulators’… You can’t make up a much more stupid name than that. I hope those who did it will find themselves in the postapocalyptic underwater base in the afterlife, where they can walk to their heart’s content. Or maybe not. :)
The only negative aspect I can think of at this point is the average (at best) voice acting, and even less than average in the case of the main actor.