SOMA

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JaySevenZero
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SOMA

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here is where you can leave your thoughts regarding the SOMA for possible inclusion in the podcast when it's recorded.
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Donk
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Re: SOMA

Post by Donk »

Story and presentation was great, saw some of it coming and some of it straight up kicked me in the nuts. Loved all the story elements. But that game was about twice as long as it should have been, the monsters did not work at all and really did not like them. They just served as wall between you and the story. I wanted to dig around more in the corridors, find hidden story items and easter eggs but that wasn't an option. Also some of the fetch objectives felt like filler, for example when you are at an objective but it's blocked and you need three more items to progress and you're back to dodging monsters for an hour. Game has a lot going for it but for my tastes it should have more emphasis on the story and less on the survival and horror.
Majestic Cow Man

Re: SOMA

Post by Majestic Cow Man »

Soma was a game that had me thinking about it weeks after its completion; mulling over the various themes presented within its absolutely fantastic story. I came into this game unsure what to expect and even then it still managed to surprise me. Soma's slow descent into existential horror rivals the main characters literal descent into the ocean. The game's ability to differentiate copy and paste from cut and paste absolutely memorized me. That said, it's not all perfect. There were some instances where the gameplay certainly got in the way, the monsters seemed more like annoying obstacles to bypass rather than legitimate challenges. I couldn't help but find myself get frustrated with nearly every encounter insofar that in my next replay I'll be removing them. To end on a positive note, I'd like to draw attention to some of the beautiful set pieces presented in this game. Especially the harrowing walk at the bottom of the trench near the end. A great game, and an instant recommendation to horror and non-horror fans alike.
Yacobg42

Re: SOMA

Post by Yacobg42 »

(first of all, I want to acknowledge the two Ammys in a row on the forum here)

During the middle of my trek through Theta, I thought "I hate this." Not in a way that conveyed existential dread, or out of true fear of what lay ahead. I hated sitting in a room, waiting, as my vision glitched and roaring filled my ears, for the stupid monster to turn and walk out the door, or trap me in a corner and smack me to death. It made me quit SOMA for a month, and very nearly kept me from finishing the game. But of course, I'm glad I did.

One of the things I really love that SOMA does is allowing its protagonist to stay ignorant. Simon initially seemed impossibly naive to me- how was it, that at the very end, he still didn't understand the true nature of copying his consciousness? He had been told, and seen it performed, several times by that point. Did he really still think that his own mind could be "transferred" onto the Ark?
Well...yes. The nature of SOMA's interactivity, its unique storytelling ability as a video game, showed perfectly how Simon could keep himself in the dark about this process. He sat, closed his eyes, and the game transferred us, the player, to the next body. It did feel like our mind had simply been teleported, just like Simon kept telling himself.

This makes the end of the game a particularly vicious knife-twist. In concept, I understood that the procedure was a copy-paste, not a cut-paste. But even I didn't understand the desperation, the loneliness, the hopelessness, that would result from being the one "left behind." Earlier in the game, I hadn't understood why so many of the crew had killed themselves after their transfer onto the ark. Suddenly, I did.

Soma should stand as a seminal piece of science fiction. Its utilization of the interactivity of games to tell a truly horrifying and unique story is, in my opinion, a landmark moment for the medium. I just wish that it hadn't relied so heavily on some of the other conventions of gaming to get there.
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MarkHoog
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Re: SOMA

Post by MarkHoog »

I've recently finished this game and have had some time to reflect on it. As an existential piece of sci-fi it works really, really well - it reminded me of Stanislaw Lem's novel Solyaris in that it combined a science fiction story with philosophical ponderings on what it means to be human. I loved searching SOMA's areas for remnants of a bygone humanity, and by the time I pulled the plug on what seemed to be the last actual human being ever (and staying with her until she died) it was a truly profound experience - something games only rarely manage to pull off.

But as a horror game... hmm... I mean, SOMA's creepy atmosphere is great and I love the art direction of the game. When I was on the hell-like bottom of the ocean I felt lonelier and more vulnerable than I've ever felt in a video game. When I was crawling through tentacly tunnels (reminiscent of H.R. Giger's art), I audibly sighed in awe for the hard work it must have been to create the world of SOMA. But the monster segments... ugh... these often put me on the verge of abandoning the game. Interrupting my existential explorations for some tedious games of hide & seek really put a dent in my experience. Imagine Gone Home with a ghost chasing you throughout the house, or My Dinner With Andre with shootouts and a car chase. Of course, I get that Frictional probably had to meet some horror expectations after a game like Amnesia, but boy, I can't help but wonder what an amazing piece of art SOMA would be were it just me, the abandoned subnautical stations and my conversations with Catherine.

Short version: SOMA is a beautifully crafted, poignant sci-fi story that - unfortunately - too often grinds to a halt to become a horror game.
AndyL

Re: SOMA

Post by AndyL »

After playing through SOMA recently, I would say it mixes together a wonderfully realized settling with some very average stealth gameplay. Despite this, SOMA is a game I would recommend to many people, especially fans of story-driven games.

The first thing that I took away from SOMA was its setting. The opening area, Simon’s apartment, felt real and there for me to explore. Even 100 years into the future, Frictional Games got this aspect right. Sure the technology may change, but people don’t. Letters, emails, and pictures tell us a lot about the residents of PATHOS-II. They are fairly normal people… or at least they were before being warped by the WAU. I wanted to explore every new stage I got to in SOMA, learning about the world and its people.

Unfortunately, SOMA’s horror stealth sections often stopped me from doing that. The gameplay here is very basic – it’s you against one monster, and your only tactic is to hide. Except there are no places to hide in, no light/dark meter to tell how hidden you are, and honestly, no real way to tell when monsters will stop searching for you. Looking back at Frictional’s previous games, I’m shocked how many gameplay mechanics are missing from SOMA.

The biggest sin SOMA commits during the horror stealth sections is that… well, they’re not scary. If anything, they became more annoying each time I had to redo a monster encounter. Eventually I started setting the gamma to max and just running past monsters. It was usually effective, but not fun.

Still, I enjoyed my time SOMA. The story, setting, and philosophical discussions were all excellent. This is the first game I’ve played by Frictional, I will definitely keep my eyes open for their future projects.
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Chopper
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Re: SOMA

Post by Chopper »

This is it: the apex, the zenith, the apogee, of Walking Simulators!

I don't believe there has been a better-delivered story in video games, nor one which combines to such great effect the interactivity of gaming with the story taking place. I have found a lot of the bigger narrative-based games to start well but have unsatisfactory or just downright terrible endings; SOMA has possibly one of the most tightly plotted and coherent stories of any game, and expertly nails the landing.

Progressing through the underwater base, ostensibly mercy-killing the last survivors, and hearing their screams of terror, while wrestling with a metaphysical concept that I, like Simon, had only partly assimilated by the end, had a powerful effect on me; there is true horror at play here. The cruelties you are forced to inflict on the people, the droids, and even the memory chips, are really breathtaking. On my second playthrough, much later, I genuinely think that if the game had given Simon a gun halfway through, he(I) would have blown his brains out rather than continue.

I loved the character of Catherine too, who approached everything with an all-business, 'what choice do we have?' attitude and really embraced it to a disturbing extent. Her reaction when she heard about the rest of the group murdering her was a nice, human moment at the end.

The weak point was probably killing the giant heart at the end. I suppose they had to tie off that piece of the narrative and it sticks out because it was a bit of a cliche. But then the developers totally redeemed themselves with that ending which we should have seen coming but didn't. Bravo.

Three word review: Apex, Zenith, Apogee :D
CriticalcoffeeonYT

Re: SOMA

Post by CriticalcoffeeonYT »

Maybe this is revealing of my own personality, but I found SOMA pretty scary.
Perhaps it was the fact that I had gotten myself hyped about finally playing something from the creators of the first Amnesia. Maybe it was because Chinese Room's Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was fairly underwhelming.

I went into Soma expecting to enter a scary game and that is what I also found within. To my surprise this game didn't take place in space as I had interpreted from the first teaser trailer. Thus the first time I entered a tunnel and saw through the glass that I i was indeed underwater was pretty mind blowing.

Bioshock is one of my favorite games of all time and noticing that this was going to be a rapture-esque experience in which I was sort of uncovering what happened in this "utopia" was exciting.

The story itself delves deep into the moral question of what copying human beings with their emotions and personalities is like. If there is a carbon copy of a human being, does it have the same value as the original human? As Simon we go through three different versions until we end our story on the ARK. The first time (after Toronto) when you switch bodies is horrifying because you can hear the previous Simon still talking after the "jump". This applies with the end also.

To keep it brief:

Looking back at it; I would be lying if I said that SOMA is as scary a game as Amnesia or Penumbra. There is nothing as scary as the water monster of Amnesia in this game. That being said t didn't stop me from having a thoroughly scary and intriguing experience with this game. Where Amnesia is a more traditional horror game with hiding from monsters and running, Soma raises questions about what it is to be a human being or at least a robot with autonomy.

I found it scary, but perhaps it was partly because of the hype considering it was made by Frictional. Enjoyed it nonetheless.

Sorry if my English is broken, it's not my first language.

Three word review: That Damn Anglerfish
Mononoke

Re: SOMA

Post by Mononoke »

In terms of my video game experiences, my playing of SOMA is rather unique in that it is my first and currently only strict horror-game I have played and completed. As a genre, whether in film or video games, I’m not into horror at all. With films it’s generally because I don’t find them all that scary as a passive observer and indeed, can’t really take them seriously at all. With games however, it’s the exact opposite – actually being directly involved in the horrifying experience can get too much for me. Nonetheless, with SOMA, I was so intrigued by the initial premise and the themes the game explored, I couldn’t help but want to play it myself despite my initial reservations.

The fact is SOMA isn’t actually all that horrifying in terms of its individual intense moments, though it certainly has those moments. Instead what I found really effective throughout the entire game was its total sense of unnerving atmosphere that puts you right into the middle of this unsettling and creepy underwater facility so well. From the deteriorating facility itself with its part-robot, part-human, part-sea creature entities roaming the halls, to the stellar lighting work, both inside and on the seabed, to the eerily effective sound design of dripping pipes and metal echoes, I was constantly on the edge of my seat as I explored this fascinating place to discover its secrets and better understand the philosophical quandaries being proposed by the story.

Indeed, this was by far my favourite aspect of the game – the storytelling, which was top-notch, involving the player directly in the main beats and exploring the notion of selfhood through the first-person perspective in ways I had not seen before. This level of player interactivity with the narrative beats and themes scores high points in my book, as video game stories always benefit from such meaningful interaction and use of inputs which are an inherent quality of the medium after all. The underwater sections were also a particular highlight, somehow upping the already high levels of unease to new heights, or should I say new lows! There is nothing I find more terrifying than making my way through as alien an environment as the bottom of the ocean floor with its unknown aquatic creatures lurking in the depths of that vast darkness. In fact, every time I played this game for an hour or two, with the lights off (because I wasn’t going to play this half-arsed) I did find myself feeling drained after each session and put off finishing the game for some time – I’m apparently not used to being freaked out for long periods at a time! Nonetheless, the ending was well worth the wait, with its mind-twisting bends and curves, and I was left feeling very satisfied with the whole experience.
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The_reviewist
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Re: SOMA

Post by The_reviewist »

Being a huge fan of Frictional Games since the original Amnesia, I had been looking forwards to SOMA since the first teaser trailers hit the web. The use of live action in them really intrigued me, but on release my technology had failed me, and it's only this last month I finally got round to picking it up and playing it. So it's fair to say my expectations were high, especially after Amnesia, and the fascinating follow-up, A Machine For Pigs.
So it's with some regret that I have come to regard SOMA as the least of the three games. Albeit from an excellent pedigree.

Don't get me wrong, visually, it's a great looking game, really pushing the latest iteration of the slightly creaky HPL game engine to new heights. The map designs are uniquely interesting, and there's a wonderfully untidy clutter to the Pathos 2 station that lends itself to some real atmosphere. The sound design is exemplary, with creaks and rumbles that at first confuse, but later never let you forget the first huge reveal; that Pathos 2 is an underwater base and not a space station, and the voice actors do good work with their dialogue, especially the actors playing Catherine and Simon. The creatures, shambling around this god-forsaken tomb, screech and whimper with a brilliant mixture of unsettling humanity and inhuman chitter. Scares come thick and fast from the environment, most notably in my playthrough with a simply thudding of "something" in an airduct above one room in Omicron Labs.

Unfortunately, the monsters although interestingly designed never felt all too frightening. The AI or perhaps the pathfinding seemed to mean that they would either wander off entirely or simply stand near me during segments I had to avoid them. More often than not, the latter, and no amount of tossing objects seemed to draw them off far enough to get past, usually leading to me getting caught, then respawning in a dead end with a creature between me and the way out.
I had similar issues with the chase across the oceanic trench, as the game told the player repeatedly to stay in the lights, only for me to be hit from the side by seemingly random shoals of anglerfish, leading to frustration, rather than terror.

It's a shame really, as the overall concept, which revolved around the philosophical question of whether a person is simply consciousness or flesh, and what happens to the soul when a mind is transferred to a machine, was inspired. It's a question that the game leaves open, while laying enough groundwork to make certain even the most distracted player understands what Frictional are getting at. First by making the player kill or torture sentient machines, and mechanically corrupted living corpses, before giving you the choice to euthanise a survivor, and even a previous incarnation of yourself. Making you responsible for your own fate, and consider if you are indeed unique, as did the inevitable horrifying ending for the Simon-divesuit creature. In fact the overarching theme was one of the best aspects of the game.

Ultimately, SOMA was a fun experience, if not a brilliant one, and certainly not an original one. It borrows liberally from a host of books, films, and even other videogames. Indeed, the opening and starting premise is almost identical to that of a Christopher Brookmyre novel (and its videogame adaptation) The body-swapping and associated philosophy reminded me heavily of The Swapper, while the virtual eden in space is straight out of the cult classic Swiss Sci-fi film, Cargo. Even the nature of the puzzles and the monster chases really felt like a redress of Amnesia. A good game to have played, but ultimately memorable more for the existential philosophical questions it raises than anything else.

3 word review: An Existential Conundrum
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Chopper
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Re: SOMA

Post by Chopper »

Listened to it last night and really enjoyed the podcast. Thanks guys! Sorry to hear about James' issues with it, but so things go sometimes. Great job on the discussion, it very much added to my understanding and appreciation of the game.
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