Soma

'Soma (2015)' is a masterpiece. Its narrative, delivered with a mixture of environmental storytelling and more straightforward dialogue, is simply phenomenal. The themes it explores are unique and resonant, as intellectually stimulating as they are thoroughly profound. By making you an active participant in its story, the piece maintains a consistent level of engagement that only grows with each new revelation. You're constantly trying to work out where you're going to end up next; even if you figure it out, which is certainly possible (and a sign of a well-crafted plot that makes excellent use of foreshadowing, to boot), you'll still be floored by each twist, gripping your game-pad in shock and anticipation. To say it's satisfying is an understatement. It's the kind of story that puts a smile on your face simply because it's so good. It's also terrifying. Where some games only seek to achieve this effect through jump-scares and low (or no) ammo, this piece bakes it into every facet of its design. Its horror is both visceral and existential. This mixture is incredibly difficult to achieve, especially if you don't want your game to be overly dour. The thing balances its bleak tone with moments of levity, making for a much more affecting end result. Its character development is absolutely phenomenal, too. Throughout the plot, you feel connected with your character; make no mistake, he's no silent protagonist. The writing is fantastic overall, with the spoken dialogue being matched by the computer logs and audio diaries you find on your journey. To compound this, the piece employs some wonderful voice-work, each performance as believable as the last. This is what really brings the experience to life, along with its fantastic sound design. The actual game is, essentially, a 'walking simulator'. However, it never feels like anything less than exactly what it needs to be. There are many different set-pieces that make use of the thing's limited mechanics in distinct ways. They keep things feeling fresh and are paced to perfection, their varying high and low intensities keeping you constantly on your toes. The enemies are often genuinely creepy and can present a real threat. Even when they don't, they feel decidedly dangerous. Sometimes, the gameplay feels slightly clunky. I know it's supposed to feel cumbersome, but it occasionally gets in its own way (such as when you get stuck on the geometry of tight corridors). Really, this is my only complaint with the game. It's well-crafted, compelling and extremely enjoyable. It's also properly scary, too; its atmosphere is ominous and freaky, its set-pieces are heart-pounding and tense, and its story will get under your skin and stay there for days. It's the kind of thing that makes you seriously think about what it means to be human. How many video-games do that? 9/10

You're a regular person. You need work done on your brain. You wake up afterwards, and you don't know where. When. How. Or what. But there's definitely something wrong. You will find out why you woke up in the situation you did. And you might end up wishing you hadn't. You're at PATHOS-II, a research station. Medical. Labs. Maintenance. It's located at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. And its cramped, worn mechanical innards bare only passing resemblance the grand Art Deco of Rapture.

You're Simon Jarrett(Zeus, sometimes nice, or a jerk, and occasionally dense). You live in Toronto. Work at a bookstore. You're in a car accident, and need work on your brain. You go in for an experimental scan. And the moment it's over, you find yourself displaced. It seems abandoned, and you'll find yourself wanting it to be. Everyone around is hostile. Well, almost... thankfully. Most prominent is Catherine Chung(Mooney, optimistic), who you spend a lot of time with. The extensive conversations between the two were unexpected, and they're a gamble that pays off. You'd think silence and solitude were necessary, or at the very least superior, when making someone scared, when shocking them to their core using themes of consciousness, body, identity, and other elements of transhumanism. And you'd be wrong.

She'll keep you focused, keep you from sulking, get you to snap out of your funk. Pointing out that you are lucky, both of you. Because where this could so easily be completely bleak, there is hope. A glimmer. A ray. You're not merely trying to escape(I'm looking at you, BioShock Infinite), the methods of doing so all failing for some reason or another. Big mistake. Obnoxious, repetitive, boring. You have a real goal. One that matters. Heck, the only one that does, that ever could again! I don't care how detached you might think you are, there's no way it won't inspire you. I won't reveal it here.

Anytime you face someone who you can converse with, you click to lead to a few more lines, or you don't, and move on. No dialog trees. Seriously, those would kill the tremendous immersion of this. And you aren't made to sit still and listen: you'll *want* to. This is also when you'll be faced with a difficult moral decision. Each time, there's some distinct aspect to it. You're not Harvesting/Saving adorable, huge-eyed 8-year-old girls ad nauseum. There's something to their situation. Their personality. History. Maybe they even ask you to... and maybe they don't. Perhaps they can't. At times they'll be tied to an enigma. Regardless of your choice, you'll have to live with it. And I'm not talking about your avatar anymore.

This has more different, in design and behavior, enemies than all previous Frictional's Games combined. Distinct, memorable. Some teleport, are blind, or leave you alone if you don't bother them. Noise will attract them, which is about the biggest use this makes of your ability to pick up, rotate, throw, just about everything that isn't nailed down. And sometimes, you'll be forced to do something loud. Maybe something breaks when you go near it. Or you have to activate something. Sometimes it'll be a door. Open, close, it'll be heard by anyone nearby. Whether it's you using the pathway... or if it's one of them. That's a lot like the travelling sound of the Thief series, and emulating those is always a plus in my book.

Ultimately, they do end up tedious. A little too often, you're already having trouble figuring out where to go since this has you disoriented so frequently. I wouldn't say I was ever truly lost. That would suggest something like playing Grand Theft Auto III and not having a printed out map. I never found myself having gone extremely far in the wrong direction. There's always a blind path if you keep going. It's just frustrating if you eventually reach that, and then there's someone or something in your way when you try to go back. Actual chases do tend to have you knowing where to go.

They went further in the direction of something like Outlast and Whistleblower. You keep an eye on where they are, you seldom stay completely still, you're always ready to bolt from where you are to where you need to go, which you keep making sure you know from looking. Doing that almost always works. As long as you don't slow down, you can outrun most of them. You don't randomly blunder into any. A lot of this is the journey to the destination. You often can't get very far "just" on foot. And unlike, say, Dead Space 1, it doesn't remain the same means for very long. So you fix, start back up and hitch a ride on, several major vehicles and systems.

You get to walk, and Sprint, across the surface down there. The one big chunk of it should maybe be trimmed by a third. Still, I am baffled by those who call it, well, anything less than stunning. Things float slower, and you have greater freedom of movement. That is one place where you can really enjoy the physics engine. It's gotten another immense upgrade, and it shows. Why it isn't used more for puzzles, I do not know. In general, those are made much easier, and, largely, simpler, albeit not to the extent as in A Machine For Pigs. They wanted exploration and storytelling to be more prominent. It leaves a hole in its place. You have no Inventory. You can carry one or two small things. Yes. They'll automatically be taken out or put away when appropriate.

I recommend this to any fan of cyberpunk, the survival horror game subgenre and this bunch of creative Swedes. And make sure you stay through the end credits, for the culmination of what took me 9 and a half hours to do, and will take decades upon decades to forget. 8/10

Pros:

• Great story and interesting characters
• Great voice acting
• Amazing atmosphere
• Mind-blowing ending
• Great sound design
• Doesn't hold your hand

Cons:

• Gameplay is abit dull
• Movement is kinda sluggish
• Some tedious sections
• Some enemies feel like annoyances

Verdict: Soma will not be for everyone as it is a pretty slow-burn game with puzzle sections that many may find boring. Apart from some rough edges, the highly thought provoking story and ideas made this game something more interesting than just a usual walking simulator (which it does feel at times). A decent game to get if you're interested in an intriguing sci-fi story but don't mind some bland gameplay.

7.5 / 10.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Soma" (2015) was interesting game because of its story which is kinda great if you ask me, superb atmosphere, some spooky moments and pretty clever puzzles. Besides that, this is basically a non action game where you walk around trying to get to the new point and there some not friendly creatures along the way oh and ye, you don't have a shotgun to blast your way though.

Overall, "Soma" is a small game but with a memorable story and atmosphere. It does not have a replay-ability perk, therefore after you will complete it, there is no reason to come back.

A really good and amazing story with gameplay that is a bit tedious because the enemies just feel like kind of a hint to get to the plot.

The thing I like most about the game are the themes and the story and their horrible thinking you can do about the plot and what you do. I saw every living copy as if was a living being which was really sad because it meant I have to kill them to put them out of their misery that will so they don't have to live on the bottom of the ocean forever at least at some time.

But they were scary they worse really scary the enemies at least for me which is weird because I didn't think they were at the Beginning but that was because I played it when it was light outside the moment it was dark and I played it. I got really scared so maybe it said some more things about me that I only get scared when it's dark completely.

It's a game that's going to stick in my mind because of the themes and the story and thinking about what I would do in this horrible situation that the main characters in.