Just finished it. I don't think I've composed all my thoughts on the game yet though.

One question - where did the first underwater Simon come from? How did he suddenly get activated?

@beachthunder: WAU generally dicking around trying to recreate humanity, and it found Simon's legacy files and just tried to use that. The combination of structure gel, machinery and a human corpse somehow resulted in the best outcome so far. Some theories even say that the very first monster was a different messed up attempt at inserting Simon's scan into a body.

Actually, this raised a question of mine. Where does Catherine-AI come from? And why does she seem to have it more together than everyone else inside a robot? Is it because of her knowledge on the subject?

@adequatelyprepared My guess on Catherine is that she took particular care in ensuring her scan was well done. Such a process could include having the perfect state of mind and a personalized configuration for the scan, as well as verifying and protecting the data afterwards.As you said, her knowledge on the situation and the different possibilities of polyconsciousness chaos probably helped her in dealing with her state too.

There is also the possibility that the WAU figured her knowledge on human consciousness was precious for his mission, which led him to avoid any damage to her normal neural configuration. As I understand it, or at least speculated about, he tried to integrate sea life to insure there was an ecosystem his post-humans could rely on. If we give him this amount of credit in his choices, it's not far off to imagine he would protect Catherine.

I just figured that the Catherine AI was put in place by Catherine herself to help others who may be trying to find their way to Theta base, since she's the one who answers when you call for help. Every AI the WAU created wasn't aware that they were an AI in a robot body, including Simon.

@random45: I'm really unclear on the whole people not knowing they're robots...especially Simon and Carl actually seeing their bodies as their old human self. Carl is 100% convinced he still has human arms & legs and Simon sees his hands as his own - right up until he's underwater.

I just beat it and there was one real choice in the game... it seemed. You are being talked to by one of the creatures (I'm not exactly sure who it was) and he wanted you to put your hand in the heart of the WAU. I chose not to. Does anything happen if you do?

It eats your hand. Overall though, no. You get the same ending. All choices in the game only effect the moment, not the overall game. I kind of like it that way, actually.

Yeah, I like it that way too. A choice doesn't have to reward/punish you to make your choice feel meaningful. Having a choice is a good way to get you thinking, especially the parts where you fill out the surveys, that was meaningful to me because it made me realise that my opinion had shifted over the course of the game. As far as I know, there's no outcome one way or another based on how you fill the surveys out - or even if you ignore them.

Mass Effect is the opposite end of the spectrum - most people tend to gravitate towards a Paragon or Renegade option, not necessarily because they feel it's the right choice, but because they are trying to min-max their character.

Also, something about SOMA I've been thinking about - I don't really think they do a good job of conveying the fact that Simon believes it's still 2015. I feel that he would be more concerned about the things that he plans on doing in the near future. I think I would have liked to see him more concerned about how he's going to get flowers for the 'upcoming' funeral. Also, he still apparently needs to pick up his medication; I know I'd be very concerned if I had brain damage and didn't have the medication I needed.

I feel like the end of the game is still super depressing, because while the ARK moment was peaceful, it was fake, and as someone that wants to see and understand the entire universe as well as I possibly can, and just love the idea of human exploration to know such things going into the future, the ARK basically takes that away; it's like living in a dream. So, to me, the end is simultaneously sad in more than one way, as well as peaceful in one respect. That said, I loved the ending. The atmosphere in the game is fantastic, it reminds me of an amalgamation of different works, but above all (mainly due to the exteriors of the setting obviously) Bioshock. The visuals I'd say are probably the worst part (when the game is working well), but are still really good and do everything justice; they look a little better than the best visual games from 04/05 in terms of detail and textures on environments, with modern layer effects on top. I said when the game is working well, and the game does work well for the most part, but there was a time in which the game froze as it was loading, and I had to start over, or the games frame rate would hitch more than ideal. I played it on PS4. I think, on a couple occasions, the line delivery was a bit too dramatic for the moment, and slightly uncharacteristic, though in large part, it was all very good voice work and writing. I enjoyed that there was a lot of talking, and when Catherine was there, I felt a bit more calm, because I just assumed it was a moment of talk between the characters as you explored, and she always turned the lights on, so it felt as though there was no harm near. They even added a bit of humor to it, which isn't necessarily a new thing for horror, but it goes into how I feel like this just isn't that much of a horror game, as it is a sci-fi game in which you explore to get story, with horror moments (not all of which are all that creepy due to the ease in which you get past them).

That being said, I was often (in the interiors of the game) worried something would pop up to hunt me down, even when I knew how the game worked with enemy encounters, which I'd say there are few; the scariest was when around the three flood/cordycep-looking monsters, as you really had to sneak. I see others asking questions about why a character acts this way, or asking how something works, and as interesting as that is, I can't really add anything to it because it's all guess work and presumptions, so even adding my opinion would not validate it. I knew the game had twists before purchasing, as that's just what I heard, but I didn't know what they were, and for a while for the first few hours, I was wondering if by the end you'd wake up back in modern times, and in the moment, not really wanting that to happen. By the end of the game, I wasn't so sure about that anymore. The original reason was because as relative as the modern world is, I didn't want the world I inhabited in the future to be just some dream, as it was so fascinating to me. Alright, I'll just end this right here with saying the game was not a game I had planned on playing, as I thought it was just a PC exclusive, and I know my PC can't run it, but seeing it on PSN when I checked to see what was on there, I was surprised to see it; I came on to check out what the game was like. With very little knowing of what the game was about, I bought it, and by the end of the game, it turned out to be my favorite, or one of my top favorite games of the year, and I'm super happy to have experienced it. I really hope a lot of people play it, especially by the end of this year. Oh, and why didn't humanity figure out a way to stop asteroids, and (in this games case) a comet from hitting Earth. Come on now Earth people, ha ha.

I pretty much just chalked it up to the power of the mind. Simon doesn't ever seem to notice any female curves that he has either.

This game is special

I liked it. The game came across as a little hammy at times, but I think they nailed the atmosphere and the subject matter ended up being far more interesting than I was expecting. I definitely prefer it to any of Frictional Games other entries into the horror genre.

I just finished the game. This game is fantastic. I'd call it more of a thriller than a horror game, but at this point that's probably a good thing considering what people seem to think horror is now-a-days. Think Psycho. It has moments of horror, but also moments of mystery or world building. It's not all horror all the time, but the horror is still really good.

It's a must play. I don't know yet if it's my GOTY this year, but it's in the top 3 for certain.

So, so, good.

@beachthunder said:

I know you wrote that 10 days ago, so maybe you've figured it out by now, but I feel this made sense.

You see what you believe to be reality- the mind is a powerful thing. Simon doesn't wake up in a human body, but he thinks he does because he was just in a doctors office and that's what his mind expects. He even says later that he is afraid it's his mind's way of coping and he is afraid if he continues to question himself he may become insane.

Carl woke up at that exact moment you first hear him so, as far as he knows, the last thing he was doing was getting his brain scanned and now he's under a pile of rubble. He doesn't know he's now in a robot because as far as he knows this is only moments later (when in fact it's about a year and a half later).

Simon sees what he is as reality forces him to. When he's forced to be under water he has to realize that his body is actually a suit. There is no way for his mind to cope without making that realization. It is reasonable to believe Carl would also have come to this understanding if he was allowed to continue on in that state further. Eventually he would have to realize what he was. It's similar to multiple personality syndrome or other mental disabilities. I don't know any research, but it's possible, if you could transfer a consciousness, it would take time for it to fully realize it's new reality. Much like if you lost your hand in an accident, but didn't know it because you also sustained head trauma and woke up months later or something. You wouldn't actually realize your hand was gone until you actually saw that your hand was gone.

I believe Cathryn was less susceptible to this because of the work she was doing, and even though her scan was before it was confirmed successful, being the reclusive scientist type she was she already understood this concept and that it could work so she was mentally more equipped to deal with it than anyone else.

I know you wrote that a week ago, but just for the record that apparition is Johan Ross. There are a few moments in the game that are easy to miss, but you know it's him because throughout the game when seeing reference to Ross or Johan it has to do with the WAU, how the WAU has some strange connection to Ross, Ross' death and how it seemed to affect the WAU, and later you can find a way to unlock his room where you find he apparently is trying to kill the WAU but no one will listen to him that it's even that big of an issue.

For some reason this side plot is kind of undermined throughout the whole game, apparently even the end is always the same, so you may even completely ignore that the WAU is even an enemy if you're not really caring about that. The entire plot falls apart if you think about the WAU, though- which is actually the biggest shame in the game. Unless I missed something (I don't think I did, though).

Just finished the game. I loved it. The best part about it is it's less about horrifying images, gore, and jump scares and more about psychological horror. The game made me feel anxious and uncomfortable just imagining being in the situation Simon was in. It also made me think about being alive in general and how strange being conscious is/ how we perceive life and reality. The ending was also terrifying, the voice actor did a tremendous job with the last lines of the game. When all the power goes out and Catherine has a critical failure and "dies" and Simon 3 is left all alone I felt super anxious and depressed. Imagining all of humanity being dead really is terrifying.

I did however really dislike some of the enemy encounters, they were tedious at times especially because I was so into exploring the world and the story. The monsters made sense and I understood why they were what they were but it wasn't great in terms of gameplay. Still an awesome game though, one of the best this year for sure.

@cjduke: It's really weird, but if you enjoyed the story I kind of recommend the small series of videos frictional put out on their youtube page. They give a tiny tiny bit of back story to some things from the game.

I feel like it was intended to be a bigger film or something, but they ran out of budget, but in some way it's still pretty cool as a counter part to the game. And despite Frictional's saying to the contrary it feels tied to the game very directly.

@cornbredx: Awesome I'll check it out, thanks.

Just finished it. The gameplay was tense, but not always that strong. I had the game a couple of times break itself as well, where there was no point I could progress until I restarted from checkpoint. Also the game crashed like 3 times in my playthrough (PS4, might have something to do with Rest Mode?).

The story was very interesting with some very confincing voice acting I must say! Some of the best I've ever heard in a game, really. Also; the underwater atmosphere is fantastic.

One question that remained for me was: who was the guy that tried to 'direct' you to kill the Wau? Was that Ross? Also, what did it matter; the earth was done for anyway...

By the way, I found something funny and I don't think it's a coincidence: at the very beginning you can pick up the news article about your accident (in a drawer at your desk). When you turn it around it displays 2 pieces of seperate headlines that say 'Game will end with a surprise'.

I watched all of Patrick's playthrough - just wrapped it up now. Take my opinion with a grain of salt since I didn't play it myself (I played a bit at a friends and remembered how much I hated the run & hide stuff from Amnesia), but I thought this was great. The atmosphere, voice acting and themes were really well done. I felt anxious almost the whole time contemplating existence and what it means to be alive, etc. I wanted a little more about the WAU but I dug the premise of it not really having any ill will towards humanity - it was just trying to preserve it in some weird, awful way that the humans didn't account for.

It was doubly interesting as I'm reading a book about consciousness and how our sense of self may not really be how we perceive it. The idea of transferring a human conscience to a robot sounds ridiculous but there are theories that our "selves" may not be related to our bodies at all. I think the most disturbing part of the game was when you essentially build that other body for Simon to take control - using what used to be another person (other than their head) for his own gain.

Heavy stuff.

I loved everything about the story of the game. The way it was delivered, the acting, the way the characters ask and generally answer most of the questions the player has. I liked the ending, and the way the first ending makes the second ending just seem utterly fake.

I liked half of the gameplay. Exploring the environment, flipping switches and using the computers I all thought was fun. I thought the underwater parts where tedious at best. And I hated the monster parts. I didn't think they were scary, and they just got in the way of me figuring out what was going on. Somewhere in the mid-section it was at the worst, and then towards the end it got a bit better again. I really wish they hadn't thrown the Amnesia monster AI in there. I wonder if the game would have worked with no monster at all? It definitely needed to be something different.

Overall, it was a really frustrating experience. I really loved it for the most part, but I just hated the monster stuff.

What an amazing ending. The survey at the end was such a nice touch too. I called seeing Catherine for real and was so happy it actually happened. Her turning around and then the fade to black kinda hit me hard. I know it was fake but I didn't CARE that it was fake and I think that was the point.

It's no Amnesia in terms of scares but what a gem this was