SOMA

Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a scary game. It is a great example of how the unknown is far scarier than the known, a prime example being the invisible monster that you can only keep track of by seeing the splashes it made in the water. That section of Amnesia is probably the most intense and downright scary section in any game I've ever played, mostly because you could not see the monster. As soon as you were able to see it, it was far less scary and even if it killed you, trying to escape that monster again was far less intense . SOMA takes a similar approach to Amnesia with very similar results in terms of being a straight up old fashioned scare.You have to run and hide from various monsters, each one growing less scary than the last as you become accustomed to their behavior and what they look like. But the fear of the unknown, not only in the environments you are sneaking (or running) through, but in the story itself, pushes SOMA forward in a way that sets it apart from other horror games.

You play as Simon Jarrett, a mid-20s man living in present day Toronto. Simon was in a car accident that has left him with serious brain damage that will eventually kill him. Fortunately, a pair of scientists have figured out a new way of scanning the human brain, allowing them to put a digital copy of a brain into a computer. Within the computer they can simulate thousands of treatments to find which one will work in order to fix the brain. Simon is their first patient in all this and naturally, something goes horribly wrong. Simon awakes in an underwater station, with no sight of any humans and a plethora of murderous robots. The story is excellent. It jumps into many philosophical debates, such as "what does it mean to be alive?" and can come across as ham-fisted at times, but it has a lot of interesting things to say behind some goofy dialogue. There are a handful of "twists" to the story as well, but they are all well thought out and even if you see them coming they still make for great plot points. What I appreciated the most about the story was how straightforward it is with the player. Amnesia was confusing to figure out what was truly happening most of the time and I often find that games in this genre like to be more vague and secretive with their plot. While parts of SOMA are difficult to follow, the core plot is one hundred percent understandable. Simon often asked the same questions as me at the same time and he, and by extensive the player, actually gets answers. I was extremely surprised at how up front the game is with explaining what's truly going on and it felt refreshing to be just given the information rather than being left with a mish-mash of pieces I have to put together for myself.

Compared to Amnesia, SOMA is not a scary game. There are a handful of jump scares throughout, but nothing about the game made me scared in the traditional sense. Instead I felt dread, sadness, and a whole lot of anxiety, not only because of the story, but because of the environment the player inhabits. The underwater station feels like a mash up of the world of Bioshock with the technology of Dead Space. The station feels oppressive and closing in on you. There aren't many huge open environments within the station, which often made me feel trapped and anxious about what awaited me in the next room or around the corner. Thick black sludge oozes from the walls, lights flicker on and off, and broken pieces of an old world are left scattered across the station. The player can find computers that have diary entries and recordings about what happened at the station, but a lot of the discovery of what was going on can be seen in the environment itself. And unlike Bioshock, SOMA has the player go outside into the ocean. Mostly the underwater sections are more visible showpieces than anything, but they have their fair share of intense moments. Being at the bottom of the ocean in the dark murky water was one of the many ways this game gave me serious anxiety. I actually felt like the developer went easy on the player in most of these sections and that there were a lot of missed opportunities to do some horrifying underwater nonsense.

For as good as the game looks, it is nowhere near being a technical masterpiece. Loading back into a game takes quite a bit of time, which was especially surprising being on the PC. Once the game was loaded it would often take upwards of a minute for the textures to pop in, leaving the world looking like a bunch of blurry assets for a few moments. The game would hitch every now and then but the framerate was stable and I never experienced any glitches. The graphics themselves are nothing particularly special, but the design of the world and the atmosphere it created made that irrelevant. I don't think I have ever played a game that made me think about the word atmosphere more than SOMA. The oppressive and dread filled nature of the environments had a lot to do with that, but the sound effects and sound quality are top notch and really push the game forward. The game is never quiet. You will often here the pressure of the water pushing against the station, making it feel like the ocean would burst in at any moment. The monsters make disturbing and disgusting noises. The music hammers home the desperation of your situation. If there is ever a game to play with headphones on, this is it. The voice acting is also good. At times it feels a little goofy for the situation but the actors do an excellent job when it matters most. There is also a lot more dialogue than I expected, which turned out to be a good thing.

The major problems with SOMA are with its gameplay. Exploring the environment and discovering the story is a joy, but when the game gives you actual tasks to do it feels a little clumsy and bogged down. The game requires you to sneak past a variety of monstrous robot-like creatures. Getting caught once puts you in an injured state where you move slow and the screen is blurry, getting caught a second time means death. Most of these sneaking sections are not difficult, just tedious. The monsters lumber around and often stand in the same room for far too long. Also the game doesn't really give good hiding spots. I found myself just crouching at the end of a hall or huddled in a corner of a big open room hoping the monster wouldn't see me. Maybe this was intentional to give the player the feeling they could be caught at any moment and nowhere was safe, but it made me feel like the game was more clumsy and janky than anything. I never felt like I was hiding or sneaking, more than I was waiting in a spot and hoping the monsters would walk in the other direction. Although they do throw different monsters at you that all behave a little differently, I never died until the very end of the game, which took me multiple tries to get through. The last monster encounter is tough and not in a good way. Once again the fear of the unknown plays a big part in these sneaking sections. Hearing the monster is far more frightening than seeing the monster. Some of the monsters are actually just silly looking.

SOMA also requires you to do some light puzzle solving, which can often be confusing about what it wants you to do. None of the puzzles are actually difficult, I just struggled sometimes understanding what I needed to do to move forward. I felt like the game didn't give me enough information at times, but it could have just been me being dumb more than the game not explaining itself. Even still, none of the puzzles are very engaging or memorable. I just wanted to rush through any roadblocks to get to new environments and more story. The game also allows players to make some really tough decisions, generally involving whether to do something or to leave it alone. There is no prompt for these, and as far as I know none of your decisions effect the story. Mostly they just effect your mind because none of the decisions are easy or have a "good" option. The game is brutal and never pulls punches. I appreciated that the story wasn't directly affected by my decisions because it made it feel more organic and less "gamey". Whether or not this is a bad thing will be left up to the player.

Once again, SOMA is not a scary game in the traditional sense. It has a few jump scares and some of the scenery is definitely terrifying, but what SOMA does best is give the player a feeling of dread. A major theme of the game is having "hope" but I hardly felt any as I made my way through my 11 hour playthrough. I have never had more anxiety playing a game than I had while playing SOMA. It makes you think about scary things, rather than try to force you to be scared. It's a shame the sneaking sections and puzzles feel more like a chore than good gameplay because the story is well worth seeing until the end. Even with the lackluster parts, you should play SOMA. It feels unlike anything else out this year.