Let me preface this by saying: I adore this game's tone and most of its content. It's a nightmare for both my fiancee and I to play together, for completely different reasons and I love what it's doing.

But am I missing something, or is the directionless PROFOUNDLY frustrating for anyone else? I have had to consult a walkthrough at least thrice because they drop me into a series of hallways, tell me what to try and get, but give me NO context how or where or even WHAT the thing is. And, much like the awesome sequences in Uncharted: nothing breaks up existential horror quite like directionless wandering or having to pause and look up a walkthrough.

I'm not saying I want something like Dead Space's Raver's Guiding Light, but is there a way for someone with a terrible sense of direction (me) to orient themselves or figure what what I'm supposed to do that I'm just missing?

All contemporary games have some sort of guide. Mirrors edge used red (I think it was called, "runner's vision") and The Last of Us used the color yellow (specifically caution tape). This isn't true for all cases but I found that actual lights, were more or less, the guiding tool in SOMA. Especially when you're under water, it utilizes the concept of a "guiding light" quite frequently.

That's my suggestion, I could be wrong but it helped me.

Also, there is an option to turn on suggestions in the game's menu.

The only moment I had to look something up was during the part where you had to set up a simulation to talk to someone. Turns out I just missed an item.

Other than that, I never felt lost. The lights and structures usually guide you in the right direction, and the parts where you get twisted around are usually intentional because you're being chased and it's stressful and difficult to keep track of where you are.

I think you're going in with the wrong expectations. It's pretty linear so figuring out where to go isn't hard, and figuring out what to do is simple as well. What to do? Just explore- you'll pick up cues from the environment or occasionally your somewhat companion if it's a more vague objective.

I think you're going in with the expectation for it to be a lot more "gamey" than it is. Just experience it. Imagine if you were in this situation. You would probably look around a lot and soak up your environment. That's all the game is asking you to do.

It sounds like your mind is just in the wrong place or you're missing environmental cues for some other reason. I found the game very simple to follow in terms of progression and pacing.

I apologize now if this post comes off patronizing. I'm worried it will, but that is very much not my intent.

Honestly this is one of my favorite things about the game. It always gives you the information you need to get to where you're going, but always presents it within the context of the world. One sequence comes to mind where you listen to a log that tells you exactly what to do and a map that shows you exactly where to do it, but because it's just a passing comment and there is no big blinky dot on the map, every LPer I've seen just wanders around for 30+ minutes with no idea.

The game really wants you to engage with the world and inhabit it, so I'd recommend trying to do so. Of course, if it's really getting in the way of your ability to enjoy this game, just use a walk through or something. There's no shame in that. I used one a couple times because I can't handle scary stuff and sometimes it just got too intense for me to play without some sort of guidance.

I had no problem with getting lost in the game.

I think you are getting distracted by talking with your SO while playing. It's understandable.

@cannonballbam: @peacebrother: I LIKE it! That very well could be.

@cornbredx: This could be a part of it, but the issue also becomes that trying to explore while ducking a creature that can kill me if I look at it the wrong way makes looking around and taking it all in a BIT tricky.

@starvinggamer: I definitely appreciate this in terms of what it does for the tone and world building BUT sadly, and I know it's my own failing, I have an absolute DOGSHIT sense of direction, so I still get very, very lost if I'm looking at a map, even a simple and have to remember stuff about it.

@yinstarrunner: This could be as well. She IS interesting...