SOMA |OT| I Have No Mouth but I Will Scream, on The Dark Descent into A Machine

Haunted said:
Ok, bear with me here, there's just one question I want answered before I decide whether I want to go on playing.

Ideally just Yes/No, with no details - is there a big, mindblowing twist at any point in this game that subverts the expectations of the player raised during the first hour of the game
(after the shuttle crash on the way to delta/theta)
?

I need something really clever to look forward to, to keep me going and soldiering on through a game that hasn't really made a great first impression so far.
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No. But its worth playing anyway? Ugh that's a hard question to deal with. It gets better, it gets significantly better, it just doesn't get twisty

There was a great review quote, paraphrasing "sometimes the horror is not realizing some big twist but in realizing just how much things are exactly what they've seemed" and that's spot on
 
The Technomancer said:
No. But its worth playing anyway? Ugh that's a hard question to deal with. It gets better, it gets significantly better, it just doesn't get twisty
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Agreed.

Haunted, for whatever it's worth, I found the first hour or so quite bad as well, but when the game gets going it gets going. The story is very interesting, try to stick with it.
 
Finished it last night. That ending was so
hopeful/hopeless at the same time. Amazing.

When you launch the Ark and Simon (and you as the player) expected to transfer over to the new copy, yet he's still in PATHOS-II for eternity was heartbreaking. I mean I know Catherine explains that the new copy IS on the Ark, but the way Simon explodes and comes to term with it was so desolate and melancholic, damn.
 
BeeDog said:
Agreed.

Haunted, for whatever it's worth, I found the first hour or so quite bad as well, but when the game gets going it gets going. The story is very interesting, try to stick with it.
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I think people are equating bad to slow. The game is slow burn. That's deliberate and that's not a bad thing. For a narrative-focused horror game with some big sci-fi concepts that the player needs to wrap their mind around, that's good. We need more games that aren't afraid to ease the player into the world and story.

The gradual ramping of tension until the later crescendo is what makes the pacing work so well IMO. Were people expecting a fast pace right from the get-go?
 
Haunted said:
Ok, bear with me here, there's just one question I want answered before I decide whether I want to go on playing.

Ideally just Yes/No, with no details - is there a big, mindblowing twist at any point in this game that subverts the expectations of the player raised during the first hour of the game
(after the shuttle crash on the way to delta/theta)
?

I need something really clever to look forward to, to keep me going and soldiering on through a game that hasn't really made a great first impression so far.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of little twists, nothing that subverts expectations, though. They are handled really well.
 
Haunted said:
Ok, bear with me here, there's just one question I want answered before I decide whether I want to go on playing.

Ideally just Yes/No, with no details - is there a big, mindblowing twist at any point in this game that subverts the expectations of the player raised during the first hour of the game
(after the shuttle crash on the way to delta/theta)
?

I need something really clever to look forward to, to keep me going and soldiering on through a game that hasn't really made a great first impression so far.
Click to expand...
I would say the story gets deeper and smarter, not twistier. I think that's a really good thing that more games should do.
 
More_Badass said:
I think people are equating bad to slow. The game is slow burn. That's deliberate and that's not a bad thing. For a narrative-focused horror game with some big sci-fi concepts that the player needs to wrap their mind around, that's good. We need more games that aren't afraid to ease the player into the world and story.

The gradual ramping of tension until the later crescendo is what makes the pacing work so well IMO. Were people expecting a fast pace right from the get-go?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't know where people are getting the idea that the beginning is bad. It's just slow in a really good way. The game is paced to compliment the imagination of the player.
 
Finally got back into it, I think I'm pretty close to the end. Some of the stealth sections went on a bit too long, but overall it's been great. Couldn't put it down. The way they present the ideas and build on them is just masterful.

Going from accidentally 'killing' a robot, to intentionally 'killing' one, and then to repeatedly boot and shut down a brain scan of a person, growing increasingly jaded to the morality of what you're doing... Cool, cool stuff.
 
Rivyn said:
30% of the game has you encountering an enemy and having to avoid it or running away from it. The rest is casually exploring and learning about the story as you go.

This is definitely no Outlast, Amnesia or Silent Hill for that matter. The atmosphere is more intense than the encounters alone.
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fidelio_forte said:
They're not normally my thing either, but I've been managing okay - the game is good at giving you breather levels with plot/exploration/puzzles. If it was at 100% tension all the time I'd probably have a harder time of it. I think it's worth giving it a go for the premise!
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Cool thanks for the impressions. Will probably pick this up for the weekend.
 
Alright. Those impressions weren't exactly the answers I was hoping for, but you all were ultimately so positive about it that I'll keep playing when I get the chance.

Thanks for the answers, everyone.
 
Another developer praising and discussing SOMA
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-frictional-games-so-brilliant-nature-horror-game-design-douse
So you don't want the player to die. You want the player to think he can die. You don't want the player to see the scariest moment, or the scariest monster, you want the player to expect something worse. In fact, you want to show the player as little as possible. You want to create a world in which the player's mind is fucking with the player. You want to build a world inside the player's far more terrifying than meagre code and scripting can build.

You also want intrigue. Survival isn't enough. Players don't care about protagonists. Players don't care if they die.
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The point is, no developer (along with TheChineseRoom for A Machine for Pigs) in the West has truly understood fear like Frictional Games; not only what it is, but how to instill it in an interactive format. How to create something deeply unpleasant but to propel gamers forward so that as they endure it, they enjoy it.
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What was everyone's favorite/least favorite monster encounter?

Personally I'd say the early one against the creature with the glowing face, in the underwater station (the one you need to bust up to get the permission to launch your shuttle). I really liked the visual design, it being underwater was interesting too, the shallow depth of field effect on the underwater sections made the monster in the distance much more mysterious and imposing -- that and I really enjoyed the arena itself, the arena itsel -- but mostly the sunken nature of the encounter made it the most memorable.

As for least favorite, I'd say one of the final encounters, the one on Tau(?) I think, it was very dark, and mostly lit red, the creature was the one in a similar suit to you around this section, very humanoid. The level design just didn't allow for any tactics outside of waiting, it was mostly very long corridors, so you ended up constantly in the creatures line of sight, it was a touch frustrating.

Admittedly the monster encounters are probably the least interesting part of the game, they were mechanically pretty limp compared to it's contemporaries -- but the designs were always on point, and they didn't really get in the way of exploration and progress to often, I appreciate the restraint of only using each monster a few times, keeping encounters fresh, it kept the player from falling into to much of a pattern.
 
Roussow said:
What was everyone's favorite/least favorite monster encounter?

Personally I'd say the early one against the creature with the glowing face, in the underwater station (the one you need to bust up to get the permission to launch your shuttle). I really liked the visual design, it being underwater was interesting too, the shallow depth of field effect on the underwater sections made the monster in the distance much more mysterious and imposing -- that and I really enjoyed the arena itself, the arena itsel -- but mostly the sunken nature of the encounter made it the most memorable.

As for least favorite, I'd say one of the final encounters, the one on Tau(?) I think, it was very dark, and mostly lit red, the creature was the one in a similar suit to you around this section, very humanoid. The level design just didn't allow for any tactics outside of waiting, it was mostly very long corridors, so you ended up constantly in the creatures line of sight, it was a touch frustrating.

Admittedly the monster encounters are probably the least interesting part of the game, they were mechanically pretty limp compared to it's contemporaries -- but the designs were always on point, and they didn't really get in the way of exploration and progress to often, I appreciate the restraint of only using each monster a few times, keeping encounters fresh, it kept the player from falling into to much of a pattern.
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I'd say that the enemy on the sunken ship is my most favorite because there was absolutely no way in knowing where it was, and how it would react to hearing or seeing you because it somehow 'teleports'.

The running away from it once you removed all three tentacles is nerve-racking, though. You can clearly hear it chasing after you and you need to quickly choose the right path because if you fuck up once you are death.

My least favorite was also the one on Tau. I wanted to explore the rooms behind it but after a few tries I just gave up and decided to just quickly open the door, wait for it to go away, and bolted towards the ladder.
 
Rivyn said:
I'd say that the enemy on the sunken ship is my most favorite because there was absolutely no way in knowing where it was, and how it would react to hearing or seeing you because it somehow 'teleports'.

The running away from it once you removed all three tentacles is nerve-racking, though. You can clearly hear it chasing after you and you need to quickly choose the right path because if you fuck up once you are death.

My least favorite was also the one on Tau. I wanted to explore the rooms behind it but after a few tries I just gave up and decided to just quickly open the door, wait for it to go away, and bolted towards the ladder.
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it doesn't teleport, it freezes time, or your perception of time
 
My partner and I are looking for something new and story-driven to play now that we've finished Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, and we loved Amnesia, so SOMA is a dead-cert purchase from me.

However, I'd rather play and stream the game from PC to her (she lives in another city for the moment), but I have a £20 Amazon Gift card.

So I can either shell out actual bonafide cash for the game on Steam, or I can get it on PS4 essentially for free.

But the confusing factor is that I hear the PS4 build isn't great, that a patch is incoming - but also that PC has a lot of modding capability.

What do you reckon, GAF?

- PS4: near-free / some performance quibbles / far easier to set up streaming / no modding/flexibility
- PC: £23 / perfect perfrmance / far harder to set up for streaming / loads of modding/flexibility

Edit: if the PS4 patch is live, how does it affect gameplay?

Edit edit: just realised I have a loyalty voucher with my local brick and mortar store - may be able to get a Steam wallet card there and go for PC regardless.
 
New blog post and trailer went out with some interesting info - http://frictionalgames.blogspot.se/2015/10/soma-10-days-after-launch.html

Sales
I'm going to start with what I think most people are interested in: how much has the game sold? The current number now is at about 92,000 copies across all platforms (due to legal reasons we can't give a per-platform breakdown). This is quite good for 10 days (+ preorder time) of sales! The money that we've got from this will pretty much pay our company expenses for another 2 years. Sales are still going pretty strongly too, with a total of around 2,000 copies sold per day. This number is bound to drop over time, and it'll be interesting to see just how fast and where it stabilizes. While a lot of sales obviously come close to launch, a big part of our normal earnings comes from a slow daily trickle over the years of our existing titles. So our average daily sales a month or so from now on is actually more important than all of the units sold up to this point.

How does this compare to our other releases? Well, Amnesia: The Dark Descent sold 30,000 copies in the first month (and around 20,000 the first week). So SOMA's launch is obviously a lot better than that. Compared to Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, though, the launch is a little bit worse. That game sold about 120,000 copies the first week.
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The thing that I worried most about personally was how the themes would be received. It turns out that I needn't have worried - that's the thing we have fewest problems with. Even reviews that gave us so-so scores lauded the game for the thought-provoking narrative. This feels awesome, as this has been the core focus during our five years of development.

The most common issue people have had is that they've felt the game wasn't scary enough. This is quite interesting, so I'd like to take a little time to discuss this.

One reason this was so is probably due to expectations. While we've tried to be very clear that SOMA will be a different game from Amnesia: The Dark Descent, we have still used the name "Amnesia" as a way to grab attention. This sends a bit of a mixed message, as people might simply assume that because we say "from the creators of Amnesia", a similar experience will be provided. One idea would have been not to mention the studio's heritage, but that feels stupid from a PR perspective. Another idea would have been to tone it down a bit, but it's hard to say exactly how to do that. The fact of the matter is that SOMA, just like Amnesia, is very much a horror game. It's just that it is presented in a different manner, using slower build-up and more focus on the psychological aspects.
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Pretty sure I'm close to the end I reached the
Tau station
.
Man that walk
in the abyss
was pretty intense lol

Now I just have to
play tag
with that
damn diving suit monster/humanoid
and figure out what I have to do .
 
In
Omicron
and fuck this atmosphere is too oppressive. I'm crawling around in slow mo and I've not even encountered the monster yet.
 
I dont know how long the game is but having just gotten to Theta I feel like I've spent waaaay too much time on the ocean surface already
 
epmode said:
Shrug. I like the ocean scenes. The lighting and DOF effect sell it, especially as you get to the end of the game.
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I thought they were a nice break when it was lengthy indoor sequence -> short underwater -> indoor sequence but then the underwater just went on and on and it was all the same. Again it could be mostly indoor from here but they really should have spaced it out better
 
JesseZao said:
The voice acting is terrrrible.
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Amnesia's voice acting wasn't great. This is a massive improvement even if it misses some nuance here and there. I'm usually very picky about voice acting, too.

I should stop reading Soma threads. I feel like I played a different game than a lot of you. I loved almost every minute of it.
 
epmode said:
Amnesia's voice acting wasn't great. This is a massive improvement even if it misses some nuance here and there. I'm usually very picky about voice acting, too.

I should stop reading Soma threads. I feel like I played a different game than a lot of you. I loved almost every minute of it.
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Don't feel alone. I love the game and a lot of people on here love it too.
 
I think the VAs of Simon and Catherine do their job well. It also has some natural sounding writing, Simon's reactions lined up with my own several times.
 
Finished the game yesterday .

Wow ...
I have mixed feelings about the ending it's like a bad ending and good ending , the copy that stayed on the station will probably commit suicide or try to kill himself I mean he is stuck under the sea and there is not a single human left, or he will lose his mind wandering aimlessly

And the second part was kinda sad I mean when you see the ARK drifting into space and you see the earth in the background all in ruin and destroyed....

Something I'm not sure I get though is who the hell was
the thing that want you to destroy the WAU he was following you and helping you to progress
I might have missed something I think ?
 
ys45 said:
Something I'm not sure I get though is who the hell was
the thing that want you to destroy the WAU he was following you and helping you to progress
I might have missed something I think ?
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Johan Ross, one of the Tau scientists

If I understand correctly
He basically spent all his time at Site Alpha studying the WAU which is why he was so hell bent on killing it
 
h0tp0ck3t said:
Johan Ross, one of the Tau scientists

If I understand correctly
He basically spent all his time at Site Alpha studying the WAU which is why he was so hell bent on killing it
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Oh I see so it was
Johan Ross,
I was wondering because
the guy seems to be turned into a monster and look like he was teleporting .
 
Is anyone watching the live action series?

Kinda spoilers:

It paints a pretty shitty picture of WAU. Fuck his definition of life.
 
Just finished this at just over 10 hours. I loved everything about it, with the exception of one encounter. Game was extremely unsettling. This one will stay on my mind for a while.
Well worth the wait.
 
What are the issues I'm reading about on PS4? Do they detract from the experience? I wanna pick this up since I'm gearing this month to finishing up some more horror-themed games and it looks really interesting.
 
KiefbladeMaster said:
What are the issues I'm reading about on PS4? Do they detract from the experience? I wanna pick this up since I'm gearing this month to finishing up some more horror-themed games and it looks really interesting.
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The game uses streaming instead of load screens between levels, so when a new level loads you get a 3-5 second freeze/jitter as the next level loads in (similar to half life 2), also when auto save takes place you get 0.5-1 second freeze. Both are very rare
 
samueljustice00 said:
The game uses streaming instead of load screens between levels, so when a new level loads you get a 3-5 second freeze/jitter as the next level loads in (similar to half life 2), also when auto save takes place you get 0.5-1 second freeze. Both are very rare
Click to expand...

Thanks! Neither of those sound very bad at all, I think I'll grab it.
 
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