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

Dusk Golem said:
I am in the minority it seems, but I loved the monster encounters in SOMA.

I kind of did a Frictional marathon the week leading to SOMA's release, I played all the Penumbra games and both Amnesia games before SOMA hit. Penumbra stands as my personal favorite work of theirs, but SOMA definitely is a different take while also keeping some of the staples they have among all of their games.

The monsters in SOMA hardly have any punishment as they will usually down you once (and you get back up and a bit to escape), and then the second time you go to the last checkpoint (always right before the encounter starts), though it is a bit more challenging than Amnesia (which will actually despawn monsters after they've killed you).

None of the monster sections are that long, and the monsters have wonderful variety and sound design to them. They tie in nicely with the narrative, especially some of the later monsters, and often have a lot of interesting details in the environments around them to talk about different sides of the story without a single word.

I can understand those less experienced with horror games may dislike them, and I take it some here that act angry at the monsters as a design decision are just scared by them (I find some people respond to feeling tense or scared as a negative thing and will get angry and repulsed by the feeling and actively criticize whatever was the cause of the feeling), but I don't think they were walls to progress in story or anything. Maybe I only feel like this since I love horror, I expected monster encounters because it's a Frictional game, and I actually feel a number of the monster encounters are very well designed as a fan of horror (especially in the last third of the game), but I just feel kind of weird seeing people act like the monsters in SOMA are some glaring obvious flaw or something like that. The game is a bit different than Frictional's other games, and one area is encounter design. But I thought they made the monsters, encounters, and the like quite varied, and felt they helped the game's atmosphere rather than take away.
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Couldn't agree more :)
 
Dusk Golem said:
I am in the minority it seems, but I loved the monster encounters in SOMA.

I kind of did a Frictional marathon the week leading to SOMA's release, I played all the Penumbra games and both Amnesia games before SOMA hit. Penumbra stands as my personal favorite work of theirs, but SOMA definitely is a different take while also keeping some of the staples they have among all of their games.

The monsters in SOMA hardly have any punishment as they will usually down you once (and you get back up and a bit to escape), and then the second time you go to the last checkpoint (always right before the encounter starts), though it is a bit more challenging than Amnesia (which will actually despawn monsters after they've killed you).

None of the monster sections are that long, and the monsters have wonderful variety and sound design to them. They tie in nicely with the narrative, especially some of the later monsters, and often have a lot of interesting details in the environments around them to talk about different sides of the story without a single word.

I can understand those less experienced with horror games may dislike them, and I take it some here that act angry at the monsters as a design decision are just scared by them (I find some people respond to feeling tense or scared as a negative thing and will get angry and repulsed by the feeling and actively criticize whatever was the cause of the feeling), but I don't think they were walls to progress in story or anything. Maybe I only feel like this since I love horror, I expected monster encounters because it's a Frictional game, and I actually feel a number of the monster encounters are very well designed as a fan of horror (especially in the last third of the game), but I just feel kind of weird seeing people act like the monsters in SOMA are some glaring obvious flaw or something like that. The game is a bit different than Frictional's other games, and one area is encounter design. But I thought they made the monsters, encounters, and the like quite varied, and felt they helped the game's atmosphere rather than take away.
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I didn't mind the encounters either though I'd have preferred fewer of them (even though there weren't a ton to begin with). I think one of the main reasons people see them as a negative is more because of how fantastic the story is. The story is really that good that the game could have easily dropped the monster encounters and totally worked.

If I had it my way I'd like to take a few of the encounters out, take a few more and make those monsters roam around passively unless provoked, and then keep the best of the encounters in as they are.
 
Dusk Golem said:
...I take it some here that act angry at the monsters as a design decision are just scared by them (I find some people respond to feeling tense or scared as a negative thing and will get angry and repulsed by the feeling and actively criticize whatever was the cause of the feeling)...I don't think they were walls to progress in story or anything. I thought they made the monsters, encounters, and the like quite varied, and felt they helped the game's atmosphere rather than take away.
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Can't speak for anyone else, but I'm definitely not "acting angry" at the monster encounters as a design decision, and actually scared by them.

They don't scare me or make me angry. I'm simply disappointed that they exist and drag down an otherwise stellar game (so far). They just feel completely pointless to me. Why are they there? The game is not built around combat, I can't fight them in any way (so far). The atmosphere is already thick with a delightful unnerving tension, the monsters don't improve that in any way. In fact, for me, they ruin the tension because when one appears I think "Oh, here we go again..." remove myself from my previous immersion in the game and just force myself past it so I can get back to the good stuff. I'd argue they do exist as walls against progression in the story, quite literally. Needless walls.

But the thing is, everything else about SOMA is ace, in my book. I'm not going to give up on it because of one flaw. I just feel like if the monster encounters were removed the game would be the better for it. I also feel like the fact that a mod exists to remove the encounters kind of backs my position. Someone out there decided the game was too good to let this one aspect drag it down, so they did something about it. Apparently a few other people are very thankful and use the mod. If I was on PC, you can bet I would do the same.
 
The monster encounters are the worst part of the game. It's still a fantastic game and they encounters aren't bad or ruin the game. The game as it is, is great. I just loved the world created and story so much someuimes found them an irritant while try to explore and read files about this great world and story.

I agree they did a good job of making each level have its own monster that had its own routine and stuff. But I still enjoyed everything else about the game more than the monster encounters.

I love horror games definitely not angry at being scared lol
 
The worst part about the monster encounters was that the game failed to teach the player how the monsters behaved. I had a really hard time figuring out whether they reacted to sight, sound or both, whether I should be running away or trying to sneak around a corner etc. To me, it just became tedious trial and error.

I also don't think the monsters fit the game from a thematic perspective. I don't perceive the WAU as being consciously malevolent, so the idea that (almost) all its creations would be hulking monsters seems a bit weird.
 
I thought they did a really good job of teaching you the monster behavior actually. Usually their were pretty obvious hints in the dialogue, or feedback from the monster's behavior and design.
 
Fancy Clown said:
I thought they did a really good job of teaching you the monster behavior actually. Usually their were pretty obvious hints in the dialogue, or feedback from the monster's behavior and design.
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Yeah, it was fine from a mechanical perspective IMO.

The problem I had was that it muddied the pacing just that little bit. Never too much, but I would have preferred it if it were easier to avoid the monsters, but they patrolled larger areas.

Still a phenomenal game. Dat story. Right before the credits roll was ingenious. After credits was good, but part of me wishes they hadn't included it.
 
Roarer said:
The worst part about the monster encounters was that the game failed to teach the player how the monsters behaved. I had a really hard time figuring out whether they reacted to sight, sound or both, whether I should be running away or trying to sneak around a corner etc. To me, it just became tedious trial and error.

I also don't think the monsters fit the game from a thematic perspective. I don't perceive the WAU as being consciously malevolent, so the idea that (almost) all its creations would be hulking monsters seems a bit weird.
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I played it with the monster mod and was caught by surprise over how "right" it felt. Your comment actually set that feeling into a more tangible perspective.
 
Started playing this last night, and honestly I only made it about 45 minutes before the tension got too much and I had to switch it off. It's clearly a great game, but by God the atmosphere and those damn sound effects are incredibly stressful! Probably the best sounding game I've played since Alien: Isolation.
 
SomTervo said:
Yeah, it was fine from a mechanical perspective IMO.

The problem I had was that it muddied the pacing just that little bit. Never too much, but I would have preferred it if it were easier to avoid the monsters, but they patrolled larger areas.

Still a phenomenal game. Dat story. Right before the credits roll was ingenious. After credits was good, but part of me wishes they hadn't included it.
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I thought the pacing was good. There were some monster moments that were flat out bad (like in the sunken ship when they take control away from you and have one teleport in front of you and you just have to sprint all the way back through the maze). But they were infrequent enough that it left the perfect amount of breathing room and meaninful tension when you're never quite sure when one is coming up. They never lasted very long either, except for the
proxies
, but those were some of the better encounters imo.

I've actually really come around to the dual ending. It may sacrifice a bit of impact with the second one, but it makes up for that by deepening the themes.
It makes the Simon who dies alone's fate that much more significant, because we see first hand that he was able to save himself, and we even play that because we are him. But it's also not him...ya know, it's all the creepy mind wrapping themes of self identity the game was toying with all along, and making both sides playable enhanced that I think
 
A lot of people hate it and think it's the worst but the sunken ship easily had my favourite enemy encounter. With a good set of headphones, once you figure out how the creatures work it becomes a whole lot scarier and awesome. I guess everyone figured out you aren't supposed to look at them but if you do you can get as close to them as you want.

In one instance I met one in a corridor so I faced the wall and nudged past it. As my ass was rubbing against it, I could hear it breathing on my neck and it sent fucking shills down my spine. It's the best way to show how great the sound design is.
 
The sunken ship is really good up until that last scripted encounter, really.

Also I remember reading pre release interviews where they said they were going to make getting attacked have scarier/worse consequences than just death, and each enemy would have a unqiue effect on you. Shame that didn't really pan out, and their experimentation with that really only led to essentially multiple tries before real death.

The death screen is really freaky though.
 
Enemy encounters in these sorts of games are going to be tough. People don't like not being able to fight back against the enemies, but if you could these enemies in particular would lose a lot of their fear factor.
 
Roarer said:
The worst part about the monster encounters was that the game failed to teach the player how the monsters behaved. I had a really hard time figuring out whether they reacted to sight, sound or both, whether I should be running away or trying to sneak around a corner etc. To me, it just became tedious trial and error.

I also don't think the monsters fit the game from a thematic perspective. I don't perceive the WAU as being consciously malevolent, so the idea that (almost) all its creations would be hulking monsters seems a bit weird.
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Yeah, I did figure out that some of them were blind, but I general I still don't have much idea what tactics to use. So I just sneak as best as I can, and if they notice me I run like hell... or just stand there since you're pretty much fucked if they see you anyway.

I remember Catherine saying something like 'You know the drill, don't look at the monsters or they will attack'. And I'm like 'Uhh, really? No, I guess I don't know the drill. You could have warned me earlier!'
 
Just bought this game on Sony PSN Plus:
BIt2nub.gif

Off to a great start! Loving it
 
Fancy Clown said:
I've actually really come around to the dual ending. It may sacrifice a bit of impact with the second one, but it makes up for that by deepening the themes.
It makes the Simon who dies alone's fate that much more significant, because we see first hand that he was able to save himself, and we even play that because we are him. But it's also not him...ya know, it's all the creepy mind wrapping themes of self identity the game was toying with all along, and making both sides playable enhanced that I think
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The more time I have spent thinking about it, the more I see that they are both
horrific endings, only one is just more obviously horrific. The zoom out from the ARK to space in the final scene really hammers that home.... this thing will just drift for hundreds of years in the blackness of space. No one is out there to find it. Nothing will change. There really is no hope. And inside it's just a fake whitewashed utopia full of personality snapshots that are trapped, and probably smart enough to eventually realize that. Lastly, even if it DOES get found by someone or something.... then what? They'll never be human again. They can't reproduce, they can't build anything, they can't start a new civilization. The whole ARK is just a band-aid solution to the apocalypse that I can only see ending in disaster, or at best, nothingness.
 
Steve.1981 said:
For me SOMA is an example of what could be a wonderful experience, held back by unfortunate design decisions. Of course I'm talking about the monster encounters.

I don't think they add anything, in fact they almost ruin everything. I was thoroughly invested in and enjoying the game until the first monster appeared, now I simply grit my teeth and force myself past them so I can get back into the story and atmosphere. They're like a sudden wall that appears for no reason and you're told "Stop. Do you want to know more about this mysterious story? Well, get over this first" and I can't help but think...why?
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I disagree. I think it would be quite dull if all you did in SOMA was walk through spooky, empty hallways and experience a story. I kind of want games to resist my progress in some way. Maybe the enemies could have been handled better, but removing them is the wrong way to go, for me.
 
Fancy Clown said:
I thought the pacing was good. There were some monster moments that were flat out bad (like in the sunken ship when they take control away from you and have one teleport in front of you and you just have to sprint all the way back through the maze). But they were infrequent enough that it left the perfect amount of breathing room and meaninful tension when you're never quite sure when one is coming up. They never lasted very long either, except for the
proxies
, but those were some of the better encounters imo.

I've actually really come around to the dual ending. It may sacrifice a bit of impact with the second one, but it makes up for that by deepening the themes.
It makes the Simon who dies alone's fate that much more significant, because we see first hand that he was able to save himself, and we even play that because we are him. But it's also not him...ya know, it's all the creepy mind wrapping themes of self identity the game was toying with all along, and making both sides playable enhanced that I think
Click to expand...

Oh, I thought the pacing was great, too. Don't get me wrong. I just felt a couple of the encounters got in the way a little bit, when you really wanted to hit another story beat.

I see your point (ending spoilers) and
I still liked the full ending. However, I felt the pre-credits ending was perfectly poignant - because we got to see the other side of the coin toss. At the start of the game, you live the copy's experience, then getting into the Abyss suit, you live the copy's experience – it was only at the end, when it matters most, you get to see the brutal horror of the original's experience. We didn't need the post-credits end to see both sides of the coin as playable. I suppose arguably we had to know they made it on the ARK.

But still - phenomenal game. I really respect them as creators.
 
Played through this over a weekend, I went into the game as a big fan of first Amnesia game, I have also played through the penumbra titles. As most people have already come to the conclusion the story experience in this game is by far the best out of all the Frictional titles. For this reason, I don't mind that the monster encounters aren't the best that we have seen from this developer.

I disagree with people that removing the monsters from the game would make for a more enjoyable experience. The monsters are a critical part of the story and game play, I don't see how they can just be removed.
 
Fancy Clown said:
The sunken ship is really good up until that last scripted encounter, really.

Also I remember reading pre release interviews where they said they were going to make getting attacked have scarier/worse consequences than just death, and each enemy would have a unqiue effect on you. Shame that didn't really pan out, and their experimentation with that really only led to essentially multiple tries before real death.

The death screen is really freaky though.
Click to expand...

The way they handle death screen is much better than Alien Isolation I think. If you jump into the abyss without the power suit you also get a pretty neat death sequence I thought. It doesn't just go straight to 'you died', but has a little sequence of the suit imploding.
 
Deleteeeeee said:
Played through this over a weekend, I went into the game as a big fan of first Amnesia game, I have also played through the penumbra titles. As most people have already come to the conclusion the story experience in this game is by far the best out of all the Frictional titles. For this reason, I don't mind that the monster encounters aren't the best that we have seen from this developer.

I disagree with people that removing the monsters from the game would make for a more enjoyable experience. The monsters are a critical part of the story and game play, I don't see how they can just be removed.
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Agreed.

One of my favorite moments of the game was getting caught by (late game spoilers)
the Cthulu monster.
At first, I was pretty terrified by the monsters and avoided them at all costs. After maybe the 3rd time, I realized it's basically the same thing every time and isn't that bad. When there was something new to see, it felt shocking without being scary. Seeing the differences in monsters as the game progressed added a lot of depth, pardon the pun.
 
Deleteeeeee said:
The way they handle death screen is much better than Alien Isolation I think. If you jump into the abyss without the power suit you also get a pretty neat death sequence I thought. It doesn't just go straight to 'you died', but has a little sequence of the suit imploding.
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I fell into the abyss by accident and it scared the shit out of me
 
Been playing this on and off this past week and I like it but this part I am at now is a huge slowdown...after taking 2 days to figure out the cypher thing,about halfway through the game I am guessing,now I am in the room with huge stairs that I can push around but the button it makes me reach stays red...there is a little console with like 6 knobs to turn,that can be annoying to do with the PS4 controller,but they dont lol...might try the other way to point at things in the options just to make sure this is not what prevents me from turning them...
 
Ricker said:
Been playing this on and off this past week and I like it but this part I am at now is a huge slowdown...after taking 2 days to figure out the cypher thing,about halfway through the game I am guessing,now I am in the room with huge stairs that I can push around but the button it makes me reach stays red...there is a little console with like 6 knobs to turn,that can be annoying to do with the PS4 controller,but they dont lol...might try the other way to point at things in the options just to make sure this is not what prevents me from turning them...
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Haven't played this on ps4 but I can see how some sections might be really annoying with a controller. I did use a guide as I played this game to get through some of the puzzle sections because, honestly, the puzzles can slow down the pace of the game in a real shitty way.
 
Finally figured that console,ladder/stairs part and I felt dumb lol...now I am at a point where I actually have to do some maths to move forward....? lol...
 
Math test done lol ;)

Now I am stuck looking for 3 items needed for the Power suit...these part are too long I think,even if the game is a slow paced game...I like it a lot but man...and the clue I have is find a way to unlock the cabinet lol....theres cabinets all over the place...also thought I had one piece but I laid it down in a drawer but now I can't pick it up it seems...this game is creepy as hell with headphones damn,all those little(and big)noises.
 
Made it through the Theta Laboratory section of the game, and then gave up. Monster encounters absolutely killed the game for me. What an amazing game it could have been, if not for those. Could have become my favorite walking simulator. Is there a mod on PC that removes them? Not sure if my laptop can handle it, but I'll try if there is one.
 
Finally got the Power Suit working and continued to go deeper but now I am stuck again...this game I tell you,such awful progression at some points,no clue on what to do...

I was going deeper in the abyss and the game makes you sit down,Catherine tells a story about a roof while you descend,then everything stops,you wonder what happened,you try to talk to Catherine but there's noanswer,then nothing....? I can climb the ladder but I fall to my death if step where the weird fishes are on top of the place I was sitting...?
 
Ricker said:
Finally got the Power Suit working and continued to go deeper but now I am stuck again...this game I tell you,such awful progression at some points,no clue on what to do...

I was going deeper in the abyss and the game makes you sit down,Catherine tells a story about a roof while you descend,then everything stops,you wonder what happened,you try to talk to Catherine but there's noanswer,then nothing....? I can climb the ladder but I fall to my death if step where the weird fishes are on top of the place I was sitting...?
Click to expand...

that part is very easy...
flick the switch ontop of the elevator
 
Finished it finally,besides a few area's where I got stuck a long time because I didnt quite scrolled over something important and the few deaths from the ''monsters'',especially the first times since I wasn't sure what was going on,I really liked this game,pretty haunting in places and a pretty good story,great atmosphere...It's my favorite ''walking'' adventure game so far,liked it a lot more then Gone Home or Gone to the Rapture for example...need to try Ethan Carter next.

Anyway,good stuff Frictional Games.
 
I keep wanting to buy this game. It pops up in various threads for it's quality in story and atmosphere and i like these kind of games (e.g. Oxenfree, Everybody's gone to the Rapture, the Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Firewatch,...) but i'm not into horror games at all and especially jump scare type horror. Hmmm.... I might watch some gameplay videos to get a better feeling off what the game is about.
 
Got this in the US PS Store sale.

Question: Am I supposed to interact with the blue node things with the cross icon? Seems to just cause things to go to shit.
 
Hank Scorpio said:
Got this in the US PS Store sale.

Question: Am I supposed to interact with the blue node things with the cross icon? Seems to just cause things to go to shit.
Click to expand...

no mistake is game breaking, just keep playing and you'll both figure it out.

one of my games of the year, dont read any more about it, just play it
 
More_Badass said:
Hmmm...Frictional is looking to hire another gameplay programmer/designer
http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2016/06/hiring-gameplay-programmer-designer.html

I wonder if that means they're in the early stages of a new project
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I would say most definitely.

Soma sold well enough for them they said to fund another two years for their studio.

Makes perfect sense that they probably already started on the conceptual stuff probably before Soma was even finished and now are gearing up to get into bigger development on whatever it is they are coming up with next.
 
Man I really need to get back to this, I forget about it all the time.

I got lost wandering about in the water and had no idea where to go or how to get there, might need to start again.
 
dsk1210 said:
Man I really need to get back to this, I forget about it all the time.

I got lost wandering about in the water and had no idea where to go or how to get there, might need to start again.
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I start to sound like a broken record, but it was my GOTY 2015. Mileage will definitely vary on that, but if you're a fan of science fiction, it is absolutely worth seeing it through. I adore the deep ocean setting, which is what I bought it for, but their scifi is just so fucking strong. I even created a thread about it.
 
HueyFreeman said:
I start to sound like a broken record, but it was my GOTY 2015. Mileage will definitely vary on that, but if you're a fan of science fiction, it is absolutely worth seeing it through. I adore the deep ocean setting, which is what I bought it for, but their scifi is just so fucking strong. I even created a thread about it.
Click to expand...

I adored the setting and premise, it was just because I got lost a bit then started playing other games, I will get back to it.
 
I grabbed this in the Steam sale. Playing with the wuss mod, and still I'm pooping my pants at the part where I'm at, which is searching for
an escape capsule to go to Theta
. I really love the immersion of the game, and I find the story very intriguing, but I'm considering just watching a let's play or reading the plot summary, because my heart can't take so much tension :(
 
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