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

Rivyn said:
Simon was not really stupid, but more or less ignorant for the obvious.

He even had the choice to unplug his own version of Simon back at Theta when he had to fit that diving suit.

Refusing to acknowledge the simple truth because ignoring the obvious is the easiest way out. I am pretty sure a lot of people would do that in such situations.
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That's what Simon was doing most of the time. At start, he did not even acknowledge he had a diving suit for a body. When Epsilon got flooded and he realized he could breath underwater, he gave in to the first thought of not having a human body, and then he saw his hands as a diving suit.
 
Rivyn said:
Simon was not really stupid, but more or less ignorant for the obvious.

He even had the choice to unplug his own version of Simon back at Theta when he had to fit that diving suit.

Refusing to acknowledge the simple truth because ignoring the obvious is the easiest way out. I am pretty sure a lot of people would do that in such situations.
Click to expand...

I did unplug the first Simon(or should I call him the second? :P ) back at Theta.

I don't feel bad about it cause they are just copies it's like killing one of many Naruto's clones.

at least that's how I see it.
 
silva1991 said:
I did unplug the first Simon(or should I call him the second? :P ) back at Theta.

I don't feel bad about it cause they are just copies it's like killing one of many Naruto's clones.

at least that's how I see it.
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The copies have the exact same feeling like you do, though. They see, they feel pain, love and hate.

That is why the Simon back at Upsilon is hating on Cat on 'why it didn't work', while it did.

It is just that another copy has moved on and the others have to die a lonesome death.
 
Fifth trophy-ish spoilers:
I just got to revelation that Simon was installed in Imogen Reed's body. It didn't mean much until I was re-watching some of the live-action trailers/teasers and heard the distinctive short-haired woman prominent in many of them referred to as Reed. Oh, jeez, that gives a name to a face. I love the live-action tie-ins, it was great to see the 'Vivarium' clip mentioned in a log.

I'd been sticking Simon's hand into the WAU orifice automatically, and didn't realise not doing so would trigger chromatic aberration. I thought the game was broken at first!

The game's good at building side characters - you see them in notes, logs, pictures, audio clips, etc.
I felt terrible about Catherine and Simon using Wan for the security cipher, especially when you find out his human self did a big self-sacrifice to protect the rest of the team. I find Catherine really likeable, too, I miss her when she's not available.

There's been a few instances now where you can choose to let robots/memory scans live or die, and I've left them alive where possible out of guilt. It's always something to think about at least, and that being said, I never walk away feeling like I've made entirely the right decision. It seems cruel either way.

I think I'd be perfectly happy if the game didn't have any monsters, but that would understandably take away a lot of the tension. I'd also spend a lot less time shutting doors behind me even when I don't need to. I think I have a problem. If there is a monster that can open doors, well, shit.
 
Live action episode 2 went out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxK99dgajVM&index=2&list=PLWjnM4fZ4U8wLxrFXjL-95ME0QJwdz8m8

12006452_10156168781300441_59840659821912359_o.png
 
Okay, this game finally started freaking me out when I reached
Omicron.
Just hurry up and
get off the floor and start eating my face, catatonic WAU monsters.
It's the waiting that kills ya.
 
So I'm a bit into Theta station,
This robot revelation came really quickly, it took me off guard. Like, Simon literally just realized it, on the spot, as if he'd always known it, well, as long as he's been a robot. I'm in the process of getting the cypher code -- manipulating this other scanned person seems really, really quite cruel, it's bizarre how okay Catherine is with fucking with robots, considering she is one -- and she's aware she is one. I'm really enjoying the questions this game is posing about identity and the definition of humanity, I'm sure it's not original content -- like Bioshock Infinite a few years back, the game poses interesting, thought provoking questions that I'm sure have been present in plenty of literature for years -- but I'm not aware of most of the literature, so this work is having quite a special effect on me, it's my first exposure to these themes after all. Torturing Carl early in the game -- just to see if I could progress while he was in pain said a lot about how I regard (what I think is) a "machine". Interesting stuff.

Also -- I can't help but be reminded of the movie Virus (1999) with Jamie Lee Curtis, I don't remember much about that movie, but it scared the shit out of me as a kid.

Edit: How far through the game am I? I'm
manipulating a guys A.I/brain scan in theta to get the cypher code
 
So I'm thinking about grabbing this on ps4 for Halloween here so a few questions about it.
How's it run overall (frame drops etc)?
Is there any replayability for this?
One of my main concerns was the idea of tossing $30 down on a game that would end up being a one and done play through which I can't imagine being totally worth it even if I am a big horror fan.
 
hollerphonix said:
So I'm thinking about grabbing this on ps4 for Halloween here so a few questions about it.
How's it run overall (frame drops etc)?
Is there any replayability for this?
One of my main concerns was the idea of tossing $30 down on a game that would end up being a one and done play through which I can't imagine being totally worth it even if I am a big horror fan.
Click to expand...

The performance is not great on PS4, I am afraid. Long loading times, and the game freezes for a second or two to load new areas every now and then.

About replayability, I would say yes in the way you would want to watch a great movie multiple times. Only one path through the story, though.

That being said, the game is great and easily worth the price.
 
hollerphonix said:
So I'm thinking about grabbing this on ps4 for Halloween here so a few questions about it.
How's it run overall (frame drops etc)?
Is there any replayability for this?
One of my main concerns was the idea of tossing $30 down on a game that would end up being a one and done play through which I can't imagine being totally worth it even if I am a big horror fan.
Click to expand...

It is pretty much one and done. There's some choices you can make in the game, but I don't think it actually affects anything. There's some type of mods you can do on the PC version, so I'd go with that if it was an option.
 
hollerphonix said:
...nvm just say your reply after posting
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There are a few choices you have to make during the game, but they have more of an effect on your own conscience than on the narrative. There are some slight differences in the story depending on what you do, but don't expect distinct multiple endings or anything like that.
 
silva1991 said:
I did unplug the first Simon(or should I call him the second? :P ) back at Theta.

I don't feel bad about it cause they are just copies it's like killing one of many Naruto's clones.

at least that's how I see it.
Click to expand...

well, they are copies-- but they're not just copies, they are all completely separate real people. it's only a copy at the exact moment it gets copied, from then on they will be completely separate people with their own life experiences that will shape their personality and make the copy its own simon. you killed a unique person, feel bad.
 
StaffyManasse said:
The performance is not great on PS4, I am afraid. Long loading times, and the game freezes for a second or two to load new areas every now and then.

About replayability, I would say yes in the way you would want to watch a great movie multiple times. Only one path through the story, though.

That being said, the game is great and easily worth the price.
Click to expand...

Apparently there's a patch coming in a few days for PS4. I hope it fixes all the loading/stuttering issues. Such a mood killer.
 
I'm tempted to grab this, although I don't generally like tension heavy horror games, but the premise intrigues me greatly. Hmmmm..
 
Tunesmith said:
I'm tempted to grab this, although I don't generally like tension heavy horror games, but the premise intrigues me greatly. Hmmmm..
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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.
 
Tunesmith said:
I'm tempted to grab this, although I don't generally like tension heavy horror games, but the premise intrigues me greatly. Hmmmm..
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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!
 
Tunesmith said:
I'm tempted to grab this, although I don't generally like tension heavy horror games, but the premise intrigues me greatly. Hmmmm..
Click to expand...

It's hardly as suffocating as something like Alien Isolation, I also think the pacing is a little better -- where Alien gave you a huge chunk of downtime around the middle of the game for a good act. Soma seems to pace out it's monster sections and exploration sections. You lose the element of "The monster could be right here, at any moment" that Alien has, but having that might detract from the storytelling focus you get in this game, there's a strong science fiction story here, which seems strong with or without the horror elements.
 
b11f88dde470274ed425c7da3b29396c.jpg


Fooling around with the level editor and making my second experimental map as I play around with and learn the level editor, trying to make a dumb little, "SOMA Hill", thing right now.

Here's a quick map I did (like 30-60 seconds long) to learn the basics of the level editor, toying around a bit more complex now but still messing around, but here's what I made in a few hours (also get to claim to be the first user-made map for SOMA, so oh boy~): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527107521
 
Dusk Golem said:
b11f88dde470274ed425c7da3b29396c.jpg


Fooling around with the level editor and making my second experimental map as I play around with and learn the level editor, trying to make a dumb little, "SOMA Hill", thing right now.

Here's a quick map I did (like 30-60 seconds long) to learn the basics of the level editor, toying around a bit more complex now but still messing around, but here's what I made in a few hours (also get to claim to be the first user-made map for SOMA, so oh boy~): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527107521
Click to expand...

Honestly surprised your first, will give it a download later and give it a go!
 
Maximo said:
Honestly surprised your first, will give it a download later and give it a go!
Click to expand...

I am too, I never messed around with Amnesia's level edtiro so I am just learning the HPL engine, but apparently there's big differences between HPL3 (what SOMA runs on) and HPL2 (what Amnesia runs on) that a lot of veterans are figuring out the differences for.

I have the advantage I didn't know anything and just made a quick level toying around, it's honestly a dumb level, but I did learn a lot. Now learning more and seeing if making something Silent Hill-esque in SOMA is possible. The answer, btw, is yes, though trying to figure out some audio things, likely still be a dumb map, but hopefully a bit less dumb.
 
I feel proud for finishing my first horror game lol. I totally recommend this to newcomers to the genre. Ending credits song is beautiful and makes you reflect a lot.

Surprisingly, never once did I feel completely lost like some would argue here. Level design was fine.
 
galvenize said:
I feel proud for finishing my first horror game lol. I totally recommend this to newcomers to the genre. Ending credits song is beautiful and makes you reflect a lot.
Click to expand...

Ugnhn, yeah maybe best credit song since ME3 Das Malefitz. And just as fitting.

Edit: actually I kind of meant "An End Once and For All" but I cant find a version of the song with that original deep mean brass bass. Oh well.
 
Spoilers for
Tau area
.

I think I completely wrecked the
Tau monster. I'd already opened all the nearby doors and studied the area map carefully when I opened the (slooow) door that reveals him. I just backed away, double-backed through some rooms, and then ran to the area exit in about five seconds. Hit that door, hid nearby while it opened, and then dashed through to the ladder. I saw the monster for all of two seconds, and I was through and safe in about about twenty.

I don't think that's how that encounter was designed, but thanks
for the map,
Frictional.
 
I bought the game and started playing it, as I loved Amnesia. Both games. Well, it doesn't feel like a horror game at all to me, more like...dark comedy? It surely isn't frightening.
 
Might give this game another play and take it alot slower this time, didn't exactly rush it but felt like I ran past certain parts as I was getting the fuck away from certain monsters.
 
Shake Appeal said:
Spoilers for
Tau area
.

I think I completely wrecked the
Tau monster. I'd already opened all the nearby doors and studied the area map carefully when I opened the (slooow) door that reveals him. I just backed away, double-backed through some rooms, and then ran to the area exit in about five seconds. Hit that door, hid nearby while it opened, and then dashed through to the ladder. I saw the monster for all of two seconds, and I was through and safe in about about twenty.

I don't think that's how that encounter was designed, but thanks
for the map,
Frictional.
Click to expand...

That monster's my favorite, but only because I find movement like how the monster moves absolutely creepy, but yes, it is very easy to avoid. To explain the monster,
it's a monster that moves very slowly, like in slow motion, but then suddenly gets forward-winded and moves super fast. One of the biggest scares I got in the game was from that monster, when I was circling around an area then it suddenly came fast-forwarding around a corner right at me.

Thrakier said:
I bought the game and started playing it, as I loved Amnesia. Both games. Well, it doesn't feel like a horror game at all to me, more like...dark comedy? It surely isn't frightening.
Click to expand...

Keep playing, while it's not the scariest game around or anything, its horror is the kind where it starts slow and picks up more and more during the course of the game, the last fourth of the game is where most of the best horror bits happen.
 
It is never a true horror game to begin with and I highly doubt Frictional Games wanted a true horror experience in the first place.

They wound down on the horror to create an amazing story with an intense atmosphere, but never have I felt quite scared.

I love it when games like these do not rely on jump scares but more on building tension by letting the player experience the story and atmosphere at his or her own pace.
 
I need to say this, I think too many people think horror = scary, or a horror game needs to aim to be scary. There's some big misconceptions people have on what horror is, and isn't. SOMA is most definitely a horror game, but horror can be combined with anything, it's the opposite side of the coin to comedy. Horror plays on peoples darker fascinations and often has a a thematic role as well. Sci-fi and Horror get grouped together a lot since their themes often collide, but sci-fi is a thematic, like fantasy, while horror is tone that can be applied to anything. Even the 'horror' games that we know proper are just tones attached to other already established game genres, ranging from adventure games, action games, etc. Some thematics over time get added to the definition of horror as they get recognized as such, but it is a horror sci-fi game, it doesn't need to be one or the other, it's both. Scariness is subjective anyway, horror can get a scared reaction out of people, but being scary is not what horror is actually about at its heart. A similar thing can be said for comedies, where a comedy can make you laugh our loud or smile, but there's other things comedies can do and still be a successful comedy even if it isn't particularly funny. One of the strengths to being a fan of horror or comedy is that they can literally be attached to any sort of thing, even each other (horror-comedies), and yes, there are certain themes that come with horror and feelings which develop, horror gets typified a lot simply because too many successful works in horror get copycated until it becomes a staple (even in horror games, but it's happened in all forms of horror entertainment), but I dislike how people tend to be like, "Yeah, it isn't really a horror game, because it's not scary." Some of my favorite horror games of all time I don't particularly find scary, but while being scary can be a nice plus sometimes, horror and even good horror isn't specifically tied to how scary it is.
 
I think a perfect example movie wise is The Babadook.

That movie relies much more on the psychological effect than it does on jump scares and it is all the better for it.

Kind of how SOMA does it as well.

My bad for saying that SOMA is not a true 'horror' experience. It is still essentially a horror game, it is just that the basic reliance on jump scares and terror screams is almost never present and having it removed makes it feel like a breath of fresh air.
 
I think some of the "horror" in SOMA is stuff like...
Finding Akers' eyeballs, or watching your previous avatar's breathing slow after you deactivate it, or seeing the WAU creature sobbing under the blanket in Tau, or even the cave of sea spiders.

I think the moment where
the power dies on the Climber is one of the most "horrifying" scenes in a videogame for me. Like, your character is stranded one hundred years in the future, in an abyss in the bottom of the ocean, after a comet has wiped out life, and his one remaining companion and flicker of human life just seemingly got merked by the power dying. That's the loneliest I've ever felt in a videogame.
 
Dusk Golem said:
That monster's my favorite, but only because I find movement like how the monster moves absolutely creepy, but yes, it is very easy to avoid. To explain the monster,
it's a monster that moves very slowly, like in slow motion, but then suddenly gets forward-winded and moves super fast. One of the biggest scares I got in the game was from that monster, when I was circling around an area then it suddenly came fast-forwarding around a corner right at me.
.
Click to expand...

I was kind of experimenting with it. Throw an object at him and he will get mad and rush you down.
 
SOMA is a horror game on the foundations of a sci-fi story with interesting, thought provoking themes and an excellent story, while Amnesia and Penumbra are horror stories built upon pure misery. They're still great stories, but it's clear the intent of both those latter games was to make you feel terrible while playing, whereas SOMA is more a series of interesting questions with (evidently disastrous) consequences at times.

Having said that, the
Deep Abyss near the end
REALLY got to me.
I've often said before that Endless Ocean made me feel bad in the most unexpected way, and this absolutely plays on all of my fears of the sea. Especially with that fucking terrifying monster constantly looming about.

One thing that I must say, which isn't a complaint and more a rhetorical musing, is (completed game spoilers)
what the hell was up with everyone's beef against Catherine? We hear throughout the entire game about how everybody hates her and doesn't understand her, and then it's revealed the crew killed her by accident and left her body like some dead dog without any remorse. Sure she has kind of an unusual opinion about the ethics of clones and living machines and whatnot, and a few of her experiments ended with the test subjects killing themselves (which wasn't her fault at all but nobody really attempted to investigate it) but she really doesn't seem like a bad person in the least. I just felt terrible about how everyone, including Simon, just shit on her throughout most of the game.

One last thing; I really enjoyed this game!
 
Arrived at
Omicron
.

I don't wannnnna go any further. I just want to hang out in the ocean, where there's not nearly as much trying to kill me.

I love that just after the mini-plot point that
the sources Simon has been data mining from are implanted black boxes, Omicron has headless corpses. Nothing suss here, nosir.
. This adds to the whole I don't wannnaaaaa.
 
So I'm at the
omicron station
and need to find
gel,battery and a chip IIRC
I already got the
Gel
I was wondering how far into the game am I?
Man the
Theta station
was hell, those
things that wander in the corridors
almost made me had a heart attack .

I was so relieved when I left this place and was back on the sea floor :P
 
ys45 said:
So I'm at the
omicron station
and need to find
gel,battery and a chip IIRC
I already got the
Gel
I was wondering how far into the game am I?
Man the
Theta station
was hell, those
things that wander in the corridors
almost made me had a heart attack .

I was so relieved when I left this place and was back on the sea floor :P
Click to expand...

You have about 2 hours left.
 
ys45 said:
So I'm at the
omicron station
and need to find
gel,battery and a chip IIRC
I already got the
Gel
I was wondering how far into the game am I?
Man the
Theta station
was hell, those
things that wander in the corridors
almost made me had a heart attack .

I was so relieved when I left this place and was back on the sea floor :P
Click to expand...

3/4 of the way through I'd say.

The sea floor
won't be much of a relief soon, however
....
 
Damn, the game keeps getting better and better the longer you play it.

(quite late spoilers)

Theta was hell with that roaming monster in the corridors, and Omicron was also quite creepy since I wasn't able to figure out that blast monster's pattern. It kept rushing me down when I went for the battery.

Also, the deep sea floor was spooky with that huge-ass creature and the angler which swiped me once. Damn, I hate deep sea crap, it's the stuff of nightmares.

Anyway, need some help since I'm getting wrecked at a late-game monster (especially since the game seems to keep crashing when I get killed):

What's the strategy for the humanoid monster in Tau? If I look at it and shine the flashlight, it stops dead in its tracks. I keep backing up while it gets a bit closer, but then I usually back into a dead-end and it wrecks me. Anyone?
 
BeeDog said:
What's the strategy for the humanoid monster in Tau? If I look at it and shine the flashlight, it stops dead in its tracks. I keep backing up while it gets a bit closer, but then I usually back into a dead-end and it wrecks me. Anyone?
Click to expand...

Before the huge door opens I would suggest you open the two doors in the first hallway and make those your rooms to escape the monster. Once it sees you, rush back to this spot and you should be able to go around it.

Once you do that, go through the door and take your first left and then another left. Open the door, rush opposite the door and hide. Wait for the monster to go away and then quietly sneak passed him.
 
BeeDog said:
Anyway, need some help since I'm getting wrecked at a late-game monster (especially since the game seems to keep crashing when I get killed):

What's the strategy for the humanoid monster in Tau? If I look at it and shine the flashlight, it stops dead in its tracks. I keep backing up while it gets a bit closer, but then I usually back into a dead-end and it wrecks me. Anyone?
Click to expand...

Honestly I somehow managed to get through there on my first try and the entire thing is sort of a panicked blur in my mind. I remember near the end
hitting open on one of the slower opening doors, realizing how long it was going to take, dashing into a closet and praying it wouldn't find me and then peeking out, seeing that it was just far enough I could make it, and making a madcap run for the main door

I've said before that the encounters in this game are best if you don't think you have to stealth the entire way through. The ends of those sequences are usually quite hard to sneak past and its much more terrifying to just bolt for it after five minutes of sneaking around and hope it doesn't catch you
 
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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