The story of Soma is mind-bending, mysterious and filled with twists and turns, better than the story of any science fiction film I've seen over the past decade. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that you're a man finds himself trapped in a eerie, lonely and unfamiliar complex. At first it has a System Shock 2 atmosphere, it's a bit like a space station, that overused "space isolation" theme. But this isn't space: it's an underwater station, submerged miles and miles down beneath the surface; this sprawling, malfunctioning base surrounded by the endless murky depths. Strange things are afoot, horrible things howl and scrape in the dark, shadowy forms swim out in the gloom and nobody else is around, at least not any people. How did we get here, what the hell is going on. How to escape? That is how Soma begins.

The gameplay itself is not dissimilar to Amensia: The Dark Descent. You walk around without weapons, you explore this maze of detailed, connected environments. There aren't any weapons on consumables, there isn't combat. Many of the sections are very open and cluttered, inviting you to dig around for clues. Throughout the game there is some light puzzle solving, exploring. There are hostile enemies and each enemy has certain quirks; you must figure out how to circumvent them or find other means to deal with or distract them. But it feels much less like Amnesia with a greater focus on narrative, suspense, exploration and interaction.

While playing Soma, I couldn't help but remember the first time I played Half Life. Up until that point, first person 3D games were like Quake or something. Shoot the bad guys, get the key, unlock the door. Maybe fight a boss. Rinse and repeat. But Half Life changed the formula. Instead of finding arbitrary keys, it was like watching an engrossing, tense, brilliant action/adventure film but you were the protagonist. This style is common nowadays, but I've haven't felt that same intensely immersive feeling until Soma. Although the game is linear, I really felt like I was part of something, making my own choices, moving through this surreal space as the situation unfolded. There are no cutscenes: the whole story is cleverly told through the environment itself, notes and objects scattered around and voice recordings left behind by others. At times I was also reminded of System Shock 2. The story is a sci-fi/horror masterpiece, and it unfolds with impeccable pacing, impossible to turn away or put it down.

Unlike Amnesia (the developer's prior game), Soma feels so much bigger. The lore and the world feels so detailed and expansive. You learn more about the people and the world and so much thought and structure has been poured into every element of the game. Nevertheless, despite the grand narrative, Soma doesn't lose sight of its horror roots. At its core, it is still a horror game. Looking back, by comparison Amensia just feels like a spooky ghost train. Conversely the world of Soma is profoundly disturbing on a much deeper level. This idea of "deep sea isolation" is ingenious and completely original and I found this setting to be refreshing and far more terrifying. As you move deeper through the adventure, the surroundings become more obscene and surreal. The horror elements aren't jumpscares; it comes from a place in the pit of your stomach, that eerie horror that grows as you uncover more evidence and the grisly truth becomes apparent. It has a HP Lovecraft element: those malformed shapes in the depths of the ocean, unseen, unheard, writhing and shifting. Some of the scenes and set pieces are nightmare fuel, reminiscent of HR Giger's paintings, these grotesque twisted forms, where horrible things have warped and contorted, for no one has been here to keep things under control.

Another layer is the depth of meaning and the ideas/themes within the game, the philosophical explorations. This was another unexpected element which was surprising and thought provoking. The game looks at a variety of themes. Where is humanity going, where is technology going.. what happens if technology becomes more powerful than man? Can machines become conscious? Questions about cloning, and identity, the subjective and objective experience, the human condition, the apocalypse, the afterlife, immortality. Downloading a mind as software, and is that software "mind" not a person too? This game is wonderfully deep in its elaborations on these ideas, and you're forced to make decisions in the game with real consequences, these great tests of will, direct challenges to you as the player, moral conundrums where you're forced to think on these questions and then act according to your belief. It's deep, it makes you think, and it'll keep thinking long after you leave the game.

The last things I wanted to address were the little details.. these environments with all the debris and detritus, the scattered remains. It's not a beautiful world, it's an underwater "station" long abandoned, and the textures, models and game art has such depth and character. The sound design is also immaculate, complete with these haunting and unusual sounds, peculiar in their submerged liquid quality with drips and dull echoes. But the truly breathtaking moments are when you see outside of the station. You're miles deep under the ocean, and the imagery of this landscape is a new horror that I've never seen before in a game. Usually when we see underwater settings it's always clear blue water, rolling fields of seaweed like freshly cut grass and brightly-lit coral reefs, bright yellow sand. Instead, in Soma, we see a true depiction of such a place.. disgusting masses of dead barnacles, moss, dirty sand and rocks.. plankton and unpleasant particles floating around, rusted debris and the all the rotting things that have accumulated on the ocean floor, illuminated by a couple weak lights (it's so deep that natural light won't reach; the eternal night of the deep sea. It's like an alien landscape of horrible forms, murky water and suspicious shadows; this is a far cry from the cheery aquatic setting from Finding Nemo or ABZU.

I have only a few small complaints about Soma. The story, the setting, the concept, the art, everything is spot-on and provides an enthralling experience with profound horror elements. However I must admit that the game is lacking a little in terms of characters. The protagonist has all the personality of a paper towel, and the other main character could have been fleshed out much more. At one point a 'villain' arrives, but his story is never fully explained and he felt somewhat unnecessary. Perhaps the protagonist would have been better off silent (like Gordon Freeman) and much of the dialogue could have used some polish (though there are occasional moments of brilliance). There was nothing inherently wrong with these characters, they just seemed somewhat unnecessary and underwhelming for the most part, especially since everything else in the game was on a much higher quality level. But in many ways the characters aren't really the focus on this game, it's not what this game is about.

Well, so much for my short review! and I could still keep writing if I wanted to, I have so much more to say and I'm still unravelling it all in my head. Soma is more than just a horror game.. it's something totally new. The setting brings forth horror from such an inspired and unexpected realm. The game draws you in to consider some of the most fascinating and uncomfortable philosophical material. The art, sound and the world, it's a gorgeous conglomeration of dread and awe. It's a beautiful layered experience, like an elaborate cake or perhaps more like the abandoned autopsy of some nameless deep sea creature hauled up on the pier. Highly recommended!

I can't believe I have never played SOMA before. The first thing to know about it is do not look up anything about the game, everything is best discovered yourself. Secondly, it's a sci-fi horror game in first person, with a deeply existential and amazing narrative, told in an excellent way. The game will make you question your own existence, if it does it's job right. It's the kind of media that will have you thinking about certain moments and elements of it long after you've finished with it. To me, that's my favorite type of narrative.

As for the gameplay, there's a "safe mode" and "normal mode". Don't feel bad about choosing safe mode, in fact I actually recommend choosing that over the other. The monster encounters are modeled after "Amnesia" titles with a stealth away from monsters type deal. I'm never a fan of this, and for this game, it doesn't necessarily fit in my opinion. My guess is it was required in order to make the game not be just a "walking simulator". In either case, "safe mode" removes these required stealth elements. Removing them detracts nothing from the game at all.

The meat here is in the story, and your exploration of that story. Again I can't spoil this. But this is the first game where I actually rejoiced when I found an "audio log" or "text log" that explained something about the world. The game doesn't spell the story out to you, lets you discover it through exploration, dialog, light puzzling, logs, etc. The world building is amazing, and the writing and characters excellent too. The horror is existential and deep and there are just some.... scenes... I will never forget. The ending, though nothing unexpected, left me in a state of shock and thought. Definitely play this if you like horror or sci-fi especially thought provoking stories in those areas.

Achievements note - playing through the game basically nets all achievements for those interested in easy 100%.

I read a ton of recommendations to play SOMA before playing it. The feedback was "if you want a game to punch you right in the gut that you won't forget for years to come, play this game". So I did, 100% blind. I don't know how to describe it, its a walking sim, horror, puzzle game? A puzzle game of horror hide and seek? We are talking Half-Life style puzzles, without the shoot outs.

Holy shit this game is scary. I am not an avid horror fan by any stretch, and this game scared the shit out of me. The atmosphere is so incredibly tense the entire time, you are constantly on edge. There is no combat, so all the monsters you encounter you have to avoid or run away from (hence the hide and seek). Oh and did I mention, the entire game less the intro takes place at the BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN? Has anyone played Bioshock? Remember how insanely creepy that was? Yeah, same shit.

For the sake of being spoiler free, I will leave it there. This game will truly make you feel like a horrible person. You will go through a whirlwind of emotions while playing it, and it will leave you questioning your life.

Frictional Games are the developers of Amnesia which I've played. I thought it was good and pretty scary. The story didn't really draw me in at the time though. This game rectifies this.

You play as Simon who wakes up a couple of hundred of years in the future deep below the ocean surface on a facility called Pathos-II. You need to find out what happened to you, why your all alone and the secrets behind the creatures stalking the halls.

The story of SOMA is incredible. It's my favorite kind of sci-fi, where it makes you think deeply about the important questions. Stuff like what is worth killing for or what exactly makes you human? There are many shocking moments with twists and turns throughout your journey.

There is a moment near the end that left me in near tears. The emotion is real in this game.

I really grew to love the two main characters Simon and Catherine. They felt so real and in the end you feel what they feel, at least I did.

That's not to say SOMA is not still fear inducing horror game, there were quite a few times when I was really tense sneaking and running while creatures gave chase or searched tirelessly for me.

Cons: -some frustrating puzzles

Pros: -beautiful yet scary art design -great horror mechanics -wonderful story with lots of memorable moments -characters you love -tackles fasinating concepts

Overall, I loved this one, and it's Frictional's best game in my opinion. Only my favorite games make me feel something genuine and SOMA did that.

A very atmospheric first person sci-fi horror game.

The story starts with you going for a brain scan. After an accident you've got little time to live so you go for an experimental treatment where they're going to take a full scan of your brain. You sit in a chair and the vision goes black. When you wake up you're somewhere completely different - in a space station looking like environment. And here's where the real game starts - you go on discovering where you exactly are, how you got there and how will you be able to escape.

I'm not a big fan of horror games but I must admit I enjoyed this quite a bit. Probably because of a nice balance between the horror scary parts and the exploration parts. And there is quite a lot of exploration and puzzle solving apart from running scared from the entity hunting the underwater research facility which you get to travel through.

Graphics are really nicely done. It's dark, it's damp - it's very atmospheric. The world design is top notch as well. The facility does feel very alien like sci-fi. There's plenty to discover about the previous inhabitants leaving on the base. A nice touch - you're able to pick up any object even though it serves no purpose - but it's fine to do. Looking at numerous photographs also adds to the back story of the full game.

A bit let off is that it does take place underwater and there are plenty of water levels (ugh!). And while the visuals are really nice I did got lost once or twice in them and did not enjoy them as much as the rest of the games. Though entering the really deep ocean places was impressive and scary.

The game is driven by two mechanics - exploration puzzles and horror survival. The first part was definitely enjoyable - you go around the bases, switch a lever here, push a button there. The exploration feels interesting and the puzzles are not that complicated. The survival horror is similar to Amnesia - you have nothing and IT's coming. Not as scary as Amnesia but still too scary for my personal liking.

The game asks interesting questions about identity, consciousness and what it means to be alive. And answers them almost perfectly as far as I'm concerned. Especially with the epilogue. A really nice food for thought.

Overall a great game with a great atmosphere. Highly recommend.