r/soma

Okay, I know the game didn't have the ARK properly thought out, so why don't we do it instead?

1. The first issue everyone has with the matrix is that they know they are inside the matrix. Make it so that you don't know that you are in a simulation. Just like the one you are in right now ;)

2. Make the Ark's inside to be procedurally generated. Virtually infinite so it never feels like a prison.

3. Make the satellite in a way, that can interact with the outside world. Land on places, self repair, get fuel, improve it's own hardware. I image it to be more like the grey goo rather than a satellite. And make it travese the universe. And if it encounters any sentient life-forms, stealth scan them too and add them to the simulation wile also leaving the 'real ones' intact.

4. You can't create the perfect matrix without extensive testing, it will need to be updated from time to time, in order to do that: Create a janitor A.I. With a mix of every habitant's own brain scan that is removed from all human needs (boredom, requiring social interactions, etc) and make it so that it can monitor the well-being of the habitants and make reasonable adjustments to the simulation and create content if needed. So basically a benevolent A.I. God that knows you because it IS you.

As the title suggests during the argument Catherine and Simon make at omicron, Catherine mentions that if Simon said no to the process, that she would go down and launch the ark herself. Given that the player could actually make that choice, would you switch the roles, and play as the two Catherines down into the abyss? And if so what would you change?

Im thinking of waiting, thats what, 2 months? I already have games to play anyways. But do u think it'll be £1 again in winter?

Does anyone know what happened to SOMA Transmission #6? I was rewatching the transmission shorts just today, as it had been a long while since I'd done so, and I'd tried to do so literally less than a week ago and couldn't finish them due to other stuff going on in my life, and at that time transmission #6 was there. At least around the end of September it was there. I understand it was already age restricted due to content with nudity and that's completely understandable, but now it's completely unavailable to watch entirely. Having one transmission short missing from the rest simply doesn't feel right.

I put off playing this for a really long time. Not because I wasn't interested in the story, but mostly because: a) I have way too many games on my steam list to get through, and b) I absolutely hate "run and hide" stealth horror. I don't need to be Leon Kennedy with an entire arsenal of weapons and round house kicking dudes, but I need some sort of weapon, the ability to takedown things, or push, or anything! Ahhhh! But I did love this. So, here are some thoughts into good & bad, ignoring anything technical (it is an older game at this point, so there's some technical jank that's expected).

Loved:

Okay, obviously, the main thing is the story. This is basically tailor made for me. An intelligent sci-fi about the existential questions of being human, purpose and value in the wake of a horrifying event. I really liked the way it unfolded from Simon in Canada, waking up at Upsilon, meeting Catherine and so on. The way new people were introduced through the notes, blackboxes, intercoms etc. was really cool as you progressed & experienced new things.

I've always been a huge fan of these games where there's sort of "parallel" narratives; the Simon & Catherine story of the present, and the "what happened to everyone at each site" of the past that you learn and witness in hindsight. That Planescape: Torment "starting in the middle" kind of storytelling is really endearing to me. I think the build-up of the Akers mystery & madness was well-done (the writing on the walls at various stations, all the intercom messages about him, and his cutscene where he traps you) and similarly the continued mystery of what happened to the team in the Abyss.

Having just read The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed (all about mind-connection over the net, entering other bodies, impersonal boundaries and mind uploads) this was an amazing chaser this week. And the revelation that the scans are copies, not transfers, was a really intense moment. In fact, all the moments of choosing whether to delete data, turn off the battery, the life support etc. were really well done. They weren't overplayed or forced on you, more of a single line of dialogue and then left to you. It made those choices feel more intense and thoughtful. Personally, I didn't delete Brandon or any of the scans, but I did turn off Omicron-Simon and the life support of the human. Phi-Simon being left there and reacted so poorly in anger at Catherine was a real gutpunch, and then him being left alone in the dark... ugh, it hurt!

I really loved the way there were numerous threads too: Simon & his past life (why is he here at all?), the late-crews decision and experiences with the ARK and scans, Akers and his madness, the WAU and it's intentions, Johan and his goals to destroy it. It felt like lots of realised characters, with different experiences and desires, all intersecting to make it really rich.

Outside were mostly my favourite sections. When you're encountering the friendly working robots, or the happy little door-opener guy. When you go off into the murk and the CURIE appears, that drone of music? Oh, sooooo good. Similarly exiting Omicron to begin the descent, seeing nothing but blackness around the stairs and the music kicks in. So very good.

Seeing all the facilities are very cool, especially the different levels of corruption and decay (especially Aker's more bloody red stuff vs. the WAU elsewhere). But they did get a little "oh another underwater bunker facility lol" compared to outside. But I did appreciate the deliberate level design; everywhere felt logical and clear, where to go, which rooms to find puzzles or solutions in. I didn't need a guide, walkthrough or hints. It just made sense.

If I had one gripe about the story, tonally there was a sort of weird transition from "scared & confused Simon" at Upsilon to "oh ok" Simon as soon as Catherine mentioned the brain scan stuff. He has an existential spiral on the zeppelin (briefly), but before that he's told they're robots with brain scans and he sort of just "oh nice, what now?" It felt kind of goofy in the moment.

I also think Jin, for how threatening he is, had no real buildup when compared to Akers, which just felt a little lacking.

Did NOT love:

The controls on a lot of the turn, push, pull, lift etc. is whack. I know this is old-game jank I said I'd ignore, but goddamn some of those moments felt like trying to charm a snake and doing weird interpretive dance with the controller. The one that was particularly bad was the electrical panel you remove, then the plunger thing you pump to restore power to escape Akers.

As I said, I hate this kind of gameplay* where your options are: run, hide, throw stuff to make noise. But it was okay 99.9% of the time because they're one-and-done. You get past the first enemy, it's over. You get past the Proxy, it's over. But I did have a few "I'm stuck in a corner, the thing is just standing right there and refusing to move" moments which I classically hate; game AI nonsense.

A funny moment though, with all his build-up, Akers felt hugely underwhelming. I legitimately didn't realise he was the guy trying to catch me with the elevator stuff in the labs. The only reason I did was I did the elevator thing, and stood in that corner against the panel and this sort of screen thing. He ran up, stared at me and just stood there for ages. I swung the panel closed and that somehow reset him and he walked off? After all the build up he was mostly an idiot you couldn't see me standing in a corner.

*Not a negative but an amused realisation too: after Akers, you can just cheese all the enemies anyway. The robot lady? Just run at her, grab the battery before she hits you. She then moves to the other side of the room, so you can just sprint out. Jin? Just run to the second door, open it, run to the corner. He hit me, I waited, then sprinted to the ladder. Just getting knocked down in the right place actually circumvented most of the need to do sneaky things. But that's more on me than anything haha.

My big "world building" dislike was the screen interference. I get that when injured it adds to things, but in sections with other effects (the sea storm, the Johan interference), it got really irritating. Johan especially, I found myself wishing he would stfu when I was trying to get the ARK and on the path to Alpha.

Conclusion:

Anyway, not to drone on, but it was an amazing experience. I'd give it a solid 9/10 overall, with the screen interference & the interaction controls being the only real detriment. I can overlook my dislike for this gameplay style because the story was so incredibly engaging. I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent many, many years ago but never played any of the sequels. I am looking forward to ONTOS though because it seems, at least setting wise, more my style like SOMA. I do hope they include the "story mode" again; I realise in hindsight I should've gone that route, but I didn't have any actual issues (Jin killed me once, Akers killed me once at the window-breaking in Theta because I ran the wrong way).