SOMA

We Sit Down And Review SOMA. Is It Worth Your Time? Is it the horror title that will bring the genre back to fun? Here's Our Review Of Soma

As we move into the month of horror there has been one title I have been excited to dive into and it is SOMA. It looks like the best melding of Dead Space and BioShock by Frictional Games with a bit of higher thinking and philosophy mixed in. I won't delve into that too much as it is one of the pivotal aspects of SOMA and I'll keep this as spoiler free as possible but it did capture my eye. Now that September 22^nd has come and past I have been able to play SOMA on the PS4 and it is time for my formal review of the game and if it will do what the videos and promos have claimed thus far. Here's our review of SOMA.

Story

SOMA starts off as most horror titles do and we assume the role of a guy, Simon, who has no clue where he is or how he got there. The where being in a facility under the ocean that has fallen into a bad point in its cycle. A.K.A. Human life is all but missing in the facility and all of the explore-able areas are filled with monstrosities that have nothing better to do than make sure you meet an untimely demise. Pretty standard fare in a horror game. The funny thing about SOMA here is that you are not worried about just your survival but that of countless others that are explained in the full story of the game. I am not going to spoil things here.

Hated

Above I have used the word horror multiple tiles. SOMA is even slated in the Survival Horror genre by all descriptions. Sadly, for me, this was the biggest thing missing in SOMA. Sure Frictional Games set up a great atmosphere here and some new-ish monsters for the game but nothing in SOMA made me need to sleep with lights on or check my house after turning the game off. Even during the game I found the tense scenes to be not so tense as while the character models for the monsters of SOMA were things of nightmares nothing actually made me feel on edge or even worry about dying in the game. The horror just wasn't there. Almost like walking through a "haunted house" with the lights on and the actors in costume but only half in-character. That should paint a nice picture for the horror side of SOMA in my eyes.

Also it seems like Frictional Games could have taken a little more time on bug checking and Q/A as I seemed to constantly find myself "breaking the game." Nothing to the point where SOMA would crash or anything but multiple times I would get the above mentioned monsters chasing me and then they would get caught on environmental elements or even rooms where I was required to be to continue the story of SOMA. I actually think I was lucky at one point where I had a monster chase me into an elevator, I ran out to hide, and it was stuck in the elevator as the lip of the level gap wouldn't let it step back out. The lucky part came when I reloaded SOMA and the monster was no longer in the elevator I had to be in.

Lastly here, it felt like SOMA was written and not given a proofread by someone not on the writing staff at Frictional Games. Not for grammatical things or stuff like that but many times you will find yourself looking around for items or locations in SOMA and you will get "tips" from other characters in the game. These tips only make any level of sense after you have completed the task at hand. Pretty much in the vein of it made sense to the writer because they knew what was going on in SOMA to the rest of us not part of the creation process the "tips" made little to no sense. I even had to breakdown and do something I loathe just to get this review done as the "tip" made no sense. I had to look up a "how to" video just to see how to start a puzzle in SOMA. Unless that is what the developer is looking for these "tips" should be more relevant.

Loved

To be honest if SOMA was packaged as a non-horror title I don't think I would have given it a chance. Especially with the basest version of the story Frictional Games would have had to use to not spoil a thing. Gladly it was, my interest was piqued, and I was entertained with not only a fun story but one that makes you have to think. In fact the overarching story theme of SOMA, "What makes you human?", is something I have debated and thought upon many times before. This includes one of the main plot points of SOMA becoming a reality and doing something that the Big Bang Theory jokes about on a few episodes. It was thought provoking and a fun way to get others to think about these concepts that they most likely never would unless they played SOMA. Sounds vague but hints are there as to why SOMA's story was top notch and in the Loved section.

While I never found SOMA to be a true horror game, I do have to give props on how amazing the levels were crafted and made to look. I think this is how I was sold on SOMA in the first place. Aesthetically it looks and feels like a horror game to me. Details were so fine that if the overall game would have been more suspenseful I think we would have had a true Dead Space feel to it all. Even if the whole area was empty and only kept the creepy sound effects I think I would have been sated in the horror. Frictional Games nailed that on the head here for SOMA. I hope that they keep in this direction with further horror products as they do have that down to a science based on my experience here.

Finally, I'll have to throw it over to the puzzles and mini-games mixed into SOMA along the way. I know the creatures that have to be bypassed where kind of in the arena but as they could be handled in the same way each time we're going to have to go with the level puzzles more. Some of them were crafted and fun to figure out in SOMA that I looked passed the bad "tips" given from the NPCs. Some of them were a bit difficult to figure out and that is what was fun. There is a true sense of accomplishment when it comes to solving these puzzles in SOMA and that is what makes a good game. It's not for all but for me it was and thus something I fell in love with in the long run of things.

Overall

Please take what I have said into account when reading this overview. SOMA, while labeled as a horror game, is not a true horror game we are used to. It has an amazing story and is fully worth a play through just for that but if you are looking to have you butt hole spit into your pants I never experienced that. It does have some issues with AI and creatures not interacting with the environments well but it does come from a small team and doesn't completely destroy SOMA. If the above slightly piques your interest give SOMA a try. If you want something to raise the stock of underwear then you might want to seek other titles.

SOMA was developed and published by Frictional Games for the PS4 and PC on September 22^nd 2015. A PS4 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.