I really wanted to love SOMA. I know press outlets have been handing out praise for the title, but there are just too many issues with the game that it just comes up short in many respects. Look, I’ll admit that I have no interest in “jump scare” types of games. Not because some of them aren’t solid games, but because these jump scares just aren’t all the scary after the first few times they happen. I know it’s the cool thing to do right now on YouTube to scream like a giant man-child, but after you get a glimpse of whatever is stalking you a few times, the effect loses its impact and you are left with only the gameplay.
Stalking, that’s an interesting word when talking about SOMA. In past games from Frictional Games you were being stalked about by… something. Sure, the idea of the games was to explore the world around you in many respects, but those games worked because you were lost in a strange place with something out to get you in some way shape or form making for a constantly tense experience. When a monster did face you down, odds are you were a dead man, even if you could make a break for it. In SOMA that really isn’t the case. There are a few science fiction inspired monsters around, but the jump scares are pretty tame at the end of the day. In fact, the game becomes more a walking simulator than anything when you can essentially wandering around monsters with little issue.
Where the game does draw the player in is with the story. Amnesia was a really boring game to me. Yes, the jump scares were a bit of fun, but the world that you inhabited never really felt alive. You were always just kind of there in a spooky sort of place. SOMA on the other hand builds a story right from the beginning before throwing a wrench into things and the game goes off the rails. SOMA tries to build a connection between you and the player-character; and it works. You feel as lost as the player character and so exploring the sunken world of SOMA becomes a lot of fun. While this is great, the monsters that get in your way really only serve to pull you away from the immersion and exploring that you really want to do. You want to learn more, to explore this great looking world, but monsters often just get in the game and SOMA turns into a waiting simulator as you wait for them to move along.
As an avid fan and reader of science fiction, SOMA connected with me, but I could also see all the hints at what was going on like a halogen lamp blasted into my eyes. Still, for most you’ll have a fun time trying to make sense of what is being presented with where, when, and what you and everything around you is or may be. The game’s story also benefits from the solid design, both graphically and level wise. SOMA is one continuous game with no noticeable load times between sections which helps with immersion, but the layout of each area never feels too large that it becomes frustrating. The environments are well detailed and filled with tons of extra bits of lore that help flesh out the story. Sure, you could just play the game straight through without much exploring, but you will be left with a lot of missing pieces.
This is about as scary is SOMA gets.
The music within SOMA is handled with care and helps set the mood, but I never really felt like it did much for what the game was going for. In Amnesia and the like, the music sets the eerie mood as scares could be around every corner. In SOMA, odds are that nothing will be around the corner, or at least nothing that you can’t just calmly walk around. The music does its best, but it can’t make up for the lackluster enemies that don’t really stalk you, or if they do just make your screen a bit fuzzy. Where it does work is with the voice work that the game has; it’s great. Seriously, the constant conversations that you have with your buddy, or yourself is enjoyable and keeps you engaged in what is going on.
So why am I not in love with SOMA? The issue comes down to it being a really slow burn with no real threat, coupled with some really annoying bugs that I just couldn’t get past. I played Amnesia right before SOMA, and I played a number of other newer titles, but for whatever reason SOMA just wouldn’t work right. No matter how many times I played, for whatever length, the game would save and once I tried to play again my save game would be lost. It wasn’t just me either, as the Steam forums also had a number of players with the same issues without a reliable fix. No matter what I tried, if I saved the game and quit, the game would eat the save and spit it out in some other universe. And if I got killed while playing, the game would just crash out and screw up the save file. It’s the 28th of September, so I waited before playing the game, but it still is broken on my PC. I was forced to play the game on my MacBook Pro, so thank goodness for Frictional Games supporting Mac, but it just sucks I was forced to that instead of the nice rig on my desk with the fancy monitor.
Ignoring the save bug, SOMA still just feels… bland. The monster encounters are more odd than scary with how they kill(?)/annoy the player. After a few instances you’ll feel less scared from seeing a monster, to feeling more annoyed for it ruining your exploration and searching for more bits of lore. The puzzles it offers are also all pretty bland and don’t require much thought. It’s a shame that the games fantastic story isn’t backed with fantastic gameplay. SOMA itself isn’t a long game, and even with the save bug I finished it in one good long sitting. SOMA ends up with a great and compelling story, backed with lovely visuals that is lost in some bland gameplay and lame monsters. If you loved the Amnesia games, you may be let down from the lack of jump scares here, and if you want to explore the amazing world, you’ll feel annoyed by the crap monsters.
SOMA should be commended for stepping a bit outside the box from the other games from Frictional Games, but it just isn’t the great game I was really hoping for. In the end SOMA just ends up as a middling sort of game that so desperately wants to be great and almost is.
*A copy was provided for review*
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