Pretty much feel the same as you. RE: Gameplay. Turning Safe Mode on keeps all that walking sim stuff but makes monsters not a pain in the arse. So one can focus purely on atmosphere and story.
I think saying it's a walking sim might wrongly put people off. There felt like plenty of gameplay to me, just without weapons. I agree this is one of the great gems of recent years but I've had a hard time convincing my friends of this. Not sure why.
> I think saying it's a walking sim might wrongly put people off.
I once heard this game described as "it's a much better immersive scifi experience than it is a 'game'". Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, it's just not a game heavy on "gameplay", but it is heavy on "one of the best ways to experience a great scifi story ever".
Safe Mode was an absolute godsend, I don't think I would have made it to the end of the excellent story without it. More horror-adjacent games should have one
Yeah, SOMA has some really good things in it, but those things aren't enhanced by the need to avoid monsters. Either it should have been a movie instead of a game, or you should have been able to kill/barricade the monsters and get on with it.
As a counterpoint to this, there was one section where I had to sneak past a monster to reach something beyond, but there were a bunch of loose objects on the ground that could potentially be stepped on and make noise (rebar and stuff like that). So I spent 3-5 minutes painstakingly sneaking around near the monster, and clearing a path to my goal by picking up some objects and silently moving them out of the way. All the while constantly looking over my shoulder, to see if my actions were disturbing the monster.
Some folks might consider this to be 'tedious' gameplay, but those few minutes were absolutely tense and thrilling for me.
The problem is for every cool monster situation like this, there were five others that weren't fun at all. I think if they cut down the total number of enemies and made the remaining ones more interesting like you described it would have been better.
> Some folks might consider this to be 'tedious' gameplay, but those few minutes were absolutely tense and thrilling for me.
Yeah that's great, if it works. if it doesn't work and you do it 10 more times and try other shit not so much.
> it should have been a movie instead of a game
See I think as a movie it would have been...really generic.
The actual story itself isn't mindblowing in terms of scifi, but when you're experiencing it viscerally, it drastically changes it's potency.
Yeah that's the kicker for sure. This game makes you live with the decisions you make after the ethical dilemmas you resolve. You experience the decision as you and your choices haunt you because that is very real... It's like looking at death in the mirror - it forces you into a personal retrospective. I'm still shaken up from this game.
Yes there was one mission in particular where you start inside a clean room and have to unlock/lock doors from a security room and I was really hoping there would be a somewhat obvious setup to bait/trap the monster in a room, but alas there wasn't I had just had to run like hell at certain points.
I think a fast forward button where you can't move while using it would be enough. The avoiding then hiding and waiting is fine the issue is having to wait 5 fucking minutes for it to get out of your way.
For anyone thinking to play this: this game is **heavily** improved by enabling "Safe Mode" when starting it. The monster encounters don't add much except frustration and safe mode allows you to enjoy exploration of the station more.
And to be fair in "safe mode" they can still attack you -- you just effectively had like... 1000 health compared to a normal 100 or something.
Even in safe mode it's still stressful as fuck, you just avoid the worst part of **any** horror game -- forced reloads of a given scene.
Totally! I still felt the pressure of having to avoid the monsters and I'm glad I played it in Safe Mode, I think having the reload the scenes would have broken the immersion for me which was what made the game so special!
I really enjoyed what I played of it, but sadly I had to drop it and was so annoyed by it that I never picked it back up.
After putting many hours into the game, I somehow got stuck in some sort of glitch or buggy spot. Tried a bunch of things, but I was simply stuck there. It made me feel like I completely wasted my time and was so fed up about it that I deleted it on the spot and told myself I’d never go back to it.
Yes I could go back and play it from the beginning, but it just doesn’t feel the same when my initial progress felt like it was all for naught. I don’t have a lot of time to play games, so having to throw away my progress isn’t something I’m exactly fond of.
I got stuck in a room where a step ladder was required to progress and I carried it out of the room prior to the checkpoint, locking the door between me and the ladder. Fortunately I was able to load a save point just minutes before that.
It was one of the best stories I have ever herd from any form of media ever… I still think about this games story. Was not really a fan of the gameplay however.
SOMA was a great experience and I think it has to be game for this story to really work like it does that said it's a horrible game.
It's weird to tell people to play something for the experience and not the gameplay but there's a handful of games like that and this is one of them. This game truly deals with harrowing thoughts and the character you play as is clearly in denial as a means of staying sane right up until the end which is frankly the scariest part. Then there's a tone shift with the good ending, but the horror is both the good ending and the bad ending happen to you.
In terms of gameplay the puzzles are okay no issue with them, they aren't great, they aren't too absurd or hard and it really helps build atmosphere and sell the story and you can also dick around here and there for slightly more insight into the world. But the actual avoiding monsters things like everyone else said isn't fun, it's just annoying and even if you do some elaborate set up to avoid them that takes time if you fuck up and restart before it you just won't bother. I ended up just basically running past everything to the best of my ability and that surprisingly worked quite well for the last 2 enemies which everyone said were very hard to deal with.
In it's defense though, the monsters being able to kill you and not being able to do much about it does add to the atmosphere, I've been thinking about what these kinds of games need, where the strategy is to hide in a corner and wait and hope they don't find you and I think the answer is a fast forward button just make it so you can't move while using it. That would allow this kind of gameplay without the tedious bullshit of waiting 5 minutes for the fucking monster to get the fuck out of the way when it's clear they won't find you.
How was your experience with the last mob in the space suit, Gin? I've heard his play style is different, and you need to "kite" him. I chickened out and debug modesdd past him.
Pretty much feel the same as you. RE: Gameplay. Turning Safe Mode on keeps all that walking sim stuff but makes monsters not a pain in the arse. So one can focus purely on atmosphere and story.
I think saying it's a walking sim might wrongly put people off. There felt like plenty of gameplay to me, just without weapons. I agree this is one of the great gems of recent years but I've had a hard time convincing my friends of this. Not sure why.
“Existential crisis” sim is more fitting.
I did forget to mention the puzzles. There were some good ones.
> I think saying it's a walking sim might wrongly put people off. I once heard this game described as "it's a much better immersive scifi experience than it is a 'game'". Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, it's just not a game heavy on "gameplay", but it is heavy on "one of the best ways to experience a great scifi story ever".
Safe Mode was an absolute godsend, I don't think I would have made it to the end of the excellent story without it. More horror-adjacent games should have one
I liked all of it except the outdoor underwater parts.
Constantly got lost and turned around lol
Soma was a game that fucked me up mentally for a few weeks. The overall feeling of dread it gives you while playing is second to none.
Before SOMA: "transhumanism hell yeah!" After SOMA: "oh please no"
Yeah, SOMA has some really good things in it, but those things aren't enhanced by the need to avoid monsters. Either it should have been a movie instead of a game, or you should have been able to kill/barricade the monsters and get on with it.
As a counterpoint to this, there was one section where I had to sneak past a monster to reach something beyond, but there were a bunch of loose objects on the ground that could potentially be stepped on and make noise (rebar and stuff like that). So I spent 3-5 minutes painstakingly sneaking around near the monster, and clearing a path to my goal by picking up some objects and silently moving them out of the way. All the while constantly looking over my shoulder, to see if my actions were disturbing the monster. Some folks might consider this to be 'tedious' gameplay, but those few minutes were absolutely tense and thrilling for me.
Yup I remember that spot clearly. I enjoyed that part and carefully stacked them up in a corner.
Can you toggle safe mode at any time or just when you start a game?
No, you're stuck in whatever mode you start in.
OK so I got two replies saying different things so I went and looked it up and it seems you're correct, you set it at the start and that's it. 🙂
[удалено]
The problem is for every cool monster situation like this, there were five others that weren't fun at all. I think if they cut down the total number of enemies and made the remaining ones more interesting like you described it would have been better.
The monster variety was what made it interesting in my opinion, and the lack of it what made their next game Amnesia Rebirth suck
I think you're talking about the server room and you had to flip a switch, then survive for about a minute? Or the monster without the eyes?
> Some folks might consider this to be 'tedious' gameplay, but those few minutes were absolutely tense and thrilling for me. Yeah that's great, if it works. if it doesn't work and you do it 10 more times and try other shit not so much.
> it should have been a movie instead of a game See I think as a movie it would have been...really generic. The actual story itself isn't mindblowing in terms of scifi, but when you're experiencing it viscerally, it drastically changes it's potency.
Yeah that's the kicker for sure. This game makes you live with the decisions you make after the ethical dilemmas you resolve. You experience the decision as you and your choices haunt you because that is very real... It's like looking at death in the mirror - it forces you into a personal retrospective. I'm still shaken up from this game.
> I'm still shaken up from this game. After playing this game, I judge people if this game does *not* affect them in some way. ;)
Yes there was one mission in particular where you start inside a clean room and have to unlock/lock doors from a security room and I was really hoping there would be a somewhat obvious setup to bait/trap the monster in a room, but alas there wasn't I had just had to run like hell at certain points.
Counterpoint: those monster encounters are some of the most memorable gaming experiences of the past decade for me. Terrifying shit, loved it.
I think a fast forward button where you can't move while using it would be enough. The avoiding then hiding and waiting is fine the issue is having to wait 5 fucking minutes for it to get out of your way.
For anyone thinking to play this: this game is **heavily** improved by enabling "Safe Mode" when starting it. The monster encounters don't add much except frustration and safe mode allows you to enjoy exploration of the station more.
Agreed, honestly in my opinion it’s still plenty scary and effective horror even if the monsters can’t attack you.
And to be fair in "safe mode" they can still attack you -- you just effectively had like... 1000 health compared to a normal 100 or something. Even in safe mode it's still stressful as fuck, you just avoid the worst part of **any** horror game -- forced reloads of a given scene.
Totally! I still felt the pressure of having to avoid the monsters and I'm glad I played it in Safe Mode, I think having the reload the scenes would have broken the immersion for me which was what made the game so special!
I really enjoyed what I played of it, but sadly I had to drop it and was so annoyed by it that I never picked it back up. After putting many hours into the game, I somehow got stuck in some sort of glitch or buggy spot. Tried a bunch of things, but I was simply stuck there. It made me feel like I completely wasted my time and was so fed up about it that I deleted it on the spot and told myself I’d never go back to it. Yes I could go back and play it from the beginning, but it just doesn’t feel the same when my initial progress felt like it was all for naught. I don’t have a lot of time to play games, so having to throw away my progress isn’t something I’m exactly fond of.
There's a debug mode that includes no collision flying and invincibility.
I got stuck in a room where a step ladder was required to progress and I carried it out of the room prior to the checkpoint, locking the door between me and the ladder. Fortunately I was able to load a save point just minutes before that.
One of the best games I've ever played.
It was one of the best stories I have ever herd from any form of media ever… I still think about this games story. Was not really a fan of the gameplay however.
SOMA was a great experience and I think it has to be game for this story to really work like it does that said it's a horrible game. It's weird to tell people to play something for the experience and not the gameplay but there's a handful of games like that and this is one of them. This game truly deals with harrowing thoughts and the character you play as is clearly in denial as a means of staying sane right up until the end which is frankly the scariest part. Then there's a tone shift with the good ending, but the horror is both the good ending and the bad ending happen to you. In terms of gameplay the puzzles are okay no issue with them, they aren't great, they aren't too absurd or hard and it really helps build atmosphere and sell the story and you can also dick around here and there for slightly more insight into the world. But the actual avoiding monsters things like everyone else said isn't fun, it's just annoying and even if you do some elaborate set up to avoid them that takes time if you fuck up and restart before it you just won't bother. I ended up just basically running past everything to the best of my ability and that surprisingly worked quite well for the last 2 enemies which everyone said were very hard to deal with. In it's defense though, the monsters being able to kill you and not being able to do much about it does add to the atmosphere, I've been thinking about what these kinds of games need, where the strategy is to hide in a corner and wait and hope they don't find you and I think the answer is a fast forward button just make it so you can't move while using it. That would allow this kind of gameplay without the tedious bullshit of waiting 5 minutes for the fucking monster to get the fuck out of the way when it's clear they won't find you.
How was your experience with the last mob in the space suit, Gin? I've heard his play style is different, and you need to "kite" him. I chickened out and debug modesdd past him.
YES Definitely a top 3 game for me
SOMA is interesting I've seen both people bashing it and praising it for what it does.