SOMA - From Frictional Games

Utnayan

Utnayan

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I didn't see a thread on this and saw the review on Gamespot this morning.

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/soma.../1900-6416245/

This looks pretty good. From the makers of Amnesia - but this time in a Sci-Fi setting. Comes out for PC and also supposedly PS4 tomorrow (But I cannot find it on the PS Store) - this may be one I get on the PS4 and crank in the dark. I love these types of games.
 
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Vorph

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No PS4 preorders, it will just show up on PS store at midnight local time ($30).
 
TJT

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Okay played through this the other day. Nice 8 hours or so of survival horror narrative.

The transhumanism aspects are absolutely fantastic and does ask some hard philosophical questions I really liked. I've always loved this topic in sci-fi so I was really excited to play this.

So that entire fucking station was full of aspy retard super scientists. I mean, holy fucking shit. I loved the environment and the overall narrative. But it is both depressing and bittersweet (if you see what is actually going on).

What I gather is that after the comet hit and topside went dark the people onboard started going a bit crazy. Understandably so, and the current situation is about a year after the destruction of the surface world. Through various emails and logs you learn that the topside government had gone to some lengths to hoard the structure gel super substance. No idea why. But they probably had some thought as to why it was a hopeful material.

The main character Simon is effectively the perfection of what the WAU had been trying to accomplish. Reddit seems to think that Catherine AI had created him, but that doesn't make sense as you awakened her from sleep mode and she didn't even know what you were until you went through the body scanner.

WAU had been keeping all the human bodies alive as much as it could. All the bodies you see covered in structure gel is a kind of life support until WAU can get to them. The monsters are the learning phase of WAU trying to "save humanity" by placing their intact minds into bodies that can survive in the new environment. But because its an AI with an incomprehensible thought pattern it takes some time for it to figure out the best way to save us. I presume it learned what we were trying to do by looking at the Catherine AI (omni tool covered in structure gel barnacles and Catherine still being sane). This allowed it to create Simon, by putting it in the Soft Dive Suit/Corpse/Gel robot clone thing. Effectively creating a transhuman, immortal robot.

As we notice that WAU never kills Simon and recharges him and whatever without issue. Only the monsters can kill you because their minds are corrupted from being inside a body that it rejects. This is a cool concept, while the AI is doing things that are detrimental to some people, they aren't seeing what it is actually accomplishing. Creating Simon and Simon type robots as it gets closer and closer to perfection. If you don't kill the WAU everything you did is totally meaningless as it will eventually repair all the power issues and start mass robo-cloning all the bodies it has been keeping alive. It can keep copying the same person over and over without a problem as well.

The best thing they could have done was plug the fucking ARK into WAU and let it repopulate the world with the new form of Man as fast as possible.

This is what I liked best, but the scientists... GOD DAMN. All of them were stuck in their various camps of idiocy. Kill self because continuity. There can be only one me and I want the Ark one to be actual me (lolwut?). Use ARK to store all the mind imprints as people and jettison it into space so that the memory of man lives on in some capacity. But unable to affect the world around them in any way at all (lolwut?) Destroy the WAU because you don't want it to make more imperfect psycho robot-clones. Mildly understandable since Ross didn't realize Simon was the perfection of what WAU had been doing.

Simon going nuts that he didn't make it onto the Ark when he had been through multiple transfers already (lolwut?).

WAU is the true hero of this story. Since you see uncorrupted sea turtles it appears the Earth isn't completely fucked. So there are probably some small pockets of humanity left alive. I welcome the new race of immortal super robot men.
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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I hope people who liked games like Outlast / Until Dawn / Amnesia give this a shot. I bought it on my PS4. It is one of the best games I have played this year along with Witcher 3 and Metal Gear Solid 5. I have not completed the game yet, although I am just before Theta now I believe. I have been taking my time with it. But I have been creeped out many times and for the first time ever in a game, I have decided to use the lean command because I am afraid of what's around the corner.

Definitely one of the better horror games of the past 5 years.

The atmosphere and story are intense and engaging. Sound and music are 10/10.

I cannot wait to see what these folks work on next.
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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TJT_sl said:
Okay played through this the other day. Nice 8 hours or so of survival horror narrative.

The transhumanism aspects are absolutely fantastic and does ask some hard philosophical questions I really liked. I've always loved this topic in sci-fi so I was really excited to play this.

So that entire fucking station was full of aspy retard super scientists. I mean, holy fucking shit. I loved the environment and the overall narrative. But it is both depressing and bittersweet (if you see what is actually going on).

What I gather is that after the comet hit and topside went dark the people onboard started going a bit crazy. Understandably so, and the current situation is about a year after the destruction of the surface world. Through various emails and logs you learn that the topside government had gone to some lengths to hoard the structure gel super substance. No idea why. But they probably had some thought as to why it was a hopeful material.

The main character Simon is effectively the perfection of what the WAU had been trying to accomplish. Reddit seems to think that Catherine AI had created him, but that doesn't make sense as you awakened her from sleep mode and she didn't even know what you were until you went through the body scanner.

WAU had been keeping all the human bodies alive as much as it could. All the bodies you see covered in structure gel is a kind of life support until WAU can get to them. The monsters are the learning phase of WAU trying to "save humanity" by placing their intact minds into bodies that can survive in the new environment. But because its an AI with an incomprehensible thought pattern it takes some time for it to figure out the best way to save us. I presume it learned what we were trying to do by looking at the Catherine AI (omni tool covered in structure gel barnacles and Catherine still being sane). This allowed it to create Simon, by putting it in the Soft Dive Suit/Corpse/Gel robot clone thing. Effectively creating a transhuman, immortal robot.

As we notice that WAU never kills Simon and recharges him and whatever without issue. Only the monsters can kill you because their minds are corrupted from being inside a body that it rejects. This is a cool concept, while the AI is doing things that are detrimental to some people, they aren't seeing what it is actually accomplishing. Creating Simon and Simon type robots as it gets closer and closer to perfection. If you don't kill the WAU everything you did is totally meaningless as it will eventually repair all the power issues and start mass robo-cloning all the bodies it has been keeping alive. It can keep copying the same person over and over without a problem as well.

The best thing they could have done was plug the fucking ARK into WAU and let it repopulate the world with the new form of Man as fast as possible.

This is what I liked best, but the scientists... GOD DAMN. All of them were stuck in their various camps of idiocy. Kill self because continuity. There can be only one me and I want the Ark one to be actual me (lolwut?). Use ARK to store all the mind imprints as people and jettison it into space so that the memory of man lives on in some capacity. But unable to affect the world around them in any way at all (lolwut?) Destroy the WAU because you don't want it to make more imperfect psycho robot-clones. Mildly understandable since Ross didn't realize Simon was the perfection of what WAU had been doing.

Simon going nuts that he didn't make it onto the Ark when he had been through multiple transfers already (lolwut?).

WAU is the true hero of this story. Since you see uncorrupted sea turtles it appears the Earth isn't completely fucked. So there are probably some small pockets of humanity left alive. I welcome the new race of immortal super robot men.
Click to expand...
I finished this up a few days ago. Completely fantastic game and a great story. Good gameplay elements, a lot of mystery and then when the story opens up and you realize what exactly is going on, it makes you think about a lot of things. I noticed that at the beginning of the game my surveys were quite different in answers at the end of the game.

When they would ask how uneasy I was about the world, feeling disconnected, etc - while I was playing I felt that way. After I was in the Ark, everything was fine - I actually noticed how my thought process changed.

Also...

Even though there were not a lot of jump scares, the panic/stress/tenseness of the entire game sticks with you from when you enter the first underwater station. And the pacing was incredible. I starting thinking something was weird when the robot was in pain and the guy's voice continue to pronounce he was human, and Simon had no idea what he was talking about. This was right around the first 2-3 hours or so, right when you are introduced to the first monster. And it also started a "Holy shit don't look back run run run and GET TO THE OH MY GOD GET TO THE DOOR AND SHUT IT BEHIND YOU" style of panic.

I love this game company now. Amnesia was good but I never finished it. I should do that now. With this game I was completely glued to it. And I was even exploring computer logs and back story, something I never really do that much of, because I was so into the story.

I cannot wait for their next game. This is truly an original with tons of memorable moments, decent game play mechanics, fantastic voice acting/character development, and over the top awesome atmosphere.
 
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Regime

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Finally finished this game. What a masterpiece. The transhumanism science fiction was exceptional.

9.75/10
 
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Fight

Fight

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Picked this game up for free from Good Old Games. I agree with Regime and Ut, it is a masterpiece.

The atmosphere and the story are some of the best I have ever seen in a game. They are so good, that it is easy to overlook the minimal game-play elements. Imagine Deadspace, where you play hide and seek from the monsters, rather than butcher their limbs and blow them to bits. It works just fine for the world setting they have created.

Fuck, this game was good. I will now be on the lookout for whatever Frictional Games comes out with next.
 
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Regime

Regime

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Fight said:
Picked this game up for free from Good Old Games. I agree with Regime and Ut, it is a masterpiece.

The atmosphere and the story are some of the best I have ever seen in a game. They are so good, that it is easy to overlook the minimal game-play elements. Imagine Deadspace, where you play hide and seek from the monsters, rather than butcher their limbs and blow them to bits. It works just fine for the world setting they have created.

Fuck, this game was good. I will now be on the lookout for whatever Frictional Games comes out with next.
Click to expand...


It’s up there with Dead space，Bioshock and Mass Effect as favorite sci fi game ever for me.Been pleading with Big sukik sukik to play it.
 
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A

a_skeleton_05

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Finally got around to this and enjoyed it a fair bit. I wouldn't call it a game, but it is great interactive sci-fi with a good story.

I recommend that anyone that enjoyed this check out The Swapper

 
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Utnayan

Utnayan

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Dom said:
Finally got around to this and enjoyed it a fair bit. I wouldn't call it a game, but it is great interactive sci-fi with a good story.

I recommend that anyone that enjoyed this check out The Swapper

Click to expand...

I have that but I do not think I ever got around to playing it. I'll check it out. Glad you liked Soma :)
 
Regime

Regime

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I just finished my 2nd playthrough.

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away” - Phillip K. Dick

Play it.
 
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