SOMA - Are you ready to NOPE?

[angel]

On 19/05/2016 at 08:11, Captain LeChuck said:

Yeah, the ending is telegraphed, but it's still an amazing experience. 

 

I dont think its telegraphed at all, without getting too spoilery for new people, the game has you second guessing constantly..expecting some videogame trope like the standard jetski escape sequence to finish, then is all like..nope

 

 

[angel]

9 minutes ago, Captain LeChuck said:

I saw it coming as soon as... [MASSIVE ENDING SPOILERS AHOY]

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... you switch bodies for the first time. You have the option of switching your old self off. Right then I felt they do the opposite for the end, where you're the one left behind. Admittedly, they did both sides in the end. But as soon as whatever her name is (Catherine?) says that you both have to transfer to escape, my suspicion changed to certainty. 

 

I wonder how well this holds up on a second playthrough...

 

 

Spoiler

I knew I'd not be the person on the ark, that much was obvious from the first time they said you're a copy, I just assumed i'd win the coin toss at the end, or lose it and that would be the twist. I expected them to give you the standard video game happy resolution, and when they didnt, that was pretty good. You're a copy of your dead self a few 100 years later stuck in the bottom of the sea, a completely frictional games ending, no magic escape or setting up home there with catherine - who you essentially just killed by riling her up. It was jarring at first but I appreciate it more now as a whole..you were on a hiding to nothing for yourself, you were always fucked, I dont even believe there is a coin toss...you are you, you get copied, you remain you...that was just catherines platitudes in giving you hope.

 

[Meh]

Bought in Steam sale. Fucking fantastic. NOPE as fuck.

[rafaqat]

£4 on PSN at moment.  Just bought it.

[Pug]

Same, getting a bit of a backlog for the first time ever.

 

Just started Limbo after the great Inside, got SF5 for the story mode the weekend....along with Just Cause 3.

Also just bought both DLC for Witcher 3.

 

Now Soma.

 

 

Just hope there are no good games out anytime soon!

[Pug]

Oh Christ....

[Mentazm]

ffs... and I was trying to spend no money next month.

[angel]

Just get into SOMA now. its meant to be played at night. Myself I played it over the new year hols, up til 4am most nights, on 7.1 headphones and in the dark...perfect atmosphere.

[Jamie John]

Bought this in the PSN sale as well. Is it proper scary or just a bit scary? 

[K]

I thought the ideas and themes of the game were scarier than the actual game ; I wasn't a huge fan of the stealth bits, but was genuinely unnerved by the story and some of the things you see

like the desiccated remnants of humans, pinned to the wall by flakes of WAU's smart matter, wheezing in agony as they spend the rest of eternity silently begging for death.

[Mentazm]

It's not scary imo, but I don't find anything fictional scary.

[Stanley]

I thought the encounters were terrifying, but they're not isolated. Just being alone feels really, unnerving. Not because of the fear of an encounter but more the realisation of what's going on. 

[angel]

its as scary as you allow it it be, not jump scary, more insidious horror, sci fi dystopian future horror, as long as you immerse yourself.    you can bunnyhop through it in daylight if you like, you get what you put in.   its certainly as scary as amnesia played under the right conditions, as well as posing some brilliant moral questions later on.

[Jamie John]

This game's freaky as all fuck, I don't care what you guys say. Played it for about half an hour in the dark with my headset on but that was enough for me. Nothing really happened in that time but it's shitting stressful. 

[Gorf King]

'It's not real though.'

 

Yeah, it's pretty unnerving in places. It's also a very good, simple, story with strong themes, good pacing and a delicately-curved character arc. I'd criticise some of the dialogue/text and VA a bit, but that would be in comparison to films and books, not to most other games. I even liked most of the stealth bits, though some were a bit... ropey on the design front. It's about the story really. If you shit yourself at jump shocks and ominous wheezy glitchy pursuers, this isn't a game that'll help you relax. But like K, I think it's the overall atmosphere and thematic bleakness of it all that's the real horror.

 

It isn't real though, that is true. Which makes it all totally innocuous. I've seen scarier courgettes, where the fruit-bearing hosts haven't been bedded into the compost correctly. 

 

*clenches teeth round pipe*

[Stanley]

Well yes. The big difference with this and books or TV is that the position it places you in wouldn't be possible in those mediums and really *really* works for the story here. It's a perfect fit. 

[Gorf King]

You'd be surprised what works well in text when you're amenable to it.

[Stanley]

You could do it but it wouldn't be as effective. I mean it could go another way and get more philosophical. It could be more interesting even. But the effect they've achieved in SOMA I believe is pretty original. 

 

I'm skirting around the games central theme here for fear of spoilers, because it's a neat twist, albeit one most players will probably see coming at some point. But when it happens it packs quite a punch, and I just don't know how that'd be possible outside of an interactive medium. 

 

You know, the fear it generates. I've never experienced anything like that before. 

[LeighCb]

So where is the tracer fluid? I can't even get out of this pricks front room. 

[df0]

Not a spoiler. In his computer desk, top drawer.

[df0]

Just finished this.

 

I'm rarely moved by this whole "save humanity" direction, and I found it difficult to see the WAU as a threat. I could not care less if humanity survives, and I had the same feeling towards the WAU. Also, I did not find it scary at all.

 

Having said that, top quality game. Thoroughly enjoyed the story, writing, mystery and the characters. Recommended.

[Stanley]

Ending and main game spoilers concerning WAU.

 

I think what impressed me about WAU was that it wasn't just some clichéd story about a rogue AI. As far as it was concerned it was trying to do its job by eradicating any anomalies. There were no crazy psycho characters attempting to seize power either. No Andrew Ryan. No paradise lost. This was just Mankind reacting to a natural disaster and trying to save itself from extinction, with horrible, horrible results. I mean even the ending was hardly a feelgood one. 

 

Some guy who died hundreds of years before gets blasted in space aboard a life capsule, a digital imprint of his former self, with other AI's all living harmoniously inside of a digital dream. That's humanity's future.

 

[Jamie John]

Still playing this. As nail biting as the scary bits are, I find that they sort of get in the way a bit at to times. I was playing a section earlier where I just wanted to explore and take everything in, but there was a monster slowly stalking me through the same area, so I wasn't able to go through things as thoroughly as I'd have liked. I felt like asking the monster if he'd mind terribly just sodding off for five minutes while I finished looking through an especially inviting chest of drawers, but I can't imagine it would have gone down well.

 

Re. the story, I find that I'm getting most of it, I think, but now I'm encountering lots of

Spoiler

half dead bodies and much more organic matter, as opposed to the machine tendrils everywhere like before. What's that about? Have I missed something?

[angel]

On 17/07/2016 at 01:56, df0 said:

Not a spoiler. In his computer desk, top drawer.

 

actually no, it varies randomly between 3 places.

[Meh]

On 17/07/2016 at 14:47, Stanley said:

Ending and main game spoilers concerning WAU.

 

 

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I think what impressed me about WAU was that it wasn't just some clichéd story about a rogue AI. As far as it was concerned it was trying to do its job by eradicating any anomalies. There were no crazy psycho characters attempting to seize power either. No Andrew Ryan. No paradise lost. This was just Mankind reacting to a natural disaster and trying to save itself from extinction, with horrible, horrible results. I mean even the ending was hardly a feelgood one. 

 

 

Some guy who died hundreds of years before gets blasted in space aboard a life capsule, a digital imprint of his former self, with other AI's all living harmoniously inside of a digital dream. That's humanity's future.

 

 

Akers was as close to an antagonist as it got. He was a very unpleasant bugger.

[angel]

5 minutes ago, Meh said:

 

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Akers was as close to an antagonist as it got. He was a very unpleasant bugger.

 

 

Spoiler

exactly, there was a sub antagonist, if you read the files he's a real motherfucker, and I consider the WAU an antagonist too.

 

[angel]

54 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

Still playing this. As nail biting as the scary bits are, I find that they sort of get in the way a bit at to times. I was playing a section earlier where I just wanted to explore and take everything in, but there was a monster slowly stalking me through the same area, so I wasn't able to go through things as thoroughly as I'd have liked. I felt like asking the monster if he'd mind terribly just sodding off for five minutes while I finished looking through an especially inviting chest of drawers, but I can't imagine it would have gone down well.

 

Re. the story, I find that I'm getting most of it, I think, but now I'm encountering lots of

  Reveal hidden contents

half dead bodies and much more organic matter, as opposed to the machine tendrils everywhere like before. What's that about? Have I missed something?

 

Spoiler

there arent really any objects to discover apart from reading material, and you'll be discovering more and more of the people killing themselves, or dying and so on from the expeditions

 

[Jamie John]

8 hours ago, angel said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

there arent really any objects to discover apart from reading material, and you'll be discovering more and more of the people killing themselves, or dying and so on from the expeditions

 

 

Do you find out what the monsters actually are? Some seem mechanical whereas others are more...fleshy.

[angel]

not like a doom roll call at the end, but they all have explanations of their existence, with the possible exception of the flesher (disco ball monster), but he is

 

Spoiler

probably linked to the structure gel, an ancient reanimated human body with messed up psychic powers

 

[Jamie John]

I've just finished this. It was good, not amazing, but definitely worth playing and a bargain for £6.50 or whatever it is in the sale. The sound design in particular was excellent and made certainly the first few enemy encounters very scary. The story was also interesting and, more importantly, well told, although not as ground-breaking as some have made out.

 

My main criticism (apart from the three crashed I encountered during the course of play which meant I had to restart each time ) is that the game gets caught in between two genres without full committing to either, and as a result sits awkwardly in the middle. As an adventure game or walking simulator, there simply aren't enough things to interact with or puzzles to solve, especially as the game goes on. I quickly lost count of the number of storage lockers and drawers I opened only to find nothing, for example, and the more or less identical empty rooms I wasted time exploring.

 

Meanwhile, as an example of a survival horror game, while the gimmick that discourages you from looking at the monsters remains an effective heirloom from the Amnesia games, the rest of the stealth gameplay is stripped back to the point of being simplistic, as every enemy encounter is surpassed in exactly the same way: by hiding in a dark room and staring determinedly at the floor while you wait for the nasty thing to bugger off before you slip away, hoping you won't get spotted. That's pretty much it. In one section, where a monster was standing still in front of an item I needed to in order to proceed, I wasn't even able to lure it away by throwing something in the opposite direction. I threw a spanner, a drill and eventually an entire tool box, but he wouldn't budge. Eventually I just crept round him, grabbed what I needed and sneaked away without him reacting to my presence at all, which wasn't especially satisfying. What's worse, however, is when the survival horror bits interfere with the adventure bits, like when you're trying to read someone's intimate emails on a curiously unlocked computer while there's a monster lumbering about. At times like the this the enemies stop becoming scary and just become irritating, as you're more interested in trying to explore and find things out than you are in checking out the pattern on the carpet for two to three minutes while you wait for the monster to finish sniffing around and shuffle off. I'm not suggesting the game needs a HUD or guns or anything like that, but I think some of the enemy encounters were ultimately a bit lazy by the end, which stopped them from staying scary, and the developers could have introduced other mechanics to make things more interesting.

 

Still, despite all that I'm glad I played it and would definitely recommend it.