Zero Punctuation: SOMA

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

SOMA

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews SOMA.

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[Halla Burrica]

Heeeey, I'm early for this one. Anyway, good review, looks like a good game I will probably play in 3-5 years from now (I don't have the most advanced of gaming machines, so I've mostly kept to games that came out 3-5 years ago.).

 

[vallorn]

And now I kind of want to see one of those overreacting youtubers yell "Arrgh! It's so existential!" on a video...

Personally I think Soma needed some more work before release, Yahtzee is completely right about the monster plot being kind of separate from the main plot and the puzzles... Well I just didn't feel that they were quite as clever as The Dark Descent's ones. It's like they really needed about 2-3 more months to go over the story and make it mesh properly as well as just fiddle with the gameplay that little bit more to make it tighter.

Although, there's not just one button to Resolve Monster Plot. There are actually two choices to that one, one of which isn't really obvious but it's in the same room.

 

[Aptspire]

Glad to see Frictional Games trying out future sci-fi stories and leaving Ye Olde Settings. Shame it didn't work out so well, however. (Always gotta have the monsters somehow, huh?)
So much for a more classic type of horror then.

So, on to other things.

Is there any chance Yahtzee will review "Undertale", seeing as it borrows certain elements from Earthbound and Cave Story, or am I just barking up the wrong tree?

 

[Malbourne]

And now I kind of want to see one of those overreacting youtubers yell "Arrgh! It's so existential!" on a video...

It kind of feels like that's what Markiplier's been doing in between monsters. Talking about what makes a human and whatnot.

In Amnesia, at least, the monsters were an extension of the story. In Soma, they do feel a bit like an afterthought, or a sidethought. That said, I do appreciate the game revealing early on what would probably have been a twist in a more condensed horror game.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who didn't find SOMA scary at all.
Also I beat the game, but I for the life of me don't know why the monsters were acting the way they did. They never fully explain why their hostile, just that they are and there's a way to stop it.

Also for a game about "Oh what does it mean to be human! Alas and Alack!" it was actually very predictable. I mean maybe I've seen one too many sci-fi movies, but I guessed the character's true nature(wink wink) while still in the starting apartment. Why? Because I knew the game was about underwater monsters and pseudo-AI/brain scan bullshit and nothing else.

So why the hell would we be in a totally fine apartment, above ground, being totally fine?!

Spoiler

We wouldn't!

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Well, my question is, since it seems to tackle the same questions that The Talos Principle does, how does SOMA stack up against it?

 

[Aeshi]

Either Yahtzee didn't die at all playing SOMA or he just forgot to mention the fact that getting 'caught' by one of the monsters doesn't actually kill you unless you either do it several dozen times before getting healed or are in one of the chase sequences.

Otherwise it just knocks you out for a little bit and you wake up later in the exact same spot and the monster's just wandered off a bit.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

*snip*

Y'know if you're going to toss out spoilers and even use a spoiler function, well use the thing correctly. Yahtzee managed to say his piece without spoiling anything, at least you could have the grace to do so as well. I mean good for you, you figured out the plot and all, whatever, but there are some people who haven't even played it yet and probably want to. And please don't give me "this is the internet, spoilers happen" bs, have some restraint.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

To be honest, the existential elements were kind of scarier that the monster ones. Especially since what really makes some of the monsters scary are the existential bits about "what they are" and what not.

Over all I think the game did it's job. Gave a lot of food for thought.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

*snip*

SNIP

Actually what I 'spoiled' is literally the first 3mins. Really. The whole apartment, above ground, brain scan thing? Literally the first playable level.
Its not really spoilers if its the opening, is it?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Nice to see him praising the story for once. All the way to the ending, too.

 

[Fox12]

To be honest, the existential elements were kind of scarier that the monster ones. Especially since what really makes some of the monsters scary are the existential bits about "what they are" and what not.

Over all I think the game did it's job. Gave a lot of food for thought.

All the best horror does that, I think. The ideas in Silent Hill 2 were the scariest thing in the game. The monster in Alien was probably the least scary thing in a rather terrifying movie. Hell, Spec-Ops scared me shitless, and there wasn't a single monster. It's a mark of good writing, I think.

But maybe I'm weird. I probably would be the one screaming "Auuh, it's so existential! Don't go in that room, there themes about nihilism in there!"

 

[flying_whimsy]

I think Frictional shot themselves in the foot early on with the monster plot:

Spoiler

When the sidekick girl simply hand waves away the WAU's intent by going "it doesn't work that way and we can't understand what it's doing." It was pretty damn obvious what it was doing, it was trying to save humanity and all of the other life nearby by creating new bodies in which a digital mind could survive. Ironically, the WAU wanted the ark for the same reason Catherine did: to save everyone. It just had a different approach that definitely wasn't helped by the fact that it simply couldn't understand pain or psychological trauma. If Frictional had developed that more it could have made for a far more interesting ending (or possibly set of endings). The suddenness of the ending could have been lessened as well by having robot Simon go back to the remains of the WAU and possibly join with it or something; just the idea of him alone in the dark at the end was terrifying and they should have used that a little more.

And as far as Simon's inability to recognize the impact of what happened at the end:

Spoiler

I suspect his inability to really wrap his head around what happened was down to two things: 1) a bit of denial about what he was, and 2) his scan was "flatter" and "less dynamic" than more modern ones, so he may not have been able to really process it.

Oh god, I've gone and done it. I'm one of those posters that puts up big discussion points in spoilers. Sorry.

Anyway, I really liked the game. The conventional horror was a little flat, but I think the game mostly made up for it with sheer depth and existential horror. I thought it was a massive step up in Frictional's story telling.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I guess Yahtzee has joined the crowd of "Some people on YouTube play scary games and overreact to them, therefore all scary games only exist to keep those people in business now".

And honestly that is the biggest pile of bullshit I've heard in a while. Come on, dude, you're smarter than that.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

And now I kind of want to see one of those overreacting youtubers yell "Arrgh! It's so existential!" on a video...

It kind of feels like that's what Markiplier's been doing in between monsters. Talking about what makes a human and whatnot.

In Amnesia, at least, the monsters were an extension of the story. In Soma, they do feel a bit like an afterthought, or a sidethought. That said, I do appreciate the game revealing early on what would probably have been a twist in a more condensed horror game.

At least Markiplier can sometimes be bothered to share his experience with the game or the thoughts he has regarding his experience. He does lose to Gopher, though, who's pretty much the polar opposite of the typical reaction-cam YouTuber, and who actually lets himself be immersed.

That makes for a really tonally appropriate Let's Play series - but also a long-ass one. If you're the type who groans when the broadcaster misses an obvious button or doesn't make the correct logical inferences in the plot, then don't bother. His Alien: Isolation playthrough is in perfect synch with the game's tone and atmosphere, but there's tons of wandering about and figuring out where to go.

https://www.youtube.com/user/GophersVids

As far as the game is concerned, I had the feeling SOMA was more concerned with its existential dread than with finding ways to have uglies go boogity-boo in your face. It feels like the right call, seeing as the game's plot makes the monsters an ancillary concept.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I guess Yahtzee has joined the crowd of "Some people on YouTube play scary games and overreact to them, therefore all scary games only exist to keep those people in business now".

And honestly that is the biggest pile of bullshit I've heard in a while. Come on, dude, you're smarter than that.

He never said that, but there are plenty of games like Daylight that seem to be solely for the purpose for streamers on Twitch to overreact to(like Jim Sterling said in his video "The Rise of Youtube Fodder).

I'd say when he's willing to write off a game by Frictional, his favorite horror game developer ever (after maybe the team that made Silent Hill 2), as Pewdiepie bait, it's probably safe to say he's written off the whole genre.

 

[Pescetarian]

I usually love Yahtzee's accent, but hearing him try to pronounce "Antoine de Saint-Exupery" was excruciating. Seriously, man, could have used a couple more takes.