Are you human, a machine or a combination of both?
Frictional Games comes out with a game well within their wheelhouse of physiological horror set within a game of their own making. I've heard talk of Soma for several years now and just recently finished this one.
The name SOMA is unique in itself as once I heard the title I thought of Aldous Huxely's masterpiece, Brave New World. A required piece of mandatory reading in my formative years that always left an indelible impression. Soma in Huxely's work was a drug that keeps their citizens in a constant state of bliss. I immediately took notice and could see how this idea could be used in so many different variations.
Do you keep yourself in this state of joy while ignoring the world around you? I understand the arguments on both sides of the coin with this construct. The development team takes this kernel of an idea and runs with it.
Is that a phone in your pocket? No, that's an omnitool that serves a similar purpose.
The elevator pitch for this game would go something like this. The Earth has had a catastrophic event and there are few humans left if any. A group of scientists have been able to scan the brains of their colleagues into a device known as the ark. The ark is a simulated world where your consciousness can live and hopefully be discovered by others at some point in time?
Either way there are heady ideas throughout about humanity, consciousness and the march of technology.
This time around I'm playing the original pc release and had no hiccups whatsoever during my gameplay.
I hope you don't mind getting a little wet. You're going to be spending some time in the ocean.
The game has been labeled as a horror video game by most. I wouldn't go this far as this is more of a psychological trip that this studio seems to be very good at. They're well known for the Penumbra and Amnesia series that I've yet to play. There are several games in each series.
As the protagonist Simon you start off in what seems to be reality. Not so quick as you're transported into your true self soon enough. Space and time are often manipulated to give the player a disconnected view of reality. You will soon discover that you're not actually who you think you are.
Technology has advanced to a huge degree. The ability to copy your brain and store that digitally becomes a grand point of this story. We soon discover that our protagonist is not technically himself. He is a copy that was made over 100 years ago.
Halt! Friend or Foe? You'll discover this out quickly enough.
RUN!!
The ability to transfer a copy of yourself into another vessel is thoroughly fascinating. Along with the ability to essentially live forever you also come across the numerous moral and philosophical issues that come with such power. The idea of the self does not go unnoticed.
The copy of brain is simply that, a copy. You are not the same person.
There are many circumstances that the developers put the player in to make an interesting game experience.
If I copy myself into another vessel what do I do about the previous version of myself? Will I allow that version to continue on creating more copies of myself? At certain points the copy will not have a meaningful life as they can be in a vegetative state. Do you want this for your copy?
A submersible finds a fallen soul in these deep, dark depths.
Not everyone returns in these circumstances.
Choices are what make video games great. Even better are the ones that make those choices mean something to the player. This particular game makes those actions really mean something.
At one point I ran across the last human on Earth hooked up to a machine and asking me to end her life. This moment is a memorable point in the game for me. She makes her case and she's in pain. She wants to end her life and you are left with a decision as a non-human copy of a former version of yourself. Do you abide by her wishes and end her suffering or not? I honored her wishes as she slowly passed away with a monologue fitting for the scene. This is a powerful event I don't often witness in most video games.
The game itself consists of you piecing together the puzzle of a dead world. This becomes very apparent early on as the feeling of isolation sets in very early. A large portion of the game is set underwater which is a huge thumbs up for me. There's something fascinating about the depths of the ocean that this title exudes. I must admit that I had some flashbacks of BioShock, another great game mostly set under the sea.
Wandering around these long abandoned complexes are eerie. You'll often stumble upon horrific and sad scenes of past events.
You wander the hallways of this undersea complex and even out in the cold depths too. You're not alone either. The fusion of humans and machine are one of the main themes throughout the game. There are what I call stalkers that wander the landscape. Their humanity is gone and it's a hybrid of strange machine and human.
Once you look at these abominations the screen starts to pixelate and shake. This is the first sign these creatures are around along with their inhuman moaning. They will chase you and harm you at certain points. This mechanic is how you end up getting a game over screen. Too much of a look and they will kill you, otherwise they will harm you. Once you're harmed the entire visuals start to become blurry and you movement is staggered. Only then can you plugin to these strange pods throughout the dead world. An organic pod akin to something out of David Cronenberg's mind. You place you hand within the pods and they latch on to you while rejuvenating your health.
The fusion of man and machine. Cronenberg would be pleased.
Speaking of mechanics and gameplay features, there is no HUD (Heads Up Display). So long ammo counters, health counters and especially in-game maps. This threw me for a loop big time without the in-game map as they are a modern game-design choice for almost any game these days.
I generally get lost in games pretty badly if I'm being completely honest. The lack of a map really miffed me early on in the game. Modern gaming has babied the player with glowing icons on a map or huge directional arrows to the next objective. I never noticed how accustomed I've been to these mechanics and wondered how I've finished games of yesteryear without them.
Sometimes it becomes really bad as I was lost in the first 5 minutes of the game wandering around your apartment looking for pills so that the story could progress. I eventually found them in a cupboard and that was the last place I checked. Frustration at such simple things in a modern game is not lost on the gaming populace as I've seen a very low percentage of people achieving certain achievements on Steam. Such is life and there are so many games out there to play haha.
The floor of the ocean can be a confusing place to be. I don't think I'm the only one that would get lost down here either. Where's my GPS? In another diving suit oh no.
For those that do prevail there is so much in store for them.
The immersion is really great especially with the lack of hud elements. The first-person viewpoint puts you in this strange environment. You must put yourself into this world by reading documents, interacting with the computer systems and viewing pictures while trying to piece together the puzzle of a lost world.
Puzzle is the appropriate word as you'll be faced with many. The developers created mostly coherent puzzles such as flipping switches to route power in a grid. Meanwhile some others really got me hung up as I was focusing on the wrongs things and never figuring them out. Luckily, some quick searches helped me out in those areas. Thankfully there weren't too many of these.
Flashbacks of the James Cameron's The Abyss (1989).
Still no physical hd media of this yet? What a shame along with the countless others of his back catalog titles.
In the end I really enjoyed myself. Initially I was apprehensive as I became stuck on mundane things while thinking to myself "Where is the damn map???? Argh!!!!". Soon enough I fell into the flow and things started to make more sense.
The story is what kept me going as any good game should.
The developers have created an interesting construct about what it means to be human. Philosophical questions about ourselves and where we fit in are even more interesting in a world where humanity is gone. Are we ourselves if we can copy our brains into other vessels? Is each copy a duplicate or a degraded copy of our former being?
There are so many interesting scenarios and ideas here that keep me interested.
This title is certainly worth a playthough but I wouldn't lean on the horror front. A sci-fi question of what it means to be human seems to be the main thread here.
Thanks for the read 🙂
All media courtesy of Steam. Thank you very much.
