It is not a perfect game but the things it needs to nail for it to be one of the most memorable horror/sci-fi games in years it accomplishes so well. It may not be as terrifying of an experience as Amnesia: The Dark Descent as a whole but it does have those really genuinely terrifying moments even some of the best as I’ve seen in any game. And, finally it has one of the best sci-fi horror plots in video games since System Shock 2. It’s a 8-12 hour horror game that is worth probably replaying a few times which might not be worth the 30 dollars the game costs at launch but after a price drop or a sale I would definitely recommend anyone who is a fan of scary games picking it up.

Also the game has some weird technical problems at the time of writing. It has some Bloodborne levels of bad load times and dreadfully slow texture pop-in when first starting up the game, but only sometimes. It’s weird. I hope this isn’t a problem in the future and it wasn’t game breaking while I played it but it was annoying.


I was really pretty worried about this game when I heard the pitch of the high concept, actually. The first gameplay demo and story teasers presented it as this game that would be talking about “what it means to actually be human??” using narrative devices like robots, AI, and so on, which is a theme that has been tackled quite a lot in sci-fi. I was afraid the game would end up being highly iterative of things I might have already experienced but this time with spoooooooooky monsters.

The end result reminds me of one of my favorite anime, Ergo Proxy. Which is a really great anime series from the mid-2000s that I highly recommend that is on YouTube and you should check it out. It is not in that they have similar stories or tone, but in how they execute talking about broad-complex science fiction topics that have been talked about in other sci-fi works many times before. They talk about these philosophical issues of the self and reality by focusing on a smaller more personal story and the larger issues like the world having already ended and living in a post-apocalypse are only kind of the window dressing for the characters story arcs. I like this approach because it does not spend so much time gassing on about philosophy and “what it means to be a human” through exposition but we get to see how identity and dissociation effects our characters directly.

And this is what really props up Soma and makes it one of the most memorable and interesting horror and sci-fi games because it allows us to really get invested in the character drama of these protagonists and what they are experiencing. I was really worried at first when I heard that player character of Soma was not going to be a silent protagonist because that often can kind of break immersion in some horror games when the main character will not shut up. In Soma though, it really feels natural because the stakes of the plot matter much more to the player when the person we are playing is an actual real person we can identify with and understand. And, we are revealed big plot reveals that twists in the story at the same time he is so he acts as our vessel into this world. What makes this work where it doesn’t in others is the quality of the writing.

The writing is so good, like much better than The Dark Descent, which had pretty good writing but it definitely was not the focus. And the vioce acting is definitely also on par with the writing. The tone of the Dark Descent was mostly just dark and grim which probably explains why I have forgotten about most of the individual plot points by now. They have come a long way with Soma because they have those moments of levity and humor and also those sad and heartbreaking moments that come off as natural because of nearly immaculate pacing. It’s hard always being on edge the whole time and those quiet, less tense moments of dialogue between the main characters whether it is funny or sad break up the tense moments. It actually helps to elevate the tense moments with the monsters because we never know when we have a moment to breathe or when the next spooky thing happens.

But like I said, it isn’t perfect. It strips away some of the more gamey aspects of their previous games like having to manage batteries for flashlights or fuel for lanterns but I would argue that it does it in a way that either does not bother me so much or maybe even for the better since a lot of those gameplay features in Frictional’s previous games, while interesting, weren’t done with the best execution at times. Also, in what is maybe taken out in the gameplay elements is made up for by writing and atmosphere that ramps up to spectacular new heights. It actually reminds me a lot of what The Chinese Room were trying to do with A Machine For Pigs but that game actually never really had the finesse of accomplishing. But, then that is just my feelings on the changes and some might fight the game too “walking simularory.”

It kind of reminds me a lot of Gone Home which by now lives in infamy for many, for some reason, but a lot of that game is spent exploring a realistic environment and interacting with objects too, most of the game’s story telling is done through environmental design and the placement of objects. Like Gone Home did with its different rooms, one of the things I really enjoyed about Soma is how each of the games many levels had a different structural and artistic design which does two things: it sets the tone of each level visually and also contributes to the world building because it reinforces the notion we are on this base that has a purposefully fragmented layout where each building was constructed at different points of time so of course they would have different architectural design. This realistic theming of a completely ridiculous sci-fi premise also resonates in how they do the puzzles. It does the System Shock 2 puzzle design thing where a lot of the game is figuring out how to bypass the security systems and restore power to the facility that is breaking down by the minute. It might get repetitive for some but the way Soma keeps it fresh is that is uses these times of searching for the way to solve the next objective to focus on either character moments, world building, exposition, or making you avoid a spooky monster so that you are never bored.

Finally this all leads up to an ending, an actual honest to god great ending to a video game, we do not get many of these. Honestly, a lot of what sold me on this game completely is that it sticks the ending so damn well. I don’t want to spoil anything but the ending is so good. It is like End of Evangelion good. It is like… Oldboy good. It is Perfect Blue good. It is good because it not only has a conclusion that fits tonally with the story and provides closure but because it ties everything together in a neat package and fits the overarching high concept of the game’s themes so well.

I know I have been getting so artsy fartsy with this review but I cannot help it because I’m still so excited about this game, for whatever flaws it has it does what it needs to so well. It’s something that is highly memorable and will be something I will probably be talking about in the years to come. What makes it special from the other famous pieces of sci-fi that reach world-wide fame like The Matrix or Bioshock is that it doesn’t just talk about the broader philosophical questions of life but that it actually presents them in a way that is readily relatable and understandable because we see them through the lens of believable and likable characters.

So yeah, it might not be the screaming into your face-cam for YouTube or playing with your friends on Halloween kind of horror game but it so much more than that and I can’t recommend it enough.