• This extends the story of an escape from a doomed Earth by SOMA's lead characters - the AI emulated personalities of Simon and Catherine.
  
• Play continues on Jupiter's moon of Europa, where the player controls a colonial Security Droid, seeking fuel and repairs for their vehicle - a now damaged ARK probe.
  
• However, the player must now juggle a split personally, after unwittingly downloading both Simon's and Catherine's AIs into the droid.
  
• To complete the mission, the player must traverse several outstations occupied by surviving human communities - now all 'gone feral' in unique and disturbing ways. Choices of combat and/or negotiation with humans are both frequently possible in the hunt for parts and fuel.
  
• When moving between underwater stations, hostile aquatic creatures must be evaded.
  
• Finally, the type of ending achieved depends largely upon just which AI personality the player allowed to become dominant during the course of play.

1. After the end of SOMA the emulated personalities of Simon and Catherine are now en-route to Alpha Centauri within the ARK probe, enjoying its simulated internal world.
   
   
2. However, when crossing the Asteroid Belt the craft is dinged by a meteorite. So the ARK begins to shut down its internal world-simulation to conserve fuel.
   
   
3. Facing centuries of simulated darkness, Catherine manages to hack the ARK's Nav-system, to redirect it to Europa for repairs.
   
   
4. The ARK docks with an apparently deserted orbital station above Europa - it's the port and Admin Centre for all the outstations below. Upon docking, the Station's AI networks with the probe to run repair diagnostics, allowing Catherine to hack into it.
   
   
5. The player, as Simon, downloads into the colony Police Droid found here to complete any hands-on work. But he doesn't get far before discovering a crazy Hermit wearing police uniform rags bashing on the ARK with a spanner: "Ghosts! Ghosts in the Machine!" he cries.
   
   
6. Without any command from the player, his Police Droid squashes the Hermit like a bug. The voice of Catherine issues from your Droid triumphantly.. This reveals the feisty Catherine has also downloaded her AI into the same droid along with Simon.
   
   
7. From there it's down to the surface by space elevator to obtain aid for the ARK from any survivors - by negotiation OR force, stealth OR technology.

Catherine thinks we're looking kinda sexy now

The Spllt-personality Mechanic

The accumulated playstyle choices made by the player will ‘tip the scales’ to determine who’s AI personality becomes dominant, and thus which skills they will continue to have access to:

• Simon's are stealth and negotiation (he's a big softy)
  
• Catherine's are combat and hacking (she's a hard-ass)
  
• But a trickier 'middle way' is possible - if the player can both:
  
  • Balance the two playstyles (but with reduced powers), and
    
  • Deftly negotiate an on-going internal dialogue tree between the two AIs.

So, each kill and/or computer hack adds up in Catherine's favour, progressively making Stealth less effective and reducing Dialogue options. The reverse is true if Simon's skills are favoured. An internal dialogue between the bickering AIs will reflect the balance of power.

Be thankful you only have 2 in your head

Europa is one of Jupiter's moons, with a thick ice sheet encasing an internal waterworld. The player must traverse several mining and research Outstations to get at least 4 of 6 parts needed to repair the ARK. Despite rumours of humanity's complete extinction traumatised survivors linger here, but each station is afflicted by its own particular kind of madness.
Note that any specific 'quests' encountered are optional to complete the game.


This lab complex was first set up as a gene-prospecting enterprise, seeking alien DNA useful for gene-editing future off-world colonists. Since Earth's demise it has devolved into a cult-centre for the worship of an indigenous life-form: "The GOB" (a "Generative Organic Biomass'). They feed it with lab-animal sacrifices, since it reproduces by budding off genetically novel hybrid creatures that share DNA with any creatures it consumes. Abandoned sections of this base are infested with their failed and monstrous experiments.

• Quest: The cultists want you to abduct a human test subject from a neighbouring Station to feed to The GOB - hoping it might bud-off a trans-humanist Messiah to lead them into an uncertain future. (the Son of Gob?)

Originally a Vatican-sponsored project to study alien life on Europa, with a view to understanding how its discovery effects Mankind's place at the centre of God's Creation. This station was built in the grand style of a sprawling medieval cathedral complex, but has suffered much damage during a recent internal conflict. All the monsters here are very human - mainly squads of penitent flagellants patrolling the ruins for any hold-out heretics. Their electric whips can disable your droid - if so, they will present you to their leader, 'The Cardinal' - who preaches Earth's downfall is a Divine punishment for meddling with the sacred human genome.

• Quest: They feel a duty to destroy all Trans-humanists remaining on Europa, and want you to release a destructive Europan creature currently contained within the Tranhumanists' labs.
  
• Quest: There is a hidden 'Hall of Heretics'. Releasing the prisoners found here is an alternative way to receive one of the parts you need.

This is an agricultural complex of domed glasshouses attached to the underside of the ice sheet. The algae collectors stationed here have all turned eco-terrorists. They blame the widespread adoption of AI on Earth as responsible for its destruction, so are bent on destroying all remaining sentient machines - including your droid!. If they capture you they will enjoy your slow disassembly. But there's are a lot of wrecked industrial droids here - so using Catherine's and/or Simon's skills there's a good chance you could refit yours with some useful tech-upgrades. (Beware, much of the station has been taken over by 'Wild Eukaryotes' - herds of jellyfish-algae symbiotes that migrate through the complex, slithering after the shafts sunlight that sweep through the glass domes. While your droid is immune to their stingers, it can still be engulfed and detained until they move on).

• Quest: A young computer-game addict here suffers terrible withdrawal since the Luddites destroyed his PC. H'e will give the access code to a forgotten storeroom containing a part you need, if you first transport to the Escapists Station

A limpet-like mining station attached to the peak of a volcanic seamount. The miner's here were all effectively slaves, toiling to repay the interest fees on inter-generational family dept. They refer to waking-life as "Purgatory", and spend any rest breaks in 'the "Paradise" of a multiplayer VR game, where lost family and friends live on. The ARK offers them an enticing chance to abandon their bodies for permanent escape into a computer simulation. Forewarned of your arrival by other stations, they have set up a series of elaborate traps to capture your droid for the purpose of hijacking the ARK.

• Quest: In fact, the ARK cannot accommodate so many minds, but maybe you can strike a deal and find room for just one or two of them? That's gonna be another moral dilemma for Simon (assuming Catherine hasn't already killed everyone here).

Europa's ocean ecosystem is home to hostile alien fauna. Naturally these pose some hazard to the droid when moving between stations (something else for Simon and Catherine to argue about killing).

• Quests: The 'deep wilderness' also contains two wrecked research vessels with parts you can salvage. But these lie far from any Outstation, beyond the range of any shuttle vehicle. Should you opt to raid these wrecks.that means a lengthy stroll amongst the tentacled horrors of Europa,

Your return with the final part needed for the ARK's repair will be fraught with increased environmental dangers (seafloor eruptions and falling debris from the ice-sheet). This is because of the tidal stresses Europa experiences when coming into alignment with its nearby sister-moons of Io and Ganymede.











There are multiple endings, one of which will be triggered shortly after all the parts have been gathered and the ARK.is repaired..

The type of ending achieved depends upon just which AI became dominant during the game:

• If Simon dominated, he declares Catherine's ruthlessness as dangerously homicidal, and will regretfully deactivate her program.
  
  
• If Catherine dominated, she judges Simon's soft-heartedness will compromise the ARK's chances for long-term survival. So she strands him on Europa inside the droid.
  
  
• If the 'Middle Way' was sustained throughout the game then the player has the option to navigate one final internal dialogue tree to negotiate power-sharing between the two emulated personalities.
  
  • If successful, then they both continue to pilot the ARK - but now as a 'unified personality'
    
  • If unsuccessful, then the ARK's default executive AI overrides them. Catherine and Simon are both deleted to resolve the 'internal system conflict'. The ARK sails on, now cleansed of any awkward human personality.

Through a window in the station we see the ARK un-docking, plasma engines glow fiercely as it begins accelerating towards the stars. The camera pulls back and down, so we see can the contents of the room. The floor is littered with damaged mechanical parts from the ARK's repair. A trickle of Structural Gel oozes from one, and winds its way purposely towards the broken corpse of the Hermit.

The continuing assistance of double-shot espressos