Some context before we begin...
Over two years ago I did a review for SOMA, the sci-fi horror game by Frictional Games. Well, inspired by a recent video done by EFAP, I replayed the game to see how it held up, and since my writing and analysis has improved since then, I thought I'd follow it up with a more complete dive into my thoughts on the game.
(mild spoilers ahead)
SOMA'S Story
SOMA follows Simon Jarrett, a man who, following a car accident that leaves him with a brain injury, undergoes an experimental brain scan with the aim of running copies of his brain through a variety of outcomes simultaneously in order to find a treatment. However, once the visor of the scan machine lifts up, Jarrett is no longer where he was. Now in a run-down yet technological facility beneath the sea, he finds himself encountering insane machines with the delusion of being human and the revelation that the surface world has been destroyed by a devastating comet impact. What's more - he finds that he himself is a machine, and that his brain scan had been stored as a template and uploaded after all this time. Forced together with another machine-person, Catherine Chun, he is forced to navigate the daunting facilities of Pathos-II, chronicling the haunting decline of mankind's final holdout, avoiding the creatures spawned by the life-preserving Warden unit that pervades every nook and cranny of the station, and embark on a noble goal that might save whatever is left of humanity's memory. After all, there is nothing left for him to lose, right?
My Thoughts on the Game
First thing I have to say is that this is one of the most thought-provoking games I've played, due in part to the subject matter that explores consciousness, artificial intelligence, immortality and death, and in part due to how how profoundly they were implemented. When the last of humanity might suffer indefinitely, should you put an end to it? Is a comforting lie better than the truth when the truth is an unforgiving nightmare with no hope of waking from? What value is an artificial life-form if it bears the same consciousness of an organic one, and would that value be different if the original was alive or dead?
These ideas aren't anything new - dozens of films, television shows and games have done so, from Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell to Altered Carbon and Mass Effect. SOMA's take is very unique, however, putting these kind of ethical quandaries to their most daunting extremes, where the last holdouts of human life live in pain and confusion where their minds are awkwardly fragmented into robots ill-equipped to handle them, and their bodies twist and warp into horrific monstrosities in thanks to the WAU (Warden Unit). Never before have I seen philosophy explored in a game in such a way, creating a sense of existential dread and horror as you are forced to make the choices that define humanity's end.
Gameplay and Drawbacks
The gameplay is simple enough, moving from one site to the other while solving puzzles to further your journey and avoiding the WAU's creations, all the while questioning the nature of what you yourself are and what separates you from them. However, it does have a fantastic sense of progression that far exceeds the game's physical limitations, as you descend further and further in the desolate sea, with the death and destruction of the world becoming more and more solidified, and the monsters more uncanny and terrifying, and the implications of your - and humanity's new nature, head to their haunting conclusion.
If I do have any criticisms, I think that some of the voice acting is ropey, namely with Simon and his fairly plain, unresponsive voice and reactions when put in the terrifying situations he finds himself in. The game shifts between him being silent when exploring the environment, and talking with other characters, and the former is definitely the most effective, even if the latter is necessary for the story and dilemmas. Additionally, the game is restricted by what appears to be limited resources, leading to a sometimes unpolished experience and rough gameplay interface - for example, the load screen is simply a distorted version of the main menu, which, while fitting with the theme of the game, does look cheap or lazy.
Conclusion
All in all, SOMA is a highly underrated horror game that I have to strongly recommend if science fiction, horror, philosophy or artificial intelligence even remotely interest you. You will go from the excitement of discovery to horrified confusion at the implications of the technology presented, to terror in the face of semi-human creatures and the thought that they might yet be aware of what they are, before turning it back to Simon, the character, and you, the player, and asks just what you human. With perhaps a few graphical and gameplay shortcomings bringing it down, it gets a nine out of ten from me.
9 OUT OF 10
SPOILER SECTION
Deeper and Deeper...
There is a brilliant sense of escalation with each location, getting darker and more run - down, with monsters more disturbing, and decisions to make larger and and more existential - painful and meaningless life or the peace of death, one life over another when what makes a life valuable is hard to define, and the deleting of mental templates to save them of potential torturous uses, when perhaps some good could come of them in the future. These decisions don't have major impacts on the story, but rather make you look inward and consider the implications of your actions, and what you would do in such a difficult position.
Step by Step...
The order of the stops on our journey once we wake up goes as this - Upsilon, the production of robots and then the WAU's mockingbird creatures and source of power to PATHOS II, Lambda, the Marie Curie, a crashed ship that contains two Flesher creatures and looping messages of the lifeless earth following the impact of the comet, Delta, a transit station and gruesome murder scene that foreshadows the threat of a mad Terry Akers. Theta, heart of Pathos II with scientific, medical and personal centres, corrupted by a reanimated Akers and his proxies. Omicron, the site at the edge of the abyss and only means of going down, Tau, the bleak living space in the Abyss and point of delivery to Phi, Alpha, origin of the WAU and ground zero for its corruption, Phi, where missiles to the space gun are delivered and loaded, and Omega, launch point of the Ark.
from a distinctly inhuman looking and sounding mockingbird (though a human consciousness driven mad has almost certainly been uploaded into it), to later mockingbirds when exploring outside complete with voices, then fleshers, corpses with WAU growths in place of heads, that become hostile when looked at.
Next at Theta is Terry Akers and his proxies, revived corpses mid way through dissection that are horrifyingly distorted and covered with coral-like growths. These things are slow and plodding, but get too close or make enough noise, and they will come running. Their goal is to connect humans to the WAU, letting them live in a dreamlike state while in reality, their bodies wither and decay, completely dependent on the WAU for survival. This section is the one I found perhaps the scariest, trying to solve puzzles in such a hostile and foreboding location with these things constantly on the prowl, worried that I'd hear that terrible shriek and be forced to make more noise in my attempt to escape, locking myself into the security room whenever I needed to get my bearings and plan my next move.
Theta is also where you find some of the even more terrible implications for digitally copied consciousnesses, like when you find out that Simon was a legacy scan, used over and over for all sorts of tests. Thousands of versions of him, ran over and over again, brought to life in an instant, and turned off (or killed) just as quick. You see this principle in practice when Simon and Catherine need to get information of a digital copy of a Theta officer, Brandon Wan, so you boot up his copy again and again until you have found all you need to trick him into getting a code. You have the choice whether or not to store or delete these templates of yourself, Wan and Munshi.
Following this and the failure to retrieve the DUNBAT at Theta, is Omicron, where the creatures are, for the most part, less hostile, but allow you to get a detailed look at their designs - crude mechanical parts fused onto human beings, who are now mad, unresponsive, or violently lashing out in confusion. What hasn't been resurrected lies on the floor, headless, a response the WAU had to a mission launched to destroy it, which also had the adverse effect of stranding survivors of Theta and Tau respectively.
It is here where you need to construct a new body capable of descending into the abyss, and meet Johan Ross, a man mutated by the WAU and displaying some of its powers, yet apparently sane. His goal is to assist you in your tasks, and follow you down into the abyss. You construct the suit, but when you wake up in it, you hear the other Simon talking, the one you were just a moment ago, and can choose whether this Simon, trapped in the room he is in and alone, can stay alive, or be quietly turned off while asleep.
Where the ocean floor was oppressive before, the abyss is truly terrifying. Pitch black and with only signal lights to guide you to Tau, you have to contend with WAU - corrupted sea life. All of the architecture is built to withstand extreme pressures, from buttons and panels to doors, a wonderful touch of detail. Travelling further and further down here, you get the terrible impression you won't be returning. It's worth pointing out at this point that this game to me gave the most distinct impression of hell on earth that I've seen in a game, and I have to give great praise to Frictional Games for achieving this.
Tau is in a similar situation to Omicron when, after being attacked by WAU corrupted sea life, you find the station empty, save for a diver called Jin Yoshida, who, after leaving in search of food and his suit being damaged, died to the pressure, only for structure gel inside the suit to bring back whatever was left which now hunts you through Tau's tight corridors. This encounter is fairly short, but memorable for Yoshida's speed and responsiveness to you. He can both hear and see fairly well, and will roam freely until he finds you, making him far more of a physical threat than Akers or the fleshers, even if those sequences may have been better thought out.
The End...
Afterwards, you retrieve the ark from the first, and last true human you have seen, and indeed that is left on Earth, malnourished and stuck on life support. You are then given the choice whether or not to keep her alive or let her die, as she wishes. Either way, the heartbeats on the monitor will soon cease and with it, humanity.
On the way to transport the ark, Ross diverts you to site Alpha, the heart of the WAU. He reveals that the structure gel used to create the new body of Simon was corrupted so as to infect and kill the WAU and destroy all its creations, so you must choose between letting the WAU continue its imperative of keeping humanity alive in all the twisted ways in knows how, or let it die, humanity with it.
The solution isn't quite as clear cut as it appears, mainly because you as Simon are also a WAU creation - made in exceptional circumstances, maybe, but a human mind sane and aware of its surroundings. And given time, the WAU might adapt to create others like him, or even correct its creatures. Even Aker's plan to put people to sleep connected to the WAU has similarities to the Ark project, so it might understand its creators intentions more than we realise. Why not leave it Earth to grow and evolve? It might be humanity's best chance of longevity, considering the risks the Ark project takes in the launching into and drifting in space.
Whatever your decision, the WAU retaliates, and you are forced to run to Phi, where you prepare the Ark for launch, and discover that the real Catherine was accidently killed when her team objected to the launch. You then head to Omega, and launch the ark, copying your consciousness onto it at the last minute. However, Simon and Catherine are left behind, Simon unaware, or unwilling to consider, that the process was not a transfer, but a copy, just as it was with his original self to when he woke up at Upsilon. One Simon is relieved, arriving with Catherine at the dreamlike digital world within the ark, the other is left at the bottom of the ocean, alone, a haunting ending contrasted with hope.
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