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Kevin Wilson (179 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Soma in Video Games

Jul 13, 2018  
Soma
Soma
2015 | Horror
Interesting concept and story (3 more)
Good length
Creepy atmosphere
Amazing world
Bad AI (2 more)
Awkward acting and diologue
Slow parts
Great game, a few flaws
Contains spoilers, click to show
This is a great game, I loved it but there were a few flaws that knocked the rating down sadly.

First off the concept, story and world were by far the best parts of the game. It lasted me around 10 hours and I wanted to keep coming back to it.

The idea to transfer consciousness to robot has fascinated me for a long time. It's not new, it's been talked about for a long time and this game shows it in a very interesting way.

Basically you have a brain scan. Your creating a digital copy of yourself and that is being transferred into the robot. So it doesn't matter if it's 1 year or 100 years later you will have the brain scan and then wake up in a robot because this version of you is from that moment the brain scan took place (stay with me haha) which means the original "you" could have gone on to live 50 more years for all we know.

It's intriguing but also a scary thought because it does beg the question, is this version actually you? It's a copy so surely it's not you conscious?

So obviously we meet our protagonist, Simon who is suffering a brain injury and goes for a brain scan. He doesnt know what the brain scan is intended for so he is immediately woken up in the far future and feeling very confused and this could have been a very interesting story about him descending into madness and insanity as he begins to realise what he has now become. However this falls flat and when he does find out the truth he is quickly accepting and calm about it all. It wasn't very believable and could have done so much more with it.

There is a 2nd character you meet, Catherine who turns out to be a machine who then gets transfer into your omnitool so you assume will be a constant companion and will talk to you constantly as you walk about. However this is not the case as she only talks when plugged into a console which was too few for my liking. Her acting and diologue also felt too emotionless and wooden which could have been intentional and gradually made her out to be obsessive and manipulative and this would have further showed that if they had her talking as you walked about. But again this was not the case, the game is predictable which was disappointing. The ending was predictable despite a few twists but I still liked it.

The AI was very confusing. I didn't understand what the rules were. Was it attracted to light, movement or sound? It was very unpredictable but thankfully the developer updated the game to add a safe mode which keeps everything the same, and still keeps the creepiness but removes the ability for enemies to harm you which did make the game more enjoyable. Plus trophies still unlock on that mode for those completionests.

Overall game was too good to not play thanks to story and the concept behind it. I loved learning about the world through recordings and terminal. I'd love to learn more in a sequel or prequel but with different characters and location. The atmosphere felt creepy and clostophobic at times. But gameplay was generic. Walk to here, open this door, use this terminal.

I do recommend anyone playing it but the lack of collectibles and multiple endings doesn't give good replayability.