SOMA

 PC
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1400 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,165 out of 1400
  2. Mixed: 135 out of 1400
  3. Negative: 100 out of 1400

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  1. sashang
    Nov 12, 2015
    1
    I thought this game would be scary. Everyone raved about it like they raved about Amnesia, which I tried and found boring. Then I tried this hoping it would be scary, but all I do is play hide and seek. That's all these style of games amount to. A lot of running and hiding and counting to 10.
  2. karmasleeper
    Sep 26, 2015
    4
    SOMA is suspense/horror adventure game with light puzzle solving and an excellent story that keeps you engaged and guessing. Rather than juggle multiple gameplay mechanics, SOMA instead leads players along a linear path sneaking around monsters and performing menial tasks all while learning more about the world and its characters.

    The only gameplay to be found in SOMA outside of    SOMA is suspense/horror adventure game with light puzzle solving and an excellent story that keeps you engaged and guessing. Rather than juggle multiple gameplay mechanics, SOMA instead leads players along a linear path sneaking around monsters and performing menial tasks all while learning more about the world and its characters.

    The only gameplay to be found in SOMA outside of interacting with various computer terminals and objects is avoiding detection by monsters. Monsters patrol on set paths and if you make noise they will come to investigate. Monsters do not hound the player as aggressively as they did in Amnesia. This is because you cannot hide in furniture and other objects as you could in Amnesia. To compensate for this, monsters will only investigate part of a room or simply stand in the door way if you alert them. The unfortunate result is a loss of suspense and urgency. It also means you do not get the sense that you are being actively hunted as you did in Amnesia. Multiple times during my play through, monsters would block the only way through a section and I was forced to get attacked or intentionally alert a monster to my presence just to progress. When detected by a monster, you get knocked down and black out. When you wake up, the monster is gone but nearby and you suffer reduced mobility. If you get attacked again, you die. The simplistic stealth and primitive monster AI made these portions of the game very tedious after a short time. Early portions of the game I could simply sprint through, get knocked down once, and keep sprinting until safe or until enemies gave up pursuit.

    Unlike Amnesia: The Dark Descent, there is no inventory system and no need to manage supplies of any kind. While this makes sense given the context of the story, it removes a level of suspense and desperation, things sorely lacking in a game that bills itself as a horror title. Instead, items you carry simply materialize in your hand when you near an object they can interact with.

    The story and characters are the strongest aspect of the game. While predictable, I had a genuine desire to learn more about the events and characters of the station. The voice acting is top notch except for the player character. Much like Jason Brody in Far Cry 3, Simon sounds and behaves like a complete douche - especially in the final scene of the game. Listening to him give voice to the transhumanist themes of the story is like listening to an edgy philosophy student who read Descartes for the first time.

    For much of the game, you travel with another character. Your character will often question or idly banter this NPC when exploring a room or solving a puzzle. While a nice way to present the narrative or offer clues, it results in uneven pacing of calm and tense moments and because those tense moments become so tedious, I often found myself eager to rush past them rather than take my time evading so I could get the game over with more quickly.

    If you're ok paying $30 for a story driven walking game, SOMA is for you. If you were looking for a deeper horror experience with more challenging puzzles and more layers to the gameplay, you'll have to keep looking. Wait for a discount.    … Expand
  3. allwititnowsuck
    Feb 3, 2019
    3
    Play hide and seek with monsters, do something with terminals, repeat till you get to the end of the game.
    So sCaRy and exciting...just like mowing the grass...
  4. SH1
    May 7, 2016
    4
    Soma was not what I hoped for: I expected an Alien Isolation style horror game. Instead the monsters were boring. There is also a disproportionate amount of walking where nothing happens. I see some people refer to it as a "walking simulator", and I agree with them. Another problem is the graphics: it is somewhat headache inducing. On the plus side, I liked the story. I think if theSoma was not what I hoped for: I expected an Alien Isolation style horror game. Instead the monsters were boring. There is also a disproportionate amount of walking where nothing happens. I see some people refer to it as a "walking simulator", and I agree with them. Another problem is the graphics: it is somewhat headache inducing. On the plus side, I liked the story. I think if the storytelling was more character driven and the monsters scarier this would have been a great game.… Expand
  5. Sn0r
    Oct 5, 2016
    4
    It has some very good moments, but overall the game was a dissapointment for me. The story and even the ending was extremely forseeable. The game is very clearly divided into scary moments and story moments to a point where you just swing from running to reading. Yes the atmosphere is very good but overall it just falls short of what it could have been.
    I would have prefered to make it    It has some very good moments, but overall the game was a dissapointment for me. The story and even the ending was extremely forseeable. The game is very clearly divided into scary moments and story moments to a point where you just swing from running to reading. Yes the atmosphere is very good but overall it just falls short of what it could have been.
    I would have prefered to make it either as scary as Amnesia which would have been awesome in this underwater setting. Or a better story with some twists. It feels like the devs couldn't really decide where to go.
    For me the Ending was the biggest disappointment as I was really sitting in my chair and thought
    "Did they really just go for the most obvious ending possible? ****    … Expand
  6. Aleosha
    Jan 22, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've finished both Amnesia games, and I generally like them. But this one bore me to death. I couldn't believe it was actually made by the same team.

    The stealth is quite random and not interesting. You have better chances to run from the "zombies" or retry, than to actually sneak past them.

    Puzzles are often "find rusty button among all the rust" or "find really small object".
    Story: I was waiting for a second twist. In never came.    … Expand
  7. MinchiaDander
    Oct 8, 2020
    0
    SOMA.

    Aspetto estetico e stile bellissimo. La storia parte interessante e mano a mano usando idee di merda e ipotizzando scenari degni di cry of fear continua piano piano a fare un climax basato su supposizioni inutili e basandosi sulla stupidità di Simon, regalandoci poi un finale cosi deludente che neanche quello di alan wake ha ispirato in me così tanta immaginazione sui nuovi dei    SOMA.

    Aspetto estetico e stile bellissimo.
    La storia parte interessante e mano a mano usando idee di merda e ipotizzando scenari degni di cry of fear continua piano piano a fare un climax basato su supposizioni inutili e basandosi sulla stupidità di Simon, regalandoci poi un finale cosi deludente che neanche quello di alan wake ha ispirato in me così tanta immaginazione sui nuovi dei da creare e insultare dando spazio alla mia vena creativa.
    Lo sviluppo dei personaggi inizia bene per poi sbattere contro un muro di testa a 100km/h senza frenare con un pensiero suicida premeditato cosi poi da farti odiare personaggi che stavi iniziando ad adorare e con cui stavi iniziando a simpatizzare.
    In conclusione il finale di questo "gioco" inutile mischiato alle scuse idote per una trama altrettanto inutile hanno trasformato la mia eccitazione per lo stile del genere in odio e rabbia verso gli sviluppatori e i loro rispettivi parenti non lasciandomi altro che non consigliare a nessuno e ripeto NESSUNO di provare questo magnifico "gioco" del cazzo.

    - Sup (in collaborazione con la sua ira)    … Expand
  8. ragnarokew
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    They have to change game system because it's not scary anymore story was ok graphics also ok there is nothing impressive i was expect much much better game from frictional game but they keep failing (see:Amnesia 2)
  9. jdavis3581
    Apr 5, 2016
    4
    SOMA is not winning me over. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere, I get it the atmosphere is kind of creepy! There is nothing going on!! The best thing about Amnesia was the fact that light was your best source of protection which was very difficult to keep going. Not to mention the fact they hit you with the freaky stuff at the onset and it kept building the white knuckle tension. It hadSOMA is not winning me over. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere, I get it the atmosphere is kind of creepy! There is nothing going on!! The best thing about Amnesia was the fact that light was your best source of protection which was very difficult to keep going. Not to mention the fact they hit you with the freaky stuff at the onset and it kept building the white knuckle tension. It had really creepy monsters as well. This go around I guess we have robots. Subtlety today is overused and it just leads to being plain boring if one has played enough of these games. I will continue to play SOMA, hopefully I am wrong, however I doubt this to be the case.… Expand
  10. Chaython
    Jan 2, 2019
    1
    Boring walking, grabbing, reading sim; the grabbing is terrible because your hands are non existent, the movement isn't fluid at all
    I opened a drawer and it hurt me
    items fall through desks etc
    you get the option to answer or reject calls I just reject them then nothing happens in the entire 3 minute scene
    bad graphics terrible voice acting
  11. Code45
    Sep 22, 2015
    4
    So SOMA on day one is having massive issues with bugs and some people cant even play the game. My computer Windows 10 DSR disabled
    intel core TM I5-4460 CPU 3.20ghz
    8 GB ram
    nvdia Geforce GTX 750 with latest drivers
    Has massive FPS issues that should not be going on. I RECOMMEND WAITING something is blatantly wrong with SOMA at this time but somehow it has lots of possessive reviews
  12. CriticoDubioso
    May 8, 2022
    0
    The usual pretentious game from the Frictional Games people. In a game where it would make sense to be able to defend yourself from monsters, you just can't do it. These developers and their equally pretentious fans defend this as being part of the "horror" element to feel totally helpless. Its supposed to be an "experience". Give me a break.

    It is so boring that all these years and all    The usual pretentious game from the Frictional Games people. In a game where it would make sense to be able to defend yourself from monsters, you just can't do it. These developers and their equally pretentious fans defend this as being part of the "horror" element to feel totally helpless. Its supposed to be an "experience". Give me a break.

    It is so boring that all these years and all the money these developers have made that they remain belligerent toward stepping outside of the run and hide horror theme. In the past these games existed because game consoles and computers were not powerful enough to give us more options, there was at least a technical excuse. In this case people say outright mean, crude and insulting things to anyone who questions Frictional Games' efforts. We have tons of processing power in terms of CPUs and GPUs nowadays, even integrated graphics has come a long way too. Even resorting to the usual boring retaliation of, "You don't like the way they make games?, then make your own you idiot, how dare you critiicize these amazing people!" Ugh.

    The amount of fanatics who follow this company and willingly give them money for the same game every time are not better than the Call of Duty and Battlefield people who mainly buy and play due to peer pressure (look at the failed boycott of Modern Warfare 2 on PC to show that many have no integrity and will cave under peer pressure). The other defense is "this type of game is just not for you then", then the game shouldn't call itself a survival game, its barely a game and more just the developers trying to continue to make the same lame game as Penumbra was, same mechanics but with better graphics.

    Now fast forward to now because people are weak minded, we barely get multiplayer games where I can host my own stinking server, no, I have to pay the greedy publisher more money in a microtransaction, to rent or borrow a server that will likely be well out of my connection range and have poor ping, but they give you no choice.

    Why do they not allow you to host your own server? These greedy and selfish game companies don't want to give us the ability to prolong or improve their games through mods (so much for PC being the place for mods), very little of that these days with this culture of online surveillance and worse. So they deny us the ability to have critical files to make any meaningful improvements. Think about for a second, and imagine what it would be like if people on PC could take all of the pointstreaks or whatever from every single Call of Duty game from Modern Warfare 1 to say, Call of Duty Black Ops 4.
    Dozens of abilities and dozens of ways to play the game, especially if it was balanced and not frustrating, meaning, you still only get 3, but you can choose from everything from a basic helicopter to AGM missiles. The only things I would exclude for balancing, would be any streaks like the MOAB from MW3 where it removes the entire enemy team. On top of that, imagine a Call of Duty where you could use all of the weapons and not be restricted to what the developers allow for multiplayer.

    Frictional Games does allow mods but it would take a monumental effort to improve this game, so much so that it might be better to actually make a whole new game instead, its just not intuitive nor is it something I would want to spend my time doing, besides, these developers really need to branch out from the tired horror game themes and perhaps make a game where exploration is encouraged and you can defend your character from monsters/enemies, but perhaps that is asking too much because people will keep giving them money for the same game over and over, and we wonder as PC gamers why things are not what they used to be with mods and why everything is getting worse as developers continue to lie to us about "PC is the lead platform", all just marketing lies to manipulate people to buy the game.

    I am not going to say anymore, this game does not require any substantial critique, its the same type of game as Penumbra or Amnesia, if you want to play a game with some horror stuff and more exploration but has its own limitations, try to find a copy of Betrayer (its gone from steam) and download it, that game kept me more entertained than this garbage "horror experience".    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

29
#29 Best PC Game of 2015
18
#18 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
20
#20 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 68 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 68
  3. Negative: 1 out of 68
  1. Quarter to Three
    Feb 13, 2016
    100
    As with any thoughtful storytelling, Soma works on multiple levels.
    Read full review
  2. PCWorld
    Jan 19, 2016
    100
    SOMA is not the horror game I expected out of Frictional, but I don’t care and it doesn’t matter. This is an excellent work of science fiction, not necessarily unique but uniquely told through its skillful use of video game conceits. It’s System Shock 2 for a modern sensibility, BioShock freed of its AAA chains. It’s damn good and, for my money, the most cohesive and ambitious game Frictional’s made so far.
    Read full review
  3. CD-Action
    Dec 16, 2015
    85
    I parted with Soma with the same feeling that came over me while I was watching “Matrix”, “Interstellar” or “Inception”. Once again someone came up with something no one thought of before and took me for an amazing ride into the unknown. [12/2015, p.40]
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