Reviews - ImaGenius40

This will be the first ever video game I have played that I feel deserves a perfect score. While others will disagree, for me at least, everything Frictional has promised with this game has been delivered, and then some, and in my eyes is better than any of their previous works by a long shot. As a horror game, it's excellent: Looking back at tactics they used for Amnesia, they have improved greatly in my opinion. While I found Amnesia absolutely terrifying, there were two things about Amnesia that made it lose a bit of its terrifying experience for me: the despawning of enemies. Eventually you would know when you were safe because the hunting music would stop, letting you know the monster has despawned. The part other being hiding. The creatures in Amnesia weren't very bright, so unless you made any noise or screwed up along those lines, hiding in a closet or behind boxes would guarantee you safety until they despawned. With SOMA, the monsters are smart, don't despawn, check everywhere, are able to open doors without breaking them down, and there really weren't any places to hide. For me, that was a huge improvement; as I heard the creatures step closer to my location, I would be filled with absolute dread and terror as I played out the possible scenarios in my head and because you couldn't really hide anywhere, you would either have to act, trying to outsmart the said creature, or just sit there as it discovers you (granted, each monster had some sort of flaw making it a little easier to outsmart them.) The puzzles were good too, the game never once held your hand, and as long as you put some common sense into each puzzle based off of your surroundings, you would get through in a reasonable amount of time. As for atmosphere, Frictional nailed it. Mikko Tarmia makes another great soundtrack, and they've always been masters of sound design so nothing new here. As for graphically, the improved engine for this game made the whole thing come out beautiful and grim at the same time, far better than anything they've made. Voice acting was top notch, and the character(s) in the game were really well done and made me really attached and empathetic. For me though, the one thing that stood out more than anything was the game's story. As someone who's followed Frictional for a long time, I knew they wouldn't disappoint with the horror, but the entire story blew my expectations out of the water. Not only is the story original, which is often rare for a horror game, but it's very thought provoking and mind-blowing, and it, along with the affects of your choices, which for me, stayed in my head even after I was done playing for the night, make you extremely uncomfortable while at the same time makes you seriously contemplate the themes displayed in the dialogue and scenery. The story itself puts the psychological in psychological horror, which is what their aim was all along. It really makes you think about what it truly means to be "human," to be "alive" and "conscious," and adds those themes up with your morality. Because they've never really attempted to portray this kind of story before, I expected them to come up short, but I was dead wrong. There are no spoilers in this review, but I just want to say I've never played a game with an ending that's made me both devastated and happy at the same time. For me, this game had nothing wrong with it, except for the length, at ten hours or so, and that's only because I was so sorry I ever finished playing it fully through. To some people I may be over-exaggerating, and I can understand why they'd think so after reading this, but this is honestly and genuinely how I feel about SOMA. It's an absolute masterpiece in my mind, and by far the best gaming experience I've had in memory. Because of this game, I will now be behind Frictional with one hundred percent of my support. They really outdid themselves with this game, and I can't wait to see the games they've made after improving even more.