[jjoonathan]

SOMA was my favorite. Amnesia launched the genre and is more famous, but SOMA not only scratched my hard(ish) sci-fi itch, it elevated its own horror by doing so.

Sci-fi horror usually focuses on relatively silly premises like "what if the monster gets out" or "what if we open a portal to hell." SOMA really rises above those tropes. It's legitimately unsettling to have a game confront you with troublesome implications of future technology that you had been subconsciously avoiding.

[rspeele]

SOMA was wonderful. Maybe it helped that I didn't have really high expectations going in -- I pretty much thought "more horror like Amnesia, but in a new setting". So I went into it blind.

But it ended up being one of those experiences that you keep thinking about for a few days afterwards. And it's a rare video game that I think would have lost its impact as a movie or a book, despite not having much gamey stuff to do (it's practically in the walking simulator category).

The philosophical questions it brings up may not be anything new, but the game does an excellent job of putting the humanity in them and making you really consider what it would feel like to be in the circumstances of its characters -- not just the playable ones or the ones they interact with directly, but the ones you find audio logs and transcripts from.

Edit: I should also note that I played The Talos Principle shortly after playing SOMA and was struck by a couple similarities they have. Talos is a much less story-driven game, you can almost ignore the story and just focus on the puzzles if you please. But playing it right after SOMA I couldn't help but enjoy how it almost covered the same type of scenario from another -- perhaps more optimistic -- angle.

[ehnto]

We had a really similar experience, including playing Talos directly afterwards. They both had a really incredible solitude to them, which I think resonated because of the same ideological reasons but in two different contexts like you said. They managed to evoke pretty much the same emotions from me, except for the horror from SOMA.

There was an uncanniness to the Talos robots and the terminal entries which was really creepy to me though, I found them really unsettling at first.

[the_af]

Seconded. I'm still impressed by SOMA, a couple of years after playing it. Some of its dialogue has remained stuck in my mind: "I woke up in my bed today -- a hundred years ago".

What works for me is that it's a genuine scifi story, even with its horror motifs removed -- some people even prefer it that way! It's a nice scifi story with interesting existential questions and compelling characters. I like how key aspects of the ending are foreshadowed by previous events, and how it's completely consistent that the main character remains blind to the implications.

I was really, really impressed by SOMA.

[saberience]

I'm always surprised at how people can vary so much in opinions. I didn't play an hour of Soma before I felt bored and infuriated at the gameplay mechanics, quit and never played it again.

[the_af]

Do you remember roughly at which point you left the game?

SOMA feels very by the numbers horror-survival at first (think: Bioshock, System Shock, etc), but this begins to unravel after a while. The first few situations seem standard, you think you have the plot figured out, and there is one escape-from-the-monster situation which is infuriatingly difficult.

However, I'd say if you give it a chance you'll discover it's not really in the survival horror genre -- some people play it with monsters disabled! -- and is in fact an exploration of consciousness and the sense of the "self". And quite interesting, too. There are some pretty poignant moments I wouldn't expect from a videogame.

I know every game likes to say this about itself. I, for example, found the plot twist and self-proclaimed "deep" plot points about Bioshock very unimpressive. But SOMA feels closer to something like A Mind Forever Voyaging in my opinion...

[Slartie]

I strongly second this opinion. After playing SOMA (and being seriously frightened by it - you need to play it in the dark at night, with headphones, full immersion style) I was an instant fan of the studio and tried Amnesia. But the entire historic-fantasy-style theme turns me off pretty hard. I'm having a hard time continuing to play it, though I want to give it another chance sometime.

But SOMA? Really, really great game. I'm considering repurchasing it on PS4 and replaying it in my home cinema setup for even more immersion. Though knowing the story beforehand probably takes quite a bit out of the experience.

[jjoonathan]

Yes, try to experience SOMA without spoilers. "Figuring it out" is part of the experience.

If you're 5 minutes in and worry that you've figured it out and aren't impressed, don't worry, you haven't seen anything yet.

[ehnto]

I found the themes in A Machine for Pigs to be more believable and thus scary than A Dark Descent, but neither hold a candle to SOMA thematically and most people regard A Machine for Pigs to be less good than it's predecessor.

[account42]

> most people regard A Machine for Pigs to be less good than it's predecessor

I think that's mostly a problem of expectations. TDD focuses on being a horror game while A Machine for Pigs is much closer to a horror-themed walking simulator. If you expect Amnesia II out of A Machine for Pigs then I can see how you would be disappointed but that doesn't make the game worse it just means using the Amnesia name might have been a bad choice since the games are in different subgenres and thus target somewhat different audiences.

[gtsteve]

It's got some brilliant writing and voice acting as well. It's also not too long a game, I played about an hour a night and completed it in a week. It's not a giant time sink like some games try to be.

I'm definitely interested to hear about similar games - I was never able to find anything that quite compared. Amnesia looked quite dated and unpolished by comparison after playing SOMA and I couldn't quite get into it.

[jjoonathan]

I've never found anything that compared either.

I recently had another pleasant hard sci-fi surprise, though: Horizon Zero Dawn. I didn't expect it to take the backstory (or even the main story) seriously, but it did, and it did a brilliant job of it.

[wheybags]

I had exactly the same prejudice. "Shoot robot dinos with a bow and arrow" doesn't sound like a premise that could possibly have a decent underlying story, but they actually pulled it off.

[ehnto]

There is nothing like the story and atmosphere of SOMA, but some notable games in the ballpark of "unique, low combat, engaging story" are:

Obduction, The Talos Principle, Alien Isolation (some combat), INFRA (creepier than expected)

[account42]

Frictional's first game, Penumbra: Overture also fits in my opinion (although not if you already consider Amnesia to be too dated).

[Ace17]

I found Kairo to be a little gem in this style.

[Maken]

I'm actually a bit disappointed their next game is set in the Lovercraftian Amnesia universe. Before the SOMA released I considered the Penumbra series to be above Amnesia, despite the later being the one which gave them recognition, and after SOMA I'm convinced they are much better at sci-fi horror than at cosmical/mythological one.

Although maybe the reason is that I find the Penumbra/SOMA setting to be much more believable and therefore unsettling.

[the_af]

Ouch. Color me disappointed as well.

After SOMA, I'd say they are good at sci-fi, period. Even with its horror elements removed, SOMA has some interesting scifi situations.

[ehnto]

How did you feel about A Machine for Pigs? I felt the real story there was the way the father went crazy, and the role the church had, two really believable plot points. Not really the man/beast moster and so on which was less believable.

I do agree though, for what it's worth they have two projects in development right now so maybe one of them is more scifi.

[account42]

I also think that Amnesia: TDD was Frictional's weakest game (not bad but just not as good as the others), in particular due to the more mystical "ancient alien" plot.

Personally I prefer A Machine for Pigs over TDD for that reason too but I was always under the impression that it was mostly The Chinese Room's creation and that Frictional's involvement was limited to the more technical and publishing aspects.

[badsectoracula]

Nitpick but the genre existed before - Amnesia is a first person horror adventure game and the Penumbra series was their first attempt with almost identical mechanics. However even before there was Call of Cthulhu - and Thomas Grip's (Frictional's programmer) own Unbirth game[0] which was cancelled but they demo uploaded (the downloads do not work but you can find it at the archive[1]). Unbirth feels like a very unfinished Penumbra without the physics stuff (but the horror adventure game elements are still there).

And of course there were similar games going back in time, e.g. Realms of the Haunting [2] and i'm sure you can find many others.

[0] https://unbirth.frictionalgames.com/

[1] https://archive.org/details/unbirth_alpha

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzT27LXpoyc

[Jach]

Penumbra: Black Plague remains my favorite. It's good enough on its own you don't even need to play the first Penumbra episode if you're time constrained, though the first Penumbra was pretty good too. I played Amnesia later and it was good, but not as much. Haven't gotten around to Machine For Pigs.

SOMA was disappointing. It wasn't bad, but I don't think of it as horror, and its story and characters were the weakest in the lot. But maybe that's just because I'm too familiar with sci-fi covering the same things much better and with better characters, and there's even a non-fiction book analysis of a future which assumes the central tech comes about that's deep enough in exploring implications to put the sci-fi to shame on that metric.

[account42]

I can definitely agree to disagree on which game mechanics are better but calling the SOMA story the weakest among the Frictional games just confuses me. If anything I found the magic ancient alien plot of Amnesia to be super meh. Guess you're not much of a Sci-Fi fan?

[Jach]

On the contrary, I like sci-fi. I'll repeat myself that I think seeing the themes explored in other places more thoroughly and with better characters (I'll give one of many anime examples: Ghost in the Shell; two of many fiction books: Permutation City and to an extent The Golden Age trilogy; a video game: Nier Automata), including a deep non-fiction analysis (http://ageofem.com/) makes me more dismissive of SOMA than perhaps I ought to be. In particular near the ending of SOMA where the thing happens to Simon and he freaks out, despite the same thing happening shortly beforehand and freaking him out, was the most annoying bit that really sealed my distaste. The resolution or not of the sideplot driving the 'horror' was also lazy...

I'll agree Penumbra and Amnesia don't have world-class stories either, but what they do have is told well with better characters, the horror aspect is better, and I more enjoyed the rest of the non-story elements that make up a video game. SOMA easily wins on graphics and slightly less clunky control, if it changed nothing else but its main character it may have even won me over, but as it is I can only call it not bad...

[jjoonathan]

(spoiler warning)

Self-delusion is one of the major themes of SOMA. Simon and Catherine partake. I can understand how it came across as annoying and lazy writing, respectively, but it's not. Well... if the writing was annoying or lazy, it wasn't for those reasons.

As for the book comparison, I also think that's slightly uncharitable. Books go far deeper because the written medium facilitates doing so, but interactive media have their own unique benefits: they can force you to make decisions, prohibiting the kind of lazy fence-sitting that's so easy with passive media. I wouldn't object if someone found the book analysis more valuable, or vice-versa, but without a specific disambiguating goal in mind I don't think it's fair to judge one by its strengths and the other by its weakness.

[account42]

> In particular near the ending of SOMA where the thing happens to Simon and he freaks out, despite the same thing happening shortly beforehand and freaking him out, was the most annoying bit that really sealed my distaste.

I agree that that was a weak point but not because it's unrealistic for Simon to be surprised - that continuity of Simon did after all jump along with every copy so he did not really experience the same thing before. Being so focused on getting on the Ark I find it quite believable that Simon would not think too much about that he would also be staying on the sea floor.

Forcing that reaction onto the player was a mistake though. I think it would have been better use of the medium if Frictional had not added the Ark ending and instead left the player stranded under the ocean with nothing to do and leaving you to come up with your own reaction.

For me that ending didn't take away from the rest of the game though.

> the horror aspect is better

As weird as it is to say about Frictional's games, the actual horror aspect is the least interesting part to me. I guess that also explains why I'm a bit biased against TDD. I do agree that the Penumbra games have great characters though - Red is one of my all time favorite video game characters.