[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...