First Impressions Are Important...Especially When They're Good.
This has been a game i've been waiting for, for a while. It was finally released a few days ago, and i've put in a good solid 2 hours of gameplay. There's been a few things that I've already talked about in the game thread, so I won't be touching on those in here. I'd like to talk about a lot of the other things that I've run into both good and bad that have made this a overall good experience so far. So here we go.
When I first heard about SOMA being released, I honestly didn't know what to expect other than it was going to be a game by the same people that did Amnesia, so that was exciting. As the development process went on, more details were released about the game both with who the main character was and how the story would work in this game. From what I've seen so far, the story seems solid. I'm actually getting immersed into it a lot more than I was expecting, but that's probably more due to the fact that they went with a topic that a lot of people fear may happen to the world as we know it today. The whole idea of robots picking up on human traits and living underwater and it's interesting to hear the story and think "man, it's almost possible for something like this to actually happen." Makes you wonder what it'd be like if something like that were to happen.
As I've seen the game so far, it's been underwater. I don't think i've ever played a game where most of the gameplay is running across the seafloor from place to place, but admittedly, it's one of the best ideas that the developers came up with. It works really well and fits into the story quite nicely, and it adds an almost unsettling atmosphere, If you're like me and you like to have the gamma pretty low for horror games, you literally can only see arms length in front of you while you're walking on the sea floor, unless you use your flashlight, but it doesn't really do a whole lot of good. What make this even more terrifying is there are robots trying to kill you while you're walking the seafloor, and so at any point in time, you'll end up needing to run in any direction that'll get you away from certain death. Keep in mind, if you have the gamma low enough, you have no idea where you're running to or even if you're on the right track to begin with. That mixed with the sounds that seem to come from far away from where you are, it just adds to that unsettling nature that I spoke of earlier. But again, it adds such a unique and interesting environment for a game like this, and I quite like it a lot. Along with that, you really do feel a sense of exploration as you're going from place to place, because the world just feels huge, and that's probably more due to the fact that you can look up, and it's endless.
One of the cool things this game has that I really like a lot is being able to
listen to data buffers that have been prerecorded. You can basically hear of the people that were in the places that you've been to and sort of listen in on conversations or events that took place. Sometimes you can even hear about a catastrophe that took place and it brings all the questions together and answers them right there. It's sort of like the "notes" in Outlast, but this way you're able to listen to them and not really have to focus on reading them. There are notes and pictures that you can look at that are scattered throughout the game, but the data buffers from what I can tell are the most interesting.
Horror games to me, are some of the best games to play, and what makes a lot of them great is when you decide to play them in the dark.
SOMA does a really good job at making you want to play in the dark. I actually did a little test and I noticed that I was actually more immersed in the game as I was walking through the seafloor when I was playing in a dark room. There's something about the noises and the environment around you in the game and in real life that makes you sort of feel like you're the one in the game. For me, being trapped underwater would be terrifying, and this game really showcases that fear.
I've mentioned this before, but I really do have to mention it here again because it's definitely one of the biggest flaws that this game has. The voice acting. Seriously. The voice acting is absolute trash. When the trailer or teaser was released, and you got a taste of what the main character was going to sound like, it was cringe worthy. Playing through the game now, it's still cringe worthy. What makes it worse is that none of the other voices in the game step away from being cringe worthy. I've actually found myself laughing a few times because of how bad the conversations sounded between two people because of the way they spoke and sometimes they'll even repeat what the other person said. I know it's not fair to nitpick on such a silly detail, but it does a good job at taking away from the experience with a game like this. The reason
Amnesia: The Dark Descent was so good was because you never really had a person telling you what to do or where to go, you were basically speechless and on your own for most of the game. I know it's just something i'll have to get over. It won't ruin the entire gaming experience for me, obviously. But I do hope that if Frictional Games decides to do voice acting again, they decide to do it...well...better. Then again, there's really no way for it to be worse.
As I haven't played much more, I suppose that's all i'll be writing about, but again, these are just my first impressions, so i'm sure i'll be talking about this game more as I get more playtime into it. As it stands though, I think this game is certainly going to be a good game. I don't want to get my hopes up thinking it's the best thing that has come from
Frictional Games, because it's not. I've mentioned before a few of the faults that take away from it being an amazing game, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential to be amazing. Definitely do give it a shot if you're interested, because I am having a good time with it.