SOMA is a survival horror title being developed and published by Frictional Games and is slated for a 2015 release on PC, MAC and PS4. Frictional Games most famous game up until now is Amnesia: The Dark Descent. SOMA has been secretly in development since 2010. The first official gameplay trailer was released early this passed October and since then a few live-action trailers have surfaced as well. SOMA and The Evil Within are both going to be games within the survival horror genre and while The Evil Within looks to be a promising new horror title that I am excited to play, it is the game mechanics that I am ultimately drawn to. SOMA on the other hand looks to be potentially a catalytic explosion in the horror world. The gameplay trailer alone is enough to give you goosebumps of depraved joy at how unabashedly demented it is and their is a certain uneasy undertone to the live action trailers that give a hint of SOMA possibly being something truly horrifying.
The world of SOMA is sort of like if the legendary artist H.R Giger of Alien fame was crossed with influences of Hellraiser and placed in a cold futuristic setting where it appears robot technology is common. The goal of the game according to Thomas Grip Creative Director of Frictional Games in his own words according to his blog entry on Playstation.com states that. “SOMA is meant to chill you to your core, and confront you with questions about your very existence.” The stark setting of the game paired with the commitment to exploring futuristic sci-fi theories and philosophies definitely has my attention as an experience that could possibly stand out as more than just a good horror game and be something truly special that none of us will soon forget.
My impressions of everything I have read and seen so far of SOMA reminds me of a post-apocalyptic short story published in 1967 that was later turned into a 1995 computer game called “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.” The story is fairly disturbing about a self-aware supercomputer that engineers mass genocides around the world until their are only 5 survivors left in the whole world. The survivors live in a vast underground complex but the supercomputer holds great hatred towards humankind and thus makes the 5 remaining humans borderline immortal so it can torture them for all eternity. Although there is little evidence that the two narratives will be in anyway similar I just get the feeling that very bad things are going to happen to the protagonist in SOMA. Furthermore the Creative Director went on to say that the player will not take control of a space marine fighting his way out but rather a regular person finding their way through.
Three years in development and only a little over a month out of secrecy it seems unfair that we will have to wait until 2015 to get our hands on SOMA. Here is a link to Creative Director Thomas Grip’s blog on Playstation.com so you can read what the game is about in his own words as well as check out the official gameplay trailer which is included on his blog page. Please note as with most horror related media the trailer on Thomas Grip’s page does include some scenes of gore and violence. I have also include links to 2 of the live-action trailers for SOMA posted on Frictional Games official YouTube page here entitled “Vivarium” and “Mockingbird.” Bookmark SonicMercury.com for updates on SOMA and all things horror related.
-Z3R0TH3RT33N
Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury