The spoiler tags contain spoilers up to (and including) the Theta portion of the game. There are no untagged spoilers in this post.
I hope I'm not the only one who feels like this.
Basically, every monster encounter in the game so far -
Spoiler below!
I'm just about to board the submarine and have just gotten the security cipher from simulated Wan
- has started off really tense, but then turned into total and utter frustration as the monster would simply walk back and forth between me and my goal, constantly turn around and pin me in my place.
Their behavior seems to be completely random, outside of them straight-up seeing me. Sometimes, I can tip-toe mere inches behind them without them noticing me, sometimes I wait for them to fully disappear from my sight before tracing their path, only to hear and see them turn on their heels straight back into my direction, forcing me to run back to my hiding spot and wait for it to painfully slowly shuffle their way to my room and then back again. Sometimes, they walk up and down the same room over and over, sometimes, they take one step inside a room before pulling a 180 and walking straight back out. In the end, I mostly just ended up going "to hell with it" and darting straight past it, which sometimes worked, sometimes didn't, but never evoked a feeling of horror or fear.
I realize that having the monster outright disappear after a while - like in Amnesia - would, over time, take all tension out of the game - like in Amnesia - because you could simply sprint to some corner upon encountering one, get yourself a cup of tea and be safe and sound after it's gone - like in Amnesia. However, Frictional managed to do it in Penumbra with the Tuurngait, and pretty darn well at that.
I'd wager it has something to do with the tight and cramped spaces monsters seem to be thrown into in SOMA. In Amnesia, every monster encounter was heavily scripted, which allowed them to pull off tense moments in tight and narrow spaces - at the expense of becoming rather predictable after a while. Penumbra didn't have many monster encounters in cramped spaces, but usually had one or two of them roaming a network of highly twisted hallways, which meant that every turn could end you up right in their arms. That built tension and constant anticipation, which caused fear and uneasiness.
SOMA somehow managed to take *the worst parts* out of both of these approaches, and fuse them into a big ball of frustration. Because - at least so far - every monster moves about in the immediate area of the player, you generally always tend to know where it is (the Amnesia approach), but because it doesn't despawn and keeps roaming around (the Penumbra approach), it just ends up constantly standing in your way, making you wait for it to finally move and clear your path. And, again, this doesn't make me afraid of it at all. There's no tension, no going "where the hell is it" or "what if it's right around this corner". It's just "get the hell out of my damn way already, you ugly robotic freak!", again and again.
What makes this especially frustrating is that there is so much potential in each of the encounters. All of them initially had me on the edge of my seat! However, as time went on and I continuously got nothing but a face full of corner, walking back and forth and avoiding the monster that would continue to patrol back and forth right in my damn path, my immersion and tension gradually broke until I started trying to trick the monster's mechanics or ignore it altogether, going for a "might as well take the hit" approach. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that should be the reaction a psychological horror game provokes.
Spoiler below!
One bit that particularly stands out to me is the sunken ship, in which the teleporting monster roams about. Getting within the same star system as the guy makes your UI go all dizzy, even if he's on the other side of a wall, he constantly teleports right into your path, and worst of all, he doesn't seem to do anything at all, even when you hide right in front of him, as long as you stare at a corner and not directly at him. Again, the whole section was more of a test of patience than anything else, and the chase at the end felt incredibly forced - because now, for some reason, the guy wants to twist your insides out and chases you through the whole place, when before, he couldn't give less of a damn whether you did the polka right in his face as long as you weren't looking at him funny.
I'm curious whether it's just the way I'm playing the game, or whether others have the same thoughts. Alternatively, feel free to tell me why you think I'm wrong, or whether I'm not considering something important. So far, as far as storytelling and plot goes, the game is absolutely fantastic - but especially the in-between-y walking simulator bits (like the way overdone underwater sections) and the aforementioned dodgy monster AI leave a sour taste in an otherwise perfectly crafted piece of video game horror cake.
felt incredibly forced - because now, for some reason, the guy wants to twist your insides out and chases you through the whole place, when before, he couldn't give less of a damn whether you did the polka right in his face as long as you weren't looking at him funny.
Spoiler below!
There is a reason for its behavior - you disconnected the WAU 'support' cables and therefore it sees you as a threat.
I agree that the sunken ship became irritating. (It didn't help that I encountered the tentacles before Catherine had explained what to do with them.) I also had trouble with a certain enemy in Omicron.
I think the enemies in Theta were spot-on, though. Also, there's a superb underwater sequence late in the game.
I'm frustrated to why Frictional Games took the old Horror Route where every enemy has some kind of patrol path they follow.
This completely killed my immersion with most of them as I was constantly within 5 feet of them (They love to follow within your immediate vicinity)
I probably spent a good 30 minutes with each monster, not being deathly afraid of them like the Grunt or Brute whom made me quiver in fear wishing they would go away. But instead made me look at them as an annoying 1 hit kill obstacle courses.
TBH I don't find the monsters scary at all. Their designs were cool and disturbing but that's just it, gameplay-wise they were actually weaker enemies than AMFP's(Not joking.) The behaviours of the enemies as just as predictable as Grunts and Brutes etc and you can usually figure out each monsters gimmicks pretty easily. "Don't look at this one" for Disco Grunts and "Don't make noise at this guy" for the flesh thing in the server rooms, so they basically split up 2 things you had to with the original enemies in TDD but somehow made it less interesting.
The first monster type you encounter was just a plain old grunt type enemy but just slower and simply not scary. I know FG wanted the monsters to be more unpredictable and more interesting than any gatherers/manpigs you encountered but I just simply preferred the raw terror of being chased of a guy with messed up body armour,hasn't washed in months and has an Uruk-Hai sword for an arm down a hallway. I admit I did find the Disco Grunt sequence in the wrecked ship tense atleast.
The whole sequence after the dummy ARK simulation - including the dark and 'sticky' area after the elevator breakdown - was absolutely superb. It makes none of the mistakes the earlier sections make - the monsters are let loose in a huge, disorienting and gloomy environment, which means you never exactly know where they are; they seem to actually roam around instead of merely walking back-and-forth, which means they are unpredictable in their movements; the game forces you to navigate those twisted hallways in order to fulfill your objectives, which causes constant tension and uneasiness; and all those feelings are then topped off with a very disturbing subject matter and scenery, like the heavily breathing woman sitting in front of the computer, Wan's corpse and last heroic stand, and the peculiar research projects and specimen in the area. It's also the first area in which the flashlight was absolutely necessary, which caused me to stay on guard, lest I attract the monster with it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and my hands actually trembled at some points - which is something that only Amnesia and Penumbra had managed to do to me prior.
Having the power break down after updating the elevator chip was a great touch; having the monster then start roaming back-and-forth right in front of the security office first made me think "here we go again" - but this time, there was actually a solution! I loved that you could actually trap the monster and lock it inside the Medical Lab, if you wait and listen for its door to open and then disable its locks through the security console! That moment made me feel like I had actually "conquered" the monster, which made for a great sense of accomplishment.
If the rest of the game stays this way, then I know I am in for an absolutely stellar experience. Please, no more "gatekeeper" monsters in tight spaces with no way around them!
The whole sequence after the dummy ARK simulation - including the dark and 'sticky' area after the elevator breakdown - was absolutely superb. It makes none of the mistakes the earlier sections make - the monsters are let loose in a huge, disorienting and gloomy environment, which means you never exactly know where they are; they seem to actually roam around instead of merely walking back-and-forth, which means they are unpredictable in their movements; the game forces you to navigate those twisted hallways in order to fulfill your objectives, which causes constant tension and uneasiness; and all those feelings are then topped off with a very disturbing subject matter and scenery, like the heavily breathing woman sitting in front of the computer, Wan's corpse and last heroic stand, and the peculiar research projects and specimen in the area. It's also the first area in which the flashlight was absolutely necessary, which caused me to stay on guard, lest I attract the monster with it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and my hands actually trembled at some points - which is something that only Amnesia and Penumbra had managed to do to me prior.
Having the power break down after updating the elevator chip was a great touch; having the monster then start roaming back-and-forth right in front of the security office first made me think "here we go again" - but this time, there was actually a solution! I loved that you could actually trap the monster and lock it inside the Medical Lab, if you wait and listen for its door to open and then disable its locks through the security console! That moment made me feel like I had actually "conquered" the monster, which made for a great sense of accomplishment.
If the rest of the game stays this way, then I know I am in for an absolutely stellar experience. Please, no more "gatekeeper" monsters in tight spaces with no way around them!
Mid-Theta spoilers ahoy!
Spoiler below!
I wholeheartedly agree. In some ways, that was the scariest part of the game.
Which creature was Catherine referring to when she talked about "Proxies"? I couldn't figure out if it was the gangling one or the bloated one. She said that Proxies were tall, dark, ultimately faceless, and blind. The gangling one seems to be dark and faceless, but the bloated one seems to be blind.
The whole sequence after the dummy ARK simulation - including the dark and 'sticky' area after the elevator breakdown - was absolutely superb. It makes none of the mistakes the earlier sections make - the monsters are let loose in a huge, disorienting and gloomy environment, which means you never exactly know where they are; they seem to actually roam around instead of merely walking back-and-forth, which means they are unpredictable in their movements; the game forces you to navigate those twisted hallways in order to fulfill your objectives, which causes constant tension and uneasiness; and all those feelings are then topped off with a very disturbing subject matter and scenery, like the heavily breathing woman sitting in front of the computer, Wan's corpse and last heroic stand, and the peculiar research projects and specimen in the area. It's also the first area in which the flashlight was absolutely necessary, which caused me to stay on guard, lest I attract the monster with it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and my hands actually trembled at some points - which is something that only Amnesia and Penumbra had managed to do to me prior.
Having the power break down after updating the elevator chip was a great touch; having the monster then start roaming back-and-forth right in front of the security office first made me think "here we go again" - but this time, there was actually a solution! I loved that you could actually trap the monster and lock it inside the Medical Lab, if you wait and listen for its door to open and then disable its locks through the security console! That moment made me feel like I had actually "conquered" the monster, which made for a great sense of accomplishment.
If the rest of the game stays this way, then I know I am in for an absolutely stellar experience. Please, no more "gatekeeper" monsters in tight spaces with no way around them!
Spoiler below!
That's interesting, I found this area to be the most infuriating and frustrating in the entire game. Probably because I still don't understand how these monsters work, and in result the only viable solution for me was to "RUN LIKE HELL", which very often lead to situations in which I was cornered in a dead end and the only solution was to let the thing hit me so it could respawn somewhere away from me. To top that situation where you can't stop or you be catched, is that smoke is everywhere, your flashlight is all but useless, and you have no idea where you supposed to go. I died in that area more often than in the all the rest of the game combined.
I guess I'll be the exception and say I like the monsters. Amnesia was more scary to me, but SOMA has a much better story and more variations with the monsters (though the puzzles are much easier)
What did disappoint me slightly was that my first two encounters were slightly bugged. I hid in a corner, when the big enemy saw me he wanted to come to me but a tube sticking out the side of the wall prevented him, so he endlessly "walked" towards me, stopped by the pipe. And some moments later, I walked up the steps, and he was below the staircase, EXACTLY below me, spinning around like crazy (was quite funny actually because you could see his lights spin around)
