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[SPOILERS] So many unanswered questions and so little payoff... - Printable Version

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[SPOILERS] So many unanswered questions and so little payoff... - SlackerinDeNile - 11-08-2015

As I was playing through what I did not yet realise was the last level of SOMA I was stirring in anticipation for the final lore and exposition dumps that would possibly answer most the questions I had about the latest brilliant, fascinating and disturbing world that Frictional Games had created. I understand that in horror it's best to keep certain aspects of malevolent entities unknown and mysterious but at the time I was really hoping for a big twist or two, maybe a fore-shadowed change in Catherine or Simon's character (i'll get back to that in a bit) or one last climactic action\horror event. Instead I got a rather dull fetch quest and machine manipulation mission and an out-of-nowhere tantrum from Simon-3 over an aspect of SOMA's science he REALLY should have known better about by now. I don't give a damn if becoming Simon-3 set him up with potential expectations on 'soul transfer', Catherine really did tell him that they would be copies no matter what, perhaps they should have had an option for him to kill himself during the copy like Sarang did...When the credits rolled I literally raised both hands next to each side of my head, clenched my hands and let out a near-silent (i've got neighbours to worry about) "WHAT THE HELL!? THAT'S IT!? I CHEATED MY WAY PAST THAT BLOODY TAU SUIT-SQUID FOR THIS!?" Then, of course, the ARK scene came on and I was like "Wait, did Frictional just joss me?" and I ran around the cute virtual environment looking for that clever plot twist or possible sequel\DLC bait I was hoping for, but NOPE, all Simon does is meet Catherine and possibly spend the next thousand years making 1920x1280 pixels of virtual love to her under the FXAA, dynamic lit shade of adv_tree.mdl or whatever.

Look, for the most part, I loved this game, I love almost all of Frictional's stuff, they're so good at survival-horror adventure games and this was almost no exception. This was setting up to be one of the best video games i'd ever played and possibly even one of the best works of science-fiction i've ever checked out, but it lacks several good pay-offs in the story and overall game design that it badly needed in my opinion.

For example:

- The WAU, the developers have set this thing up as a man-made malevolent, powerful eldritch abomination with a bizarre sense of morality that seems to conflict with what many of the staff of PATHOS-II claim it was supposed to be and do. We never really get any hints to its motivations beyond its paranoia, sense of self-preservation and apparent hypocrisy in preserving the human race, by any means necessary. Why did it create Simon in the first place and why were its creations happy to butcher Simon or try to trap 'him'? Granted, its unknowable mind and intelligence may add to our fear of it and its creations whilst playing the game but wouldn't having it play a larger role in the last part of the story add to a more satisfying conclusion? (I'll also get back to this in a bit.)

- Catherine, I liked this character but despite providing some cute humour and interesting philisophical and existential dialogue, she does come across as very disconnected from the rest of SOMA's world. I was hoping for an interesting plot twist near or at the end, involving her using the ARK for possibly more sinister uses or even being some sort of proxy of WAU and manipulating Simon to fulfill some of its 'ambitions', if it had any, something I would have liked to have had the chance to understand better. Given the way she talks about WAU throughout the game and the structure gel infesting her cortex chip, i'm surprised more people didn't pick up on this...

- Johann Ross, was he still a fully sentient being? What was his deal? Why was he seperate from the rest of the WAU and how did he end up the way he is? The game just tosses him aside as soon as the writers decide that he's inconvenient to the story and the quest to shoot the ARK into space.

- Shouldn't the player and Simon have had more choice regarding the ARK and the ending? Given what happens at the end of the Omicron level wouldn't giving the player a choice over whether or not they want to create another copy of Simon or even bother launching the ARK, given that its a rather futile endeavour and doomed to fail eventually, lead to a more satisfying and intelligent ending?

- Terry Akers and the rest of the proxy, cancer, zombie things. Did Terry become a psychopathic cultist on his own, without WAU's help, or not? How does structure gel affect humans like that? How did it create that red 'mind coral' stuff and why did all this only occur in the Theta structure? Also, were they under the control of WAU or not? I don't understand why it was creating a 'mini-matrix' there but nowhere else.

- The cyborg, lobster, zombie woman in Omicron, again, what was her deal? Why was she so pissed off at Simon and why did the WAU only create one of her?

- The theme of human perception of reality, I get a strong impression that this was supposed to feature more heavily in the story due to various things that happen over the course of the game, like Simon realising that he is a robot (cyborg, but we don't know that yet) when he's 'breathing' underwater and the quick dream sequence in the Theta 'mind coral' maze. Other than this and the whole ARK quest, not much comes of it in the second half of the game or by the end it. Undecided

Sorry if i've come across as an aggressive, geeky nitpicker with all of this, but I guess I kind of came to expect a bit more from SOMA, given how ambitious and high-quality it is throughout most of the game.

RE: [SPOILERS] So many unanswered questions and so little payoff... - SineDeus - 11-10-2015

Personally, i feel it answered every single one of those questions easily, like extremely easily. Some things needed to be inferred at the time and backed up with later views of previous logs and timelines but i assure you all of those were answered in the game, you seem to be only scratching the surface of what they were discussing in the game.

RE: [SPOILERS] So many unanswered questions and so little payoff... - SlackerinDeNile - 11-10-2015

(11-10-2015, 07:29 AM)SineDeus Wrote: Personally, i feel it answered every single one of those questions easily, like extremely easily. Some things needed to be inferred at the time and backed up with later views of previous logs and timelines but i assure you all of those were answered in the game, you seem to be only scratching the surface of what they were discussing in the game.

Okay then, i'll admit, i've only played through the game once, but I explored the levels quite thoroughly. You don't have to go into too much detail, but if you're up to it, could you please tell me those answers?

RE: [SPOILERS] So many unanswered questions and so little payoff... - GhylTarvoke - 11-10-2015

Wall of text incoming!

I. Simon's Tantrums
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: an out-of-nowhere tantrum from Simon-3 over an aspect of SOMA's science he REALLY should have known better about by now. I don't give a damn if becoming Simon-3 set him up with potential expectations on 'soul transfer', Catherine really did tell him that they would be copies no matter what

Okay, think about it this way.

When I played SOMA, I expected to be transferred to the ARK. Why? Because that would follow the established pattern: Simon had already been copied twice, and my viewpoint had switched to the copy both times.

Now consider that Simon-3's perspective was exactly the same as mine. He also (albeit erroneously?) believed that his POV had already changed twice, so it was logical for him to expect that it would happen again.

The main reasons to suspect otherwise are meta-reasons ("there'll probably be a twist ending"). Also, given that Simon had already thrown a tantrum at Omicron, it shouldn't have been surprising when he threw another.
II. Virtual Love
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: all Simon does is meet Catherine and possibly spend the next thousand years making 1920x1280 pixels of virtual love to her under the FXAA, dynamic lit shade of adv_tree.mdl or whatever.

I realize you're joking, but the ARK is supposedly indistinguishable from real life (apart from being slightly better). That's the whole point. Simon and Catherine aren't the only ones on the ARK, either.
III. The WAU's Weirdness
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: The WAU, the developers have set this thing up as a man-made malevolent, powerful eldritch abomination with a bizarre sense of morality that seems to conflict with what many of the staff of PATHOS-II claim it was supposed to be and do. We never really get any hints to its motivations beyond its paranoia, sense of self-preservation and apparent hypocrisy in preserving the human race, by any means necessary.

The WAU's all-consuming imperative is to preserve humanity. Everything stems from that goal. Since the WAU believes that it alone is capable of preserving humanity, it defends itself with lethal consequences.
IV. Simon And His Butchers
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Why did it create Simon in the first place and why were its creations happy to butcher Simon or try to trap 'him'?

Simon is the WAU's latest and most successful experiment: a sound mind in a sound body. Its creations are apparently autonomous, with minds of their own. They attack Simon not because of the WAU's influence, but because their predicament has driven them insane.
V. Catherine's Creepiness
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Catherine, I liked this character but despite providing some cute humour and interesting philisophical and existential dialogue, she does come across as very disconnected from the rest of SOMA's world. I was hoping for an interesting plot twist near or at the end, involving her using the ARK for possibly more sinister uses or even being some sort of proxy of WAU and manipulating Simon to fulfill some of its 'ambitions', if it had any, something I would have liked to have had the chance to understand better. Given the way she talks about WAU throughout the game and the structure gel infesting her cortex chip, i'm surprised more people didn't pick up on this...

I also expected something like this. Catherine does seem strangely comfortable with being a computer chip, but this is because - as she explains - she was never really comfortable with being human. Her mindset is unusually well-adapted to SOMA's universe. (High-functioning autism?)
VI. Who/What Is Ross?
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Johann Ross, was he still a fully sentient being? What was his deal? Why was he seperate from the rest of the WAU and how did he end up the way he is? The game just tosses him aside as soon as the writers decide that he's inconvenient to the story and the quest to shoot the ARK into space.

Ross is fully sentient: he has the same speech patterns that he had as a human, and his goal (stopping the WAU) is unchanged. His role as A.I. Psychologist gives him unique insight into the WAU's inner workings, and also causes the WAU to place unusual value on his life (as evidenced by its attempts to resurrect him).
VII. To Launch Or Not To Launch?
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Shouldn't the player and Simon have had more choice regarding the ARK and the ending? Given what happens at the end of the Omicron level wouldn't giving the player a choice over whether or not they want to create another copy of Simon or even bother launching the ARK, given that its a rather futile endeavour and doomed to fail eventually, lead to a more satisfying and intelligent ending?

Given the choice, why wouldn't you launch the ARK? As for the ARK being "doomed to fail eventually": even in real life, humanity is doomed to fail eventually. So everything is pointless, right?
VIII. Cultists And Coral
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Terry Akers and the rest of the proxy, cancer, zombie things. Did Terry become a psychopathic cultist on his own, without WAU's help, or not? How does structure gel affect humans like that? How did it create that red 'mind coral' stuff and why did all this only occur in the Theta structure? Also, were they under the control of WAU or not? I don't understand why it was creating a 'mini-matrix' there but nowhere else.

Structure gel is basically nano-magic, causing cell mutations in humans. Terry only became a cultist after consuming large quantities of structure gel. Theta was unique because it was the only site where humans ingested structure gel on a large scale - either voluntarily or forcibly.
IX. Lobster Lady
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: The cyborg, lobster, zombie woman in Omicron, again, what was her deal? Why was she so pissed off at Simon and why did the WAU only create one of her?

Robot Girl is the sole survivor of the WAU's (self-defensive) blackbox massacre at Omicron. She's pissed off for the same reason that all the other enemies are: she's been driven insane.
X. Reality
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: The theme of human perception of reality, I get a strong impression that this was supposed to feature more heavily in the story due to various things that happen over the course of the game, like Simon realising that he is a robot (cyborg, but we don't know that yet) when he's 'breathing' underwater and the quick dream sequence in the Theta 'mind coral' maze. Other than this and the whole ARK quest, not much comes of it in the second half of the game or by the end it. Undecided

Some more examples: visual glitches (including screen distortion and enemy teleportation), Brandon Wan's interrogation, and the fact that PATHOS-II's residents are usually unaware of their condition.

But the big payoffs are the copying paradoxes at Omicron and Phi.
CONCLUSION
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Sorry if i've come across as an aggressive, geeky nitpicker with all of this, but I guess I kind of came to expect a bit more from SOMA, given how ambitious and high-quality it is throughout most of the game.

I'm on my third playthrough and still finding new things.

I think SOMA is partly a philosophical litmus test. If you feel that (for example) the ARK is pointless and Simon's tantrums came out of nowhere, I can see why you would find the game underwhelming.


RE: [SPOILERS] So many unanswered questions and so little payoff... - SlackerinDeNile - 11-10-2015

(11-10-2015, 08:29 PM)GhylTarvoke Wrote: Wall of text incoming!

I. Simon's Tantrums
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: an out-of-nowhere tantrum from Simon-3 over an aspect of SOMA's science he REALLY should have known better about by now. I don't give a damn if becoming Simon-3 set him up with potential expectations on 'soul transfer', Catherine really did tell him that they would be copies no matter what

Okay, think about it this way.

When I played SOMA, I expected to be transferred to the ARK. Why? Because that would follow the established pattern: Simon had already been copied twice, and my viewpoint had switched to the copy both times.

Now consider that Simon-3's perspective was exactly the same as mine. He also (albeit erroneously?) believed that his POV had already changed twice, so it was logical for him to expect that it would happen again.

The main reasons to suspect otherwise are meta-reasons ("there'll probably be a twist ending"). Also, given that Simon had already thrown a tantrum at Omicron, it shouldn't have been surprising when he threw another.
II. Virtual Love
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: all Simon does is meet Catherine and possibly spend the next thousand years making 1920x1280 pixels of virtual love to her under the FXAA, dynamic lit shade of adv_tree.mdl or whatever.

I realize you're joking, but the ARK is supposedly indistinguishable from real life (apart from being slightly better). That's the whole point. Simon and Catherine aren't the only ones on the ARK, either.
III. The WAU's Weirdness
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: The WAU, the developers have set this thing up as a man-made malevolent, powerful eldritch abomination with a bizarre sense of morality that seems to conflict with what many of the staff of PATHOS-II claim it was supposed to be and do. We never really get any hints to its motivations beyond its paranoia, sense of self-preservation and apparent hypocrisy in preserving the human race, by any means necessary.

The WAU's all-consuming imperative is to preserve humanity. Everything stems from that goal. Since the WAU believes that it alone is capable of preserving humanity, it defends itself with lethal consequences.
IV. Simon And His Butchers
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Why did it create Simon in the first place and why were its creations happy to butcher Simon or try to trap 'him'?

Simon is the WAU's latest and most successful experiment: a sound mind in a sound body. Its creations are apparently autonomous, with minds of their own. They attack Simon not because of the WAU's influence, but because their predicament has driven them insane.
V. Catherine's Creepiness
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Catherine, I liked this character but despite providing some cute humour and interesting philisophical and existential dialogue, she does come across as very disconnected from the rest of SOMA's world. I was hoping for an interesting plot twist near or at the end, involving her using the ARK for possibly more sinister uses or even being some sort of proxy of WAU and manipulating Simon to fulfill some of its 'ambitions', if it had any, something I would have liked to have had the chance to understand better. Given the way she talks about WAU throughout the game and the structure gel infesting her cortex chip, i'm surprised more people didn't pick up on this...

I also expected something like this. Catherine does seem strangely comfortable with being a computer chip, but this is because - as she explains - she was never really comfortable with being human. Her mindset is unusually well-adapted to SOMA's universe. (High-functioning autism?)
VI. Who/What Is Ross?
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Johann Ross, was he still a fully sentient being? What was his deal? Why was he seperate from the rest of the WAU and how did he end up the way he is? The game just tosses him aside as soon as the writers decide that he's inconvenient to the story and the quest to shoot the ARK into space.

Ross is fully sentient: he has the same speech patterns that he had as a human, and his goal (stopping the WAU) is unchanged. His role as A.I. Psychologist gives him unique insight into the WAU's inner workings, and also causes the WAU to place unusual value on his life (as evidenced by its attempts to resurrect him).
VII. To Launch Or Not To Launch?
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Shouldn't the player and Simon have had more choice regarding the ARK and the ending? Given what happens at the end of the Omicron level wouldn't giving the player a choice over whether or not they want to create another copy of Simon or even bother launching the ARK, given that its a rather futile endeavour and doomed to fail eventually, lead to a more satisfying and intelligent ending?

Given the choice, why wouldn't you launch the ARK? As for the ARK being "doomed to fail eventually": even in real life, humanity is doomed to fail eventually. So everything is pointless, right?
VIII. Cultists And Coral
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Terry Akers and the rest of the proxy, cancer, zombie things. Did Terry become a psychopathic cultist on his own, without WAU's help, or not? How does structure gel affect humans like that? How did it create that red 'mind coral' stuff and why did all this only occur in the Theta structure? Also, were they under the control of WAU or not? I don't understand why it was creating a 'mini-matrix' there but nowhere else.

Structure gel is basically nano-magic, causing cell mutations in humans. Terry only became a cultist after consuming large quantities of structure gel. Theta was unique because it was the only site where humans ingested structure gel on a large scale - either voluntarily or forcibly.
IX. Lobster Lady
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: The cyborg, lobster, zombie woman in Omicron, again, what was her deal? Why was she so pissed off at Simon and why did the WAU only create one of her?

Robot Girl is the sole survivor of the WAU's (self-defensive) blackbox massacre at Omicron. She's pissed off for the same reason that all the other enemies are: she's been driven insane.
X. Reality
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: The theme of human perception of reality, I get a strong impression that this was supposed to feature more heavily in the story due to various things that happen over the course of the game, like Simon realising that he is a robot (cyborg, but we don't know that yet) when he's 'breathing' underwater and the quick dream sequence in the Theta 'mind coral' maze. Other than this and the whole ARK quest, not much comes of it in the second half of the game or by the end it. Undecided

Some more examples: visual glitches (including screen distortion and enemy teleportation), Brandon Wan's interrogation, and the fact that PATHOS-II's residents are usually unaware of their condition.

But the big payoffs are the copying paradoxes at Omicron and Phi.
CONCLUSION
Spoiler below!
(11-08-2015, 02:30 AM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Sorry if i've come across as an aggressive, geeky nitpicker with all of this, but I guess I kind of came to expect a bit more from SOMA, given how ambitious and high-quality it is throughout most of the game.

I'm on my third playthrough and still finding new things.

I think SOMA is partly a philosophical litmus test. If you feel that (for example) the ARK is pointless and Simon's tantrums came out of nowhere, I can see why you would find the game underwhelming.

THANK YOU SIR!

Alright, thanks for your explanations and your well stated point of view, but i've got to be honest, a lot of these bits of lore and dialogue you refer to, I found them as well. However, most of them still don't make much sense to me, I guess I shouldn't take a video game so seriously, even though uh...It wanted me to take it seriously? I guess? Oh well.

Yeah, regarding Simon and viewing SOMA as a 'litmus test', I still feel that the game should have had multiple endings and Simon reactions based on your actions and choices throughout the game, I didn't view the ARK as entirely pointless exactly, i'm just surprised that Simon-3 was not as savvy as the average player was by that point...

Regarding Catherine, she probably had Aspergers Syndrome or something along those lines yeah, she strongly reminds me of someone I knew in real-life, in both mind and body, but that person was more sensible, sociable and did not study I.T. further despite their obvious skill and understanding with it.

Also, do you really believe that humanity in SOMA was completely and utterly doomed to extinction no matter what Simon did?

RE: [SPOILERS] So many unanswered questions and so little payoff... - GhylTarvoke - 11-10-2015

(11-10-2015, 09:39 PM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: THANK YOU SIR!

Alright, thanks for your explanations and your well stated point of view, but i've got to be honest, a lot of these bits of lore and dialogue you refer to, I found them as well. However, most of them still don't make much sense to me, I guess I shouldn't take a video game so seriously, even though uh...It wanted me to take it seriously? I guess? Oh well.

It's true that parts of the story don't line up nicely. Structure gel's and Ross' abilities are hand waved, for example.

(11-10-2015, 09:39 PM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Yeah, regarding Simon and viewing SOMA as a 'litmus test', I still feel that the game should have had multiple endings and Simon reactions based on your actions and choices throughout the game, I didn't view the ARK as entirely pointless exactly, i'm just surprised that Simon-3 was not as savvy as the average player was by that point...

Yes, increasing player freedom is usually good. I was lucky, because I agreed with Simon that the ARK was humanity's best shot. If you disagreed, it could feel like the game was manipulating you.

Simon does seem dense, though the ending surprised me - I expected the ARK to be glitchy and horrible.

(11-10-2015, 09:39 PM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Regarding Catherine, she probably had Aspergers Syndrome or something along those lines yeah, she strongly reminds me of someone I knew in real-life, in both mind and body, but that person was more sensible, sociable and did not study I.T. further despite their obvious skill and understanding with it.

It's really interesting that of all the simulated/roboticized/mutated people on PATHOS-II, Catherine is by far the most well-adjusted. Her personality seems the most likely explanation.

(11-10-2015, 09:39 PM)SlackerinDeNile Wrote: Also, do you really believe that humanity in SOMA was completely and utterly doomed to extinction no matter what Simon did?

I was speaking from a cosmological perspective: humanity will die eventually no matter what we do, so the ARK's limited lifespan isn't all-important.

In SOMA, if you don't regard the simulations/robots/mutants as human, then humanity is already extinct. Otherwise, the WAU and the ARK are the only two options for survival. I don't trust the WAU. Even if its recreations of people are improving, it has a very poor track record.