I'd give this game a nice 7,5 of 10. Story was awesome, but decisions should affect gameplay at least a little. Also, robots thinking that they are human could be used to do a lot more in my opinion. Also, monsters are about biggest miss in this game. AI is horrible and in second half monsters are just annoying, not scary. +1 for discohead though, best enemy in the game imo
Good game though, totally worth every single dollar.
(This post was last modified: 09-26-2015, 06:14 PM by schmaker.)
For me its a 9 out of 10. Its not perfect. But its exceptional!. I just wish it had been a bit longer. I'm also a bit sad about the cut parts and such.
I would liked there to have been more of a cross over between present day simon and the one we played.
Either having played him more or flash back to his last days just something.
In any case, i hope they decide to do more in the Soma universe. I am definitely left wanting for more!.
From my perspective, narration and presentation is well done.
Game has linear feel but loosing orientation in underwater areas and finding out what piece of puzzle you have to do, loosen up linearity.
What I would like in future Frictional IP's is 1)more environment interaction 2)comparing to Amnesia there weren't any secret compartments as secret bookshelves in TDD. 3)exploration doesn't give so much reward, you pretty much have to go where you need to, but gives you freedom what to read or not.
I would like to find something secret along the way, uncover some mystery,secret route and maybe some usefull tool or info which will change the way you'll proceed.
Considering gameplay
For me inert and passive the gameplay is. Later in the game,when encoutering humanoid creatures, I wish Simon could have some sci-fi electric shotgun or bombs to stun them. They could spot you in office and with their presence I couldn't explore as I would like. Stealth and running was annoying at that times and gameplay was kinda dragged.
Atmosphere
There is excellent feel of the underwater world and relationship between Simon and Cath. I wish we could meet more characters and solve some side quests relating main theme.
Underwater zeppelins
One of my favorite scene. Frictional, could you make some level exploring and uncovering some mystery while floating inside the zeppelin?
9/10
(This post was last modified: 09-28-2015, 05:34 PM by Radiance.)
(09-27-2015, 12:49 PM)brus Wrote: From my perspective, narration and presentation is well done.
Game has linear feel but loosing orientation in underwater areas and finding out what piece of puzzle you have to do, loosen up linearity.
What I would like in future Frictional IP's is 1)more environment interaction 2)comparing to Amnesia there weren't any secret compartments as secret bookshelves in TDD. 3)exploration doesn't give so much reward, you pretty much have to go where you need to, but gives you freedom what to read or not.
I would like to find something secret along the way, uncover some mystery,secret route and maybe some usefull tool or info which will change the way you'll proceed.
Considering gameplay
For me inert and passive the gameplay is. Later in the game,when encoutering humanoid creatures, I wish Simon could have some sci-fi electric shotgun or bombs to stun them. They could spot you in office and with their presence I couldn't explore as I would like. Stealth and running was annoying at that times and gameplay was kinda dragged.
Atmosphere
There is excellent feel of the underwater world and relationship between Simon and Cath. I wish we could meet more characters and solve some side quests relating main theme.
Underwater zeppelins
One of my favorite scene. Frictional, could you make some level exploring and uncovering some mystery while floating inside the zeppelin?
Story:
Sometimes it was hard to pick up on. This may have just been me, but I first figured out what WAU actually was when I was running around in the laboratories where they tested it on rats.
It all made sense in the end though. A scary, scary sense.
The ending was perfect. The first ending with all the anger, frustration and in the end no hope was beautiful and it I could feel Simon's feelings.
Then I watched the credits, thinking it was over... and then I got the good ending.
It was brilliant of FG to include that just to lighten the mood a little bit.
Voice acting
So good.
Especially Catherine. When she talked you KNEW she cared about you and your condition. It felt like I was actually talking to a real person.
"And then we're going to talk to other people, because that's how conversations work".
That specific line was so good, and made her seem more human. Not the words she said, but how she said it.
Simon's voice-actor was very good too. I could follow his feelings, but sometimes I didn't share the same opinion.
Level editting
Immersive. Everything felt real. When I was running around in the abyss I definitely felt like I was very deep in the ocean. And the buildings felt like buildings should. There was a difference between being inside and being outside.
I don't have much comments about level editting. It was great.
There were some choices here and there where I thought it mattered what i did. It didn't seem to. For instance I was afraid I'd do something wrong if I unlocked Ross' room when I had the ARK, so I chose to ignore it and keep going, and thus missing something that I'm going to read up upon now.
Scares and monsters
Great build up in monster-difficulty.
Starting with a slow easy monster (that I ended up dying to anyway).
And ending with a horror of a monster in a diving suit. I died to that monster 3 or 4 times, because I couldn't figure out how to outsmart him. Standing still while not looking at him didn't seem to make him ignore me...
I eventually just legged it, and got past him.
The ocean monsters were my favourite! The big eel was amazing. And very terrifying.
Overall
An awesome game. Very interesting existential concept.
I loved the game. Definitely worth buying.