The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[laser50]

Lulz now lets see how You (Frodo) can steal the orbs From the 7 lords

As you walk into the vulcano with the 7 orb pieces to destroy them.
A Grunt runs at you and bites off your finger!

(LOL.)

[Nycticorax]

I would really enjoy playing a sequel for Amnesia (or a stand-alone game) including some of the following features (don't get mad at me if some are unfeasible, or if they are not cosatisfiable -- it's just some thoughts I jotted down after playing Amnesia):

- like every episodes so far, makes the discovering of a story the main goal of the game -- the mark of F®ictional, god bless you guys;
- takes place in an old, desert sanatorium in Northern US or Canada, with grey, dark grey, blue, and green colours (just type "sanatorium" on google images and you'll see what I mean);
- explores further the "playable" flashbacks of Amnesia, that is, the scenes where you discover the/your past (they could be in a full black and white palette, be more interactive, and last a bit longer than in Amnesia);
- balances logic puzzles ("I need time....") with very stressing atmosphere ("...but I can't think with this monster behind!");
- develops against a realistic background (i.e.: traumatized soldiers in cure after some war, psychotics, nevropaths, treated by some mad scentist convincing them he can extract their evil side, but in fact use them to achieve some very insane experimentations for which he recruits them as a secret task force invested with the duty of "curing" sane people);
- plays along the frontier between rational, scientific explanations, and paranormal phenomena, so that fear and strangeness distill more finely in the player's veins than if it is taken for granted that there is some magic behind the curtains (Amnesia);
- has the "I am getting crazy" function include the actual mouse/joypad motion vectors as parameters, so that the game take the bone and flesh reactions really seriously;
- supplements the blindness caused by darkness with a blindness caused by brightness (you know, when creeping in an obscure tunnels, a small source of light can momentaneously blind you like hell);
- invents a way of minimally interacting with characters with handwriting recognition (better spare your words if you have to draw letters with a mouse)
- makes running dependent on occurrent sanity and normal physical capacity;
- to have the narrative linearity required without reducing the game to an endless track-read-and-run loop:
a) includes randomness in map implementation (when you go crazy, you start forgetting about your path sometimes);
b) provides the playable character with a camera recorder (with limited battery) so that he can keep track of some details useful later and, if well, used, can provide shortcuts to next "levels"/rooms;
c) makes the story branch a little bit several times before the end according to your choices.

By the way, congratulations for Amnesia, it is a great game!

[DamnNoHtml]

I just can't wait for HPL3's new capabilities!

HPL Engine 3

HPL 3 is currently in full development for Frictional's upcoming, untitled game. New major features mentioned are:

Global sunlight along with shadows, allowing fully lit outdoor scenes, a feature not implemented in previous versions.[11]
In-engine terrain generation and dynamic terrain LOD [12]


Going to make my life so much easier.

[willochill]

I hope Frictional goes 3D and maybe for consoles ...

They are probably developing on consoles, ive heard in interviews that they want to expand to consoles and in the "WE'RE HIRING" tab up there, in the description for the programmer they wanted it says the programmer they need should have knowledge about developing on consoles.

---

I would really enjoy playing a sequel for Amnesia (or a stand-alone game) including some of the following features (don't get mad at me if some are unfeasible, or if they are not cosatisfiable -- it's just some thoughts I jotted down after playing Amnesia):

- like every episodes so far, makes the discovering of a story the main goal of the game -- the mark of F®ictional, god bless you guys;
- takes place in an old, desert sanatorium in Northern US or Canada, with grey, dark grey, blue, and green colours (just type "sanatorium" on google images and you'll see what I mean);
- explores further the "playable" flashbacks of Amnesia, that is, the scenes where you discover the/your past (they could be in a full black and white palette, be more interactive, and last a bit longer than in Amnesia);
- balances logic puzzles ("I need time....") with very stressing atmosphere ("...but I can't think with this monster behind!");
- develops against a realistic background (i.e.: traumatized soldiers in cure after some war, psychotics, nevropaths, treated by some mad scentist convincing them he can extract their evil side, but in fact use them to achieve some very insane experimentations for which he recruits them as a secret task force invested with the duty of "curing" sane people);
- plays along the frontier between rational, scientific explanations, and paranormal phenomena, so that fear and strangeness distill more finely in the player's veins than if it is taken for granted that there is some magic behind the curtains (Amnesia);
- has the "I am getting crazy" function include the actual mouse/joypad motion vectors as parameters, so that the game take the bone and flesh reactions really seriously;
- supplements the blindness caused by darkness with a blindness caused by brightness (you know, when creeping in an obscure tunnels, a small source of light can momentaneously blind you like hell);
- invents a way of minimally interacting with characters with handwriting recognition (better spare your words if you have to draw letters with a mouse)
- makes running dependent on occurrent sanity and normal physical capacity;
- to have the narrative linearity required without reducing the game to an endless track-read-and-run loop:
a) includes randomness in map implementation (when you go crazy, you start forgetting about your path sometimes);
b) provides the playable character with a camera recorder (with limited battery) so that he can keep track of some details useful later and, if well, used, can provide shortcuts to next "levels"/rooms;
c) makes the story branch a little bit several times before the end according to your choices.

By the way, congratulations for Amnesia, it is a great game!

well... this is a little much....

[Caboose]

Amnesia : The Black Overture.

DA FUCK?!?!??!!?!?!?! lol That would so cool

[Kein]

I just can't wait for HPL3's new capabilities!

HPL Engine 3

HPL 3 is currently in full development for Frictional's upcoming, untitled game. New major features mentioned are:

Global sunlight along with shadows, allowing fully lit outdoor scenes, a feature not implemented in previous versions.[11]
In-engine terrain generation and dynamic terrain LOD [12]


Going to make my life so much easier.

While reading your post I can't be helped but to see HL2: EP3 everywhere.
Dunno why.

[TheLolMenPeople]

I think that any game like what they did with Amnesia and Penumbra, but with new surprises and twists would suit me just fine.

IMPORTANT: If you go to frictional games YouTube channel you can see work on HPL 3, but notice the title is called Depth. I know it actually says Depth: The Dark Descent, but maybe The Dark Descent is a place holder? Or... ... no way:

They are planning to create the same plot as Amnesia but more recent with other people? The curse spreads?

Maybe that's a bit far-fetched, but I'm sure as hell psyched up about it!!!

[Mr.Amnesia]

Everyone is talking about a sequel why not a prequel or a spin off like a expansion to amnesia sorta like justine. oh the next game is said to not have a lot of horror. so horror for the next game is not going to be alot but still there will be some in it. i hope it dosent become bad with no horror then i will just stick to amnesia. DO YOU GUYS THINK THAT WHEN THE NEW GAME COMES OUT THAT NO ONE WILL MAKE AMNESIA CUSTOM STORIES AS I REALLY LIKE AMNESIA AND I STILL WILL PLAY IT EVEN WHEN THE NEW GAME COMES OUT.

[Sarcophagus]

I beg the productors to make the sys requirements of the new game same as penumbra ones xD

cuz my pc kinda suckss

[Gunslingerjh]

Just want to see one thing changed in the next game: Bigger and better outdoor environments