What do you hope to see and not see in SOMA?

[AndrewDWandS]

These are things I'd personally like to see in SOMA. Of course, I think it could be a good game even without them, but they'd probably amp up the terror for me a bit. Sorry for the wall of text, as well.

Honestly, though I wouldn't like to see a sort of measured sanity meter as in Amnesia: the Dark Descent, sanity effects on the whole did actually cause me to question my own at times. When I'm frightened, personally, I find that my vision actually does do weird things, such as my vision going a bit wavy and my vision overall becoming sharper in some areas and more blurry in others, depending on lighting conditions. Measuring the effect in the Dark Descent was useful, but it did dampen the immersion a bit for me (eg, "Oh, so Daniel and I are both freaking right out").

The lack of terror meter would be fantastic. I can imagine running to a room and hiding in it for a while, eventually think, "It ought to be safe by now", slowly opening the door, and immediately having an abomination staring me right in the face to prove me so, so very wrong. While falsely fading cues would have a similar effect, no audio cue at all in the first place would be more natural.

An inventory would also be nice. It wouldn't have to be huge, and can be limited to fairly small objects, but having to carry any items by holding onto a click is inconvenient. Also, having the game continue while you're looking through the inventory or journal could be nice, as well. I don't imagine a monstrosity should necessarily be polite enough to wait while you read a note when it's about to maul you. Generally, notes should be read in a safer place. Besides, hiding in a corner and reading a note while you wait for a monster outside to go away would be nice, and could be terrifying if that monster suddenly decided to start breaking down the door.

I'd also like a more interactive environment than in A Machine for Pigs. It gave more obvious cues in that game to me what I should be activating, rather than simply wasting time in that game, which actually kind of disappointed me as it made puzzles easier. Also, in Amnesia: the Dark Descent, I had a lot of fun messing around vandalising Brennenburg in the beginning of the game breaking bottles, throwing crates, and disorganising books, but when I attempted to play with boxes in a room while one of the monsters was outside, a box tumbled down from my tower, and the monster broke down the door, I had a fantastic fright.

Finally, I'd like an engaging story. A really great horror game, to me, strikes a fantastic balance between intriguing you enough to want to continue on in the game, and scaring you enough to not want to continue. This is something Frictional has done before, and I can't wait to play SOMA.