Discussion: Monster Behavior in SOMA (Mild Spoilers)

[ThePaSch]

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.

Let's have a discussion.