SOMA Member Review Thread

[Fortigurn]

I'm 13 hours in, and I've just entered Omicron. I'm massively impressed with this game, and so glad I pre-ordered.

+ Atmosphere.
+ Puzzles (complexity, variety, frequency).
+ Enemies (variety, activity, relevance to world and narrative; claustrophobic environment makes you work harder for escape, and plan and time your movements with precision).
+ Healing system (very well thought out, took me some time to realise, fits well into the world).
+ Environments (absolutely beautiful with tons of fine level detail, lots of variety, massive immersion if you will pardon the pun).
+ Level design (variety, complexity, size; level design generally fitted the narrative very well).
+ Art and sound direction (gorgeous, nothing more to say).
+ Story (deep, sophisticated, mentally stimulating and challenging).
+ Checkpoints (well placed).
+ Save system (excellent, and no save screens is impressive).
+ Voice acting (the best yet in a Frictional game).
+ Length (I've played for 13 hours and I've only just found the way into Omicron).
+ Pacing (the characteristic Frictional "slow burn" gradually gives way to increasing intensity and tension, which I think is working very well at this stage of the game).

- Lack of regular access to maps (does make navigation of large and complex areas more difficult than it needs to be, and isn't very realistic; I don't need my hand held by a mini-map or radar screen, but an occasional computer terminal or more frequent "map on the wall" with a "You are here" marker would really help).

- Decision making (from the very start the game leads me to believe I will be making serious decisions which will have significant in-game consequences, but the first couple of genuine choices with which I am presented don't actually have obvious consequences, or don't seem to have consequences which make any difference to what happens, they both have the same effect; maybe this will be different later in the game).

Definitely a solid 9 for me so far.