The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[Fortigurn]

This is what I want (thanks for posting the link).

Frictional are aiming for the same amount of horror, but approaching it in a “very different way”, according to Grip. While Amnesia was scary due to basic concepts, such as fear of the dark or the helplessness of being hunted, SOMA is a much deeper type of fear. “The real terror should come from the player being immersed in this strange world that tells them something about their own existence.” Grip told us. “I do not want players to just scream at jump scares or get scared by distant footsteps. I want them to really ponder some issues and leave the game feeling this heavy lump of existential angst in their chest.”

More please.

The realization that life is pointless is nothing to fear.

From what I can see they're talking not such much about existential angst in the sense of the nihilist acknowledgement of a lack of existential meaning to life, but more about the existential crisis of gradually losing your sense of personal identity to the extent that you begin to doubt your sense of self-existence, and ultimately lose the sensation of existing altogether so that you are unable to differentiate 'self' from 'other'. In this sense you actually cease to exist, whilst being aware of the fact (producing significant cognitive dissonance, which is profoundly mentally and emotionally destabilizing).

That seems far more likely given the plot elements we've been shown so far, the struggle to maintain your sense of self-existence, and the question of what happens to you and your identity when you lose it. This video points very strongly towards existential crisis as a key plot element.