The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[Googolplex]

I think frictional's games are meant to be fun. Exploring, uncovering story, living in a different world, scaring the bejeezus out of yourself are all fun as hell. It's just not fun in the traditional 'gamey' sense, but it is in its own unique way. And it's designed that way as well, to be satisfying. Amnesia was one of the most fun games I've experienced and even more so because it did it differently than anything else that I've played.

So are thematics of sad emotions or mental illness/depression also "fun" for you?
Amnesia was different than anything else because it was not a fun-game.

No, those things are depressing. People don't round up all their friends to go and watch a sad film, but they might watch horror because it's fun.

And what makes amnesia different is its ability to use atmosphere, environments, and the player's imagination to scare them more effectively than a game had done before, while also popularizing this modern horror theme of not being able to fight back. Everything else it did is fairly common. The design of the game is essentially FPS with no guns.


On an unrelated note, to the people talking about the second law of thermodynamics in relation to the beginning of the universe- the universe has a net neutral energy. That means that it doesn't actually require any external energy to start.

Real horror is panic and panic is NOT fun! There are fun horror movies, but I think we are not talking about that. You said that in Amnesia you are not able to fight back and there are no guns. This are the best examples why the gameplay is not fun oriented. Horror and fun doesn't fit together. Play Neverending Nightmares. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, but it's about depression.