Official Poll Regarding SOMA's Monsters

[Mothhive]

Gonna be brutally honest as you're obviously wanting feedback to make your future games as good as possible, and let me just say I really enjoyed the overall experience of SOMA, but I went for "A bit scary, but mostly annoying". Potential spoilers ahead, so please don't read on if you haven't finished it.

Most of the monsters were incredibly easy to avoid and didn't feel like a threat, and when I got caught the first time by one of them, I wasn't scared, just frustrated that I had to backtrack.

The most frustrating parts were when the monsters were where I needed to go. I don't mean patrolling the area I needed to go through (which would have been fine), I mean they were just standing in one spot, blocking where I was meant to be going.

The first time it happened was on the Curie, and the monster just wasn't moving. I had to let it see me and chase me, I hid to lose it, then made my way back to the area, hoping it was trying to find me, but it was right back in it's starting position. Might have been a bug, but it seemed intentional to me and that what I was meant to do was have it chase me around in a circle so that I could run past where it was originally standing. If I was having to sneak around that area, knowing it was nearby and looking for me, it would have been much more scary, but instead it was more like "Pekaboo! Bet you can't catch me".

The second time was when I had to get battery pack for the new suit, and there was a monster standing directly in front of it and not moving (this was my second time in that area as I didn't realise anything was there the first, and the monster wasn't moving so just left to explore more). Every time I tried to approach it, the screen would go a little weird, but the monster would just stand there. I started throwing things around to grab it's attention, but it still wasn't moving. I started throwing things closer and closer to it, and still no reaction. In the end I had to throw and hit it with something for it to even react, then I had to have it run after me in a circle so I could grab the battery pack and run away. Having monsters activate only when you hit them with stuff seemed like terrible design to me, so I searched for it on Youtube and in the first playthrough I came across, the guy seemed to be just as confused as I was the first time I went there, and left after the monster didn't react to him. He later came back and just thought screw it, and ran right in-front of the monster and grabbed the battery pack. I think he was a bit shocked that it hadn't murdered him on the spot (which you'd think would be the logical conclusion of getting right in it's face) and after running out of the room, he looked back and it was still standing there for a second or two before it stopped screaming and ran after him. Then he shut a door behind him and it just gave up. A very poorly designed encounter in my opinion as the approach you need to take makes no sense.

The other monster that was annoying and not scary was the worm thing that chases you near the end. I was often hiding behind things, or in areas I would think would protect me (surprised anything did since it tunnelled through a floor to kill Ross), and it would just suddenly murder me, sending me back a little, and disorientating me so I din;t know where I was, or which direction I needed to go.


Hope that helps, and please don't take any of the criticism to heart. I really enjoyed SOMA, and while it wasn't as scary as I hoped, the story and setting were much more interesting and enjoyable than your previous games (which I also enjoyed).