2015-05 Wednesday 15th, SOMA is now in beta

[RedKnight]

I think the hand is glowing too much. Should reduce the rim light a bit.

Who knows, the character might be a giant moving disco ball.

A giant moving disco ball who likes to party everyday, and by party i mean hunt down Gaben.

[plutomaniac]

That monster that they showed back then though could have easily been a placeholder. Seriously, it looks completely like a grunt with a disco ball on top. FG was trolling us hard.

Thomas has said many times that it's beneficial to not know beforehand how the monster looks & behaves. Leave as much to the imagination and do not reveal it's appearance. So the placeholder makes perfect sense.

[LazzerBackup]

That monster that they showed back then though could have easily been a placeholder. Seriously, it looks completely like a grunt with a disco ball on top. FG was trolling us hard.

Thomas has said many times that it's beneficial to not know beforehand how the monster looks & behaves. Leave as much to the imagination and do not reveal it's appearance. So the placeholder makes perfect sense.

Yet they shown us grunt before Amnesia was released.

[Googolplex]

In earlier Amnesia versions they used the Infected from Penumbra as a placeholder. There weren't grunts or brutes. Only concept arts who showed them as some kind of pirate.

But I find the new hand icons on interactions annoying, which extremely breaks the immersion for me. They often show arrows and indicators in which direction the player has to move things. That is really killing the immersion for me, because I always liked to find out myself how to interact and move things in the environment. I don't want arrows that show me everything. It feels like the game forces me what to do!

Some examples:

[Statyk]

Personally, I think being shown what moves something saves the immersion for me. I'm not sitting there going, "okay, so do I move my mouse this wa--- no... hmm, maybe forward? nnnope... maybe I need to move to a better angle. Well that's kinda what it's supposed to do." I don't want to argue with an interaction, you know?

[Googolplex]

I'm thinking completely different, because this will ruin the effect of puzzles that are based on interactions. For example if there is a cable which you have to put into a machine or a lever to operate, I always enjoyed in Penumbra and Amnesia to find out myself how to move things. When the game shows you what to do it feels like it's forcing me the interaction and spoil the movement of objects required for solving puzzles.
So it ruins the immersion for me. I'm sure this could be modded out, but I would prefer to avoid such "mainstream features" completely. Or to make an option to switch between normal and easy indicators.

Nobody had problems to open doors, a chest or to operate things in Amnesia. The controls are very easy compared to other games. There is no need to tell the player in which direction he has to open doors etc. A bit logical thinking shouldn't be required too much to play a game.

[Slanderous]

I'm thinking completely different, because this will ruin the effect of puzzles that are based on interactions. For example if there is a cable which you have to put into a machine or a lever to operate, I always enjoyed in Penumbra and Amnesia to find out myself how to move things. When the game shows you what to do it feels like it's forcing me the interaction and spoil the movement of objects required for solving puzzles.
So it ruins the immersion for me. I'm sure this could be modded out, but I would prefer to avoid such "mainstream features" completely. Or to make an option to switch between normal and easy indicators.

Nobody had problems to open doors, a chest or to operate things in Amnesia. The controls are very easy compared to other games. There is no need to tell the player in which direction he has to open doors etc. A bit logical thinking shouldn't be required too much to play a game.

Fucking mainstream interaction hand icons man, it's all EA's fault. Don't worry though - I talked to Frictional Games and they told me there will be optional DLC packs available that remove the annoying interaction icons.

[A.M Team]

Fucking mainstream interaction hand icons man, it's all EA's fault. Don't worry though - I talked to Frictional Games and they told me there will be optional DLC packs available that remove the annoying interaction icons.

*slow clap*

[Traggey]

I'm thinking completely different, because this will ruin the effect of puzzles that are based on interactions. For example if there is a cable which you have to put into a machine or a lever to operate, I always enjoyed in Penumbra and Amnesia to find out myself how to move things. When the game shows you what to do it feels like it's forcing me the interaction and spoil the movement of objects required for solving puzzles.
So it ruins the immersion for me. I'm sure this could be modded out, but I would prefer to avoid such "mainstream features" completely. Or to make an option to switch between normal and easy indicators.

Nobody had problems to open doors, a chest or to operate things in Amnesia. The controls are very easy compared to other games. There is no need to tell the player in which direction he has to open doors etc. A bit logical thinking shouldn't be required too much to play a game.

From where are you getting the idea that there even are interactable puzzles? There's been zero info released about that at all.

[Googolplex]

From where are you getting the idea that there even are interactable puzzles? There's been zero info released about that at all.

Haven't you watched the gameplay videos? There are some interactive puzzles. By the way a Frictional game without puzzles is not a Frictional game.

Yesterday I red a presentation of a developer from This War Of Mine about what makes a good game. He mentioned what I always said: A good game doesn't speak to the player. Things like "Press [key] to level up" or "Use [item] to break the wall" are a no-go. I hope that SOMA won't make the same design failures as Amnesia did.

It feels like to be in a tutorial, which are always killing the immersion for me. Tutorials are like Cutscenes a bad way to immerse the player.