The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[PutraenusAlivius]

Pretty sure the facility will have guns. Just empty and broken.

[Paddy™]

They're still using CRTs and fluorescent light bulbs, so maybe the twist is that the game appears to be set in the future, but it's actually 1988.

Would anyone feel "cheated" if there were no direct combat, but you could still hurt or kill the enemies? For instance, luring enemies into a pit or otherwise use the environment to harm/disable them?

[Cuyir]

They're still using CRTs and fluorescent light bulbs, so maybe the twist is that the game appears to be set in the future, but it's actually 1988.

Would anyone feel "cheated" if there were no direct combat, but you could still hurt or kill the enemies? For instance, luring enemies into a pit or otherwise use the environment to harm/disable them?

That would be cool.

A combat system like Condemned's would be AMAZING but I don't think they're doing that with Soma haha.

Alardem brings up an interesting point. If the game takes place in an area that was recently under ''human'' control then you'd expect some sort of weaponry or tools for the scientists/guards to use to protect the place.

Buuuut...what if it takes place in the Laboratory that was shown in the teaser (Pathos-2 I assume)? There was alien influence there. Something docked or something with the station/ship/building and supplanted itself there. If aliens took control of Pathos-2 they SHOULD be intelligent enough to remove anything that their test subjects might use to defend themselves.

[Alardem]

They're still using CRTs and fluorescent light bulbs, so maybe the twist is that the game appears to be set in the future, but it's actually 1988.

Would anyone feel "cheated" if there were no direct combat, but you could still hurt or kill the enemies? For instance, luring enemies into a pit or otherwise use the environment to harm/disable them?

Could be they're using cheap equipment. Which doesn't explain the obligatory automatic doors. :p

Also, Penumbra and A Machine For Pigs both allowed you to indirectly hurt enemies via contrived means. Personally, I like the idea of pitting different monsters against each other - perhaps you could get past a giant cyborg by luring a little drone to it and then escaping in the confusion.

Also, 'alien' doesn't necessarily mean extraterrestrial. Just inhuman. For all we know, SOMA's set in a place where cyberspace and reality have melded together in disorienting ways. I'm not sure whether the entire game will be set in 'cyberspace', but judging from the trailer at least a significant portion will take place inside a mechanical domain.

Spoiler below!

All this talk of sentient machinery brings to mind a recent horror game...

[Kein]

They're still using CRTs

Where is this came from.

[blueberry]

Pretty sure the facility will have guns. Just empty and broken.

Oh look it's Captain Obvious!

[Cuyir]

@Alardem: that ''mothership" looked pretty alien (in all ways you can use the word) to me...

[Mechavomit]

What if our character just doesn't know how to load guns?

[Macgyverthehero]

What if our character just doesn't know how to load guns?

I'm pretty sure that in a setting like SOMA, every member of staff would have to be trained with at least one handgun.

Wouldn't make sense to have such a high security research facility without a crew that does not have the knowledge of taking out and reinserting a magazine into a firearm.

[Mechavomit]

What if our character just doesn't know how to load guns?

I'm pretty sure that in a setting like SOMA, every member of staff would have to be trained with at least one handgun.



Wouldn't make sense to have such a high security research facility without a crew that does not have the knowledge of taking out and reinserting a magazine into a firearm.

What if he's just a janitor? And he ends up saving everybody. I'm serious right now, that'd be pretty interesting.