The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[Googolplex]

SOMA is just a Sci-Fi game. It's interesting, but not everything in a game or movie is real.

[Sampyli]

Exactly, so in a way, anything's possible.

[Googolplex]

In a fantasy world maybe.

[A.M Team]

SOMA is just a Sci-Fi game. It's interesting, but not everything in a game or movie is real.

You know, I got sucked out right when you said that. No offensive but it would be cool to talk about this mind set without referring to mixed media. Now it does feel like fantasy.

[Juri]

So there are equipment, hard puzzles and everything what was in amnesia, right ? Cuz it depends if im gonna buy it or not, im not gonna buy on release date it if its gonna be without any gameplay like amnesia machine for the pigs, if i want great story i read a book, from game i expect GAMEPLAY, not interactive movie. In untildawn you had some gameplay - finding totems, and other stuff as well as QTE and some moments to decide what you gonna do and also relations with other characters so it actually had gameplay. And i wonder if SOMA gonna have gameplay too or just running/escaping and grabbing things in a hand to solve puzzles or just move things - it was so bad in Machine for the Pigs - so i ask again, did frictional made same mistakes as The Chinese Room in Machine for the Pigs or dont ? Some creator of the game or beta testing players can write it ? Is there equipment ? Solving puzzles(not just by moving some things in one location or grabbing something from one location to another) ? And other gamplay things which were in Amnesia Dark Descent ? Cuz after gameplays im not sure and it looks like interactive movie like Machine for the Pigs......

[GhylTarvoke]

The reaction doesn't matter. Animals can feel psychological pain, when for example an elephant mother lose her child. No robot would feel pains like that. It's not just about a stimulation of nervous system. Every robot can react as you developed it, but "it" wouldn't feel something, because it has no personality, no soul. Animals have souls. Robots are only scrap material.

When you ask, you are a murder when you play an ego-shooter.

I agree with you. I believe animals have "souls". But where's your proof? If your evidence isn't their reactions or the stimulation of their nervous systems, then what could your evidence possibly be? And if your intuitions have no scientific basis, then maybe sufficiently advanced robots could have souls as well.

At the moment, discussion of robot rights is just armchair speculation - but one day, it may have real consequences. That's the power of science fiction.

[Radiance]

...as QTE and some moments to decide what you gonna do and also relations with other characters so it actually had gameplay. And i wonder if SOMA gonna have gameplay too or just running/escaping and grabbing things in a hand to solve puzzles or just move things ...

1)equipment and inventory - we don't know yet
2)gameplay - read last 17 pages
3)no QTE but you'll have to decide if you're going to save NPC's (and figure out how in that case) or let die
4)you'll be integrated in story and naration, audio pick-up messages
5)puzzles - yes, progressed since Amnesia
6)more developed NPC characters with reactions and motivations

More we'll probably see next week close to launch.

[Paddy™]

Regarding an inventory, from what we've seen so far in the preview videos and articles, the player does collect/keep some items (rather than simply pick them up using the grab function) and the items will automatically appear on-screen when the player needs them. It also appears to be the case that you can check which items you've collected using a hotkey (see here), but as far as I know we haven't seen what this looks like yet.

My interpretation of all this is, we don't have an "active" inventory in which we can select or combine items like the one in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Rather, we simply have a checklist of collected items we can consult, with the items being "selected" for us depending on where we are in the game's world.

[Macgyverthehero]

Say, a thought just came to me about SOMA...

How linear is SOMA? Like, I saw that there is a tram-like system in the game, so does that mean you can go to other facilities whenever you want instead of just going to a new hub area every while? Would be interesting to see a Metroid sort of non-linear exploration for a game like SOMA, kind of like how Alien Isolation worked too.

[TiManGames]

Say, a thought just came to me about SOMA...

How linear is SOMA? Like, I saw that there is a tram-like system in the game, so does that mean you can go to other facilities whenever you want instead of just going to a new hub area every while? Would be interesting to see a Metroid sort of non-linear exploration for a game like SOMA, kind of like how Alien Isolation worked too.

Well, I guess the stationa are pretty linear, let's say like dungeons in amnesia or the storage (but much bigger) and the hub will be lambda. I guess that in the end you will have to get out of the water and you will go back to lambda for a few times for the main progression of the game.