Official Poll Regarding SOMA's Monsters

[JacobVR]

A large portion of the "Horror" experience is subjective based on the personal mental faculties of the individual. This is why it is so hard to get a consensus across a large consumer base as everyone has their own tolerances and ideas of "what is scary to me". I definitely like the "Dont look at it" mechanic, because personally Horror is more effective when it is nebulous and not given a discernible form. So I do think that should be used more often.

[Striker]

Horror is more effective when it is nebulous and not given a discernible form. So I do think that should be used more often.

Agree! Because your mind will always fill in the blanks and find the most scary thing that cannot be delivered directly. Typically the anticipation is the scarier part, or fear of the unknown, and being helpless as well.

I think this is one of the reasons horror in movies fails most of the time. Many movies have this perfect atmosphere and excellent build up of tension, then the big reveal is some overly animated CGI monster that "announces" itself by screaming into the camera, and the payoff is completely void at that point. At that point I usually sigh and then Captain Picard facepalm.

[Silent Krabs]

Hi all!

Now that SOMA has been out for two weeks, would be nice to do a poll on an important subject: How did you feel that the monster encounters worked?

Obviously, this is a bit more complicated than answering one out of six answers, but please select which one feels most correct to you. Also, if you feel like it please write more about it below.

While I think the monster designs in Soma were your best work, and the monsters in your other games pale in comparison to them, I would agree with the likes of George Weidman on one detail that I found disappointing: all of the monsters use the same animations.

It can become rather repetitive the moment you notice all the monsters walk like decapitated chickens, and generally move in a manner reminiscent of human beings. Imagine how frightening the monsters could've been if they slithered on the walls like snakes, or contorted themselves into unnatural shapes in order to swing on the ceilings. The more inhuman and unnatural the monsters are, the more disturbing and memorable they are.

That's my perspective on the matter anyway.

[A.M Team]

For me, the monster designs were to marvel at, and I give a lot of props to Art Bully for their work on the creatures.

Each monster has their own skeleton and animations, I think you might have meant that their animations are too 'human', not that they are the same. I agree with you on Akers and The Proxies but Yoshida has to be an example of human monster animation done right.

It twitches and walks extremely quickly in short bursts, making it frightening when he walks towards you. It runs at you like a fast moving sprinter but the way it walks is human but slightly off. You get the sense that it really is a human being controlled by an inexperienced omnipotence.

[Chilvence]

I really had a love hate relationship with the monsters in this game.

From a design point of view, the way they work, the strengths and weaknesses they have, and the fact that they are all used sparingly, those are all great. It's been a long time since a game has literally paralysed me with fear. It blew my mind. Whatever direction you are heading, this is where games need to follow in future. That's the love part.

What I didn't like, is that there were several parts where it felt like the game was basically saying 'F*ck you'. I'm not talking about the jump scares or the parts that are scripted or the parts where you get tricked. There were really only two places in the game I really didn't like, the 'maze' in Curie (which was a really cool level btw), and the mini maze in Tau.

I'm talking about this: You are in a narrow corridor, the place you need to get to is at the end of the corridor, and in between you and that place is the invulnerable, insta-kill monster which you can only get past by hiding and waiting. You can't run away from it because it is faster than you, you can't stun it because Simon is a dick and threw away the cattle prod, you can't trap it because there is no allowance for that, and you can't trick it to move out of the way, because it seems to be artificially weighted to find you whatever happens.

You basically can't do anything except hope it doesn't notice you. There is no action you can take to improve your odds, by this point you have totally lost any sense of agency and are waiting for the game to do something. That is really, really tedious, and that is why so many people are complaining about the 'annoying' monsters. The thing is, the monsters are not annoying, the monsters are incredible -- it is the protagonist that is annoying.

He can't actually 'do' anything, which goes completely against the grain of games giving the player more and more things they can do, more choices they can make. I'm afraid to say it, but when you strip every possible ability away from the player and put him in a maze running away from monsters, you don't have an open ended, complex, strategic game - you have 21st century PAC-MAN. And even he had power pills once in a while...

You could keep the monsters exactly as they are, only give the player some options they can pursue, no matter how feeble or temporary or limited they are, and nobody would be angry at the game, because at least you would feel like you can attempt to affect your situation. Even if it most likely still results in your doom. It is the feeling that you can affect your situation that keeps you hooked on a good game.

What if you could break the locks off doors? Set off a distraction in a room then barricade something in? Or stun monsters, even if only for the split second you need to run past them? Or even try to get the jump on a creature by sticking one of the many featured buckets over their head? There are so many possibilities, so many ideas that haven't been pursued, even without going down the beaten path of traditional first person games.

In summary : Monsters = Perfect as they are ; Simon = Total Loser Knobhead, please don't make us play as him again

[dhollmusik]

He can't actually 'do' anything, which goes completely against the grain of games giving the player more and more things they can do, more choices they can make. I'm afraid to say it, but when you strip every possible ability away from the player and put him in a maze running away from monsters, you don't have an open ended, complex, strategic game - you have 21st century PAC-MAN. And even he had power pills once in a while...

haha, nice analogy


I can see where you're generally coming from, tho' I guess in real-life most of us would act like Simon rather than a Gordon Freeman who just found a crowbar.

I'd say the monsters' behaviour was more the gameplay problem - limiting Simon's agency was more the gameplay problem regarding puzzles. The monsters were less crucial to the experience than Penumbra/Amnesia was, so they could've acted differently: been less hostile. Hostile monsters are naturally a horror trope but FG are ambitious enough to want to begin rewriting the rules. So instead you could have monsters more quietly, and abstractly, sinister, perhaps being part of puzzles, or dangerous in other ways which didn't involve running after you and hitting you.

This trademark aggression didn't always make sense in terms of the WAU angle, tho' it would work if using this trope more sparingly, and having other monster encounters go a different way. This would add to the gameplay mechanik as you'd have to deal with them in varied ways.

[CrashHeadroom]

More monsters would be a good thing imo and a reason to run from them. Many of you may not agree with this but I think another look at the old combat system from Overture might be a good idea. I had some interesting thoughts while dealing with Akers (also while working on my music) and I think a shove/thump system would have been good.

Take Akers dialogue for example. A few of you have found it silly, HOWEVER...redo the voice to be something that the player would pay attention to, construct a philisophical fight/chase scene with Akers rambling off his dialogue at you while running away/hitting him/shoving him, eventually leading to being corned and fighting him back.

Also, why were the patchwork enemies cut? Was it due play testers wanting a bit of a break after dealing with Theta?

[A.M Team]

Also, why were the patchwork enemies cut? Was it due play testers wanting a bit of a break after dealing with Theta?

They are actually in the vanilla game, just as a twitching corpse on the floor at Omicron. My guess is that it would have gotten up and stalked you after you got the cortex chip.

[CrashHeadroom]

Also, why were the patchwork enemies cut? Was it due play testers wanting a bit of a break after dealing with Theta?

They are actually in the vanilla game, just as a twitching corpse on the floor at Omicron. My guess is that it would have gotten up and stalked you after you got the cortex chip.

I know this ^^ but yeah there's AI code and animations to show they were an enemy. When I saw that body lieing on the floor I said to myself "...it's getting up...not yet but its gonna stand", I was let down when it stood and then fooked off lol

[WarGod45]

More monsters would be a good thing imo and a reason to run from them. Many of you may not agree with this but I think another look at the old combat system from Overture might be a good idea. I had some interesting thoughts while dealing with Akers (also while working on my music) and I think a shove/thump system would have been good.

Take Akers dialogue for example. A few of you have found it silly, HOWEVER...redo the voice to be something that the player would pay attention to, construct a philisophical fight/chase scene with Akers rambling off his dialogue at you while running away/hitting him/shoving him, eventually leading to being corned and fighting him back.

Also, why were the patchwork enemies cut? Was it due play testers wanting a bit of a break after dealing with Theta?

Agree with this, the combat system from Overture was better.