SOMA: monkfish

[Amnesia Gamer]

I bumped into this fish shortly before arriving to TAU, after going out a cave plenty of spiders deep in the sea. I have seen a light and I approached believing it was a bright pole but I have found this monster which attacked me. Looking at carefully I have tried to understand if it was a controlled monster by WAU or simply an abyss predator.



Then I have seen a strange thing: the tail seemed a human hand while on the left side of its body you could see a human face.
What do you think about it?

[Lazoriss]

The images won't load for me, but based on what you said this would be the Horned Anglerfish. She's right outside the spider cave and will attack if you get too close. As far as I know, that's the only one in the game.

My guess is that the WAU spliced her with human DNA (maybe unintentionally), creating the weird hybrid monster we encounter.

http://soma.wikia.com/wiki/Anglerfish

[GhylTarvoke]

It's usually called an anglerfish around here. Not sure if it's more specifically a monkfish - hard to tell, really.

Anyway, the WAU's being freaky as usual. The viperfish have faces, too. I didn't notice faces on either of them until I looked in the model viewer.

Also, what Lazoriss said. Good theory.

[Amnesia Gamer]

Interesting.

[SlackerinDeNile]

I've got to be honest, thats just too crazy for this game. I get the impression that they were old models from scenes and story elements that were cut out of the game but they didn't have time to create new fish or whatever.

[Lazoriss]

I've got to be honest, thats just too crazy for this game. I get the impression that they were old models from scenes and story elements that were cut out of the game but they didn't have time to create new fish or whatever

Yeah, it is kinda weird. There are a lot of WAU mutated deep sea creatures in the game, but none with human parts jutting out. Not that you could really tell in-game, either, since it was so dark. It just kinda came outta nowhere.

I do find it kind of funny that this is the only enemy I died to. I'm wearing power armor that can withstand the immense pressure of the deep sea. But then I get insta-killed by a literal fish.

[psxpetey]

I bumped into him also in about the same area tripped me the hell out! actually jumpscared me!

[Abion47]

I saw the fish as well. I followed the light into the darkness, but when the fish appeared I hauled ass back into the caves and managed to lose it. I didn't even notice the human parts at the time.

To me, the splicing makes sense. There were reports scattered around the abyss that structure gel was morphing the deep sea fauna, fusing different creatures together while making them extremely aggressive and hostile. After everything in Tau went to pot, it doesn't surprise me that some of the fusions involved human parts as well from that point on. It was never clear to me whether this was the WAU's doing directly or if it was just a byproduct of the WAU-ified structure gel interacting with the natural environment.