Blown apart by Soma

[MrMagic]

I'm not here for technical support - I just felt like writing you guys a compliment.

I played through Soma and really enjoyed it some years ago. I think I am lucky when I enjoy 1 game a year, and I also was that year. It is such a difficult art form and I hope it will keep growing. Years later, I became powerless to an existential crisis in my life, and I became unable to do anything. It was as if I stopped denying my own mortality and surrendered to it and it took everything I worked for away from me - who I was.

Perhaps it was really about the loneliness of existence, and literally everyone kept making it worse by telling me to see the positive things or to accept myself and so on. It felt as if they were pushing their defense mechanisms unto me. It was like a mean joke.

Over time, the memory of Soma bled into my mind.. Soma stripped all meaning from the protaganist and in a way us. He is confused, he actually died, he is alone, the situation is entirely and ultimately hopeless, and he is a fool with a silly idea that keeps him going. Worst of all, even his last bastion of meaning - his consciousness - is made fun of and deconstructed by showing that he is just a low quality diagnostics consciousness and he was instantiated endlessly by who knows who for ages. You can judge the others for doing that, but he does it himself too to somebody at some point in the most tactless manner. And I don't understand how you could make it even worse when you had the idea to make him do that to himself by copying himself and choosing between leaving himself behind without hope or the ultimate crime - murder. A kind of suicide because he knows exactly what the other person wants - he is actually freeing himself. There is also the computer girl who seems to have surrendered entirely to this meaninglessness, and tries to make him understand the stupidity of his hope, but he simply does not seem to get it and keeps on fighting. I want to replay it to understand it all better...

THANKS so much for being there with me. Soma touched the very core of my being and gave me strength. It helped me realize that I was not alone after all. That I can find others in art. Even though it is ultimately a silly desire and that is ok with me. I haven't cried this hard since I was a baby.

[kirakatve]

Hi, MrMagic! Frictional's community manager here, I linked this thread to our team chat for everyone to read and get inspired. It's messages like these that make the hard work worth it, in my opinion!

Personally I don't think it's a silly desire at all, I find myself connecting through art all the time - both with friends, creators and myself. I'm very glad if Soma was what gave you that experience and hope for the future. And crying is good - it's at the core of being human!

You probably know this but I'm going to suggest it anyway: if you want a little less stress on your next playthrough so you can concentrate on the narrative aspect, you should try the Safe Mode on PC or Xbox!

Anyway, thank you for leaving this message and I hope you will keep finding meaning!

/Kat