True Review SOMA (Xbox One Review)
3What makes us human, what makes you, you is it your body, your personality, your mind well that's the question SOMA ask you to think about whilst tryin to survive and understand your new found predicament.
You play as Simon who has a terminal brain condition due to injury's from a car crash he was involved with. We join him on the day he is going for an experimental brain scan at the offices of a Dr Munchi and I'm glad the game made this little section playable as it really helps the sets up the disorientation which is to come as we briefly see a little glimpse of Simons normal life.
So after arriving the less than professional offices you have your brain scan and seemingly black out reawakening in a strange run down lab and this is where SOMA starts properly.
Now whilst putting this review together I had decided to either spoil the story or not and taking into account I had not actually heard of SOMA which had been out on PC & Ps4 for a couple of years I decided on the latter so will only really mention the very early plot details.
So Soma takes place in an underwater research facility known as PATHOS-II. While the station itself is now in a state of disrepair, the Simon quickly establishes that PATHOS-II was a group of stations scattered around the North Atlantic ocean originally functioning as a mass driver, an installation designed to send objects into space without the hassle of building expensive rockets.
Why or how Simon got here I cant really go into but with the help of a companion Catherine whom you meet early on you have to make your way through the installation avoiding the many mutated robots and environmental hazards PATHOS 2 throws ar you,
Graphics
SOMA is a good looking game taking into accounts its a couple of years old and on base hardware looks decent enough with dark derelict rooms and corridors at every turn lit up with intermittent lighting trying its best to stay on help create a fantastic and believable game world.
Sound
The atmosphere created by the graphics would be nothing with the excellent sound track, the sound of the creaking station, the unexpected bangs, creaks and pressurised steam being released, make the station one of best and believable environments I've had the pleasure or should that be displeasure to walk through. Then when you venture into one if the many areas protected by of the robots the roars and echo's they let out resonate around the metallic hallways so well giving clues off of where you shouldn't go. I would recommend playing the game with surround sound if you have it on your headset or speakers as they sound direction goes up another level been able to hear and locate drops of water hitting the floor from a leaky pipe.
Gameplay
How does it play then, well before you start you have a decision to make, do you play the game as it was originally made or go for the new safe mode. My recommendation would be defiantly be safe mode, now whilst this choice basically turns the game into a puzzle/walking sim all be it a high quality 6 - 8 hours experience it removes the frustration of the quite frankly broken, cheap AI of the creatures whom whilst still presents lose the ability to attack you.
Whilst the route to the games excellent conclusion is pretty linear there's a lot of scope to go off path and its really encouraged as you discover a plethora of audio files, documents, status echo's which build a bigger and richer story to what has happened and how Simon is here.
Its not all praise though as the aforementioned broken AI if you play regular mode isn't the games only issue, Finding interactable objects can be a problem with the recital not changing, also more help could be offered to the player drawing your attention to them.
The game also relies a little too much on clichéd gameplay tropes as well such as tasking you to repair a transport that obviously crashes half way to your destination as a fine example of this driving Simon through every part if the station. Finally when each new map section loads in there is a notable pause even on the X,
Overall though SOMA is a fantastic package and a game that's defiantly needs to be experienced as the questions it asks and the decisions your presented with really make you.
Recommended.
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