SOMA Reviews
Soma's slowly-unfolding story, and the choices you live with, make the experience one that will stay with you for some time, the ending hitting all the right notes.
This is not just another horror game. It's a science fiction story with horrific shades, a game that ponders the human condition in an industry where "the human condition" has become an awkward dead horse of a phrase. A horror game that, curiously, would have benefited from a little less horror. Simply put – there needs to be more games like this in the world.
SOMA is a survival horror game that is undoubtedly one of the best of the genre, and its setting and plot are shining examples of how to engage an audience.
Overall, SOMA is a great achievement in the survival horror genre due to its story.
Soma tells an affective tale and carries the horror genre a few steps forward. Had Frictional shown the courage to shake off tradition entirely, it could have carried it further still.
SOMA is a fantastic example of perfectly pitched atmosphere. Its gripping sci-fi mystery make for a uniquely effective experience that puts story above cheap jump scares.
The plot is compelling, the presentation is generally very good, and the conclusion is outstanding. But all of these achievements will be tempered if you're looking for the kind of scares that defined Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
SOMA is an horror adventure, but most of all is a drama. Some characters and dialogues can be strikingly perturbing. Even with his classic gameplay and multiple references the result gets remains fresh.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While SOMA may be lacking in the fear department, it more than makes up for it in existentialist unease.
Despite the issues outlined above, most horror fans will have a good time with SOMA. Frictional Games have shown us time and time again that they are masters of telling a scary story; this time, without the crutch of plentiful jump scares. SOMA is a game that can cause you to question your humanity, if only for a few moments. It's just a shame that the HPL Engine 3 was not up-to-snuff for the PlayStation 4.
Frictional Games has attempted to merge sci-fi horror with a philosophical investigation into the mind-body problem.
Soma is an exceptionally-compelling story, told in ways that are both innovative and very traditional in turn. It takes you from the highs of puzzling where you're interrogating the back-up of a long-dead technician repeatedly until you manage verisimilitude to the lows (in terms of innovation, not in horror) of yet again skulking behind a table waiting for another insta-kill monster to wander by.
Soma isn't much of a horror game, but that's not a big loss. It uses horror trappings as a jumping off point to find more intelligent and interesting trails to follow. Its follow-through, save for a few instances where I felt it succumb to the bindings of its genre, is impressive. When it talks about something, it goes for it, and the results are rarely pretty or happy but almost always intriguing.
A superb story with mismatched horror elements
It may not strike the same level of outright terror that Amnesia: The Dark Descent but even in this genre, SOMA is a standout title with an interesting storyline centered around the age old debate of being human.
It falls short of greatness, but the story is enough to keep anyone riveted.
SOMA is a spectacular adventure game stuck in the jaws of a mediocre horror game.
Soma aims to combine a weird story with a mysterious atmosphere and succeeds to achieve that goal, and although its gameplay might be too simple at times, it’ll still satisfy horror fans.
Review in Persian | Read full review
A competent and creepy survival horror, elevated by a well-crafted story that really gets under your skin.
The game, like the best works of science fiction, understands that horror can come from discomfort inherent to the erasure of boundaries we assume exist. The unintelligible whispers of static and the shattered visuals of glitch provide only the most cursory glances at a machine world inaccessible to us.