Game reviews
SOMA: the monster is not the question you will take home
SOMA earns its place in science-fiction horror by making identity feel like a practical problem. The machinery is unsettling; the implications are worse.
Whimsical Woes editorial ·
AI-assisted editorial criticism. Personal diary entries and ratings are written separately by Hunter.
SOMA is strongest when its science-fiction questions stop behaving like discussion topics and start behaving like problems somebody must live with. Frictional Games places its horror beneath the Atlantic, in an environment full of systems that can continue functioning long after their purpose has become unclear. It is a persuasive setting for a story about consciousness. Everything looks operational enough to be dangerous.
A person is not a progress bar
The interesting question is not merely whether a machine can seem human. It is what obligations follow when something has an experience of being alive. A tidy theoretical answer is easy to offer at a safe distance. Place that question in a corridor, attach a voice to it, and require a decision before the next door opens: suddenly the definition needs to do actual work.
That is the strongest argument for telling this kind of story through a game. The player cannot remain entirely outside the procedure. Even when the range of actions is narrow, having to act changes the texture of the question. It is the difference between discussing a switch and standing beside it.
The ocean is an excellent bad idea
An underwater setting makes escape feel physically unreasonable before any creature enters the picture. The architecture depends on barriers, electricity, and machinery that normally disappear into the background of daily life. Here, maintenance becomes existential. A functioning door is both reassurance and a reminder that the water is being kept somewhere else for now.
The industrial design suits this pressure. It gives abstract questions weight, grime, and a place to stand. The game does not need a clean white laboratory to discuss what a person is. In fact, the failing infrastructure makes that conversation harder to dismiss as somebody else’s experiment.
The limitation is the chase
The monster-avoidance layer can compete with the more interesting work of listening and thinking. Players who primarily want combat mastery should be especially careful about their expectations: this is not a power fantasy wearing a damp coat. Its appeal is narrative pressure and vulnerability.
Choose SOMA for an uncomfortable philosophical story, not a cheerful answer about humanity. This is an editorial assessment of its narrative and design, not a report of a personal playthrough, completion time, or technical performance on a particular device. Check the developer’s current information for supported systems and modes before buying.
Questions from the crypt
Is SOMA an action game?
Its central appeal is narrative science-fiction horror and vulnerability rather than combat-driven power progression.
What kind of horror is SOMA?
It combines science-fiction, psychological, and existential horror in an underwater setting.
Do I need to play Amnesia before SOMA?
No. SOMA is a separate story from the same studio, not a continuation requiring Amnesia knowledge.