Soma is a horror science fiction survival game developed and published by Friction Games for Microsoft (soma Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This game was released on September 22, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and on December 1, 2017 on Xbox One.
Soma takes place in a remote underwater research facility with an engine that begins to take on human characteristics. Simon Jarrett, a fish of the water protagonist, finds himself in a facility under mysterious circumstances and is unintentionally forced to uncover his past, while trying to understand his difficult times and his potential future.
Soma ' s is built on the conventions set forth in the previous horror title of the Friction Games, including an emphasis on hidden threat aversion, puzzle solving, and immersion. However, in break with this tradition, it also underestimates aspects such as inventory management that support a tighter focus on narration. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised the story and voice acting.
Video Soma (video game)
Gameplay
Soma is a survival videogame video game played from a first person perspective. Players will face a number of creatures, each of which embodies aspects of the game theme. Soma mainly uses psychological horror elements rather than the conventional fears found in most video games in the genre. Throughout the game, players will find a large number of clues, such as notes and audio cassettes, which build an atmosphere and further a plot. Similar to most titles by Friction Games, there is no battle, and instead the player progresses through solving puzzles, explorations, and stealth usage.
Maps Soma (video game)
Plot
Settings
Soma takes place at an underwater research facility known as PATHOS-II. While the station itself is now in a state of disrepair, the player quickly specifies that PATHOS-II is a group of stations scattered around the North Atlantic Ocean that originally served as a "space weapon", or rather, a mass driver, an installation designed to send objects to outer space without the need to build expensive rockets. Unexpectedly, the PATHOS-II crew became the last people on Earth after the impact of the comet caused a major extinction event. There, the last man survives day by day, trying to counter the negative effects of their collective isolation. During this period, the machines at PATHOS-II began to develop human characteristics and consciousness.
Story
In 2015, protagonist Simon Jarrett was involved in a Toronto car accident that caused him severe brain damage. Because of his injuries, Simon agreed to perform an experimental brain scan under the control of David Munshi, a graduate student at York University who was working by reversing brain damage. During the scan, Simon looked unconscious.
Simon regains consciousness on the Upsilon Site of PATHOS-II, an in-depth marine research facility left in the Atlantic Ocean. Simon knew that he had been awakened in 2104, and that on 5 January 2103, an enormous comet impact destroyed the earth's surface, leaving PATHOS-II as the outpost of humanity. While exploring Upsilon, Simon remotely contacted someone named Catherine Chun, who instructed him to come to his location on the Lambda Site. While exploring the facility to search for Catherine, Simon crosses the road with a number of mutant, mutant, and robotic human hybrids. Simon finds a post with a communication tool, which he uses to contact Catherine again. However, the wall of the facility began to leak, until finally the glass gave under water pressure, drowning Simon. After collapsing Simon awakens underwater wearing a high-tech submarine suit, which he does not wear before fainting. He continues to Lambda Site to meet with Catherine, while being plagued by a distorted vision that becomes more intense as time passes.
Arriving at the Lambda Site, Simon meets Catherine. Hoping to finally see another human being, he was instead dealing with a deep ocean drone with a human personality. He revealed that he was actually a downloaded copy of the original Catherine who worked at PATHOS-II before the meteor strike. He states that Simon is actually a genuine Simon scan from 2015, which has been loaded into the modified body of a dead PATHOS-II employee combined with wetsuits. After transferring his Cortex Chip to OmniTool, the keycard/scanning device used to communicate with the WAU system, Catherine explains that she is working on a project called ARK, an artificial world that runs on super black box computers. After scanning everyone living in PATHOS-II and putting it into ARK, he intends to launch ARK into space so that humanity can live, away from the now deserted Earth.
Simon and Catherine began looking for methods to reach ARK, which lies deep in the ocean at Tau Site. Throughout their journey, Simon is hampered by enemy robots and mangled crew members controlled by WAU, the artificial intelligence computer PATHOS-II that has erased or assimilated station personnel because of its main direction to preserve the human race, regardless of the form in which humanity is preserved.
Because Tau's Site is on the ocean floor, Simon is forced to build a new body that can withstand extreme deepwater pressures called "Power Suit". As he searches for the necessary material, his distorted vision becomes more intensive and he is contacted by an unknown "spirit" resembling a mutated diver, then declared to be Dr. Johan Ross. He unveiled the true PATHOS-II past, where "structural gels" were found to be the catalyst for mutations and control mediums from WAU. This liquid has a rejuvenating properties that can bridge the gap between organic and digital life forms and even raise them from death.
Simon eventually collects all the materials needed for the Power Suit, transferred into the body, and awakens only to realize that his consciousness is not actually moved, but rather copied. Catherine explains that copying is the only process available when changing the body. He quickly puts the old body to sleep, leaving the player with the option to save or end the old body life. Catherine claims that the old fate of Simon was decided by a "flip of coins".
After going down to Tau Site with his new body, Simon meets Sarah Lindwall, a paralyzed and dying PATHOS-II employee who does not have a robotic body, making him the last man on the planet. He takes ARK from Sarah and sends it to Phi Site, where the space weapon is located. While on the way to Phi Site, Simon is once again visited by a "spirit" who tells him that he must infect the WAU core before leaving Earth because Simon is the only organism that can not be controlled by WAU. Simon has finally found and can choose to infect the WAU core. Simon made it on Site Phi where he found Catherine's black box implant, where he heard Catherine argue with other scientists about the risk of launching ARK. The remaining humans argue that it would be safer not to launch ARK into space, although this means it may be under the control of WAU or at least it will have enough energy left to survive for about 100 years rather than potentially thousands of years if it rises to satellite powered solar. Tension increased and one of the scientists accidentally attacked Catherine with a wrench, killing her instantly. This is the reason why ARK was never launched in the first place.
With Simon's help, ARK is loaded into a space weapon and Catherine initializes the control to launch the launch. Catherine promised to scan them into the ARK just before the spacecraft was fired. When ARK was launched, Simon and Catherine were still using PATHOS-II. Simon questioned why they were left behind when the scan finished successfully. Catherine explains again that she can not transfer the scan, just copy it. Simon players "lost the flip coin"; a copy of hers and Catherine on top of ARK, while their consciousness is currently left behind at the station. During a fight with Catherine, OmniTool overloaded him because he was annoyed. OmniTool's shorts came out and broke, leaving Simon alone in the darkness, begging him back.
In the post-credit scene, Simon's version is copied to ARK, completely unaware of the other Simon left in PATHOS-II, awakened in a beautiful landscape. Simon reunited with Catherine in front of the futuristic island town. Meanwhile, it was shown that the ARK had succeeded in making it a space on board when it left Earth destroyed. The last scene shows the ARK satellite fly slowly into the galaxy's reach until it becomes a distant twinkle that blends into the stars, giving a feeling of hope for all humanity above ARK.
Development
Soma is in production since 2010, starting with new technological advances for game engines. Arranging the game at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean is an idea that was decided on "desire" by the founders of the game Frictional Games, Thomas Grip and Jens Nilsson, who according to Grip had long wanted them to try. This storyteller is designed to depend on the player's actions rather than serve as a guide for players to comply with, thus allowing those who ignore exposition materials, such as audio logs and notes, to follow the storyline. Soma ' The underlying theme is consciousness, and developed to explore the nature of free will and self. The game's atmosphere is inspired by the work of Philip K. Dick, Chinese MiÃÆ' Â © ville and Greg Egan.
Reach a realistic sound to fit the mood that audio director Samuel Justice needed to take advantage of what he called the "room size system." Instead of processing the sound to make possible effects, the recording is made from an environment that complements those needs, such as a reverb of a large hall. With this system, more than 2,000 footsteps are captured.
Marketing
A teaser trailer featuring Soma game footage was released on October 11, 2013. Official website info page displays excerpts by author Philip K. Dick. Another game trailer was released on April 3, 2014.
Two direct action shorts, "Vivarium" and "Mockingbird" were shot back-to-back at LeftJet Studios in Seattle, for nine days. The films were produced by Imagos Films, an independent film company based in Seattle. Imagos Films is also equipped for Frictional Games, a set of live action clips set to be released in 2015 in monthly installments and will connect with upcoming game stories. Due to production issues the release date was delayed and on September 28, 2015, shortly after the game's release, Frictional Games announced that they had provided the first clip on their YouTube channel with the title "SOMA - Transmission # 1", with seven more to follow in each day which will come. The action miniseries act as prequels for events in this game, though those inspired by plots and characters are not canonical.
In collaboration with Frictional Games, a temporary feature film called "DEPTH" was filmed by Imagos Films codenamed "Project Apophis". The director of the film is Don Thacker and his clips are used for Soma's marketing campaigns such as "Transmissions" webseries. The film is expected to be released in 2016.
Reception
Soma received a 'favorable overview' according to Metacritic Review Review website, which provided the Microsoft Windows version 84/100 based on 67 reviews, the PlayStation 4 79/100 version based on 27 reviews and the Xbox One version 82/100 based on 12 reviews. In 2017, GamesRadar ranked 10th in the list of "20 greatest horror games of all time".
Richard Wakeling from GameSpot gives this game 9 out of 10, and praises the "interesting and thought-provoking" story, the "impressive" writing and sound, and the atmosphere and sound design, which together, fills the game with "fear" and gives the feeling of " cold "," the edge of your seat ". Wakeling dislikes the part where players walk on the ocean floor, however, and also feel that the enemy's encounter is "boring". Philip Kollar of Polygon also gave the game 9/10 and wrote: "I do not know if
Tim Turi from Game Informer gave the game 8.5 out of 10. He complimented the sound to convince immersed players in the game, as well as the "scary", "simple", "dependable" environments of Control, and the " which are interesting ". Turi has little criticism about character models, stealth, and interactions with monsters. In his review for GamesRadar, Leon Hurley wrote: "Different ideas about an interesting science fiction concept let down by a slow start and a disappointing monster, but very valuable overall." Hurley praised the "great" story, the "fun" character, and the "interesting and unexpected" location. He also praised the game for his ability to attract players through stories by providing useful situations. Hurley did feel "lost" at the time, because there was no clear direction, and felt that the monster had no threat whatsoever. IGN's Daniel Krupa scored a game of 8.1/10 and wrote: " SOMA is a continuous exploration of original ideas and thoughts.The concept of artificial intelligence has been explored by many science fiction, so it is not unique in that regard, it makes a very clever use of video game conventions to present intimate ideas in new and surprising ways. "
After ten days of release, Soma has sold 92,000 copies, in excess of 20,000 copies made by previous developer game Amnesia: The Dark Descent in the first week. In March 2016, Friction Games announced that the game had sold over 250,000 copies and that the company was close to break even, which required them to sell 276,000 units. In a blog post commemorating a year of release, Frictional Games estimates that sales figures have exceeded 450,000 copies. At the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards, Soma was nominated for three categories: Best Original Game, Best Telling Story, and Best Visual Design.
References
External links
Media related to Soma (video game) on Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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