[boredgunner]

No love for this game at all? The release is imminent (Sept 22 2015, PC, Mac, Linux, and PS4). This is the latest horror game from the people who developed Penumbra and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the two games that revitalized and reshaped the horror genre. No, this is not from the people who developed Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/

http://somagame.com/
Quote:

You are certain that you have a subjective experience. There is no doubt that you are a conscious being. But how can you know for sure that others are?

Is there anything another person can do to truly convince you that they are conscious too, or is there no way of being absolutely sure?

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

This game had one of the most interesting marketing campaigns I've seen in a while, with the release of videos such as the ones seen above. I really cannot wait to see what this game offers, I loved their previous games and I love the premise of this one even more. What is consciousness? Is there a soul? How can we be sure that those all around us are living, thinking beings? Or are they just imitations of life, are they figments of our imagination? How can we be sure that our perception of the world is the correct one?

Too many horror games don't ask questions, they're just dark corridors and jump scares. This is a breath of fresh air. Frictional Games raised the bar with Penumbra and Amnesia: The Dark Descent and nobody has come close since.

It's marketing really gives off SCP vibes. While most would immediately relate SOMA to SCP-079, I'd say it's more related to SCP-1193.

SOMA is clearly of higher production value than Amnesia and Penumbra. It features a voiced protagonist and far more character interaction.

This game uses HPL3 engine, the evolution of the engine used in their previous games. It uses OpenGL as the graphics API, and sadly sound API has been downgraded from OpenAL to FMOD. Some other things about the game/engine:

• 
  
• V-Sync functions in a weird way. Disabling it caps the FPS to 60, otherwise it's uncapped. Since I have a G-SYNC monitor I just leave V-Sync on to uncap it (although it can be uncapped in My Documents\My Games\soma\main\user_name_settings.cfg) since G-SYNC overrides in-game V-Sync anyway.
  
• Instructions for disabling the crosshair can be found here, but I also had to set the line below it to false (so that's const bool gbDrawDefaultCrosshair = false; in addition to the steps listed in that guide).
  
• The only AA method is FXAA and it's highly ineffective as expected.
  
• I have not found functioning AA bits for this game. 0x0000F0C1 does not work.
  
• DSR does not seem to work properly and is thus unusable.
  
• It would seem the game needs to be run in windowed mode or borderless windowed in order to capture video.
  
• To disable chromatic aberration, go to Options -> Game and disable Color Separation.

It can be preordered for $27 in the Steam link provided at the top of this post (that's a 10% preorder discount). Since it has launched, it can be purchased for $30. System requirements are listed on that Steam page too: recommended specs are merely a Core i5 or "AMD FX 2.4 GHz," 8GB RAM, and a GTX 480 or Radeon HD 5970. Performance on my system an i7 2600 with turbo and GTX 980 (my previous system) = 75-120 FPS on average on max detail at 2560 x 1440, so it fluctuates a lot.

Frictional Games has also created a YouTube webisode series following the launch of SOMA. Check it out! It doesn't spoil much of the game and does a great job setting the tone, and gives you a look at some of the characters you'll find within the game. It's a sort of prologue, however it may still be best to watch it after beating the game.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWjnM4fZ4U8wLxrFXjL-95ME0QJwdz8m8

Screenshots (2560 x 1440 max detail, some shown with ReShade Dither type 2):

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Discuss.

 

[tristanbear]

I can't see the pictures atm because of school block but if it's developed by Frictional Games I'm in. These guys are really good at making horror! I absolutely loved the Penumbra series as well as the first Amnesia game.

Edit: Just got home and it looks fantastic!

 

[boredgunner]

Thankfully the developers seem to be focusing more on writing/story again, like with Penumbra. Too bad the i7 6700k is impossible to obtain, I wanted to have my new PC built for this game but nope!

 

[Dimensive]

I've been looking forward to this game and it's finally almost here!

 

[boredgunner]

New trailer:

 

[Sheira]

This game seems really well made and polished. The story is cool too... didn't get to many really scary moments yet, but I am sure there won't be a shortage of them.

My recording:

 

[boredgunner]

Some quick things about this game (more about the engine actually):

• 
  
• V-Sync functions in a weird way. Disabling it caps the FPS to 60, otherwise it's uncapped. Since I have a G-SYNC monitor I just leave V-Sync on to uncap it (although it can be uncapped in My Documents\My Games\soma\main\user_name_settings.cfg) since G-SYNC overrides in-game V-Sync anyway.
  
• Instructions for disabling the crosshair can be found here, but this didn't work for me.
  
• The only AA method is FXAA and it's highly ineffective as expected.
  
• I have not found functioning AA bits for this game. 0x0000F0C1 does not work.

Added this and more to the first post.

 

[Reloaded83]

Played 64 minutes last night. I'll preface this with, "I'm not really a horror game type of person". I love horror movies, though they rarely scare me. Games on the other hand, I'm a big baby about. Outlast on 3 monitors proved to be too much, and I never finished it. So far though, I'm loving this game.

I haven't gotten very far as you can see, so I haven't even seen whatever it is that's crashing through doors and things, but the atmosphere and over-all sound effects are quite well done. Playing with headphones in a dark room doesn't help either. I'm REALLY hoping to not NOPE out of this game too soon, but we'll see how it goes. I am pretty sure even after an hour of play, I am not very far into the game, since I've been taking it so slowly as I do with most horror games. It has done a quite good job of sucking me into the world.

 

[boredgunner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reloaded83

Played 64 minutes last night. I'll preface this with, "I'm not really a horror game type of person". I love horror movies, though they rarely scare me. Games on the other hand, I'm a big baby about. Outlast on 3 monitors proved to be too much, and I never finished it. So far though, I'm loving this game.

I haven't gotten very far as you can see, so I haven't even seen whatever it is that's crashing through doors and things, but the atmosphere and over-all sound effects are quite well done. Playing with headphones in a dark room doesn't help either. I'm REALLY hoping to not NOPE out of this game too soon, but we'll see how it goes. I am pretty sure even after an hour of play, I am not very far into the game, since I've been taking it so slowly as I do with most horror games. It has done a quite good job of sucking me into the world.

On a superficial level it's less scary than Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Penumbra - this was absolutely wrong and premature.

I'm calling it right now: this game has the best sound effects ever. Literally every single object crashing against every single surface type creates a unique and accurate sound. Based on its virtual surround support I'd wager it makes very good use of surround sound.

 

[Reloaded83]

Agreed. I'm using virtual surround on my headphones though I don't know if it does much. I was actually shocked when I threw something and it landed on some shards of glass and actually made the correct sound! You're right about everything making a correct sound. In fact, it's made me uneasy more than once when I walked over a different surface (like say a fence was knocked over by something the second time walking through, and now it makes the sound of chain link). It adds quite a bit.

I believe I played a bit of The Dark Descent, but it was a while back it feels like, and I remember only playing a short bit and never finishing it. As with most other horror games.

Good to hear it's "less scary" though. I might actually make it through this one. I'll let you know after I get about another hour to play tonight.

 

[boredgunner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reloaded83

Agreed. I'm using virtual surround on my headphones though I don't know if it does much. I was actually shocked when I threw something and it landed on some shards of glass and actually made the correct sound! You're right about everything making a correct sound. In fact, it's made me uneasy more than once when I walked over a different surface (like say a fence was knocked over by something the second time walking through, and now it makes the sound of chain link). It adds quite a bit.

I believe I played a bit of The Dark Descent, but it was a while back it feels like, and I remember only playing a short bit and never finishing it. As with most other horror games.

I wish I had your nerves. I'd say you experience these games properly. That's what I say to people who refuse to play horror games out of fear. "A horror game scares you? That's exactly why you should play it. That's what the creators intended."

I highly recommend going back and playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and also the Penumbra collection.

 

[Reloaded83]

I never made it far enough in the Dark Descent to see the "monster" or whatever it is that I've seen in videos of people further into the game.

I hear ya though, it's a tough balancing act I suppose between being numb to the scary situations, and so scared you can't even play. I'm very curious and engrossed in this world they've created though, so I'm going to do my best to push through. You're right, it is good to be scared by it as that's what it's supposed to do, sometimes I just can't take any more though! I'm amazed I got through as much of Alien Isolation in the Oculus Rift as I did. And I mainly stopped playing that because I reached a point that I just kept dying over and over, so I became frustraed. Part of that was probably BECAUSE I was playing it in the Rift though.

I share your view on nerves, but with people and scary movies. I keep waiting for one to really scare me!

 

[GetToTheChopaa]

Nvidia driver 355.98 crashes constantly with the GOG version. Lowering the overclock, which was stable with all my other games, didn't change anything. Anyone else having issues with Nv driver?

Edit: Gonna try 356.04, see if changes anything.

 

[Reloaded83]

What kind of crash? When I first tried to play, it would get to the title screen with "Frictional Games" and then freeze. Then I could click and close the program. I verified the files and added the 2 exe files to MSI OSD program, and it worked after that. Pretty sure it was Afterburner causing the problem, as it has for me in other games a few times as well.

 

[GetToTheChopaa]

Like I said, it's the NVidia driver that crashes. I was able to play with Afterburner on, no problem, game didn't freeze or crash, except for the NV driver to crash and recover every 20-30 minutes. Just installed 456.04 driver, gonna play a little see what's what...

 

[Reloaded83]

Sorry, I guess I mis-read what you wrote. Thought you just meant it was crashing with that driver. Not the driver itself.

 

[boredgunner]

No driver issues here although I forget which driver I use. It's one of the 355 WHQL ones. I have the Steam version.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Reloaded83

I never made it far enough in the Dark Descent to see the "monster" or whatever it is that I've seen in videos of people further into the game.

I hear ya though, it's a tough balancing act I suppose between being numb to the scary situations, and so scared you can't even play. I'm very curious and engrossed in this world they've created though, so I'm going to do my best to push through. You're right, it is good to be scared by it as that's what it's supposed to do, sometimes I just can't take any more though! I'm amazed I got through as much of Alien Isolation in the Oculus Rift as I did. And I mainly stopped playing that because I reached a point that I just kept dying over and over, so I became frustraed. Part of that was probably BECAUSE I was playing it in the Rift though.

I share your view on nerves, but with people and scary movies. I keep waiting for one to really scare me!

There are many monsters in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Though I suppose telling you this doesn't encourage you lol.

 

[Reloaded83]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boredgunner

There are many monsters in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Though I suppose telling you this doesn't encourage you lol.

Oh. Well poop. If I can make it through this game, I'll go back and re-try the past ones.

 

[GetToTheChopaa]

All right, looks like everything is fine. No more driver crashes with 356.04. Like the game so far (Lambda).

 

[Reloaded83]

Another hour in and still going strong. Mostly.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Had my first encounter with the pacing robot. Somehow saw me in my hiding spot. So, my character now seems injured and can't run as fast. Limps. Is there some way to fix that? Is there health or other healing things in this game, or just time? I saved and quit about 10 minutes after that, after dodging the thing yet again to get up to the comms center. I'd say that's good enough progress for now.

I'm still VERY much enthralled with the world they've created and even more curious now. Very cool game so far.