GAME · RELEASED
SOMA
Explore an isolated underwater facility, uncover what happened to its people and avoid dangers you cannot fight head-on.
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Developed · Frictional Games
SOMA is a first-person science-fiction horror game set in PATHOS-II, an underwater research facility that has gone badly wrong. You move through dark rooms, service corridors and the sea outside, looking for a way forward while piecing together what happened. Computers, documents and conversations hold important clues. The setting is frightening, but the story is also about identity and consciousness: what makes a person a person when machines begin to sound human?
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You do not play as an armed soldier. In the original mode, a dangerous encounter is usually about noticing a threat, using cover or finding another path. Locked doors and terminals can turn a room into a small investigation before you can leave it. The gallery shows an underwater exterior, a handheld scanner or terminal, a lit industrial walkway and a room seen through glass. These are the kinds of places you will actually inspect, not maps of exact puzzle solutions. It is best to look carefully at your surroundings and read what the game puts in front of you instead of expecting a weapon to solve a tense moment.
Frictional Games released SOMA on September 22, 2015 for PlayStation 4 and PC, including Windows, Mac and Linux. Xbox One followed in 2017. That later release brought Safe Mode, which was also added to computer versions and later to PS4. Safe Mode leaves the story, puzzles and creatures in place but makes the creatures unable to kill you, so a new player who wants the mystery with less pressure can choose it when starting a new game. It is still an eerie game. This page is for the original SOMA, not another Amnesia game by the same studio.
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