Soma

Soma is the third game by Frictional Games I've tried.  The others being Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.  It has a lot in common with it's predecessors.

The gameplay of Soma isn't overly impressive.  Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a great horror game that was fairly innovative when it came out.  This game doesn't add anything to the mix however and is actually less interesting mechanically.  Really, the story of Soma could probably be planted into any kind of game.  I'm not sure there's any real reason for this to be a horror game other than because it's what Frictional Games seems to specialize in.

At one point I remember sitting in a dark room with nowhere to hide and a monster across from me.  After several seconds the monster decided to come get me but my only consequence was respawning in the exact same place and having the monster removed.

I can't say I really found the game to be very scary.  In The Dark Descent, much like the movie Jaws, a lot of the fear comes from not actually seeing the monsters.  The player would lose sanity when they looked at them, the camera would become distorted, and if they looked long enough the player would lose.  There was also a very memorable scene with an invisible water monster.  In Soma there's no penalty for seeing monsters and once you've seen them having them lumber up to you isn't really as freaky.  I also felt like I spent more time hiding in closets and behind doors in The Dark Descent while Soma was more about waiting for a monster to walk a repeated pattern and leave you an opening.

On the plus side what Soma does very well is tell a story.  It's a great plot that I spent basically all my free time on until I finished it.  I'll avoid mentioning any spoilers though but it's science fiction that brings up thoughts of artificial intelligence and what it really means to be alive.

I also think the visuals were generally pretty nice and especially the camera effects.  The camera would play with bloom, technical and biological distortions, and all sorts of neat things.  Walking through the abyss was particularly well done.

Overall I enjoyed Soma even though I didn't love the game mechanics.  The world it takes place in is very engaging and it does a good job of building a theme.  I recommend the game if you're into science fiction.

7/10

The Witness

The Witness is a puzzle game set in a beautiful environment.  The art for the world is fantastic and every area feels different.  The core game play's puzzle involves drawing a line toconnect one node to another with various conditions. 

This is a hard game.  That being said, not all of the puzzles in this game need to be finished in order to get through the game which provides some relief.  Myself, I finished the main plot but certainly not all of the puzzles.  Still I thought it was challenging and especially some of the ones near the end. 

The game does a good job of letting the player learn the new mechanics without using any words.  Many times I would encounter a symbol that I hadn't seen, then I would search the island for a simple puzzle with that symbol in it so that I could learn how it works.  This had me really getting to know the island.  

As for the plot, I will say if there's anything to get I didn't get it.  It felt more like a collection of snippets from writers and poets than anything cohesive.  It is a beautiful environment though and I certainly felt drawn into it.

The game world is certainly beautiful but it's a bit funny how much attention it received in this game's marketing when the player actually spends most of their time looking at simplistic looking puzzles.  It seems it's easier to market an art style than it is a puzzle mechanic.  I'm not sure this game would do as well if it only had the puzzles and not the environment.

The puzzle itself is good though and the production values in this game are great.  I had a hard time putting it down until I finished the story.  If you like puzzle games I recommend this.  I might wait until the price drops a bit from $40 though.

8/10