SOMA: A persisting horror

The gaming experience will take time to fade away

Till about 2010, the horror genre in video games had been considered one of the weakest genres in markets like India where gamers are obsessed with action and competitive games. This changed somewhat with the immensely popular, Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Frictional Games. Already four games old, the Swedish game developer, has now upped the stakes with SOMA.

SOMA, although not as scary as Amnesia, is definitely more disturbing. Set in a derelict underwater facility called Pathos-2, the game lets you control Simon Garrett, as he tries to escape a place he knows not how he reached.

The game has its share of the usual horror paraphernalia: Screams, puzzles, haunting music and monsters - gigantic walking mishmashes of used machine-parts and rotten human limbs in this case. After the first monster encounter, these routine stunts would have ceased to daunt the gamer - had it not been for two unique aspect of the game.

First is the constant existential angst that the game weaves into its plot. The question - "What does it really mean to be a human?" Early on, the protagonist comes across a broken-down robot convinced that it's a human, refusing to believe it is a robot. To progress one needs to disable it as it screams out in complete human-agony.

A few steps ahead, Simon comes across a mangled human body, belonging to the person the robot identified itself as. It is then that you realise, you have killed the conscience and memories of a human whose body had already been 'disabled'.

Second is its interactive aspect. Each puzzle, code and task hints to the larger issue. Certain tasks are pretty unconventional. You might be required to do some programming or exercise some basic chemistry. Other tasks fall in direct lineage to Amnesia. The gamer can push and pull open doors by clicking and dragging with the mouse, letting him/her control the speed and stealth with which the action is to be performed, heightening the despair and urgency of the situation.

There is plenty to explore. SOMA is high on details. Diary notes and crossword puzzles, rotten half-eaten breakfast, cracked photo-frames, data logs, audio-clips of past conversations - the facility abounds with vestiges of a lifestyle ended abruptly.

Visuals are suitably haunting. The gore is not too emphasised. Images are clean and effects smooth. Certain sound effects like wire sparking and the soft roll of the ocean are designed such that one soon grows accustomed to it, inducing a sense of fragile normalcy.

SOMA's experience will take time to fade away.