Sci-fi and horror go together like peanut butter and chocolate which is why Soma is such a popular title. Set in a desolate underwater facility in the far future, you play as a clueless man named Simon. Information floods your mind as you try to understand how you came to the facility while learning what has happened to it and the world outside.
Sci-fi tends to get a lot of passes when it introduces hard-to-fathom concepts and technology, but Soma may cross the line a bit too many times. It’s not the longest game, but it’s long enough to toss out ideas that are tricky to understand.
8/8 Leviathan Appearance
The word “Leviathan” comes from very old texts when it was initially used to describe a massive and monstrous creature. It has since become commonplace in all forms of media to label beasts, such as the one that appears in Soma. While you’re never able to see the whole thing, you’ll get glimpses of its appearances and body parts as it hunts Simon through the facility.
It serves as an overarching threat but only rarely as the main one. It is said to be the result of a giant squid being mutated by structure gel, but it has become more worm-like as a result. This is very unusual since squids and worms aren’t related in the slightest, and there doesn’t seem to be any gameplay reason as to why the Leviathan needs to be a worm yet also needs to have its tentacles.
7/8 Copying Vs. Transferring Minds
Of all the sci-fi concepts introduced in Soma, the most notable is the idea of copying human minds. By the time Simon wakes up, technology has been perfected to the point where copying a human mind is as quick as copying a file on a computer.
However, this leads to the mind-bending thought of whether the copy has just as much individuality as the original. Also, this has the side effect of possibly moving the original’s consciousness to the copy without any way to determine that. Even though it’s touched on in the game, it’s never fully explained why the only way to move someone’s consciousness is through copying rather than transferring.
6/8 Proxy Threat And Interaction
Soma has a lot of creepy and dangerous creatures wandering around its underwater facility, but the grunts of the lot are known as proxies. These sorrowful monsters look like big bulbous masses that walk around on leg-like appendages that lack feet. Despite their appearance and physical limitations, the proxies prove to be quite a threat.
They can run really fast and overwhelm Simon easily if they capture him. The strange thing is that they resemble giant egg sacks with stumps. How are they able to run so fast, and how can they all operate automatic doors? Also, they don’t have any fists or working mouths to bite, so it’s weird to think that the base enemy needs to rely on running into Simon without stumbling on its feet-less legs.
5/8 The WAU’s Development
Like many sci-fi stories, the true enemy of Soma turns out to be a rogue AI that has eliminated the surrounding humans out of misunderstanding and self-preservation. The story reveals that the underwater facility was operated by an AI system called WAU which was greatly evolved due to the application of structure gel. As a result, it mutated and became more obsessed with the goal of preserving humanity but without specific instructions on how to do that, it created mutants and twisted robots instead.
What’s hard to believe is the lack of failsafe measures. Why does WAU understand so little about human life when its main goal is to protect it? If structure gel was needed to help it advance, why wasn’t it tested on more machines before giving it to the WAU? Then there’s the whole idea of why the WAU feels the need to upload brain scans into bodies rather than keep them digital since that also qualifies as protecting them.
4/8 Simon Is The Only Survivor
This game can be considered a fish-out-of-water story with Simon’s brain being scanned as a result of the treatment he was undergoing at the time. When he awakens in the underwater facility, he quickly learns that he is among a handful of people who have managed to maintain their consciousness in some way.
Not only does it not make sense that Simon was the only brain in his time period undergoing treatment that could have resulted in this but also that more ordinances weren’t put in place to ensure that brain scans could escape unscathed. Since it’s so easy to make copies, you’d think there’d be untainted extras in various locations just in case.
3/8 Viperfish Face Mutation
Deep underwater is one of the scariest places to be, which is why the Soma setting is so scary. It also spills into the theme surrounding many of the mutations which have a noticeable sea creature feel to them. However, this also means that there are actual sea creatures you’ll need to contend with on your journey, that have also been mutated. Among them is the viperfish, a translucent and carnivorous species of fish that Simon will encounter while out in the water.
Their mutation has not only made them bigger but also given what looks like human faces on their backs. There are theories that the faces are of previous victims, but how does that work? All the viperfish ate human faces during their mutations, or maybe they’re more related to humans than we realize.
2/8 Structure Gel
Every catastrophe has a catalyst, and Soma has two: A huge asteroid that destroyed most human life on earth and structure gel. In the game, it’s described as an encodable substance that was used for repairs, maintenance, and technological advancement. It’s never explained how structure gel came to be or how it got out of control so fast.
By the time Simon arrives, there are structure gel leaks all over the facility which is what has caused everything to mutate. It seems unbelievable that there’s a non-mechanical gel that can both be programmed in various ways, and it can mutate both organic and inorganic matter. Also, it was probably a huge oversight to make a substance that a tyrannical AI could take control of easily.
1/8 Jin’s Tentacle Face
Almost all the humanoid figures that Simon encounters have been horribly transformed in some way and no longer possess their former consciousness. One such individual is Jin, a hostile entity who was a prominent member of the staff.
He appears in a heavy dive suit and pursues Simon, but what’s strange is that he has a huge mass of tentacles where his face should be. Even though there’s an underwater theme, this feels more eldritch than anything. It’s also interesting to note that aside from the Leviathan, Jin is the only other being that has tentacles.