What happened with SOMA /v/? It got great reviews by a lot of

Not enough jump scares to appease to streamer whores, which in turn lead to not a lot of publicity.

The horror was more existential than 'ah that lamp just moved lmao bruh fist' and so they had nothing to sell.

I think it did just fine. You need to look beyond PC sales figures.

Boring I quit early on.

>>384343696
this, it was not a good game for people like markiplier to scream at like a retard

>>384344902
No, it really took a very long time to break even. The devs have written about this.

Personally, I think it's a bit too easy, not to say lazy, to put the blame on the lack of streamer-friendly jump scares. The game had more issues than that. It just wasn't as well-rounded of an experience as Amnesia: TDD was.

I actually quite liked playing it. I wish it would have been a bit longer though or gave me more things to explore. Sadly, it has 0 replay ability value unlike Amnesia. It would be great to incorporate it's atmosphere and story into a game that builds on amnesias game play. I am looking forward to their next project.

>>384345494
What do you mean by that?

>>384345539
I feel you on the shortness of it. I really enjoyed the game but it was over fast and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied. Tried getting into mods but lots of them are low effort and have zero depth.

>>384343534
>now FG is returning to the old amnesia formula.

Source: your ass.

>>384345694
There was a blog post from them a while back where they said they were making another game like Amnesia and one like Dear Esther.

>>384345785
I like both types of games. Amnesia was brillant in its rather subtle game play elements such as resource and sanity management. Dear Esther is bit of a guilty pleasure of mine since it should theoretically be a trash tier game but I like it for some reason.

>>384345542
By what? The well-rounded comment? I think Amnesia's setting, storytelling, core gameplay and horror elements all complemented each other, resulting in a strong sense of cohesion and consistency. In SOMA, I often felt like its individual parts were at odds with each other. The stealthy scare segments got in the way of the emphasis on exploration, the fact that you were almost constantly conversing with Catherine curtailed the sense of isolation and desolation the game's setting was trying to invoke, and the "puzzles" felt generally half-hearted and overly artificial.

I love the game, but I think it took a few wrong turns during the course of its development.

>>384345937
Found an article on this. http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3384905/soma-2/

No mention of the types of games, sorry. I lied. Never the less, two games has some implications. They may come out faster but are they of the same quality as a game with the full team on it?

>>384343534
I feel like most people who don't like scary games instantly fucked off, and those that do were told it's not that scary and also fucked off. That and there didn't seem to be much advertising involved. I didnt even know what it was when it came out and I'm a big Frictional Games fan.

>>384346129
Because they knew it wouldn't market very well. They created the game they wanted to make but when focus testing reveals that it's a niche product there isn't much point in blowing lots of money in advertisement when all you end up with are frustrated and disappointed customers. They ain't ubisoft.

>>384346041
Ah I understand you now that you mention those things. Yeah, there were some parts where exploration almost felt tied down by monsters, like the Curie and its apocalypse logs, the whole Theta building, and the first part of Omicron. I get your point about Cathrine, but considering Simon's condition it would be difficult to make the lore easy to catch up without her, not mention we would have no real reason to attempt the ark. She also did a lot of tech stuff Simon would really have no business knowing how to do.

I wish there was more somber loneliness though, and parts like the crashed plane and submarine that made you feel alone so you could drink in the world and really comprehend it.

>>384346312
I feel like some parts of the game were blatant casual pandering sometimes. We could have had a quiet and lonely world with no one to learn the lore but ourselves al la Dark Souls but casuals need a hand hold to get their way along.

>>384346516
>it's a pretentious Soulsfag

>>>Reddit

>>384346317
>I wish there was more somber loneliness
You should check out Penumbra if you haven't already. Same devs and it nails the loneliness aspect.

SOMA is great

>>384346663
Just saying, I like the loneliness of it. I don'
t mean casuals in the 'lmao I play farmville and cookie clicker' I mean people who aren't able to play a game much more than an hour a day at best and can't sit around trying to learn something complex. I apologize if I sounded condescending.

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If you liked SOMA, you should check out The Swapper and possibly Stasis, too, although the latter's scary elements are much more heavy-handed and focused on body horror.

>>384346670
I've heard so, but isn't it some sort of Cthulhu story stuff?

>>384346835
Thank you for the good recommendations. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of puzzle jumper games, but Stasis looks pretty cool. What kind of horror is it building?

>>384346516
Tbh I don't think the world was really that interesting on its own. The railed narrative helped enhance the story by making it more dramatic and exciting at key moments. And dark souls basically has no story whereas SOMA is a basically a novel.

>>384346886
The first game is largely non-fiction material so I wouldn't say so.

>>384343534
>returning to the old amnesia formula
but they both play the exact same

>>384347223
Some people argue that SOMA attempts to escape the 'jumpscare and chase scenes' that Amnesia has a lot of. I didn't really notice these very much, but I've long since stopped feeling fear in videogames so a book popping in my face or a monster chasing me doesn't do much other than make me sit up straight for a few minutes.

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>>384347032
>What kind of horror is it building?
It's mostly body horror and some rather disturbing gore stuff towards the end, but I'd recommend it even if you don't like this sort of thing. The game/setting gives off a consistent and perfectly executed sense of dread and despair, and it doesn't rely on jump scares at all. The development of the main character is also unusually well done.

My only real complaint is that it has a few too many computer logs to read, most of which are not as interesting or relevant to the lore as they could have been.

Dumb af protag

>>384347431
I dont remember any jumpscares in amnesia

>>384343534
>story and atmosphere were top notch
No, not really.

>>384347823
the growling monster in the distance was usually enough to make any streamer freak out for a solid five minutes

>>384347793
His brain scan was done on a faulty brain, so he's probably not exactly running all pistons. Though to be honest I hated Simon by the end, but I don't get the feeling I was supposed to like him.

>>384347043
I think it deserves credit for portraying AI as closely to what general AI might actually behave like according to current research. Unlike typical science fiction AI, WAU is actually believable for me. You rarely seen that kind of effort I'm video games. I wish they had done the same thing with the space gun and the satellite though.

>>384347910
I disliked him and Catherine, but for very different reasons.

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*blocks your path*

>>384348093
Oh no. Please dont. Here, have a (You) and leave.

>>384348001
What didn't you like about the space gun and satillite?

What bothered me was how you can put on a suit of 'power armor' and walk around in the Abyss while current deep sea suits can't even withstand a few thousand meters and are basically wearable submarines.

>>384343534
Horror games are niche and have exceptionally low replayability

>>384348093
I really liked the idea of pig monsters running amok in a city.

I disliked the rest.

>>384348194
Not a fan anon? The music and voice acting were good, though I think the rest was unmemorable.

The game is one of my favorites. It has been one of the few games that made me stop and think about the theme the game has been trying to build.

Its a shame more people haven't given it a chance but I completely understand why people don't. Someone in the thread already said it, it wasn't scary enough for most horror fans and it seemed too scary for most everyone else.

>>384343534
>>384343534
>1000 pound heavy story in a pure horror game

Too much for normies. They should've added more gameplay elements in order to appease the typical gamers. Complex physics-based puzzles, some combat and mini-games would fit well. The game design was inspired by HL2 - but HL2's diverse design was only 50% of its success. The other half was gameplay.

>>384348298
>>384348323
Maybe now that they're splitting the dev team into groups they can make a cash cow game and a 'we actualy put soul and work into this' game.

>>384348213
Meh, it was in the future and that was enough for my suspension of disbelief. Really that shouldn't even be the craziest thing keeping in mind things like structure gel and everything else.

>>384348213
Space guns are insane from a physics point of view. Also, they would absolutely need to be evacuated and kept meticulously clean and straight for them to work. The space gun in SOMA is basically a wacky, rusty pipe full of grime that noone put any maintenance in years. Good luck using that. Also, you'd still need an upper stage to make orbit because Kepler's first law.

It would have been better without all the Amnesia holdovers. Honestly, I don't want to deal with the murderbots, but I really like the story. I'd rather just have a spooky atmosphere and maybe like one or two small stealth sections and then just all the story shit, than have my story interrupted every twenty minutes with a thing that now I gotta figure out a new gimmick and oh okay it's just standing in the place where I have to go fantastic.

I think because of this, more people were happy to just watch a let's play where they get the story and don't have to deal with the other shit.

I wish the "desolate location but someone's always babbling at you via intercom" trope would fucking die already. It has ruined so many otherwise great games for me.

I JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE

>>384348093
Fuck Chinese Room. What shitty devs.

>>384348490
I think they should have worked more on the WAU plot. Really make you question if you're saving those people from torture or really dooming the last of humanity. The ARK was schmuck bait.

>>384348564
but they addressed that exact problem tho

>>384348570
Ironically enough the Chinese Room experiment has a bit to do with the WAU.

ITT: Gay non-games for nu-males

>>384348570
"But Esther, what about your kidney stones?", I said, oblivious to the gleaming absurdity of the question. My face turned into a grimace of shame, but you, Esther, only had smiles for me, only ever had smiles; the smiles of a thousand daffodils swaying gently to the silent music of the tender breeze. Oh Esther, the kidney stone... the ever elusive kidney stone...

>>384348759
What do you mean they addressed it?

Story driven games can just be watched, no need to play.

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>>384343534
>and yet it undersold and now FG is returning to the old amnesia formula

LITERALLY lying on the internet

>>384348909
simon is totally alone except for brief moments of inserting the pocket cortana into various slots

>>384349168
I corrected my statement in another post anon, but the game still took a long time to break even.

>>384345043
Except Markiplier liked the game a ton and gave an extremely positive "review" for it while playing it. The reason it undersold is because its a fucking 4 hour walking simulator even by frictional standards

Would the game have been better without the monsters?
It seemed like they were only there because that's all they know how to do, the Wau itself was obviously just there to justify having spooky monsters

>>384349874
the wau caused the entire game, so it was a necessary plot device

>>384349874
There is a mod that takes out all the monsters. I can't judge it since the game would be strange to me after playing with monsters but I'd really be interested in the opinion of someone who hasn't played it and tries the mod.

>>384349953
I think the WAU would have been spookier without the monsters, though.

Me personally the parts were too short and the sections didn't connect fluidly. The enemies themselves were good ideas but their intros were so short that they were almost forgettable. The only ones I remember was Akers and his buddies.

If the sections were much longer with the enemies connected to each place in a way that the player needs to avoid them in a specific way to "free" them, then the game would be more likeable. The first section started off great but after meeting the robot that thinks it's human you don't do anything else but escape into the ocean. There was no more progress within that section that could've added more atmosphere. Maybe if the patrolling robot was a friend that would "talk" to others.

The naked submariner doesn't follow you (and he probably should have just because) and the WAU controlled diver was scary as fuck the first time but no longer had impact beyond that section either. Imagine something like that patrolling the areas trying to "take care" of it's team, unwittingly prolonging their pain; and you have to cut off the "life support" to save them, in doing so, angering the creature.

The atmosphere was great and the ideas of the enemies were good but there wasn't much to them and I think that's why it was much better to watch than play. A lot of missed potential. THAT BEING SAID, the level with Akers was one of the best in the game. Akers scared the shit out of me because of it throwing up and the screeching.

>>384343534
Gameplay was bad and the game being a horror with good atmosphere and ok story is not an excuse.
Shitty encounters break immersion.
I loved the atmosphere though I wouldn't call the story 'top notch'.
Too much reliance on Simon's brain damage/denial when it was convenient while he could function normally otherwise.
Story was also told in somewhat straightforward manner which isn't outright bad but once you realize than none of your tough moral decisions or possible branches have any effect at all (besides some cosmetics right at the end) the game loses points for lack of replayability.

>>384350659
>besides some cosmetics right at the end
Wait... Did anything change at all? I noticed nothing.

Soma could have used more gameplay but what it had it did good.

penumbra is still my favorite.