If you take just one look at SOMA, your instinct will be to question how a game with such technical prowess can be an indie game. But in many ways this is the indie game par excellence, developed and published by Frictional Games (Amnesia: The Dark Descent), who made it using the latest version of their own in-house HPL Engine. This atmospheric first-person horror game uses many of the tropes that made Amnesia such a hit when it was released. You must navigate a research lab at the bottom of the ocean which contains the last remnants of humanity, creaky old machines that have gained sentience over the years, and monsters that you'll need to flee and hide from. By solving puzzles and exploring the environment, you learn the fascinating story of what happened at the station, and your decisions will shape what happens to it in the future. As you'd expect, the game is suspenseful and horrifying, but the story imbues it with a horror that goes beyond the inherent tension created by helplessly creeping around a grim environment while avoiding monsters. This is created through the thought-provoking story about consciousness and humanity - which grinds you down psychologically and leaves you an existential wreck by the end of it. Buy SOMA at GOG
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
