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SOMA (Frictional Games)

Darth Roxor

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cant wait to experience dis on muh xbox
 

Wirdschowerdn

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http://www.pcgamer.com/frictional-on-designing-somas-new-monster-free-safe-mode/

Frictional on designing SOMA's new monster-free Safe Mode

By Andy Kelly 27 minutes ago

Just don't push your luck.

mYSW9KsfS7tTYQpK5NguPQ-320-80.jpg


A year ago I wrote about Wuss Mode, a popular fan-made mod for SOMA that makes its monsters harmless. It’s currently the game’s most subscribed Steam Workshop mod, which suggests a lot of people want to experience its dark, twisted story without the frustration of having to play hide-and-seek with biomechanical monstrosities. But come December 1st when the game is released for Xbox One, you won’t need a mod at all. The PC version will be updated at the same time with an official Safe Mode designed to let players enjoy the game without the constant, looming threat of death.

“I’m all for users modding the experience to suit their needs,” says Thomas Grip, Frictional Games founder and director of SOMA. “The monsters in the game are quite divisive and you could argue that Wuss Mode intends to fix a design flaw. If you think of it that way, I guess you could see the mod as a critique directed at me. But I have a hard time getting upset about that. I just really like it when people take things into their own hands like this."

When SOMA was first released on PC back in September 2015, Frictional received a lot of feedback from players saying the monsters made the game too stressful or frustrating to endure. “The fear and tension that comes from those encounters are there in order to deliver a certain mood,” says Grip. “The intention was to make sure players felt that this was a really unpleasant world to be in, and a lot of the game’s themes relied on evoking this.”

Even so, a couple of months before release Frictional briefly considered adding a mode where the player couldn’t die. This was ultimately dropped, but the fact the studio was thinking about it at all suggests it anticipated some of the feedback that was to come. “We skipped it because we wanted to focus on delivering a certain kind of experience,” says Grip. “And we wanted to have a clear message on how exactly the game was supposed to work.”

“In hindsight, that might have been a bad decision,” he continues. “But I’m not so sure. Releasing Safe Mode this late after release feels better, because we’ve had time to ponder various aspects of the game’s design to make it clear what kind of experience it is. If we did this at the time, it might have muddied the waters. But now it’s quite clear to me that we can’t keep thinking about monsters as we did in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and I’m not sure that realisation would have been as strong if we shipped SOMA with two modes.”

Wuss Mode works great as it is, but sometimes it's obvious that it’s a retrofit. There are a few sections where you can still die, namely the tense underwater chase in the sunken ship. And the monsters don’t react to you at all, not even inquisitively. “There were a lot of tweaks needed in order to make sure the monsters behaved the way we wanted them to in Safe Mode,” says Grip, adding that it took 1-2 months to get it right. “It was quite interesting, because it forced us to think about these encounters differently.”

The monsters in Safe Mode aren’t out to kill you, but they will react to your presence. “We have to think of them as inhabitants of the environment and make their interactions with the player fit the game’s atmosphere and story. I’m actually surprised by how well it all turned out. It fits the game far better than I thought it would when we started working on it. To be honest, it even made me question if this was the way the game should have been released in the first place. But I haven’t made my mind up about that yet.”

The monsters won’t just stand around doing nothing either, and might even attack if you annoy them enough. “So while you can’t die, the monsters may still be dangerous if you push your luck too much,” says Grip. “This means there’s still a sense of hostility in these creatures, which preserves the original intention of making the world feel inhospitable and oppressive. It’s details like this that should make Frictional’s Safe Mode more compelling, and more naturally integrated, than the Wuss Mode mod. Although it’ll be interesting to see how it gets around that fraught moment in the wrecked ship.

I’ve finished SOMA twice now, once as the developer intended and once with Wuss Mode installed. But I’ll be playing it again when Safe Mode is added to experience Frictional’s official take on a monster-free game. The story in SOMA is, for my money, one of the best ever told by a videogame. I think about the ending often, and giving more people a chance to experience that for themselves is something I think should be celebrated.

I ask Grip if designing Safe Mode has changed the way he’ll think about horror game design in the future. “It depends on the game, but we’ll think about encounters differently,” he says. “I think the biggest problem with SOMA is that the experience of meeting the creatures doesn’t really add anything to the themes. They help build the atmosphere, but the stories they generate don’t have a lot to do with the game’s larger themes of identity and consciousness. Gameplay has to give rise to personal stories that mirror the narrative, and we’re making sure this is the case in both our upcoming games.”
 

Darth Roxor

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A year ago I wrote about Wuss Mode, a popular fan-made mod for SOMA that makes its monsters harmless. It’s currently the game’s most subscribed Steam Workshop mod

the key to understanding etc
 

Wirdschowerdn

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I think it's an acknowledgement of just how shitty the encounter design in SOMA has been. I agree with Grip here, making the monsters wandering denizens that only lash out if you bother them is more logical in the game world's context.
 

Silva

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So, will monsters stop chasing the player and go on their lives BUT will react and kill player if approached or something, is that it?

Because if that's the case, this game will just become 1.000.000 times better, and I will have another playthrough at it.
 

Nano

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In


Isolated within the ocean’s depths, chaos has overtaken the PATHOS-II facility. Twisted creatures and corrupted robots strain the boundaries of human identity as you seek to uncover the truth, locate the last remaining inhabitants, and take part in the events that will ultimately shape the fate of the station.

With the addition of Safe Mode, players can choose to immerse themselves in the story while staying free from harm, or to leave all dangers enabled for the original SOMA experience. Just remember. There is no fighting back. Either you outsmart your enemies or you get ready to run.

SOMA is available today on Xbox One with Safe Mode. The new mode is also available for PC, and will come to PS4 at a later date.
 

Wirdschowerdn

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I played a good chunk with Safe Mode and it's pretty much what I expected it to be: Less annoying rather than less scary.

The crazy wranglers buzzing around on the seabed actually start asking you stuff like "Hey, you got some to spare?" Like some drug addicts. Others just push timidly away if you get too close. Nice little touch overall.
 

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I do not like horror games overall, but I enjoyed (if you can use this word) Amnesia, so I picked up SOMA based on that (the move to sci-fi setting was also appealing).

Overall, I am rather impressed with the story and mood of the game - it explores some really cool sci-fi themes and ideas. The gameplay, however, could use much improvement - choices are fake, puzzles are simplistic and sneaking around monsters gets pretty annoying after a while - thank the elder gods for Safe Mode (I started playing this shortly before Safe mode was released, but I have restarted since). If it makes the game less scary, I haven't really noticed, but it does help a lot with pacing, since I can always use the bandit approach (steal the item and run) when I lose patience.

I am around 70% done with the game (based on achiemevent progress) Hopefully the ending doesn't suck and ruin the experience.
 

Starwars

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It's been much discussed already but there are some niggles in the ending regarding characters I think but on the whole I was *extremely* happy with the story and the ending as well actually. It's definitely one of the more intriguing story focused games in a really long time I think, and the world is just really well designed. The ideas it explores isn't anything new but it's one of very few games that stayed with me quite a long time after I finished it. That was rather nice.

Gameplay (what is there) isn't exactly great but I think it did serve the pacing of the game. I hope their future games will be more gameplay heavy but I think what they did for SOMA worked pretty well for... well, that particular game.
 

Silva

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Finished it. Awesome ending. Well done, Frictional, but please make the gameplay good next time.
Don't know man, we gamers like to value gameplay above all else but I think here it's adequate to the whole experience, even more if this safe mode works as intended.

In fact, coming from a string of very good story games (take a look at Senua and Automata if you haven't) I wonder if the prejudice they receive is unfair. I mean, its awful when a game try to be a movie or a book, I agree, but lately these games are minding that and trying to provide experiences unique to the medium, and that's cool.
 

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Finished it. Awesome ending. Well done, Frictional, but please make the gameplay good next time.
Don't know man, we gamers like to value gameplay above all else but I think here it's adequate to the whole experience, even more if this safe mode works as intended.

In fact, coming from a string of very good story games (take a look at Senua and Automata if you haven't) I wonder if the prejudice they receive is unfair. I mean, its awful when a game try to be a movie or a book, I agree, but lately these games are minding that and trying to provide experiences unique to the medium, and that's cool.
Well, I do not believe good gameplay is necessary to make a good game - I have enjoyed many a storyfag game where the gameplay has been... well, 'forgettable' would be an euphemism. But I do believe that good gameplay makes the game better overall, even in a story-driven game.

Obviously, not all types of gameplay can compliment a story-driven game, but that is a longer discussion. I am not asking for much. I mean, interesting puzzles would be nice, and some actual C&C (even with just cosmetic differences).
 
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Darth Roxor

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Finished it. Awesome ending. Well done, Frictional, but please make the gameplay good next time.
Don't know man, we gamers like to value gameplay above all else but I think here it's adequate to the whole experience, even more if this safe mode works as intended.

In fact, coming from a string of very good story games (take a look at Senua and Automata if you haven't) I wonder if the prejudice they receive is unfair. I mean, its awful when a game try to be a movie or a book, I agree, but lately these games are minding that and trying to provide experiences unique to the medium, and that's cool.

Penumbra and Amnesia had more actual gameplay and they were both better off for it, with the only exception being dog-slapping in Overture.
 

Silva

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Finished it. Awesome ending. Well done, Frictional, but please make the gameplay good next time.
Don't know man, we gamers like to value gameplay above all else but I think here it's adequate to the whole experience, even more if this safe mode works as intended.

In fact, coming from a string of very good story games (take a look at Senua and Automata if you haven't) I wonder if the prejudice they receive is unfair. I mean, its awful when a game try to be a movie or a book, I agree, but lately these games are minding that and trying to provide experiences unique to the medium, and that's cool.

Penumbra and Amnesia had more actual gameplay and they were both better off for it, with the only exception being dog-slapping in Overture.
Don't know about that. I remember playing all those games as far as I could but the only thing I remember now is hiding behind boxes in some scary rooms and something about my father disappearance and then dropping them in some puzzle. While Soma I remember each minute of it, specially the impactful events (like letting yourself behind in that suit, or killing the last human being, etc). So the better experience for me was Soma, even with the inferior gameplay. And that's true too for Senua Sacrifice, Last Guardian, Shadow of the Colossus, Automata, etc. all storyfag and yet more memorable to me than Penumbra/Amnesia/etc. Andy that's coming from a guy who also loves Soulsborne and NBA2K, so no, I don't have a problem with gameplay.

I mean, I think it's a positive having good, engrossing gameplay, but only if it fits the package seamlessly and make it a better experience for it. I used to have a gameplay-first mentality, but this last batch made me reconsider it and go for a experience-first one.
 
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Probably the best walking simulator I've... walked.

Although, I have no idea why people see mind uploading as something practically inevitable when it's barely anything more than magic. I guess it was popularized in 50s or 60s and now everyone takes it for granted.
 

agentorange

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Probably the best walking simulator I've... walked.

Although, I have no idea why people see mind uploading as something practically inevitable when it's barely anything more than magic. I guess it was popularized in 50s or 60s and now everyone takes it for granted.
It might seem like magic now but I don't see why it wouldn't eventually be possible. If you consider consciousness to be just a series of electrical impulses and chemical reactions then why would it not be possible to digitize that?
 
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Consciousness is you. Since it's you, reproducing the conditions that cause you would not create a 'copy of you' (an oxymoron, by the way) but cause you to occupy two different points of spacetime.

This is not just applicable to man-made copies but even things like Boltzmann Brains. You being at a single place and a single moment even with the universe being likely infinite in both space and future time means there's something more to it than just chemistry.
 

agentorange

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What you are saying sounds far more like "magic" than anything explored in the game. There isn't anything particularly special about a human being as a biological organism, in itself. Initially you are just a product of chemistry, then you become what you are through input, an amassment of experiences, and output, changes you affect on the people and things around you. In that sense it's not even really a copy being made, anyway, since from the very moment when the transfer of consciousness occurs the two characters are divergent in their various experiences. That was sort of the whole point of the game, it's not you that escapes.
 
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What I am saying is that if you are nothing more than a product of electrical impulses and chemical reactions then reproducing those electrical impulses and chemical reactions will give you the same product the original ones give: you. It can be in the form of an uploaded mind, a brain in a vat, a clone, an android, a random self-aware structure popping into existence a googolplex years from now, or just some random chemistry in some random pond on some random planet a googolplex light years from here. If two and two gives four then it always gives four. You can write it here, write it there, it's still four.

By the way, here's something you might find interesting.

 

Zombra

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Playing this for the first time. Based on what I've read here I guess Safe Mode is the way to go? A bit surprising that the Codex isn't more adamant about playing on tough guy gotta prove I'm hardcore mode.
 

AN4RCHID

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Regular mode has a few frustrating moments, but it generally felt good to me. But i haven't played safe mode to compare.
 

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