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Only 30% finished it. Just a few more than 30% made it to the halfway point. This isn't a game for everybody. Some people find it too dull and too much of a walking simulator. Some people find it way to scary. Really? Some people find it hard to navigate without a map. They get lost. They don't look at the one thing they should examine to proceed. They don't know you can throw a chair at a window to break it to get out of a room...
The game does have some hints, like many games. There are usually lights to show the way if you are lost in the ocean. Follow the lights. There's really not much you need to remember from one section to another. Anything important is given to you again. You don't have to remember names or codes.
They shouldn't have billed it as a horror game. There are a few tense chase scenes, but for the most part the "monsters" are more annoying than scary. There is a mod to disable the majority of them, besides a few chase sequences that have to happen. They are more there for the philosophical story elements that come later.
But like I said, it isn't a game for everybody. I thought it was great and gifted it to over a dozen people and none of them have made it even halfway through for the reasons I mentioned above.
Ah!
That must be my problem, then. Thank you for pointing it out.
I'm 51, by the way, have a degree and an interest in psychology.
First I have to admit, it's pretty easy to scare me. I don't jump when I see a cucumber, but dash around the corner or knock on my door like crazy in a silent moment and I definitely will.
I've played Amnesia (another Frictional game) some years ago (back in 2013 IIRC), only played it for about 2 hours, because it was 2spoopy4me. I ran into a bug where a monster (which is actually just some sort of hallucination) wouldn't go away. It just stood there instead of dissolving into dust. I didn't know that it wasn't a threat, and I was panicking, because there was no other way out of the room we both were in, it blocked the way to the door. Apart from that, some jumpscares got me pretty good. I haven't even gotten to the point where you actually get into actual danger, I quit before that.
This game on the other hand... I don't know. About 70% of the enemies are blind, so you just have to sneak around and throw something to distract them. You can mess up that advantage when you bump into something, but if you pay just enough attention, that won't happen, ever.
Then there's the "knockout-mechanic": If an enemy spots you and gets close enough, it hits you only once, which knocks you down on the floor, then they presume that you're dead and walk away. You come to about a minute later, and the enemy is in a different room, so you get another chance. If you get spotted a second time, then you're dead. You're not that mobile in the just-got-hit state, so you either get nervous and hope that you'll get out alive or you just run into the enemy on purpose and try the whole segment again, with full health.
This makes the game a little too easy and repetitive.
Some scripted events make you run away from something or run to something, but you can predict them almost every time.
Get to the end of the room to pick something up? Something will be behind you then.
Open a door at the other end of the room with a valve? You bet something won't let you get away.
This is the case in most "horror" games, no point in denying that, but it feels a little too obvious in this one. There's too much silence going on between sneaking around danger and obtaining an item or opening the exit.
Now, about the underwater part/s: At first it was pretty cool, but that's about it. Nothing much is happening until you get near to the end of the game, and then it's just another one of those scripted "run like hell" events. The realistic yet annoying slow walking/running didn't make it that enjoyable either. You get bored way too quickly, start looking around while walking, then something happens and you miss the start of it or the whole event just because you weren't looking. There's just too many "walk from X to Y while at the bottom of the ocean" segments. I understand that the station is a wreck, and that there wouldn't be any other way if this was a real life scenario, apart from using something like an underwater glider or that little welder robot as a ride, but this is just stretching things.
The linearity didn't feel that bad, I mean, you know the place has gone beyond repair once you get out of the room you woke up in, and the map makes it look pretty obvious that you have to get to the farthest complex. Combine both and you know that you won't re-visit anything. I don't mind linearity in games, I actually like it when the game lets you know early on instead letting you go anywhere at any time but once you go through that one door you can't go back. At all.
I'm not calling the game bad, I just think it doesn't do what games like Amnesia did and still do. It's like watching Breaking Bad first and then watching Dexter. You think "Meh, Breaking Bad did it better".
Little sidenote:
I checked the wiki after beating the game, just to see if I could've done something differently and what happened to who and so on. I stumbled over one of the... let's call them "named enemies". He and some unnamed sidekicks of his give you a hard time getting around in one of the stations. At least they're supposed to. In my case, I had one unnamed enemy walking around, the whole station was way too easy this way. I must've run into a bug that gave me a big advantage. I probably ran into multiple bugs and didn't know, but I don't think those had such a big impact. Lucky me.
...at last!
Everyone else seems to treat me like a heretic for questioning this game...which was all I was ever doing. I wasn't slating it or 'trolling'.
One thing that has come out of my thread is that people seem to rate Amnesia more highly. I haven't played that, so I might just do that.
Thanks for being brave enough to say that you had some doubts too!
Beware! As you can see above, I've been accused of being too immature to play the game...and that's why I'm criticising.
Hmmm...
As soon as someone says "Meh, it isn't that scary", they think their bravery is in danger.
Also, calling someone immature just because they're not getting scared by some video game monsters is pretty illogical. Kids are easier to scare than adults, you're basically saying that a kid is "too brave" for a horror game and that you have to be an adult to be afraid of monsters.
*Tapping finger on head*
I have felt that way, especially with the one I held dearest. They did not like amazeface story-telling compared to the Penumbra.
I guess that's just because kids tend to brag and don't let their emotion speak truly... like "I'm not scared". Yet this game isn't "scary", there is tension, overall liked it better than Amnesia (which is not that scary either, just tension building, wich is nice, but forgettable story)
Anyway, some could argue that rejecting premises of the game, neglecting heartbeat, blured vision, and all these things meant to build up this tension, is somewhat psychopathic or childish (just refusing it and not playing along)
Sorry for your handicap, this game wasn't for you I guess. Much short-term memory involved...
You probably think the blood-smeared screen in any "modern" Call of Duty game is realistic.
Wow... just said some could see it that way... There can be many reasons not to buy the premises, like not to be in the mood, or design issues that detract you from immersion. Didn't meant to be insulting. It's a question of perspective, yet the game does an ok job in it imo, if you're into this kind of game and as such accept the premises. As counter-exemple, I'd never found an "horror" movie scary if I rejected premises beforehand, wich is clearly a childish and pointless atitude (why would I watch it?), or worse a pychopatholagical inaptidude to experience fear. That's all I meant... But there might be plenty of valid reasons why you didn't get into the game.
PS: not really fond of COD and don't really care about blood or not (red o not) in videogames, especially FPS. That's an artificial censor construct.
Really? You need to tell me that for it to be true?
SOMA did what no other media ever did. It's a common sci-fi trope, however neither movies nor books ever managed to achieve that without being horrible.
It works because it is a video game. If it weren't, it wouldn't work.
The fear factor doesn't kick in during the game, but after the game. Especially if you have little to no experience with the things the game does. And even if you knew about those things, if you never accepted them, it can leave a deep scar that never heals.
SOMA is the reason i play video games these days. The provoking nature of the whole ambience rather than having "fun". Wish more games had guts to do that. But a lot of Sony titles also do it.
NieR: Automata also did it, with a more bittersweet ending, however not less depressive by any means.
So there you go, if you want pure terror of isolation and dread, play Alien: Isolation. It doesn't have jump scares, but that is a game that provokes fear while playing, not after playing.