How does it compare to Soma?

[The WarSimmer]

As the title says. I'm really waiting for this to be available in VR before a purchase, but is this game similar to Soma? That was probably my favorite game of the last five years. Is it comparable in atmosphere and story?

[Larry]

Nothing has been said about this ever coming to VR. I sincerely doubt it will too.

It runs on the Unreal Engine which is known to have a very irritating bug for people with VR headsets where it launches the game on the VR headset(Doesn't display an image). This doesn't mean the game will have VR, it's simply an engine bug that needs to be fixed for all games that use the engine(It really irritates me).

Compared to Soma... It's not as good. It's a decent game but it's not as good. At a certain point when I was getting fed up of all the stupid, random, ♥♥♥♥ and some of what was happening was explained to you I threw my hands up in the air and said "So the plot is basically Soma... but in an apartment block!" through sheer frustration.

Literally, if you played and enjoyed Soma... you'll know what I'm talking about.

Infact the whole game reminds me of the transition Frictional Games went through from Amnesia to Soma. This is the literal case for what's happened with Bloober Team. They made a scary game that became huge then made a game that was more story driven, a bit atmospheric and not scary at all. Expect the exact same things to happen in Observer that happened in Soma(Lots of walking around, handful of enemy interactions, mostly atmosphere that's unsettling). The biggest issue I had, and I learned very soon after I started, is the game relies way too much on tension to generate a scare. There's no payoff for the tension so you practically get used to the deliberate attempt at being tense and come to safely realise there is no pay off and if there is it will be very predictable.

Not scary, the story was interesting at first but towards the end it just proves to be incredibly stupid. Don't even get me started on the jacking into people's brains segments. It's just dumb. Insultingly dumb. As in they were trying to make it out to be a lot more ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up and random than it needed to be. It's weird and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up for the sake of being weird and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. There is no reason to it at all.

[Blattdorf]

The plot isn't Soma in an apartment block, what are you talking about? The only thing similar between the games is the initial vibe, but they diverge pretty hard as you progress.

[A n a s t a s i a]

Aww i thought it looked like Soma, but it's really hard to make an original story as that game

[CyberPioneer]

Originally posted by thebaymonster:

That was probably my favorite game of the last five years. Is it comparable in atmosphere and story?

Observer so much better SOMA

[A n a s t a s i a]

Originally posted by OlympicBear:

Originally posted by thebaymonster:

That was probably my favorite game of the last five years. Is it comparable in atmosphere and story?

Observer so much better SOMA

How?

[Anacra]

Isn't Soma filled with "hide and sneak from monster" stuff? Hate that crap. At least that stuff is quite low in Observer and that alone would make Observer better.

[A n a s t a s i a]

Originally posted by Anacra:

Isn't Soma filled with "hide and sneak from monster" stuff? Hate that crap. At least that stuff is quite low in Observer and that alone would make Observer better.

Yes sometimes, but Soma is about plot not really gameplay

[lastbreath]

Observer is like mix of Layers of Fear and Condemned. Dark detective + cyberpunk + horror )

[CyberPioneer]

Originally posted by Tasha:

Originally posted by OlympicBear:

Observer so much better SOMA

How?

Soma too linear.

Originally posted by Anacra:

Isn't Soma filled with "hide and sneak from monster" stuff? Hate that crap. At least that stuff is quite low in Observer and that alone would make Observer better.

Yeah, exactly.

[Larry]

Originally posted by Blattdorf:

The plot isn't Soma in an apartment block, what are you talking about? The only thing similar between the games is the initial vibe, but they diverge pretty hard as you progress.

As the story unfolds it becomes all about imaging your brain and personality to the interwebs in order to "evolve." The difference here being Soma has you in a fully simulated world yet Observer's stance is to have the ultimate goal(For Adam) to transfer a copy of your consciousness onto the internet to live on forever. They even kill Adam off so his copy can survive which is exactly what happens in Soma, albeit for different logical reasons(That being in order for their consciousness to truly be real there can't be two entities of them at the same time... so they kill themselves after they map their brain and image it to a server they shoot into space).

The games are basically the same. They follow the same formula, similar narrative and have the exact same plot point as you progress through the story. They even have the same twist that being... imaging of the consciousness to a simulated world.

[さゆみ]

Maybe im the only one, but i dont think Soma had such a great Story. Even the Boddyhorror – usually i love those Stuff as a big Cronenberg Fan was good in Soma but never amazing.
Yeah, But i dont think you can compare Soma and Observer. The Athmosphere is totally different and i love the Way Bloober Team goes more then the Way that was go in Soma.

Just my Opinion of course, but if you play Observer in the right mood, at night, with headphones of course and do not rush through it, its worth every penny.

[Blattdorf]

Originally posted by Dr.Larry:

Originally posted by Blattdorf:

The plot isn't Soma in an apartment block, what are you talking about? The only thing similar between the games is the initial vibe, but they diverge pretty hard as you progress.

As the story unfolds it becomes all about imaging your brain and personality to the interwebs in order to "evolve." The difference here being Soma has you in a fully simulated world yet Observer's stance is to have the ultimate goal(For Adam) to transfer a copy of your consciousness onto the internet to live on forever. They even kill Adam off so his copy can survive which is exactly what happens in Soma, albeit for different logical reasons(That being in order for their consciousness to truly be real there can't be two entities of them at the same time... so they kill themselves after they map their brain and image it to a server they shoot into space).

The games are basically the same. They follow the same formula, similar narrative and have the exact same plot point as you progress through the story. They even have the same twist that being... imaging of the consciousness to a simulated world.

Parts of it are correct and parts of it are not. (EDIT: Big spoilers, obviously.)

Adam wanted to created... something. A digital consciousness of sorts. The ultimate result was that he simply created a sophisticated AI that mimicked Adam, having Adam's memories. However, the original Adam realized that what he had created could be incredibly dangerous. The AI Adam realizes he will be terminated, so he pre-empts the original Adam and has him killed.

The AI Adam is aware that Chiron will quickly find it and delete it, so it formulates an escape plan, that being to lure an Observer. Observers are isolated from the network to some extent, so it'd be the perfect host for it. Since the original Adam's father was an Observer, Adam decides to lure him to the apartment building and take over his body.

Most of the game you witness the aftermath, following one dead body after another, and I think AI Adam uses the moments when you brainhack to erode your defenses.

Ultimately, though, you are guided to a VR station during a moment of confusion and you set in motion the final sequence during which AI Adam tries to guilt-trip you into merging your minds. Regardless of your choice, AI Adam pulls off its master plan.

[v00d00m4n]

Originally posted by thebaymonster:

As the title says. I'm really waiting for this to be available in VR before a purchase, but is this game similar to Soma? That was probably my favorite game of the last five years. Is it comparable in atmosphere and story?

After Layers of Fear which was not as good as Soma was, i was not expecting same dev to do something similar to soma, and criticized them on steam and suggested to lear from soma... suprisingly they learned a lot from soma and Observed has a lot of similarity in gameplay and narrative design... and even themes are similar.

I steel find SOMA a little deeper, a little more immersive and a little more polished and a little more enjoyable, but observer feels about 90% as good as SOMA was, and it has some things done even better than in SOMA, like, for example, body awareness (shame that devs did not do procedural or fixed animation of hands like for example in Outlast 2 for all of interactions and shame they designed it around low fov which causes sickness, but you can hack fov with few minor issues like that fov gets to default when you play as kid and when fov gets to default in few cutscenes, and some not very annoying clipping at places).

Since SOMA release only 3 games managed to satisfy my hunger for more c;pse SOMA immersive expirience that was Outlast 2, Observer and Hellblade (last one however quite different in other aspects), and Observer was the closest thing you can get to SOMA.

[The WarSimmer]

Thanks for the responses so far, it seems like one can expect the game to be somewhat comparable to Soma as far as the general "feeling" of the game goes. I'll pick this one up for sure if the devs do a VR update.

[v00d00m4n]

Originally posted by thebaymonster:

Thanks for the responses so far, it seems like one can expect the game to be somewhat comparable to Soma as far as the general "feeling" of the game goes. I'll pick this one up for sure if the devs do a VR update.

There are third party tools and hacks that can turn almost any game into VR compatible, even GTAV, so i suggest you dont wait for update and check out VR enabling universal tools.