SOMA: Data Recovery (supersecret stuff, game changes, scrapped content, development)

[@an0nymousYT]

From elsewhere: "Someone there asking how do you get 5314 code? The code is written on Brandon Wan's pink wristband. You can check it on his corpse in theta lab."

[@an0nymousYT]

From elsewhere again: "About the survey terminal inside ARK code puzzle, it's said there: "Upon the Ark there is a Survey Terminal. Answer exactly the same way as at the first Survey Terminal AND make sure you answer Question 8 with answer 2". The "answer Question 8 with answer 2" part was a bit wrong. The OP checked the map's source code and find out the selected answer for question 8 must be equal to 2. But in programming, the number is usually counted from zero (i.e., 0=1, 1=2, 2=3), so 2 in code here means 3rd answer in game. That means you have to select answer 3 for question 8."

[@davidspackagelp]

@@an0nymousYT Thanks very much! Nice to finally know that.

[@89BlackGatomon]

Saving the Ark is nice and good but its a lifeboat on borrowed time. Someone need to save it from space later on. I would recycle all the body and minds in the ark to build a crew or at least build enough copies of myself to rebuild the world. Perhaps the Wau can help?

[@d_rk_sh]

@@89BlackGatomon someone...? who? humanity has literally ended

[@89BlackGatomon]

@@d_rk_sh yes but theres a lot to rebuild with. Using all dead bodys and using the arks brainscans to rebuild everything. It might take a few millenia but it beats total extinction...

[@BBK96]

*The dev. Crew:* «ok so how can we make sure that fans will be able to access the super secret files?» *Random employee:* «ok hear me out guy, you know the toilet at simons place..»

[@Falclone]

@evan A maybe you just don't understand?

[@Razomir]

I for one am quite happy they chose not to include all of these "faction" as that would have removed the feeling of loneliness and existential crisis from the game. A mad robot here or there is one thing but a group with a purpose, especially quarreling with another would have made Simon's part seem that much smaller.

[@yeahbuthow2005]

Yeah, but on the other hand, SOMA could have raised so much more existential questions with all this fractions, just like System Shock 2

[@matyi1656]

Yeah, that would have oversaturated the story

[@resolutionblaze363]

The Amy robot is really terrifying; I think the concept is that Amy dies if you unplug her, but then her consciousness is transferred by the WAU into a robot and she is convinced that she's still in the pilot seat.

[@AirLancer]

It's not transferred, it's just a brain scan copy that would've been placed in the robot.

[@sety5591]

@@AirLancer the pilot think she is piloting a robot because she was copied while piloting a robot. That is why she call help to remove her helmet.

[@eden20111]

@@sety5591 so the REAL Amy died ? Her consciousness wasn’t transferred at all?

[@milewesler9592]

@@eden20111 i mean, no one's consciousness is transferred in the game. Everyone except the one chick is dead. Everyone is a save state of themselves at some point. Kinda debatable point

[@eden20111]

@@milewesler9592 so I did a 2nd play through and I went ahead and killed her. I felt like that was more merciful than letting her suffer in that state of agony. She’s basically dead anyway I destroyed the Wau at the end so would die eventually. Rather end her suffering quicker at the train station.

[@kairoikki6981]

"For a moment there I thought I was stuck in this body" ... Oof

[@auramyst3627]

Where do you hear that?

[@Mikki-Moo]

This remains the only horror game to scare me, not by jumpscaring, but due to the moral questions it raises.

[@monkeysk8er33]

It's way deeper than it appears to be. This game changed my life. And I've already philosophized most of the ideas in the game, prior to playing it. It just has a way about it. Plus there's more to this story than is obvious on the surface.

[@CIeaner23]

@@monkeysk8er33 true been obsessed with this game since 2019

[@4shadow894]

SOMA makes you realize that existence is the real *HORROR* in each other's lifetime. Even if technology knows its existence, it starts to understand itself and become sentient. When it is broken, it starts to feel and understand its pain, and it starts to create its own emotion. When it finally breaks down, fear starts to emanate itself and death becomes part of its existence. Just making you, or each other think about that will make a realization that we truly are f*cked!!!!

[@Ceelker]

Cyberpunk explores the same concept.

[@Mikki-Moo]

@@Ceelker It's just a shame that the Cyberpunk setting never got me interested, same with fantasy sadly :/

[@CariHere]

Some of these concepts are interesting. Meeting Amy Azzaro then, meeting a insane Amy Azzaro would be terrifying.

[@Rikard2k]

At 37:50 you can see a model for a boat docked at the pier. The boats name is Theseus. This is most definitely with the The ship of Theseus in mind. It is a though experiment in which you pick apart a ship bit by bit and rebuild it. You also replace the missing parts though so you eventually end up with two ships. Which one is the ship of Theseus? It's not that hard to see the connection between that and the theme of Soma where you do this but with yourself. Small but amazing details or nods like that really enhances the experience a lot.

[@theexchipmunk]

I never really saw the trouble with this. The one that has constantly sailed under the name. The one build of the old parts is just another ship build from old parts. Because the ship isn´t the planks it´s made from. The actual ship isn´t even the matter it is made up of. It is the concept, the idea attatched to the matter, that`s the ship. To quote the Matrix, there is no spoon. And on a physical level, there really isn`t. It´s just a bunch of metal shaped after the concept of a spoon. It´s only a spoon so long as there is humans around to call it one. The moment the idea dies, the spoon stops being one, no matter how long the matter may last.

It's an incredibly nice reference that the small boat that takes them to the city is called "Theseus". I absolutely loved that. For anyone who doesn't know what it means, look up "Ship of Theseus".

[@davidspackagelp]

Oh, I thought it was just a reference to Theseus from mythology. Just read up on what you mentioned, that's very appropriate.

[@sadunascreativecorner]

Gosh those unused lines for the ARK get to me everytime, it really helps show the playful and actual friendship between Simon and Catherine which I wish there was more of in the final game. Thank you for making this video and showing off all that was and could have been in the game!

[@Ashanmaril]

I definitely enjoyed seeing what could have been in the ARK ending, but I think they made the right choice having it end as soon as you run into Catherine. It's not supposed to be a happy ending. The only point of the post-credits sequence is to show that the copy of Simon in the ARK thinks he "made it" and everything went according to plan, while the player feels a complete disconnect from that version of Simon. We know that what we thought was "our" Simon is still on Earth and will die alone in a horrible dark hellscape. Once we see the branches, the game doesn't really need to go on. The point was made

[@AntonLennikov]

There is mod that restores the cut ending. It dons’t feel right though. It’s also dosn’t help that while model animation for Catherine was finished facial animation was not. The thing I like about Catherine dialogue is that she know that they are just the copy so she didn’t sound so enthusiastic about eternity among the stars.

[@arianya7076]

You could make another game out of the things they didn't use

[@raggedclawstarcraft6562]

That's actually the case. It looks like they almost remade most of the story from scratch. And original teaser trailer have NOTHING to do with the story that actually were released.

[@ArSaSixNine]

One? You can milk the shit out of this...

[@jackknifer1]

you'd be surprised how common this is in game development. They end result it's just the tip of the iceberg for most cases.

[@julioc.3158]

@@jackknifer1 Gotta love how the development of RE4 lead to like 3 different games with the amount of stuff they wanted to scrap but ended up making more games instead.

[@steelbear2063]

@@julioc.3158 Hell, one of the versions turned into Devil May Cry, a whole goddam franchise

[@bipedallifeform4937]

Cutting out this content was for the better. Though interesting to see the development process and the ideas that were thrown around, including nonsense like zombie cults would have greatly diminished the game's atmosphere and emotional weight. The feeling of absolute desolation and despair is what makes SOMA such a powerful experience. Having too many characters to interact/communicate with would have brought the game in-line with standard apocalyptic fiction, where the world's not really over, it's just undergone a dramatic change, to which the survivors have adapted. SOMA's setting and narrative are so strong exactly because "you" are the only normal person left in the world, while everyone else is either a voice coming from a computer, an insane killer robot, or a conscience inside a simulation (be it the ARK or WAU). And even whether you're actually a "normal person" or not is in itself a focal question raised by the narrative. So factions, intelligent enemies, and more conversations with other "normal" people would have seriously undermined the impact of the game's main themes. I'm also glad that the WAU wasn't made sentient, at least not so explicitly that it straight up talks to you. Having it be this mysterious, incomprehensible intelligence following its own machine logic is far more interesting and allows room for theorizing as to its true nature, intent, and the extent of its abilities. Plus it provides a nice contrast to the other machines encountered in the game, who all share a degree of "humanity"/sentient thought. I don't see what including more of the mind coral would have added to the story or the world other than unnecessary fat. It's too similar to the WAU with how it absorbs organisms and transforms them. Plus it veers too much into "alien lifeform" territory and away from technology. So, in short, everything that was cut was cut for good reason. SOMA is one of those stories that relies on being compact and concise.

[@potaterjim]

It's fairly common for games to undergo dramatic changes and transform into totally different games, but it's bizarre and rare to see so much content actually completed on the original version, and so much left unused. It's like they finished half the game before decided to scrap it and remake the game from the ground up. I really do enjoy the version we got, but it would be amazing to see a rerelased of soma as it was originally intended, with the various factions, the sentient wau, the creepy robot voice Simon. Maybe a soma sequel, taking place after the events: Simon is left stranded and alone at the railgun and, with nothing better to do, decides to march back up to the safer stations and eventually even the surface, the climax taking place on an oil rig

[@jetso2000]

All he did to kill the original Simon was drain its battery. Maybe he could just charge them back up and bam, co-op.

[@Metal_Enjoyer]

Pietro Bernardi there was actually a story about someone doing that

[@drpen3905]

@@Metal_Enjoyer A custom story? Neat! What's the name of it in the Steam workshop?

[@Metal_Enjoyer]

Dr Pen it’s not a playable map, it’s a story on the SOMA website about one of the original crew of PATHOS 2 and how they climbed the gun to reach the rig

[@neros1277]

I made up my idea of what happens after ark is launched. Simon is stranded in railgun when he suddenly hears voice of WAU calling him, he have nothing better to do so he decided to go back to the heart of WAU, when he arrives WAU can actually speak and it turns out it is sentient, it then tells Simon that it was watching him all the time, WAU learned about nature of human realizing that proxies, construct, fleshers and other monsters are not living being, it is not a life, WAU wants Simon to show him how living being actually are, Simon realizes that WAU is the only hope to reconstruct life on earth so he and Catherine agrees to help, WAU then puts down all the monsters it created, process of repopulating took years but eventually new kind of homosapiens and plants are made, Simon is looking at new species going from water to land, he himself came out the sea as well, he sat on the sand thinking about how he started as regular guy from Toronto then being reborn in living hell under the sea and saving what was left of humanity, ending up helping out creating new species, it was time for him to finally rest, he was happy about it as battery in his suit runned out of energy allowing him to finally rest in peace

[@gladtobestillalive]

An interesting thing about the name "Flesher"--it seems to be a reference to Greg Egan's novel Diaspora (the Ark project also seems to have been influenced by that book, and iirc Frictional has acknowledged Egan as an influence on the game). In Diaspora, "Flesher" was the term used by the protagonists (who basically lived on the Ark) for humans that preferred to live in physical, flesh-and-blood bodies (though they did stuff like genetic modification) rather than robot bodies or computer simulations. While it's also a philosophical concept on its own, solipsism is also a pretty big topic in Egan's work (Diaspora and Permutation City, to name two of the books), and he uses the term to refer to people living in simulations who choose to completely cut themselves off from the outside world, literally living in a reality of their own creation. They're at odds with the Fleshers and "Gleisners" (human minds in robot bodies, like SOMA's mockingbirds). The disagreements between these groups isn't really the focus of Diaspora, so it would've been interesting to see Frictional's take on the topic.

[@spookypaladin4667]

Every time I hear how happy the other Simon is, the one up on the ARK, I just think of the Simon down below in the abyss. He'll slowly rot away for centuries if he's not overtaken by the WAU. It's so horrific..

[@MultiColoredPsychopath]

8 months late but, i like to think he somehow climbed up and back to Omicron to repair Catherine's chip the same way he repaired the chip to get the structure gel. after killing the WAU's heart and giving time for its creatures to die, I'd like to think that he and Catherine would repair the other damaged brain scans to upload them into robots in a way that doesn't make the brain-scanned people insane like the WAU did.

[@MertKayKay]

hehe

[@n646n]

His battery will die if the wau was killed. If not, hopefully the omnitool wasn't friend and he can get back to Omicron to fix Catherine, or climb up the space gun.

[@InitiateDee]

@@MultiColoredPsychopath The point of the ending though was always that it's not a good one. Yeah sure we can speculate that Simon could've done a lot more afterwards, and maybe he does, but no matter what he does he's still stuck on a dead world, on the bottom of the ocean, with no real reason to keep going after...a year? Even if he finds Catherine the most they can do is talk to each other and bond, and it's only a matter of time when even that is simply not enough in a dangerous and hostile environment

[@thestone6324]

For me it is so funny for these people on the ark who think they have so much better here without taking into consideration that if some meteor or other space object would come up on the same trajectory they are screwed up 😂😂😂

[@asherael]

SOL-up-cyst. Solipsism: not believing others are real/have feelings

[@norsethenomad5978]

I feel that a lot of the content removed was for good reason, as much of what was removed sounded very interesting but hard to execute properly. If improperly executed it would have either been ridiculed for being too much like many other horror games with all of its cults and poison goop or even compared to lesser horror games using the same concepts

[@Str1d]

To this day I still feel they should have reversed the endings. Simon reaching the Ark seeing what the Ark was like the paradise it would offer, Simon asking if everyone made it and Catherine saying yes then credits.... or maybe even immediately after that and here you have Simon still in the abyss, realizing he didn't transfer and everything shutting down. It just would have been a bigger impact on me, like wow, that's really fucked.

[@davidspackagelp]

I hadn't thought of that option, but I agree with you, that would've been a harder hitting ending. The way they ended it now, they clearly went for the more happy-ish string of events.

[@creepysinisterpasta]

Solace i would beg to disagree. I think that the order in wich the ending unfolds is important in making the player understand the Concept and the consequenses of the copying of a counsiousness. The ending helped us realise the fate of all the copied counsiousnesses and the once that were "left behind" and places you the player in the shoes of the Simon that you controlled in that instance wich intensified the feeling of dread for you the player. And What you have to realise is that the Simon that ended up on the ark is not the same Simon in the abyss but rather a copy of his counsiousness wich results in the you Simon being stuck in the abyss regardless of the order of the endings.

[@theespatier4456]

Solace Yeah... first getting on the Ark and then seeing what happened to Simon 3, Simon 2, and Simon 1 could have been interesting!

[@X02Overdose]

The Espatier Simon 1 died after the brain scan in Toronto and Simon gets killed if you shut his battery off at Omicron.

[@deckard3755]

I think in a way it would work, in a storytelling sense anyway. But I think also there was a message to it about sacrificing things that you believe define yourself can lead to a happy ending. I dunno. I find the story excellent and very thought-provoking. It could also conversely be a comment about apathy and self centeredness, sacrificing people to get what you want. Many ways to look at it. But for me, the ending was perfect. I already knew he'd be left there, but the Ark sequence after surprised me and I really enjoyed the end cut, where its just as Cath turns to face you. I really wanted to see her properly after all of their interactions and like any good storyteller they gave you a glimpse but only that.

[@davidspackagelp]

Thanks for making this my first video to reach 10k views, all! It's been a year since I made it, but I remember it being a lot of work to put together, so I'm really pleased people are enjoying it.

[@drpen3905]

With all the content here, I'm surprised that there aren't that many custom stories in the Steam workshop.

[@kasperschaug1128]

David Goya's stream of consciousness in Theta is something i find strangely wholesome. I like that in contrast to everyone else, he's actually content with being stuck at the bottom of the ocean with Brandon and the old geezer Akers.

[@MarshFPV]

Holy crap this looks like it took so much time, it's so well made! Thanks a bunch for making this, I've always wanted to know more about the development process of SOMA.

[@BATTIS94]

Now I understand why the WAU stuff never goes anywhere in the actual game. I get what they where going for: The ark and the dreams are almost the same thing, so it would be like "Why you think one is bad and the other is good?" maybe? A shame so much stuff got cut.

[@jahnu13]

I know it's been 7 years since you've made this video, but even now SOMA's story is still fascinating. As someone who is passionate about nearly every aspect of SOMA, I love seeing the pieces of the developers' journey and the game I love but in a different context. The original SOMA game does seem to be more about Simon being a spectator to SOMA's world, whereas the final version made Simon seem like the only hope in a desolate and empty world. I like what we got but also like being able to see what the developers originally intended.

[@francesboy2]

It seems like early versions of the game were really heavily inspired by system shock, with the more sentient AI and having more freakish and vocal enemies/factions. Would really have liked to see where they would've taken the flesher's etc.

[@MuteObserver]

Thank-you. Thank-you so much for putting this together. :) I can't tell you how much I love getting peeks into the development process and unused/cut content. It was fantastic of Frictional Games to do this for us, and I hope they carry on with this and do something similar to give us another peek behind the curtain in the future. What a treat this has been. :) Thanks for taking the time out to walk us through this.

[@Twitch380]

The AI was doing exactly what Simon is trying to do. Keep them alive and happy. Just it didn't know exactly how and it's method was....creepy

[@ellymoore2094]

Exactly, it's like how Ross said "we can't trust a machine to know, to understand what it means to be"

[@Pyovali]

I don't think keeping them "happy" was one of its priorities. Just alive. Some of the experiments it made just left people in a dreamlike state while others just were left to suffer, like Amy for example or the robots that went insane. It just did its everything to retain human mind.

[@InitiateDee]

It really is just a fight of perspectives in a way. We know from our human perspective that being a dead corpse in a brain coral is not living, regardless of the fact you're having pleasant dreams on the other side. But the WAU doesn't know that, and we can't really expect it to know it either, when we never gave it the exact meaning of what it means to be alive. And how could we? You ask the best modern psychologists and scientists to specify to a machine of what it exactly means to be a human, down to our complex morality, and it would probably take them years

[@Equeon]

18:25 You can get all of these dialogues while re-entering the escape vessel (before disabling the WAU tentacles) or getting injured right next to the escape vessel.

[@SuperMrminecraftdude]

Equeon yes, i also got the part about going to the surface. I noticed that there are multiple points in the game where the dialogues seem to vary quite a bit between my 3 playthroughs. Is it perhaps random?

[@AceTheEgg]

The sounds of characters dying or begging for life are so horrific and actually get a reaction out of me. Really shows the effort these actors put in. I kinda wish those were left in the game. It would add emotional reactions to your actions and would make this game more depressing then it already is.

[@Thlormby]

5:58 If you look at the ocean painting and the space painting, they are the only ones that remain relatively normal besides the staircase one. The weird thing is, the diver becomes covered in cables and has a red light on his helmet (almost as if he were one of the Wardens creations) and the space painting features a comet, likely the one that hit earth.

[@Bleh200]

Can we just talk about the Pathos-ll workers' dreams? Frost is announcing a great discovery, Strohmeier is fixing a plane with his friend, Koster is on a date with Brandon. Meanwhile Javid is dreaming about finally beating Akers at chess, gave me a chuckle in a normally bleak and depressing game.

[@yderga8707]

I'm glad a great deal of this stuff didn't get included in the final production, including the cult of corpses. The narritive message the game weaves in to the story is so perfectly, beautifully simplistic. "what does it mean to be alive?"

[@chadhayag9171]

It looks like Catherine wasn't the only one who got the idea of making a virtual world to preserve humanity, the WAU did too after failing to preserve humanity in other ways. At least with the WAU, your brain connects to the virtual world instead of just a copy of you.

[@DerangedMallard]

"To say I'm sorry" Why of course. Classic Canadian :p

[@Pedroxboy100]

You done such a great job in this vid..

[@DarkArtistKaiser]

I heard some people think it would be better without the ark ending because it cheapens the blow for the precredits ending. Honestly, I think it makes the blow worse. To see a digital heaven before the eyes of our player, after suffering so much...yet, I cannot shake the thought in my head, something Simon clearly left out of his own, that back on Earth, his copy now sits on the bottom of the ocean, alone, in absolute darkness, forced to wait out his own end. One got heaven, one got hell.

[@Bhazor]

Thank god Simon doesn't talk that much in the final game. "Looks like the head came right off, gross"

[@thedeergod435]

I never realised that they used actual body trauma to help the art team make some of the models and textures, a very good idea. (30:13 is one example, luckily its blurred)

[@AirLancer]

A lot of those artists basically end up with PTSD from having to constantly look at pictures of gore all day, try reading up about Mortal Kombat devs.

[@BigtimeAVERAGE]

Ik I'm late but real body gore and burn victims were also used as inspiration for devs workin on dead space necromorph models and such

[@neros1277]

Things that should be in SOMA: -kate robot -another person in diving suit -insane Amy robot -Catherine and Simon giving more hints Thing i wouldn't want in SOMA -flesher society -vent monsters -Crawler -Solipsists fraction -Terry talking -WAU talking -mind coral bugs -patch work man Overall: SOMA is already good as it is but some of the unused staff could be still in the game, having kate robot could be nice, for example she would connect to radio while Catherine and simon talk and add something from her, another person just like Simon at the start would be nice addition since having person in exactly same situation as Simon getting instantly killed would hit really hard and Amy being insane robot even harder. Having flesher society would not fit into game climate taking away the feeling of seclusion, same goes to solipsists there is no need for them to be there, vent monsters and mind coral bugs would probably just annoy player, patch worker being in same place as robot girl is just not a good idea, being chases by him could make player run into robot girl and triggering her, that just too hard, WAU being sentient? Nope, talking Terry? Nah, i prefere Terry just as he is now

[@TonyP9279]

Simon's scan was a template that Catherine used to test her AR capsule so there could be other active copies of him elsewhere. Kate was supposed to be short for Catherine. It would be nice if instead of Terry Akers, it was Adam Golaski. We see Adam in Transmissions when he starts drinking the structure gel like coffee then in the game we could see what becomes of him.

[@Pyovali]

Seeing a corrupted version of Catherine or Simon would've been horrifying and would've added to the story in a big way

[@Grabacr-pl3wy]

If the WAU gave good dreams like the brain coral then in a way it’s like the ARK but better since it’s the original you not some copy.

[@louiesatterwhite3885]

But as you can tell it doesn't work for everyone.

[@-0rbital-]

Except the people aren’t all joined together like in the Ark. They’d each be in their own dream world, interacting only with themselves.

[@firstnamelastname5230]

But the body is forever contorted and deformed to the point that they’re no longer human. They almost look like they’re in pain but the dreams distract them from the dark reality that they’re long dead

[@ManofOneGod]

@@firstnamelastname5230 But you are still you.

[@gagetaylor192]

@@firstnamelastname5230 The WAU is an evolving thing tasked with preserving humanity. I can see in the future if you chose not to kill the WAU it can find a way to completely restore humanity in another form. The game advertises the ARK as humanity's only hope but that's not true. The WAU is the only chance humanity has, even if slim. The game already makes it very clear that what's really "human" is very vague. Remember that Simon being revived in upsilon is an experiment of the WAU gone very right. It could have potentially done that with hundreds of copies and said copies could help the WAU build a new human race, one not bound by flesh and mortal bodies. People who couldn't be affected by the devastation of earth. The ARK is just a simulation where all the copies inside have no physical reach or control of what happens outside the ARK. It's just a sad and pointless existence where at any moment a solar panel could give out or be damaged and that's goodbye ARK. Even if it does survive for its estimated thousands of years that's still not even scratching the surface of what the WAU is capable of.

[@newNewUser]

I had goosebumps in the end ... such an amazing game and your work is on the same level. Thank you so much!

[@JesseBakerH]

its awesome to see how ambitious they were and how many ideas they could have potentially put into the game. It would have been awesome to see all of it completed but Im glad they toned down some aspects of it in favor for a more understated vibe. Stuff like the WAU being an unconscious force as opposed to a HAL AI gone wrong is really interesting and keeps things grounded in reality imo

[@TheRealGears]

Someone should restore all this old dialogue. I want to hear akers creepy voice as I avoid proxies in the basement

[@beaneatingoni1353]

I think they may put a proxy with Akers. Then you can hear the horrible proxy noises and Aker's creepy voice at the same time. I actually think the proxy noises(Akers' noise as well) are more loud and disturbing but I prefer Akers' deep creepy voice.

[@realMrVent]

This video is criminally underrated

[@beeftothetaco]

love that detail about the paintings, very prophetic

[@Novous]

Uh... Akers clean vocals sure sound a lot like the intro dead diving suit robot. What if there was a "Good akers" in a robot suit and a "bad akers" in flesh form?

[@ExValeFor]

that's a really cool concept, and it does seem to be the same voice actor. at the same time, that's likely why it was removed; the story got changed since the good!akers recordings, and you have an Akers who's seemingly been to Lambda and is still suspicious of the WAU. the pre-possession Akers never left Delta, and the Akers who went to Lambda was already a fanatic. Probably couldn't get the voice actor for new lines and chopped the head off that diving suit to remove even this little plothole (nobody would've put it together without playing through like 3 times).

[@zesty2023]

Man that extended ending would have been so nice to have in the final game.

[@edwin11373]

Agreed. In fact, the cut extended ending gave me more reassurance and peace of mind that everything that you did was truly worth it. When Catherine was naming the people who made into the ARK and the beautiful futuristic city that was emerging in the background, I really got an exciting feeling of hope, of a new beginning.

[@thecatattheend2250]

@@edwin11373 Didn't you get that feeling when you rushed toward Catherine's arms, with the city in the background, at the end? I sure did!

[@Extaun]

Chocolate Death i didn’t, as much as he made it to paradise he is still stuck in hell. I wondered why Simon 4 never pondered what Simon 3 was thinking or where he would be. I mean, Simon 4 believes he is a real as the original Simon, which yeah you could argue he is but that also means another very real Simon is stuck, doomed, all alone with no hope in sight and feeling betrayed. Whilst the person who he trusted the most is with another version of him in paradise, but he truly is with and without. Bittersweet is what that is called. And for Catherine, in these cutlines she mentioned how she was afraid she would be stuck, so she is conscious even if she isn’t talking to Simon in this version, whilst in the final game she seems unaware of time passing if she isn’t summoned by Simon. That would mean that in the final game she is only in paradise with Simon and kind of killed herself by overloading her circuitry, kind of playing into the continuity theory of Mark. And Simon would have make the hard decision bringing her back to hell by repairing her cortex chip just to make coping easier, or or the other scenario where she is aware of time passing and she is now just left levitating in nothingness perhaps aware of Simon’s pleads to not leave him alone and whatever horrible things he might encounter afterwards. Either way, Simon has to face eternal damnation alone, and maybe with Catherine listening to it all unfold unable to interfere. That i just can’t let slide, even if they are happily together in paradise.

[@matics898]

@@Extaun Simon 4 never wondered what happened to Simon 3 because the dumb bastard THINKS he's Simon 3 and got transferred to the ARK.

[@auklin7079]

@@matics898 Ya Simon's a bit stupid, probably isn't going to contribute positively to the 'last bastion of humanity'

[@harry_page]

The Theta mind coral and subtler dream sequences sound really cool, they should've kept them. Maybe Akers could've implanted Simon in stages/multiple times, with each progressing the dream sequence and containing some of his unused dialogue. Maybe Simon almost gives in and Akers starts to get excited, but then the elevator falls and wakes him up like what actually happened and gives him chance to escape, leaving Akers furious. It would've also been nice if there had been greater development and a more gradual change of Akers from human to mind coral puppet. Akers is still my favourite monster in the game though.

[@beaneatingoni1353]

Me too.I also love Akers' design and his cut scene.

[@rinkydinkyuh]

This is a fantastic video, thank you for taking the time to compile all of this together! I had learned about some of the cut content from the wiki page, but nothing as extensive as this. The game changed quite drastically! I do absolutely love the current version, but it's interesting to see the changes and how they might have affected the overall mood of the game had they been left in. In some cases, the cut parts would've been a welcome addition. Although I really enjoyed Simon and Catherine's dialogue throughout the game, I think cutting a lot of it out ended up being one of the better choices, because it leaves you in a lot of quiet isolation, so those moments where Catherine cuts in again are rewarding because Simon has someone to talk to. Very informative video, thank you again!

[@PhreNox_is5]

Toronto (3:15) "Summer is coming, hope to get one" Upsilon (6:57) "I just need to get back!" Lambda (15:22) "Be quiet! Don't look at it!" Delta/Theta (19:02) "I would like to come to Theta, let Delta sleep" Omicron (27:54) "I don't feel so different, but the world sure does" Tau (33:19) "What a crazy thing this was, life..." Alpha (34:52) "We're so close now... hurry!" Phi (36:05) "Is this...? Did it work?"

[@Resimaster]

Brilliant video detailing one of the best games I have ever played. Thanks a lot for making it :)

[@eereku]

2016??, can't believe i just found this, thank you so much. I really love the game, and see how the game develop overtime really make me wonder, what it would be if they stick with the old storyline.

[@rackaboimercer300]

Im quite satisfied from the conversation of those two in the end . Just what i need after finishing the game.

[@ethanpowell16]

Brandon Wan's cut content is insanely dark holy... also love evil amy as well as more flesher content on the currie

[@ethanpowell16]

and akers voice...

[@KanaevM]

Dammit. Here I though: "oh, a long video about Soma that I haven't seen yet!", but then I click and already see my like in place. Oh well, since I don't remember watching it - I can watch it again.

[@RootcityMusic]

23:47 Goddamn that game still spooks me xD I jumped up a little at this part haha

[@erix100100]

This monster, you just cant outrun him... I remember playing this and was so happy once I got to the elevator xD.

[@SuperMrminecraftdude]

was there any specific reason that they removed the extra dialogues from the ark? I had been waiting all game for a real dialogue with catherine but then you barely got to see her turn around in the end :P

[@n646n]

They had trouble with facial animations, so instead of spending more time, they just cut the entire sequence to get the game out earlier.

[@h.l.69]

So much hard work for this video. Well done, watched it all. Frictional Games are 100% quality studio.

[@olefiend]

Why did they take out all that brain coral storyline? Would have tied a lot of the story together. Love SOMA regardless.

[@MisterJohnDoe]

I wish they never got rid of the nightmare sequence. Those speaker mouths are terrifying.

[@paseoscontim9087]

Amazing content! You've done such a great job uncovering and combining it all together! Thanks a lot! I'm surprised this video hadn't got more views!

[@zcr1t1cal33]

I really wish there was another game just Like Soma, or that i could replay it for the first time again and enjoy the greatness

[@cr0wboi]

at first for the reed and raleigh death slides i thought they were like screaming or someone was tearing them up, but now that i actually see it clear they're pulling themselves apart to show the beast within.

[@RamenLlama]

Great video, man, really enjoyed it! Thanks for your extensive digging, it was super interesting learning more about SOMA, especially the scrapped ending. It's a shame that those lines and actions were cut from the final game, though.

[@DediHund]

12:21 made me disturbingly laugh when Simon said to Amy "just hang in there!"

[@ourlittlenightmares3901]

WAU vs Corrals... dat would be good storyline

[@Parias4k]

Thank you for taking the time to put this compilation together! I found all of this insanely interesting.

[@kmidst_vg2996]

Thanks so much for making this video. I just played this game recently and seeing all this cut content is really eye opening.

I find it kinda interesting that the "suit guy" mentions a Vanessa, considering a prominent but lesser known character in the game and the Transmissions mini series is named Vanessa Hart. She's actually pretty important. She was the only survivor of Imogen Reed's group from the Transmissions series, and actually made it back to Theta, with "only bruises and mild hypothermia due to the long walk" from going on foot from the CURIE to Theta. Her experiences with the WAU's creatures and mutants were initially discredited, since she was the only survivor of her group, although when Akers and his Proxies attacked Theta, they ended up believing her. She ended up sacrificing herself by detonating her oxygen tank to take out the tunnel connecting Theta to Omicron, in an effort to stop Akers and his Proxies from going to Omicron. You can actually find her corpse during the game, as when you are flushed out of the tunnel in Theta back into the ocean after activating the emergency flush systems, you land in front of a corpse, which is Vanessa's.

[@CJacobsLP]

37:50 What's so wonderful about these developers is that even the final thing you were meant to see is thematic- not just the name. The ribbed orange sections and the teardrop shaped floor of the boat form one final PATHOS-II logo to see you off on the Ship of Theseus. :)

[@masterzoroark6664]

Ok, personal theory about Pace Labs being recreated at Pathos II- I think it supposed to be a memory halucination Simon's brain supposed to play before awakening to the fact he no longer is in Toronto. Something like a way out of a dream and the doors disapearing after you step into the metal corridors

[@justpassingby298]

the proto-flesher definitely reminds me of the antagonists from penumbra.

[@extremesubtlety]

Great vid! Really interesting to see what could have been in this game. Thanks so much for putting it all together like this!

[@owoskan]

Finished the game yesterday, was interested in cut content, found your video, loved it

[@darthmemeious9526]

14:52 aaaaahh that voice is so smooth after listening to that

[@villanas]

I love this game so deeply. Thank you for this, it was great!

[@HeatherHolt]

Wow I think it would have been interesting for David to have been a monster robot in the game… since he’s the one who scanned us and made the idea in the first place it’s only sense Al he would have scanned himself.

[@RosesTeaAndASD]

Good point. You think he'd be preserved for historical purposes.🤷‍♀️

[@n646n]

His scan is at Theta.

[@angeltzepesh1]

I'm glad that we got the final version instead of what it is in cut content. The final version feels like it could happen very easily in our own world in a not so distant future, i think having entire factions working against each other in such a place would take away from the story, making it more sci-fi than it needs.

[@M4x__V]

Can't wait to see their next project... but SOMA was so high, I'm a bit "scared" in a way. This game was/is a pure masterpiece^^. Thank you for this long interesting video, that was amazing ;)

[@djbeema]

I gotta say, after SOMA I found Amnesia Rebirth to be a huge letdown. Oh well

[@slouch186]

Great game. Thanks for doing an LP as I wouldn't have even known about this game without the thread.

[@someguardsman]

God I loved this game. I hope they make more like this, it was so compelling.

[@Dustaroo]

I'm glad they cut a lot out as they did. fleshers especially. I'm mixed if I wanted simon to be able to convince the wau to let him leave. on one had it's a really cool idea that it does show the wau is a being that can change it's mind and basically accepts simons offer that it can have the earth. also it fitts the setting more of the wau just being this natural inhuman threat that is just marching humanity to it's new future in unstoppable way. I do wish we got a little more from the ark. I wanted at least to see cat in human form talking a bit. but at the same time I get it as it undercuts the sacrifce and impact of simon 2 and how that's basically us.

[@davidspackagelp]

I feel like you could've had a whole nother game set on the ark, really. Not just exploring the environment, but seeing the scans of people come to grips with the fact that they're here forever (or as long as the ark lasts), people who were scanned later knowing horrible stuff that the people scanned earlier did... ended up doing... would have done? I've also come to think that I wish Catherine didn't copy herself into the ark a second time at the end (she scanned herself first out of anyone, I think). It would've been a nice, melancholy ending tone that Simon would enter the ark, meet Cat and she'd like "who are you?"

[@Dustaroo]

@@davidspackagelp if they ever did want to do a soma 2 which I would rather they didn't as the ending did basically everything right and the ambiguity of it is core to the message. If they did do it Tho the arc being slowly consumed by the wau would be interesting. As a normal life ensues hiccups and glitches start to become prevalent and people start to behave irrationality or bizzarily they discover Simon's scan or the tech that Kat used somehow made the Wau able to slowly manifest itself into the arc world. Throughout the game reality itself begins to breakdown in bizzare ways and Kat and Simon/others need to keep rescanning themselves as the original files are becoming corrupted and controlled by the wau. By the end it's figured out the Wau is trying to convert the arc into a efficient machine to get humanity back to the its former glory against its will. Would be a neat expansion but does not really do as much to expand on new topics.

[@yeahbuthow2005]

​@@Dustaroo Bro, fleshers were so cool and interesting. Especially their designs.

[@Mothbean]

First, I'd just like to say this is a great video. You did an amazing job cohesively explaining the contents of the supersecret file. My only complaint you mentioned that Amy was going to be put into a "crawler", which you said was the robot you run into out in the ocean. The crawler was actually the robot you showed at 20:43.

[@davidspackagelp]

You're right, I never noticed that creature's model was "crawler". I can't remember exactly why I said Amy was put into the crawler. I think I deduced from Amy's lines ("where aaareeee youuuu?") that she'd be a similar creature to the one that chases you on the seabottom, but maybe it would've been her sort of hunting for you in the corridors.

[@chrisbg99]

I just finished this game a few days ago and it was a trip. And some of this cut content is really interesting like they had a whole different set up before starting over. And now I am searching for analysis videos because it was so interesting.

[@SuperMrminecraftdude]

Nothing about the doors at theta that open slightly as you progress?

[@nikkitanaka]

Could you elaborate, please?

[@zafelrede4884]

@@nikkitanaka There some doors at Theta that are closed when you first see them, but open more and more as you progress through the puzzles. Just something to creep out those who notice it, i guess.

[@Chillax1984]

​@zafelrede4884 what the fuck now i want to learn more about that

[@SunnyOst]

28:30 - 28:48 these lines are in the game, if you collect the battery and cortex, only missing the gel, then go talk to Catherine, she will hint at what you need to do to get the gel. I assume, some of the cortex and battery lines are also there if that's what you are missing

[@TheBreakingBread]

If I was rich I would fund frictional games to make a separate version of SOMA with all the cut ideas in it.

[@lazyvoid7107]

director cut or remake

[@freddyfazbear363]

I'm actually sad that the crawler and the patchwork man weren't added, they looked so creepy, I wonder why they got cut

[@prometheuslens7825]

This feels like a completely different game

[@jon-michael1524]

Great video. Amazing how xohesive it finally ended up being with so much churn.

[@saebelorn]

I'm very glad they didn't go for the solipsist / flesher thing, makes it seem a bit childish vs what we ended up with

[@yeahbuthow2005]

How exactly? Too much thinking for you?

[@saebelorn]

@@yeahbuthow2005 The layout of visually distinct factions all fighting for explicit ideologies on how to 'save life' is a lot less complex and interesting than what we ended up with, which more or less blends all these concepts and allows each character to represent each one to more or less of an extent based on their personality, which is pretty fitting for a game about what it means to be a person. So no, I don't think Starcraft: SOMA would have been a lot to think about.

[@yeahbuthow2005]

@saebelorn So far more ideas, fractions, philosophical and moral questions is "less complex"? We got like 2 actual characters with most basic post-apocalyptic story instead of really interesting and original ideas. Also: it's "System Shock: Soma", not start craft

[@Hamdad]

The original story had way too much stuff going on. I'm glad what we got in the end was a more focused, coherent narrative that knew what it wanted to deliver.

[@lazyvoid7107]

Some reason I want more

[@bbenjoe]

Honestly, I feel most of the changes were done for the better.

[@a-line197]

i love this game and how the story goes. it just basically simon and Catherine showing besties relationship with a love hate feelings. 😭😂 am i the only who thinks both of them are funny 😂

[@bruntchieftain1319]

I would've loved to have the ending that they scrapped. It sounds so much better to have a casual conversation on a bench and then show the satellite scene and have it end like that

[@Dotoku14]

>Lay down >Try not to cry >Cry a lot

[@OG-Silesian]

33:07 This model is sooo creepy and badass. Definitely my favourive even better than the robo girl

[@deep_panic944]

Dang. The original was good. Now I'd love to see the fully realized version. Some of this content is great!

[@monkeysk8er33]

So Ross is clearly some kind of either: glitches, hallucination, or physical entity that causes glitches in your "eyes." This is very clearly implied to mean that Ross is very much so a machination of the WAU. At the end, when you deal with WAU, he wants you to "poison WAU." This makes zero sense, as the WAU would not have any reason to convince you to kill it. I think this is actually a secondary plot that isn't openly explained, and is meant to be noticed by extremely attentive players. He's clearly controlled by the WAU, yet wants you to kill the WAU. The WAU is VERY self-preserving. There is no reason why it would lure you into it's chamber, into it's mouth like this, unless it wanted you dead, or it wanted to use you for something. If you follow Ross' directions, WAU bites your arm off, then STILL chases you (because even if you refuse to approach, which I did, WAU chases you). So WAU never succeeds at killing you, but feigns rivalry with Ross, by swallowing him whole. I think listening to Ross, and having your arm ripped off, is the canonical choice, and instead of you poisoning WAU, WAU hitches a ride inside of you, then uses you to piggyback into the ARK. Because otherwise, the WAU story arc is never resolved, as Simon is just left at Omega, to simply rot forever. Plus, survival horror, especially Frictional games, NEVER have a happy ending. You can argue that SOMA doesn't have a happy ending, but I think there's a "between the lines" story that most players won't pick up on. I'm going to play through a couple more times to see if I missed some super hidden lore, because nothing really explains Ross' plot at the end, and it makes way more sense for the WAU to use you as an unwilling tool, as it's the WAU that "resurrected" to begin with. I originally theorized that Catherine, since she is a copy, was actually the WAU, and that THAT would be the huge twist. Since it's never verified, one way or another, my theory could still stand, as it's made clear that simulated copies are the same as their original selves. Yet, Catherine acts radically differently in her dialogue with you, than she does in every log she has. Not only that, but we find her in a WAU corrupted machine, which has a WAU infected cortex chip, that you insert into your Omnitool. The WAU is clearly guiding you the whole time, and it always seemingly tends to "just barely" not kill you. It could've eaten you whole when you stuck your hand in. If you fuck up, or just allow it too, the WAU worm will swallow you hole when you run from it. That kinda says something, since dying is not a canonical mechanic, as it is in Dark Souls, or Nier. You can be "hit" once, and when this happens, you are left unconscious at the spot you were hit, only to be killed if you get found and caught a second time. This further insinuates that the WAU doesn't actually want you dead, but merely wants to simulate the threat of death, to keep you in a constant state of fear, to psychologically push you to do it's bidding. This would make sense if Catherine Is the WAU, as it's playing good cop, bad cop with you, pushing you to trust Catherine, even when, ESPECIALLY WHEN, she says something that both doesn't align with her character in the logs she's in, and/or when she says something that sounds completely unethical. The living Catherine was VERY ethical, but walked the line. Copy Catherine seems to have completely lost her ethics, which might be due to her loss of humanity, but makes more sense if she's just a tool of the WAU. Anyone else get these vibes?

[@mrdangerdave]

Fantastic video, David! Great game, it really blew my mind. You've earned yourself a sub, fellow David!

[@ViroVeteruscy]

Seems like the game would have been much creepier/weirder but was toned down a lot