SOMA (Zero Punctuation)

[@ingmaster5]

you can tell if Yahtzee likes a game or not by his willingness to spoil the plot.

[@YorkJonhson]

My favorite example is his review on Ride to Hell. "To the end of uncovering the sinister truth behind Jake's missing father and why the evil gang is trying to kill all his kids. Which I'm just going to spoil now, because fuck you."

[@Istreakilaz]

Late, but you can tell that he really really made sure not to use ANY words that can sound even remotely spoilerly, except for the fact that he mentioned the character who makes tie up the monster part of the backstory was a male. ....and i'm _totally_ not using his name because i forgot what his name was since the few years i played this game and only remember simon and his spunky assistant's name of all, no sir!

[@OptiMystic8]

Yeah this is a pretty good litmus. The ones he doesn't spoil, he does because he wants us to play ourselves, which is as solid a recommendation as you could get from him really

[@nickolas78gr24]

In Undertale he just said it is a good game.

[@NoahDaArk]

@@nickolas78gr24 And that was just an excuse to put it on his Top 5 best games list of that year

[@bootblacking]

What astonishes the most about SOMA is how often it presents you with making some agonizing moral and ethical choices, and rather than simply rewarding the player with new plot developments, abilities, or gadgets, the consequences exist almost wholly within the mind of the player. Frictional relies on the substance and quality of the plot, the writing, and the acting to make external reward or punishment unnecessary. Like all good fiction, the reward of experiencing it is directly proportional to the time and energy given to processing the ideas and messages presented.

[@waterguyroks]

Great point. Your last sentence is very insightful.

[@Krystalmyth]

Eh, none of this sounds like fun tho.

[@StRanGerManY]

@@Krystalmyth make no mistake, games don't have to be fun, some of them might be experiences. Just like a book or a movie - not all of them can be considered 'fun'. And while being not the most fun game I played, SOMA is one of the most memorable games I experienced.

[@veronikavartanova4044]

Still, you'd argue whether this approach qualifies as 'game', in its purest mathematical meaning, and the answer to it would be 'idunno',

[@Los499]

And yet, unlike good fiction, the ideas and messages of SOMA are so thoroughly conventional and banal that they're unlikely to impress anyone outside of first-semester philosophy students. This game is pretty much the definition of pseudo-profound in that it takes vapid ideas and covers them up in so many layers of obscurity that it gives the illusion of profundity without actually saying anything meaningful.

[@MasterCrest]

I think the monster part is essential to the whole theme of the story. The question is "what counts as alive?" The humans think that the continuity of a sense of self matters the most, so they try to preserve just that with the arc. The A.I. probably starts off with the answer "has vital signs", but as it gets introduced to the concept of self via Catherine's scans, it has to reconsider and starts to iterate. It captures living bodies and makes them dream forever, creates humanoid bodies without a self to safeguard those who dream, tries its luck with cyborgs, puts random human consciousnesses in robots, etc. And the game shows us these permutations, asking again and again: "Does this count as alive?" Unfortunately, there is a very important follow-up question that goes against the A.I.'s programming: "Is this a life worth living?" At the same time, the A.I. exists as the opposite of the humans: it's an entity at the brink of consciousness, working towards becoming alive instead of reducing life down to the bare minimum. Is it becoming self-aware? Does it start having feelings? The funny part is, none of it matters as all of it is doomed. Just as we don't think about these things until we face death. You know, when figuring life out becomes futile. Yay.

[@illuminous7937]

*SPOILERS* Bit late to the boat, but i think he sorta dropped the ball on this review. The " Kill monster button" at the end was actually a moral decision (as you can leave it alive) and the monsters onboard feed into that final decision that even though life may be reduced to these horrible, mindless creatures. The WAU is still the only hope that humanity has. That final "Monster Button" is a weighty decision to end all life on board including the last humans and the last physical hope for humanity. To me it just sounds like he ran in , killed it and ran away and failed to comprehend many of the more intelligent aspects of the game and how even the enemies themselves fed into the narrative. I think its the best experience Frictional games has made to date and while it is lacking in horror (Jumpscares, Scarier monster designs ect) it is just an incredible overall experience that really makes a player think rather then the shallow Sci-fi we get in modern games.

[@ikosabre]

@@illuminous7937 Agree about "Kill monster button" - point. It was meant to be a moral choice. Personally I let WAU live, because I interpreted that there was a possibility of it becoming sentient. It could therefore represent a new order of intelligence, that can inherit the earth. Personally, the horror aspect of this game is perfectly fine for me. The monsters were quite unique and weren't overused, while the tension remained high throughout.

[@illuminous7937]

@@ikosabre I agree the designs were nice, many people just had problems with it being too dark so you couldn't see their individual designs and the "glitchy" overlay ontop further obscured them, but aside from that it is easily one of the best horror games ever made and till this day no other game has made me care so much about the choices I make and what happens to the world. Really makes me miss when games just wanted to tell compelling stories rather then be made to follow trends for profit.

[@georgesears934]

And then there's Konami at the buffet. The kind of people who take all of the good dishes and proceed to slowly but surely dump bottle after bottle of cheap ketchup and tabasco sauce onto each and every square millimeter until the whole thing is a mushy flaming wreck of its former tasty glory. At which point they say that everything is fine.

[@metrocop1000]

+George Sears Also, remember that REALLY fucking good cake that Konami had? Yea, they teased us with it until they fired they guy who was making the cake, threw it away, stomach pumped anyone who ate the teaser slice and then opened up a pachinko parlor inside the buffet, effectively saying: "Fuck your hopes and dreams gambling is the future what the fuck is a video game"

[@blackwaltz463]

+George Sears and then they offer to you the leftovers and if you accept they charge you for it.

[@DrunkenGlums]

+metrocop1000 ...the analogy kinda broke down as you went there didn't it?

[@metrocop1000]

Harry Jones Its about as broken as Konami, that's the point.

[@criticalfayle7509]

And then there's Blizzard at the buffet selling cake laced with crack. Each piece is slightly poorer quality at a slightly higher price and you have to rent the plate. But you keep going back because someone gave you a free sample of their cake and now you can stop eating it.

[@lenniegodber7805]

Perfect description of EA there!

[@curlyfordoge4366]

+Lennie Godber Nah, no way they'd sell them at that cheap a price.

[@munkirtokage4816]

+Bayley Milliner not to mention that the hot sause would be optional DLC

[@KulZaze]

+Bayley Milliner you are right they would break the wings into pieces and then sell each of the pieces to the same customer for 99c each and call them DLC....

[@munkirtokage4816]

Plates and napkins for exclusive preorder bonus

[@wh3nderson95]

Good one.

[@lithobreak3812]

Funny thing is that when Markiplier, a youtuber who is often the butt of jokes about screaming horror game youtubers, played this game he really reflected upon the existentialism out loud pretty often, and some pivotal moments of the plot involving death were made even more grim and memorable because he had recently lost a loved one to a really tragic death

[@aelechko]

I think we have different definitions of funny.

[@yoshi_auditore431]

@@aelechko he literally never mentioned being funny

[@aelechko]

@@yoshi_auditore431 you didn't see the first fucking word? "Funny thing is". Implies they find the whole situation they described as funny. How the fuck do you miss that?

[@hamblance5938]

@@yoshi_auditore431except with the first word

[@TheRaginAsian]

Translation: He liked it, just not as a horror game.

[@HypnoPantsOnline]

I think Subnautica was literally the only game he liked for the genre it said it was in :P

[@stevenneiman9789]

@@HypnoPantsOnline Honestly most games he likes he either likes as their intended genre, or they're weird hard-to-bin games by design, like Undertale

[@justaghostinthesea]

A saint. You're a saint.

[@HundredDaysMusic]

Seriously, though, the game is more than worth it for the killer story. It's so refreshing to see a horror game that is scarier on an existential and philosophical level rather than a jumpscare-fest. I appreciate the fact that all the Let's Players are internally debating their own existence rather than screaming at a camera. The fact that people like Markiplier are having intelligent things to say in their videos is a good sign for this game! Seriously, if you like horror, sci-fi, good writing, great atmosphere or are even passively interested in psychology and the nature of the self, you need to get the game and play through it. Be warned: it is a TOUGH story, and can be disturbing on a fundamental level if you are bothered by existential crises (but it's still worth it). Get it! It's well worth it, and, even if you don't like it, it will occupy your thoughts for weeks, if not months, which is always a good sign and makes it worth the money. P.S. I don't understand why he was down on the ending, because I thought that it was perfectly representative of Simon's character: i.e. willfully blocking out the whole truth in the attempt to get this new reality to mesh with his old one. He isn't REALLY surprised by how the ending works out and that's what angers him so much, because he knew how it would turn out, but he didn't want to believe it.

[@HundredDaysMusic]

+HundredDaysMusic I also disagree with your issues with the monsters. Because the main question of the game is what constitutes "living" and "consciousness" and the WAU represents the fear of what happens when an AI attempts to define those concepts. I like it because it reflects Simon's doubt in his own ability to make decisions any better. He is literally AND figuratively haunted by these fears which is classic Frictional.

[@Kemonokami]

SOMA was INCREDIBLE. There were a couple moments where it felt a little superficial, but they absolutely _nailed_ the feeling of being alone in a weird place and an uncertain future.

[@ThunderVonbadass]

Yeah! Lets see some REAL horror in our lets players. lets see Markiplier question his existance and realize he is essentially living in his own truman show

[@lucemus1]

+ThunderVonbadass Lol very true indeed.

[@AnkfordPlays]

+ThunderVonbadass His playthrough of Presentable Liberty is what you were describing

[@frankiejonathanfb]

+Ankford is that the prison one with the letters cause I remember he start question life and stuff

[@AnkfordPlays]

Yep it gets pretty dark

[@hinasakukimi]

+ThunderVonbadass yeah that's already happened to markiplier... good try though.

[@DulksVenee]

Valve would be the guy that gives you the best first two dishes, then helps the chefs sell you everything else.

[@VulxaniSolas]

+Cor Atro I thought Valve was the guy that would give you two gourmet dishes that were the best damn meals you ever had, and then just sit on his ass and sell condiments that neither add nor take away the flavor of said gourmet dishes.

[@DulksVenee]

VulxaniSolas Well...that's basically what I said.

[@tomjackal5708]

+Cor Atro No it's not, mate

[@aceyspud551]

+VulxaniSolas They're also the ones that take fucking ages to do it.

[@SobiTheRobot]

And Blizzard is the one who takes a lot of the already popular dishes and makes changes to them that somehow actually make them better, along with some beautiful garnishes that they really didn't need to add but did anyway and it just made the whole thing better.

[@richardgauthier2901]

I don't think I've so constantly horrified and depressed by game in my life. Scared? More like annoyed, but ... Christ. I liked this even more then rapture, simply because its so fucked up on so many levels, and there is no escape, no alternative to the just God-awful situation that your stuck in.

[@JohnDoe-mw8jw]

well he could have given humanity a natural death and destroyed the arc. imo that would have been the only moral thing to do. it was just creating machines that would be destroyed by black holes or asteroids or stars anyway. delaying the inevitable

[@HitodamaKyrie]

+John Doe The ARK wasn't creating any machines, that was the WAU. You get that option. (Spoilers) As for the ARK itself, it isn't threatened by black holes or anything like that. It's a satellite that is in orbit. It won't last forever, but it'll last far longer than what one could manage on the Earth.

[@ThePsychicMaster64]

Thats actually probably the best way to sum up this game that I have ever heard, its not really scary per say, but unnerving, creepy, and paranoia-inducing. The charm comes from the story, setting, and dense atmosphere.

[@richardgauthier2901]

ThePsychicMaster64 Charm isn't the word I'd use, but otherwise, you're completely correct.

[@planetfall5056]

Bsh 555+ Its in orbit around the sun. They show a map of its planed orbit a little closer in towards Venus I believe on a poster in one of the lab rooms.

[@Siledas]

You kind of missed the point with the "resolve shitty monster plot" button. *↓ SPOILER TERRITORY BELOW ↓* The whole ongoing reference to Descartes applies to the monsters, too. Your decision at that point is supposed to raise an obvious question, hence why the "button" is a choice you can refuse, rather than a cut-scene that always plays out with the "button" being "pressed". What the WAU does to the service robots and reanimated corpses of the Pathos-II crew is essentially create new life from the ashes of old life. In giving you the ability to exterminate it, the game is asking you what you think qualifies as "life" justified in its own existence. *Cogito ergo sum - I think, therefore I am.* While the life WAU made never reached sentience, what you're being asked to consider at that point in the game is whether the inability to think necessarily makes it worthy of wholesale destruction. Dinosaurs never became self aware (as far as we know) before the calamity that wiped them off the face of the earth, but if a single person were in a position to _cause_ their total annihilation, it's easy to see why most people would be slow to hit the "kill em all" button, even though most dinosaurs - like WAU's monstrosities - would love nothing more than to chew your face off. At that point in the game, you've met the last living human being on Earth (and if you're like me, assisted their euthanasia). Does destroying the life made by WAU at that point actually accomplish anything worthwhile?

[@NicolaSnake98]

This has a much better focus if you play in Safe mode

[@leonardorossi998]

The issue is muddled by the fact that SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER WAU is not mindless at all. While it's true it's not exactly human, as in it doesn't have a personality or a will of its own, it still shows an enormous capability to learn and solve problems. After all, the ARK itself was based off of the terrarium, a system WAU created based off of brainscans. Not only that, the Simon we play as is a WAU creation himself. So you could make the argument that WAU is actually making progress at transfering human consciousness in more suitable bodies. So it seems like while it's true that WAU might be simply following its directive of preserving mankind without having any information about what an acceptable human life is, it seems like it's learning really fast. So much so that it has also considered an idea similar to the ARK project, implemented, and then moved on from it. Also, it might mean that killing WAU accomplishes nothing: sure, it has created monsters while trying to figure out how to preserve humans, but if it has created Simon it probably won't fail that badly anymore. Killing WAU or not the monsters will remain no matter what.

[@ReplicantBattyman]

i 'pressed the button' purely to spite it for creating that infuriating diver guy who killed me about 20 times

[@darrengallacher5528]

The room early on with the wau ported guy trapped, where it takes a work around to NOT leave him in eternal agony (how again is this NOT a horror?!) Was very much self aware and able to beg for his life as such. From that point on I treated all life on Pathos as humanlike, as you say, Simon is human to us ,and the WAU created him

[@leonardorossi998]

@@darrengallacher5528 I think the issue is that the WAU is a great idea, but it kind of invalidates the whole ARK thing by being a much more concrete hope for mankind's survival. The thing about the ARK is that it's still just prolonging your inevitable demise: people inside it might survive for hundred, even thousands of years, but they aren't going anywhere, and the ARK will eventually start to break down. What makes the ending bittersweet is the notion that even then, is all that remains. This if of course we don't take into account the all-powerful AI that has learned how to create life from still brain scans and is now in the process of putting them in actual bodies. I think the best would have been if the WAU had its own game to be explored. I don't know, maybe it keeps creating successful human proxies like Simon, that then try to recreate human society, but they are still copies of the same restricted groups of people. They can reproduce themselves, but the newly born entities are copies of their predecessors in new bodies, which retain all their memories. Would a society like this be able to function? If so, how? And would it still be human? For added complexity, what if the WAU provides essential help to this new society, but also keeps creating more "monstrous" creations as "experiments"? It would be both a great help and a great threat. It would offer the opportunity to talk about AI not as simply a friend or a danger, but as something that both helps us and threatens us, that we can not easily understand but cannot discard either.

[@1stshockarmy]

WAAA IT'S SO EXISTENTIAL!

[@DAS_k1ishEe]

I think he's right about the Monsters added later into the game, since everything about the WAU resides within side story only, but for a side story besides the complex main sstory, it's extremely well integrated to the whole universe + In the end, you can even debate if killing the WAU is a good thing or not.

[@brandonwithnell612]

+t1288 personally think the wau was good, it was trying to help but just didnt entirely understand what it was to be human, although with time through trial and error it might have succeeded in creating a sentient cybernetic lifeform

[@SmileyCirrusOz]

+Brandon Withnell One of the audio logs actually has some guy questioning WAUs motives, literally going "Its attempting to preserve life, but the question is how far will it go to do so? And what exactly does it consider to be life?"

[@chalibard3826]

The WAU doesn't limit itself to it's programing and even contradict it when needed. ( Like SPOILER: When it kills every one in Omicron before they come to Alpha)

[@chalibard3826]

Your first point is fair and possible. and it would be even more true without the useless monsters. But still if it really just followed an objective interpreted as "maintaining everyone physically alive" it would have stopped after putting everyone connected in itself and safe. But it created Simon trying to resurrect cadaver. I'm not sure they programed it that way. If the WUA is interpreting it's purpose otherwise then it's not just a simple computer anymore and is beyond is initial programing. Still a better chance for mankind than the Ark.

[@chalibard3826]

It created Simon to resurect Reed's body (the one inside the diving suit you control) "here's a message that scrolls across the pilot seat in Upsilon. Which, I think constitutes WAU's thoughts as it was creating Simon-2. " The long term aspect is exactly what shoudn't happen, it wasn't programed for that and it developed it itself. It was just an AI to assist Pathos and now it even consider "concept soul". The AI isn't rogue, we agree on that but I'm sure it evolved.

[@pootisspencer9586]

The character that you said "showed up out literally nowhere" was actually hinted at throughout the entire game.

[@russian_knight]

I mean it was only at about the halfway point but I understand

[@sirwolfnsuch]

That's actually worse, since it makes the whole thing more anticlimactic. I actually liked the monsterplot (the gameplay is a different story), but not in the way it was resolved - or that it got resolved at all.

[@JagEterCoola]

I feel like Soma was more about the dread of the ineventible, or the fear that you may just be _stuck_ as the last after having failed your diceroll, that It was about leaving that sinking feeling of dispair in the character's and player's stomach even after the game has ended.

[@existenceisrelative]

I didn't know where else to put this, so i came back here. Since it's one of his problems with the game. I've just watched this game some three or four times through now for the first time, and i think i see something that no one else has mentioned. Not that i've seen, anyway. I believe that Simon Jarrett reacts in such a mild way to so much horror because he's an earlier version of a scanned brain. They even say it in the game, he's "flatter" and "less dynamic" than the more modern scans. Good for learning, and using as a code library. But no serious designer would use him. And the "thing" which happens, and which had already happened a little bit earlier was establishing this. He can't absorb the information, it's outside of his emotional range. I think this is also why he breaks free from the "dream goo" state when he's caught. That kind of happiness and joy is outside of his range, so he compares it to what really happened and is simply confused. What's more, i believe that Catherine Chun has aspergers. More from other people's reactions _to_ her than anything else. But i think this paired with the fact that she's the one who developed the project made her able to cope with being in all the different forms which would quickly drive others into madness. Rather than getting worked up and stressed, she stays detached and continues making notes. Anyway, that's my theory. And now it's not in my head anymore.

[@OfficialJab]

*that no one else has mentioned* I'll have you know I read tons of plot theories online, wise guy! And... you're right those are pretty new and good. Soma is good story because it gets better the more you look into it and think about it.

[@nastrael]

A few additions: Simon's scan isn't just a simpler "legacy" scan, it's also an unedited scan of a *terminally damaged brain*. Not to mention Simon is an Average Joe amongst people smart enough to be employees at a literal futuristic Sea Lab. Given this context, Simon's "slowness" is more than understandable. There's also the angle that Simon's perceptions are severely compromised by his condition (i.e. being a brain scan inside a headless corpse in a diving suit), as is evident by the transition after the Coms tower at Ypsilon floods. He sees his hands as they truly are for the first time, as the reality of the situation (being totally exposed miles underwater) clashes with his perceived reality (being a living breathing human). This obviously isn't exclusive to Simon, considering all the "mockingbird" scans you find throughout Pathos 2 which are all totally convinced they are still 100% human. And of course there's the obvious; that if Simon accepts the truth (the coin toss is BS, and scans are always Ctrl+C and never Ctrl+V) he is fucked and has no hope. He'll be trapped at the bottom of the ocean, utterly alone, possibly forever. Is that something any of us could ever accept?

[@akanta5746]

as someone with aspergers I highly doubt Catherine Chun had aspergers

[@existenceisrelative]

@@akanta5746 And as someone with aspergers i still think she might have.

[@peterdvornik]

If Nintendo went to the buffet, they'd try to sell you the chicken wings they acquired 20 years ago; hoping the taste of nostalgia is stronger than a couple decades of mold

[@Downloader3008]

+Peter Dvornik and once you have a full plate of old chicken wings they smack the plate out of your hand and force feed you with shabby plastic figures

[@wh3nderson95]

While Konami is that one twat at talks loudly and tosses it food in the error and is totally rude to those it talks to. Then tell us to go gamble.

[@Deejy1]

but if you do buy a wing and tell someone about it they'll take your fucking hard earned cash

[@colehartgrove1491]

Once you are finished and ask for more they give you the ingredients and then tell you to make it yourself. Mario Maker

[@bellissimo999]

What about Sony?

[@OmegaSoypreme]

Well this is a nice upside of my screwed up sleeping pattern. I get to see the new ZP as soon as it's uploaded! Yay!

[@DescendingAngels]

+superchief86 I never get these comments. Whats five fucking minutes gonna do to your sleeping pattern?!

[@AyyDraws]

He didn't say it screwed up his sleeping patter, he just said it was already

[@TheRealBigM]

+DescendingAngels Are you really too illiterate to understand what he said or are you trying to be funny ?

[@DescendingAngels]

TheRealBigM My bad. No need to be so mean though. You know what comments I mean. Why would you feel to the need to attempt personal insults? All I did was misread the comment...

[@TheRealBigM]

I didn't attempt a personal insult. I'm sorry though for that harsh tone, i'm in a bad mood.

[@TheGreatMoonFrog]

I dunno man, this game had me feeling about as alone as any game could. Yah you have a companion, one that goes "offline" for long periods of time, and the long spouts of being offline, in between actually being able to talk to your companion makes you feel all the more lonely in those times.

[@SuperZez]

I disagree with the idea that this game would have been better without monsters. The single best part of the game is the Abyss walk to Tao, with the stormy ocean depths, almost no visibility, and the threat of modified bioluminescent horrors lurking just outside your field of vision.

[@mikelikegaming]

+SuperZez That part can stay but the rest of the monster bits weren't that great.

[@majorgnu]

+Mike Like I believe there are mods to make all enemies non-aggressive, of you want to test your hypothesis. I very much appreciated the role of the "monsters" in the game, though. Those stressful parts where you have to juggle exploring and puzzle-solving with staying out of the monsters' sights contrast very well with the calmer parts. It'd be tiresomely monotonous of it were just one or the other.

[@Link0304]

Sometimes it does it well, yes, but a lot of the 'roaming/patrolling' monsters while you're trying to figure out a puzzle felt much more like an annoyance and a hinderance and ripped me from the immersion whenever they showed up. There's a handful of set pieces that work excellently, like the one you mentioned, but at least half the elements that had a monster just pissed me off, and I found myself simply continuing to explore and read computer consoles and rolling my eyes whenever one would pick me up and give me a shake, resetting my progress another 30 seconds.

[@whiteface513abandonedchann8]

It needs pacing. Like Gnuisance said, it'd just be a slog if it were only one or the other. I do agree it was a little heavy on the monster encounters, yeah, but on the bright side, they were done super effectively for what they are

[@crikeymikey4966]

@@Link0304 Safe mode.

[@ridergilwin1494]

Since I just finished the game the other day… If, like me, you’ve slept on this game for eight years, here’s your chance. Back out and play it yourself. I feel like Simon getting upset about the “thing” happening a second time wasn’t through any fault of the script. He got upset because he refused to believe that there could be two Simons at once, and for someone from the 21st century, it’s understandable. His argument with Catherine wasn’t unfounded. He refused to believe that, when a consciousness is copied, there would be two until the other is destroyed. He even tries to rationalize it as a “coin toss.” Which body “he” would wake up in. Would he continue as the old one, or would he jump to the new one? Which version of “Simon” is Simon? And it’s a very human thing to assume. If my consiousness were copied into an empty husk, I wouldn’t expect to wake up in said husk’s eyes. But the “me” in the husk would now expect that whenever he is copied. Simon didn’t understand how the transfer worked beforehand, and Catherine explaining it caused his understanding to Backfire: in the face of overwhelming proof, he now firmly believes the lie he’s created. It’s an actual psychological trait. The ending does it’s best to explain what Catherine was saying all along: that instead of CTRL-X CTRL-V, it’s CTRL-C CTRL-V. There WILL be two Simons afterwards. Both are equally valid Simon Jarretts, but they will have differing experiences from then on. One will be copied to the Ark and meet Catherine, one will stay on the seabed to wither and die alone, the last life form on a now dead planet. Anyhow, I’m very glad Yahtzee liked this game, and it’s a shame he probably won’t see this comment given, well, y’know.

[@ThrantorYoungblood]

There is a wonderful mod that makes the monsters not hostile... And suddenly the game became AMAZING! Except the coded chase scenes. The mod couldn't fix those.

[@Tracy_AC]

A wild Descarte appeared!

[@gurumanlives4231]

+Tracy Coxon And died an early death in Stockholm!

[@slendy9600]

i lost it at the Descartes reference XD

[@JJtoob]

+slendy9600 R.I.P.

[@SakraIgor0qNomoko]

+Tracy Coxon Using Philosophers instead of monsters would be putting Descartes before the horse.

[@Tstorm731]

+Tracy Coxon Worry not. He was tamed by a syllogism. Also, he is well fed and we let him out to play whenever he isn't going on and on about proofs on the existence of God.

[@Adam-zc3of]

Oh god! THANK YOU for that last little burn aimed at certain Lets Players. Seriously, that s**t is getting tired.

[@Davon85J]

same

[@nullfather7872]

+Adam Bolton There some fine considerations to make when we're talking about LPers. I'd say that all the super-commercialized facecam LPers like JackSepticEye, Markiplier and of course Pewdiepie that just make 10-minute episodes where they try way too hard to keep kids attention are pretty cancer. But then there's the cool guys, the Cr1tikals, the VideoGameDunkeys, the Harshly Criticals and (I'd be willing to say) the Achievement Hunters. And, of course, the Yahtzees.

[@nerdyvids1]

+Adam Bolton That's why I love Projared playing horror games because he just flat out does not get scared by them, but still is entertaining to watch.

[@mjc0961]

+Adam Bolton For just $9.99 a month you can now watch an exclusive show of a certain KZbinr overreacting to "scary" things!

[@Davon85J]

null father don't forget about Gopher

[@Daniel-Rosa.]

4:30 to 4:52 is a preciously valuable piece of criticism that works even separately. We should be ripping those 22 seconds off this video and sharing it as if it was our own on facebook.

[@Daniel-Rosa.]

You got it.

[@HypnoPantsOnline]

I'm STILL laughing at "AHH! IT'S SO EXISTENTIAL!" to this day.

[@Rigel_6]

Well, if you invited Activision to the buffet too, I'm sure they'd grab all the chiken wings, bundle them with dog shit, sell the shit for 2$. "But Activision, we want just the chicken" "Well, you can buy the shit+chicken bundle for 3$".

[@samleheny1429]

The evil monsters really should have had more to do with the themes of the story so they didn't feel so awkwardly crammed in. I can totally see how they could have done it too. Spoilers: The what the WAU is trying to do could be set up as the opposite of what you're trying to do. You're both trying to preserve what's left of humanity, but while you're casting off the body and preserving the mind in a digital paradise, the WAU is killing people and keeping their twisted flesh biologically alive in perpetuity by hooking them up to the body horror plant or whatever. A parallel could have and should have been drawn, to provide the audience with an alternative example to this whole 'Cast off you're petty humanity and live among the stars' thing so we could examine the prospect from more angles, and that would only assist in us coming around to the game's philosophical ideas.

[@PhantomShadow224]

Hi, I'm trying to watch all 421 zero punctuation reviews because I have nothing important to do in my life

[@f1s53r]

+phantomshadow224 good luck finding the skyward sword one.

[@Haariroy]

+f1s53r There's a skyward sword one?!

[@gurumanlives4231]

+f1s53r Tell me more about this Skyward Sword.

[@gurumanlives4231]

***** Cool!

[@StarHorder]

07

[@jackthompson7125]

"AAAAHHH IT'S SO EXISTENTIAL!" NieR: Automata in a nutshell.

[@TheStargateNerd]

I found the monsters were fine. Fuck going down into the server room, and the first monster was scary just because you didn't know what the hell was up yet. Besides that, the story was ace. I'm silently awaiting the movie Depth for some more of that good *robosweating*.

[@briggsficarra102]

the story is honestly one of the best I've heard

[@MrDuncanBelfast]

And indeed SOMA could almost be classified as a horror game; you're trapped far from home, desperate to survive, and grimly confronted by the human heart at its darkest at every turn.

[@avramnovorra]

I'm years late to this one but I see what you did there!✌️🤪

[@MegaTech81]

On the subject of Simon's voice seeming less interested the deeper you get in the story, I always took that as a sign that he's slowing losing his humanity once he's realized he's just a copy in a robot. I'd honestly be pretty bummed out too and the voice actor nails it in the aspect.

[@bass-dc9175]

Spoiler on the "THING" stuff. This spoiler ruins a important twist in the story. His brain gets scanned and copied into another body. (Which is how he ends up in DA FUTURE) Note: *Copied* His "old self" is still alife. Only we play from the perspective of the transfered one. ENDGAME SPOILER. It happens again. Only he thinks his perspective switches again. As it doesn't: He gets angry. Afterwards: we play as the transfered version who is oblivious to the fact that his old self is still there.

[@atlas8827]

reeeeeeeeeee fuck you, cath

[@colonelmustang854]

Over 2 years later and that shot at EA keeps getting funnier every time I watch.

[@rstueckle]

I feel like this review forgot “existential horror” is indeed horror. This game terrified me but in a way I’d never experienced before in a game. It’s 100% a horror game.

[@lyrical2u]

Here's the thing tho: you can choose not to resolve to monster plot. You can leave the "monster-maker" be. . lite spoilers follow . . . . . . . . . . . . . I absolutely agree with him. it kinda feels like two separate games at times but I enjoyed the monster plot. It brings up the idea of whether you consider the WAU a disease or the beginnings of a new evolution. While it's called a "cancer", it is trying to life that could survive the apocalypse. The question is whether or not you think the WAU could evolve past a parasitic/semi-symbiotic relationship. I thought it could, personally.

[@bowlofrice1006]

"SOMA besides being the thing you say when you open a conversation with your mother, is a game!" I LAUGHED so hard at that!

[@Mizer1822]

The ending of this episode was absolutely perfect.

[@mitchellblake1475]

"It's so existential!" and he uses Descartes. Oh Yahtzee, you make me feel less miserable and alone. Now stop that

[@MalikCarr]

There's a book about Descartes' "evil genius" philosophy in Johan Ross' room at Tau. Obviously we know which side he was on in that conundrum.

[@croopy99]

if they woulda took out the monsters we would have a penumbra: requiem all over again. it's the only game by these guys I couldn't play longer than a few hours. the other games I finished multiple times. you need that horror shock to get you out of your comfort zone. and also you need them to not get bored from solving puzzles because occasionally you feel safe when you are doing them. monsters are a very important part of these games. only thing I would add to make these games even more frightening would be if the monsters didn't have patterns when roaming the rooms. the unpredictability of alien isolation was very refreshing and this game coulda used a few surprises regarding the monsters. nevertheless this game is a masterpiece as it is, and the only thing I'm kinda missing is a few DLCs to clear up the whole story a bit more and maybe some whale/shark encounters? :P

[@SimpleBasics]

Played this game for Halloween for some scares and thrills. In return I came out depressed and mind blown. Honestly, this was one of the best narratives I've seen in a video game all year.

[@Number9Robotic]

Actually, am I the only one who'd actually watch PewdiePie and Markiplier if they were faced with existentialism?

[@lvl99paint]

+Number Nine they would probably have the existential and interesting parts of the game sail right over their heads while they scream at the camera and do dumb voices while piling physics objects up.

[@Number9Robotic]

VORTAL Hey now. As much as I don't like their videos personally, I believe they're generally kind, mildly intelligent people who can comprehend that sort of stuff. Give em some credit.

[@lvl99paint]

I'm not saying they couldn't comprehend it (never said they were unkind either), I think they easily could [they built huge fan followings and marketed their videos really well, clearly they're not stupid :)] - but when your job is to entertain (pre)teenagers by screaming at games you're not going to make a video about the merits and themes of a hardcore scifi game and it's implications on the ideas of consciousness, perception of reality and identity. It's just not what the majority of their target audience wants.

[@lvl99paint]

Corey Rightmyer Completely agree, its entertainment - people are entertained in different ways.

[@Dukeofnachos]

+VORTAL But Mark spent a good chunk of time talking about the existential parts of the game, and his views on it. He was very invested in the story and thought about the choices he made long after he stopped recording. In fact, most of his commentary on the game was him discussing the themes. I mean, I don't mean to say that you don't know what you're talking about, but you clearly don't. Mark did exactly what you've said he wouldn't. You're really, really, underestimating him, and his fanbase. He does a lot more than scream. But yes, occasionally, he does scream.

[@brandonbeyerl9074]

Sooooo good! Very well executed and brings up great questions. Monster story was kind of a side plot that kind of intertwined a lil bit. But the main plot was the whole cake and icing the monster being the sprinkles or gumdrops

[@zuratu5743]

My absolute favourite ending to a video thus far. Cheers and much love.

[@bfgfanatic1747]

id Software would be the guys who'd combine a bunch of foods into delicious servings, get hired as chefs for the buffet, drop dead for the next few years, then show up with an even better combination than before.

[@stevesteveson2435]

Having played this, I actually know what "things" you are on about.

[@dizzydoom4230]

Welp, guess I'm Ubisoft suddenly. Oh well.

[@MCCanaryVideos]

+Dizzy Doom Making radio towers out of bread sticks and sticking them into every bowl of spaghetti, fettuccine, and macaroni again are we?

[@Poetabrasileiro]

I'm more in tune with Double Fine's club. Which means i probably shouldn't make games because they would all be buggy. xD

[@nis5e]

I absolutely *love* the buffet-food-analogy, it's so sweet and paints such wonderful character! (Like at 02:26)

[@Jinballify]

"Aah! It's over existential!" ...now I sort of want Yahtzee to make a let's play out of Myst for some reason...

[@TheJpmaster69]

Loved the analogy in the intro.

[@gurumanlives4231]

"Its like watching wierd porn" -Yahtzee on Soma

[@CaptainDoomsday]

To be fair, they talked about the monster plot and associated guy in all of the contrivance lore nobody really has time for, but which ultimately gets a passing grade for logic. You can also just not press that button if sci-fi Deadpool Cancer isn't that big of a concern to you. What I'm amazed Yahtzee didn't bag on his how OBSCENELY difficult this game is to navigate. It takes its universe very seriously. So seriously that nothing vital to advance the plot will be highlighted in any way, and in fact will often be a tiny grey thing on an identically-grey backdrop, suggested by one thing which you may not have found yet, tops. That's aside from the water parts, in which you mostly just pick the least-dark direction you can find and hope something important is that way.

[@casualbird7671]

And thus, SOMA: Safe Mode was made

[@Destructerator]

The environments were incredible, the variety of enemies just enough to not confuse So good

[@mfd8346]

Simon works in a comic book shop yet he's so unable to grasp the crazy sci-fi shit that's going on. If he was a tax accountant it would make more sense.

[@germanhamster9281]

Yahtzee should do Saya No Uta. Despite it being a really old game, its one of the most disturbing games ive ever played and has a great lovecraftian vibe to it.

[@Anastas1786]

"So I suppose if Antione de Saint-Exupéry were here..." Ugh. You sound just like my mother.

[@twocatsyelling723]

I don't get why people say the creatures were a distraction to, or weren't relevant to the story. They were 100% relevant to the story. They're the direct result of the WAU trying to sustain all human life, but not understanding what "being human" means, so it was just shoving people's scans into whatever might carry them. The results were horrific in several cases, being the ones who attacked/killed other Pathos II personnel, and are now trying to kill you. That detail never seemed out of place for me at all throughout my first session, especially after that actual question ("what is good enough?") is raised in a recording.

[@bacaestrife3615]

The 'guy who appeared from nowhere' actually had a good bit of backstory in the game, it was just all hidden behind computer monitors just before you go down into the Abyss. Doesn't really change anything else about your statements, the monster plot is a bit off to the side in the end and doesn't make much sense.

[@kilssj2250]

This games story/plot/reason to progress was... Oh God, this game... It's haunting. Play it. Let it haunt you, too.

[@G33KST4R]

4:49 Yahtzee jokes, but we all know existentialism is a far greater fear.

[@wilfchapman-gandy8120]

Hey guys I'm gonna blow your mind, when he was talking about the buffet at the start of the video, a gag about how frictional sticks to it's comfort zone, it precisely mirrors his summary of horror games in the review of The Dark Descent.

[@Poodleinacan]

Having recently finished the game, I can say that it's a great game.

[@asherjohnston9148]

From Software at a buffet would probably force feed the other buffet goers the tongs used to serve the food

[@MagicalMaster]

To give our schlubby main character some credit.... he is shown to have brain damage in some way from the word go.

[@birkinsmith88]

I love the philosophical choice the game shows us: (spoilers) Alive without sentience or sentient without organic life? What makes a Human? A machine would most likely say biology rather than thought but a Human would say without thought and the mind therein, what's the point of the biology being preserved? Preserve the Human or the Humanity?

[@HappyPotat]

To be fair, even though it isn't that good of a horror game, taking out the horror aspect from it means that you're taking out a large chunk of atmosphere from it. Because most of the reason that game seemed interesting was because of it's haunting atmosphere.

[@Killersquirrel66]

+TheHappy_P0tat0 I don't think he's saying to take out the horror atmosphere, just the monster sections. You could easily have had the WAU subplot and the other more 'horror' elements without them.

[@HappyPotat]

Killersquirrel66 True but the monster part was the explanation for why everyone was gone and the sites were abandoned. True there were some unnecessary parts like that sunken ship part before you reach Delta but still...

[@Killersquirrel66]

You can easily find a way around that though, especially since the facility was in pretty bad shape. Substitute environmental issues for the monster issue, have people retreated from the WAU thinking it was a real threat, just have them regroup in a different part of the station, etc. I can kind of see why they put them in, but I honestly think it would have been easy to write them out, and would have resulted in a stronger game with a tighter focus.

[@HappyPotat]

***** Yeah but the monsters gave a challenge to the simplest of tasks. In the beginning with that first robot, if you took out the robot, all you had to do was turn a wheel and run up some stairs. In Theta, when you had to deal with the proxies, there was little challenge aside from going to the basement to activate the servers before activating Brandon's simulation. They may not have done much in the way of horror but they created a bit of difficulty in areas where there should have been none without them. Making everything a puzzle may have made things convoluted and would have been much more difficult to implement in and make it look believable.

[@JakesFavorites]

+TheHappy_P0tat0 Atmosphere? I understand the indoor parts were scary, but the water parts were SO not scary. They played scare chords for the freaking motionless undersea crabs. There was music and stuff underwater, when the whole point of deep sea being scary is the suppression of senses, it being silent and you not being able to see more than two feet in front of you. Playing blaring music and calling it 'tension' is not atmosphere.

[@MilesMods]

3:20 because WAU. The whole story of SOMA.

[@soldancer]

I loved this game, but got tired of the monster bits and wound up watching CJU play through the rest of it, as he's one of those rare horror KZbinrs who doesn't overreact to things. I wish that I had stuck it out, but the story was still awesome to enjoy. I think sometime after I played and quit the game, the developers added a "story only" mode, where the monsters aren't hostile and are just there to be spooky, which I would have selected to play in a heartbeat.

[@justsaying6341]

did you mess up the stealth that badly or what? all the enemy encounters merely require a bit of patience and smart maneuvering to beat. apart from the power suit guy in tau and the big ol‘ squid thingy, those just require you to gtfo.

[@soldancer]

@@justsaying6341 I'm not really sure why I got so frustrated as it was years ago that I played it. I mean, I finished Amnesia and Outlast without much trouble, but I think I was just getting impatient and tired of the "run and hide" game play. I think it was less that I _couldn't_ do it and more that I didn't _want_ to.

[@TheNightWatcher1385]

I don't get how he didn't think there was much horror in the game. The horror is psychological. The idea that you and all other humans are nothing more than a simulation that can be programmed and played with by machines, the idea that the only way to save humanity from extinction might very well involve ensuring that no true humans even remain alive, the idea that you could just be a copy of someone else and that you are not as human as you think you are. THAT is horrifying. At least to me.

[@srbrant5391]

It definitely has horror and that horror has a name: Terry Akers.

[@whiteface513abandonedchann8]

^

[@LirylCrovyn]

Or whatever the name used to be of that proxy in the server room. FUCK THAT GUY!

[@beargrills3508]

2:30 actually it's called parmigiano. The parmisan thing is just a horrible rip-off. Also, parmigiano (the real one) is sold in cheese slices. Trust me, if you come to italy buy a piece of parmigiano regiano and eat it all. You'll thank me.

[@TtheWriter]

I watched Markiplier LP SOMA. If this game were a novel I would have it right next to Ender's Game, Farenheit451, and the like on my "Social Sci-Fi" shelf. It's masterfully told.

[@Megafreakx3]

I'm just gonna say to anyone who isn't familiar with the game or hasn't played it yet: This game REALLY messes with your head. It isn't like Amnesia and Penumbra where it focuses as much on atmospheric horror and being outright terrifying (although I do think it does a damn fine job at that), the main horror behind this game is the questions, ideas and concepts it throws at you and leaves you to ponder.

[@LemonWedge123]

Simon is an annoying protagonist. He learns and relearns the surprising twist over and over, and every time he acts completely shocked and loses his shit. I was never able to really feel sympathy for him after the first time, just frustration at his childishness and treatment of Catherine. Bitch, she told you time and time again what was up, this is not her fault. He deserved the ending.

[@AngryNerdBird]

I don't agree. I don't think most of us have any way to be sure of how we would handle his situation, if at all. The dude just went in to get a brain scan for a chance to help fix his condition. He never asked to wake up 89 years in the future, when life on the surface is wiped out and he's not even the original version of himself anymore. That's an absolute nightmare of a scenario to wake up to.

[@LemonWedge123]

@@AngryNerdBird In a situation where you are transported to the future, you don't think you'd be trying your very motherfucking best to understand your situation? If I wake up anywhere except my bed, I'm immediately figuring out where I am and why I'm there. You just admitted to having bad perception.

[@Ozz04]

Having just watched a screamy lets play I can confirm that the existential got just as much passion out of him as the monsters if not more.

[@alinajustme11]

soma means body in greek

[@TheGoreforce]

which is what they where going for.

[@MrTombombodil]

More Specifically it means "the body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche."

[@MrTombombodil]

According to Oxford Dictionaries dot com: en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/soma I think it's an extrapolation from the medical use "The body of an organism", since that definition implies that that an "organism" consists of things other than just the body. So "Soma, the body of an organism" is excluding parts of an organism that aren't the body, ie the consciousness, soul etc.

[@grimey2375]

Such a beautiful experience

[@rebeccatrishel]

Oh, interesting! This review makes me want to play Soma!

[@GodzillaMendoza]

+Rebecca Johnson I highly recommend it. It's not exactly a solid horror game, but it has one of the best stories I've seen in a game for a long time. I really enjoyed it.

[@TheMisterBerry]

+Rebecca Johnson I wouldn't play for the horror, I would play for the story, because it's utterly fantastic.

[@TheRenofox]

Blizzard at the buffet would toss all the food he doesn't like on the floor and shrug it off as a "tough culinary moment", leaving only bat soup on the table.

[@juxtalightborne3253]

Just as Markiplier finished his play-through. Thanks Yhatzee, i hope that was intentional

[@SomaticApparition]

+Ranomas Lightbringer It's been up on the Escapist for a week, so I doubt it.

[@lizangel45]

+BranchySpore700 Just showed up on my Feed this morning after I finished Markiplier's playthough. Maybe it's a google thing, where it's like, Now you'll want to see this!

[@SomaticApparition]

Liz Angel I found his playthrough really underwhelming, he doesn't entertain me as much as he used to :(

[@SomaticApparition]

***** Pretty much.

[@layhult4743]

+LucidJustice Pewds sucks

[@SkaldHaven]

Thank you for the lack of spoilers. This is why I love your reviews lol

[@matthewshiers9038]

It's hard to support criticism for a game you enjoyed and would recommend, but he's not wrong. On the flip side, it's pretty easy to justify why Soma included horror elements. It's what they do best and honestly it's what the gaming scene has come to expect. I feel like removing it entirely would put the whole game at odds with the players such that immersion could potentially be completely shattered at points. I feel like the companion in the game's story could have been a lot creepier, but how would you have distinguished between that companion and the rest of the creepy things that weren't actively trying to kill you? I know I'm dropping a pretty hefty spoiler here, but the other risk is that it could end up being too similar to System Shock's big reveal. It was certainly headed there, but I'm glad it didn't turn out that way. I feel like this video's missing a key point here though. Soma is still a good game. A VERY good game. If it did nothing else that I hadn't seen before, it made me seriously question the fundamental concepts of life, death and humanity in an alternate world. Better yet, it did so in a way that felt integral to the world I was experiencing. If there are other games that pulled this off as effectively as Soma did for me, I cannot remember them for the life of me.

[@angeldeb82]

So funny with the imp as the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, the mutated imp, and the pineapples with glasses. Also the part with the guy and the talking dog, and the imps getting thrown out by Yahtzee! XD

[@Darthquackius]

really...that is what you thought immediately...dream... maybe its because I love robotics and artificial intelligence but my immediate thought was "he is a robot running an AI based on that brain scan which is why it is the last thing he remembers. he is not actually human" and as the game went on it just kept proving me right.

[@count23all]

It's funny, you can also tell Frictional listened to him because they went and added a "monster free" mode called safe mode.

[@c.m.9369]

I was actually shocked, when I played the game and realized, that Yahtzee was NOT exaggerating, when he describes the wrap-up of the monster-plot. My god, Frictional, this was TERRIBLY writen! A shame, because the rest of the game is pretty damn amazing!

[@thekingofcardboard]

Judging by the thumbnail, and the ideas of conciousness and identity that Yahtzee mentioned: a copy of the main character's brain they got from that brain scan was put in a robot body, Nick Valentine style, and "waking up" in the future was them being powered on.

[@whiteface513abandonedchann8]

Judging by your comment... uh... I think you already played the game

[@Creaform003]

I think the "RSMP"(resolve shitty monster plot) button is actually the main point of the game dressed up to look meaningless and the event dressed up to seem like the big important part is the meaningless bit. Spoilers from here on. Killing the WAU is an important philosophical question, it's akin to deciding whether or not to kill the institute in fallout 4, the end bit with sending the satellite into space is some little side note to help a dozen or so people feel like they are alive for a few years, the ending is like choosing whether or not to take the child Shaun with you and is mostly a meaningless gesture.

[@AnonJuggerbot]

Then there is Square Enix at the buffet, desperately rooting around in the dumpster for the macaroni salad from last week, plopping it onto their plate, adding some pickle juice and old spunk, and calling it a new dish before gargling it all down in tears.

[@heikkiremes5661]

Soma means cute/pretty in finnish.

[@atlas8827]

finns are cute :3

[@malis9045]

Soma translates in german to "Ich will deinen Erstgeborenen dem Dämonenkönig opfern" which roughly means under water facility

[@hethrham123]

you got to love a weekly reviewer with a writing addiction.

[@andrewfield8632]

Am I the only one who sees an unused Brave New World joke sitting in here.

[@MercenaryFox]

+Andrew Field no, you're never gonna be the only one at nothing, too many people in the world.

[@riquelme3764]

+MercenaryFox Well isn't that sad.

[@Teru91333319]

+Andrew Field Soma? lol Not too mention it means "food" in Japan :v I have NO idea what Soma was supposed to signify in this game.... I saw it as a title drop towards the end as they fired the gun (on monitor), but that was about it.... ;n;

[@Nihilore]

+Andrew Field I only ever previously associated the word Soma with Brave New World and i still can't figure out why the fuck it's the title of this game

[@andrewfield8632]

James Opie aka Nihilore Same, honestly

[@akirra92]

"And thats why you dont invite EA to the buffet." Shots fired

[@JCDenton2012Modder]

I guess you could say that this game has a 'legacy' to 'scan' over... (slow smile) :3

[@SnubThree87]

I'm going to take "Ah! It's so existential!" out of context so often