SOMA: Frictional Games Spine-Tingling Sci-Fi Horror is Coming To PS4

SOMA: Frictional Games Spine-Tingling Sci-Fi Horror is Coming To Playstation 4

By Maya Mayfield
11th October 2013







Fictional Games recently released a strange teaser on their website showing a strange object being investigated in a lab by a scientist of the future. You can view it Here. Nothing was explained of this mysterious object until today, when Thomas Grip the creative director at Fictional Games revealed some much needed intel.

Fictional Games is an indie studio based in Sweden. They have been working on the Horror gaming genre since 2006. Their claim to Horror gaming fame was for Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Well known within the realms of PC gamers. Fictional Games are expanding their horizon, adding the PS4  to their list of consoles to create for.

Their first game to debut on the PS4 is called SOMA. The team at Fictional games have been hard at work for the past three years, keeping the project very secret. "It's a great relief to finally talk about it," said Thomas. "SOMA is the most ambitious, thrilling project we have ever taken. The game is intended to chill you to the core, as you deal with questions about life and your very existence."

From an introduction like that who wouldn't be keen to know more. But what exactly is SOMA?
Thomas explains that it is a sci-fi horror game, played from a first person view. Unlike other games in the horror genre like dead space that puts you into the game as a space marine, or an all weapons ready super soldier. SOMA is entirely different. There is a real human element behind the hell raiser, as you control a normal person trapped in a nightmarish world.

The game is about deep exploration, staying alive at all cost, and immersing yourself inside the games interactive narrative.
Thomas Grip doesn't stop there as he feels this description only scratches the surface of what SOMA is really about.

He explains that in previous titles developed by Fictional Games. The style, theme, and settings of those creations have all been by products of the core gameplay. Though this approach may have been successful in the past, it did make things a lot harder to confront when dealing with stronger subject matters.

Fictional Games did not intend to make SOMA a proper sci-fi game according to Thomas, and in order to achieve this goal they couldn't let the themes be an afterthought. He then sighted sci-fi authors like Asimov, Dick and Heilein as part of their creative inspirations when working to create the kind of environment in SOMA that dealt with  important issues down-to-earth locations could not deliver.

“How can feelings of subjective experience arise from a chunk of flesh?" asks Thomas Grip. Explaining that the subject matter behind SOMA is more about consciousness than anything else.

Thomas then goes on to ask further mind puzzling questions like,  "Can machines be conscious?" and "Do we have free will?" "This is the kind of sci-fi horror game we wanted develop. We didn't wan't these questions to just be some back story or dialog. We wanted gamers to experience these events, to ask these questions while they go through SOMA. It is an integral part of how we are creating the gameplay not just pie in the sky," says Thomas Grip.

Gamers are in for a frightful treat as Thomas promises plenty of monstrous blood curdling creatures to keep you playing SOMA with all your light turned on at night.
Each strange beast is an embodiment of SOMA's theme. For players to survive, they must understand how these weird creatures work and in this quest for understanding deal with very unsettling subjects in the process.
SOMA is designed with a far deeper reach to the human psyche than just "cheap scares," says Thomas Grip.


If the game is half as good, as Thomas has explained it to us then we will be taking out our wallets and throwing it at Fictional Games in return for some spine tingling SOMA fright night fun.
SOMA is expected to launch 2015 on the PS4, but until then you can certainly keep in touch with the team at Fictional games on twitter and at their blog-site where more strange events will be happening before the games official release.