SOMA Retrospective

Initial Release Date: September 22, 2015

Developer: Frictional Games

Designer: Thomas Grip

Publisher: Frictional Games

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Classic Mac OS

Genres: Survival Horror, First-Person Adventure

Engine: HPL Engine, HPL Engine 3

SOMA is a walking simulator game I played back in September, 2015 on my Playstation 4. During the time of SOMA’s release there were a plethora of walking simulators being created. Some good. Some not so good. SOMA in my opinion had one of the best stories in videogames.

Every now and then I think about SOMA not as a game so much. It’s gameplay mechanics weren’t that good to be honest. More-so, what Soma succeeded at was it’s thematic take on “what is consciousness?”. Every blue moon, questions randomly pop in my head “what is a soul?” “what is it to be human?”.

In SOMA you play as four different versions of the protagonist Simon Jarrett a man from Toronto, Canada. SOMA starts off with Simon Jarret post car accident where him and his friend (Ashley Hall died) in. Due to Simon’s serious brain injury from the accident he is terminally ill and only has a few weeks to live.

In SOMA’s prologue you are playing as Simon “1” the original Simon. Simon meets with a medical student studying to be a neuroscientist/surgeon named David Munshi who has plans to preserve Simon’s brain and consciousness via a neuro-treatment he created.

Fast forward hundred years or so later. The surface of earth is destroyed by a comet and Simon “2” wakes up at a facility under the ocean in a facility named Pathos II. David Munshi’s brain scanned worked. As I played SOMA it slowly dawned on me that I wasn’t inside a human body but a metal shell, robot machine of sorts.

SOMA often times made me mentally disoriented via through Simon’s transfers of his conciseness. Many times I was like “okay what the hell is going on?” as it was happening. Simon searched the derelict underwater Pathos II station wondering what is going on and what happened to him and earth.

Simon Jarret soon meets his only “friend” Catherine Chun who explains to Simon that he is a copy of Simon “1”. This piece of info goes over mines and Simon’s head at the time when a “coin flip” happens as to who gets on the ARK at the end of the game.

SOMA’s gameplay mostly involved exploration, collecting notes and solving puzzles. There are hide and seek sequences where you must avoid past Pathos II crew members who transformed into humanoid monsters.

If you do your research of SOMA nothing on Pathos II was by accident but instead intentional or by human error. Simon’s goal soon after meeting Cahtherine Chun is to launch a rocket into space that houses human’s consciousnesses that will live on in a Matrix styled system forever.

Simon “3” arrives during a choice sequence when Simon enters a different powersuit to delve deeper into the ocean. I remember hearing Simon hear past Simon’s consciousness as his consciousnesses was uploaded into a different suit. Imagine hearing a version of yourself literally this second that exists. That’s what SOMA did to Simon.

Pathos II is where you spend 95% of your time as the player. In the beginning of the game you spend some time in Simon’s flat, on a train and at David Munshi’s office. Pathos ll houses various gameplay sections that act as specific facilities to Pathos II’s entire system.

You have Sites Upsilon, Lambda, Delta, Omicron, Tau, Alpha, Phi and Omega. Each site introduces new gameplay elements and small quests for Simon to perform. Within some sites you can talk humanoid machines with human consciousnesses. Yes they were all once engineers who worked at Pathos II.

As you play SOMA as Simon exploring the desolate eerie Pathos II station you encounter engineers corpse’s that are headless. Reason being was suicide and reason for suicide was desperation of trying to have their consciousness somehow enter the ARK after realizing what Simon didn’t. That consciousness can only be copied and uploaded not transferred. SOMA is a game that can break your mind and thought processes the more you think about it.

In Pathos II’s Site Tau Simon encounters one of the more if not the most depressing part in his journey of launching the ARK. He meets Sarah Lindwall. Sarah Lindwall is the last human on Earth that is alive and not uploaded into a machine.

Keep in mind the majority of SOMA takes place a hundred years from now where the world’s surface was obliterated by a comet. Sarah Lindwall was the last true human on the planet. She asks Simon to disconnect her life support and makes a joke to him about not having to turn thirty because women’s looks-wise go down hill at that age.

SOMA’s ending was powerful. Catherine Chun who guided Simon through everything on Pathos II up till the ARK launch never flat out told him he was going to be doomed to be at the bootom of the sea In Pathos II. Simon assumed, him being Simon “3” would get to live on in the ARK. Instead, it would be Simon “4” the last copy of Simon that would win the “coin flip”.

Catherine Chun didn’t have the heart to tell Simon the truth because he wouldn’t have launched the ARK. You see, Catherine Chun was murdered by her engineer colleagues because they didn’t want the ARK launched knowing they would be doomed to Pathos II (they were doomed anyways).

There is so much lore in SOMA I would suggest reading some wikis online or watch some youtube takes on SOMA’s themes. The game was something else for being a walking simulator. So I pose the question to you reading Jason’s Gaming Blog “What is consciousness?”.