SOMA
Intense overall intensityWhat's in it
Sustained heavy subject matter: human extinction, death, isolation, grief, and the anguish of consciousness copied into machines.
Psychological survival horror with a claustrophobic undersea setting and creatures the defenseless player must hide from or flee.
Strong profanity occurs in dialogue and recorded logs.
Bloody deaths, corpses, and monster attacks; the unarmed player can be caught and killed, and must end the 'lives' of some conscious beings, though combat is minimal.
A non-sexual nude human body/corpse appears within the story's body-horror imagery.
A trapped, conscious machine-being that believes it is human is hurt and coerced for information.
The story depicts references to suicide, including the crew's collective decision to end their lives after uploading their minds.
Human bodies are shown grotesquely grafted to and merged with machinery as part of the body horror.
Who can reach your kid
What it is
SOMA is a single-player first-person sci-fi horror game set in 2104 aboard a decaying undersea research station where humanity's last survivors are dying out. Playing as Simon, you explore, solve puzzles, and read or listen to logs to piece together the story, while hiding from and outrunning hostile machine-creatures because you have no weapons. Expect a grim, tense atmosphere with human corpses, blood, disturbing body-horror creatures, brief non-sexual nudity, strong language, and heavy subject matter including death, suicide, and existential questions about consciousness. There are no purchases and no online interaction.
How it's framed
The game frames its horror through a serious philosophical lens, using the fate of the crew and machines that believe they are human to raise questions about identity, mortality, and what it means to be alive; suffering and death are treated as somber and thought-provoking rather than sensational, and the player is given no way to fight back, reinforcing vulnerability and moral discomfort over action.
Details
- Developer
- Frictional Games
- Publisher
- Frictional Games
- Released
- Sep 21, 2015
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