Frictional Games, the studio behind the Amnesia and Penumbra franchises, has revealed their next horror game. They've sent out the first screenshots and trailers for SOMA, a science fiction adventure in development for the PlayStation 4 and PC.
"The radio has gone silent on PATHOS-2," reads the plot summary on SOMA's new website. "As isolation bears down on the staff of the remote research facility, strange things are happening. Machines are taking on human traits and alien constructions have started to interfere with routine. The world around them is turning into a nightmare."
"The only way out is to do something unimaginable."
What we see of the plot in this gameplay trailer has the same Frankstein vibe as Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs The player character seems to be some sort of scientist engaging in less than orthodox practices. Here, we see the player putting some sort of metal cap on a corpse. This cap, along with a nearby machine, apparently reanimates the corpse.
The gameplay's a bit reminiscent of Amnesia as well. The player explores the environment and uses items they find in the environment to solve puzzles. At one point, the player hides to avoid a snake-like being. It seems that players will once again have to run and hide from enemies rather than fighting them.
Frictional Games says that SOMA isn't just a retread of their previous games, though.
"In all of our previous games, the setting and themes have been by-products," creative director Thomas Grip says on the PlayStation Blog. "We started with the core gameplay, then created high level aspects that fit with that. While a lot of good can come from this approach, it makes it very hard to approach tougher subjects."
"SOMA is meant to be a proper sci-fi game, and to get that right we couldn’t let the themes be an afterthought. My favorite works of sci-fi are the ones that use fantastic worlds to probe important issues in a way that down-to-earth settings just cannot. Great sci-fi authors like Asimov, Dick and Heinlein all do this. We want to give SOMA this quality as well."
Unfortunately, it's going to be awhile before we finally get our hands on this game. Frictional Games says the game won't be out until 2015.
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