There’s an oft-used saying when it comes to psychological horror: when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back. It’s one that encapsulates the isolating, unnerving nature of Frictional Games’ all-new title SOMA, which debuted across PlayStation 4 and PC today with a launch trailer to boot.
As the creative minds behind both the Amnesia and Penumbra series’, Frictional has developed a knack for exploiting the best (read: most horrifying) elements the genre has to offer. For SOMA, you’ll take control of Simon, a blue-collar worker tasked with discovering what really happened in the underwater research facility, Pathos-2.
Without a friendly ally in sight, it soon becomes clear that something horrible happened beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, and today’s clip merely hints at the nightmares to unfold. Taking cues from some of the genre’s best entries including BioShock and Dead Space, Frictional’s latest is already lapping up early praise for its handling of existential horror and player vulnerability. Add in a dose of inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft and you have a horror experience that has slithered to the top of our most-wanted list.
SOMA is available from today across PlayStation 4 and PC. Curious to venture into Frictional Games’ submerged nightmare? Be sure to check out our review, along with the official synopsis down below.
The radio is dead, food is running out, and the machines have started to think they are people. Underwater facility PATHOS-II has suffered an intolerable isolation and we’re going to have to make some tough decisions. What can be done? What makes sense? What is left to fight for?
From Frictional Games, creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, SOMA is a sci-fi horror game that questions our concepts of identity, consciousness, and what it means to be human.