Frictional Games maintains that its upcoming horror game SOMA is ”just as scary, if not even more so” than its predecessor Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it’s going to try and fray your nerves in a slightly different way.
”In Amnesia: The Dark Descent, there’s constant oppression that starts from the get go, peaks somewhere half-way through, and then continues until the end,” the team writes. ”What you get is a game that’s very nerve-wracking, but which also becomes numbing after while. It’s pretty common for players to feel the game loses much of its impact halfway through. SOMA is laid out a bit differently. At first it relies more on a mysterious and creepy tone, slowly ramps up the scariness, and peaks pretty late in the game.”
Rather than relying on ‘haunted house’ style jump scares, SOMA’s atmosphere relies on slowly revealing its concepts and ideas - something that’s initially not that scary might become so later on, as you begin to understand your location, and the things that are happening there, in greater detail.
Plus, the deep ocean is just a horrible, horrible place. SOMA is set for release this September 22. Check out some of its creepy environments in the trailer below.
