PsychologicalSurvival

SOMA

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A station on the sea floor where machines think they are people.

What frightens: Simon wakes in PATHOS-II, a research station on the sea floor, where machines believe they are people and twisted, half-machine things stalk the corridors. You cannot fight them, only hide and run; the deeper dread comes from what the station shows you about your own mind and what it means to be copied.

Content: body horror, death, suicide themes, jumpscares.

Get it on Steam store.steampowered.com

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SOMA key art: a battered diving-suit robot with glowing lights beside a woman's face pressed to a wet glass window

Simon Jarrett walks out of a brain scan in Toronto and into PATHOS-II, a failing research station at the bottom of the Atlantic. With no weapon, you explore the flooded station, hide from the creatures that hunt it and face questions about consciousness that turn the horror inward.

About SOMA

SOMA is a first-person science-fiction horror game from Frictional Games, the Swedish studio behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent, released in 2015. It begins with Simon Jarrett, a young man in Toronto who agrees to an experimental brain scan after a car crash. He sits down in the scanner chair and wakes up somewhere else: PATHOS-II, an underwater research facility that has gone silent.

The station is falling apart. Its robots speak as if they were the people who once worked there, a machine intelligence has spread a black growth through the halls, and the few creatures moving in the dark are something between human and machine. As in Amnesia, Simon cannot fight back. You explore, read terminals and notes, solve practical puzzles with power, doors and machinery, and when something is hunting you, you crouch, hide and wait, or run. Some sections take you outside, walking along the dark sea floor between buildings.

The monsters frighten, but the game is remembered for its slower horror: what Simon learns about himself and the scan, the choices it asks you to make about the lives of the machines, and the loneliness of the deep. It has a story that many players call one of the best in the genre.

It suits players who want a thoughtful science-fiction horror story more than a stream of chases. A Safe Mode added later lets you explore with the creatures unable to kill you.

How to play SOMA

  1. Explore the station in first person; hold the mouse button to grab, open and move doors, drawers and objects.
  2. Read terminals, notes and audio logs, and touch the black growths and machines to hear what happened.
  3. Solve the station's puzzles by restoring power, setting machinery and finding codes.
  4. When a creature is near, stay out of its sight, crouch in cover and move away quietly; run only if it has seen you.
  5. Heal at the station's healing points when you are hurt.

Screenshots

SOMA screenshot: rusted mechanical arms and claws overgrown with coral and kelp on the dark sea floor
SOMA screenshot: Simon holds a red Omnitool device in a dim storage room of the station
SOMA screenshot: a wrecked, smoky station corridor lit orange, with a body slumped on the floor and machines in the gloom

Tips

  • Many creatures react to sight or sound: do not look at some of them for long, and move slowly near others.
  • Listen for the distortion on screen and in the sound; it tells you a creature is close.
  • Play Safe Mode if you want the story without dying to the creatures.
  • Read every note: the story is in the details.

Questions

Can you fight in SOMA?

No. Simon has no weapons; you avoid the creatures by hiding and running.

How long is SOMA?

A first play takes around ten to twelve hours.

Is there a mode without monsters?

Yes. Safe Mode keeps the creatures but they cannot kill you, so you can follow the story without the threat of dying.

Is SOMA on Switch?

Yes. A Nintendo Switch version came out in July 2025, alongside the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases.

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