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Games Like SOMA: Sci-Fi Horror About Minds and Machines

SOMA strands you in a failing research station at the bottom of the sea, where you cannot fight what hunts you and the worst horror is what the station tells you about yourself. These games share its sci-fi dread, its hiding rather than fighting, or its questions about minds and machines.

The games

  1. Observation key art: an astronaut in an orange suit floats by a round porthole holding a glowing camera device Puzzle horrorObservationYou are the AI of a crippled space station whose crew has vanished, seeing only through its cameras, while something alien takes hold of you: SOMA's questions about minds and machines, told from the machine's side.
  2. ROUTINE key art: a cosmonaut in a pale spacesuit holding the boxy C.A.T. device, framed by white flowers and a dark robot silhouette in front of a large full moon SurvivalROUTINEA silent lunar base built to an 80s idea of the future, no weapons worth the name and no map markers; you read terminals, piece together what happened and run from machines that think you are the threat.
  3. Observer: System Redux screenshot: a dark, wet apartment full of cables and green-lit monitors, with a body slumped against the wall in the light of a heater PsychologicalObserver: System ReduxA 2084 detective who hacks into the brains of the dead, where memories loop and change: the same unease about minds, implants and what is left of a person.
  4. Amnesia: The Dark Descent art: a pale green stone hall in Brennenburg Castle with a carved fountain at its centre PsychologicalAmnesia: The Dark DescentFrictional Games' earlier game: no way to fight, only hiding and running from what hunts a dark castle, while the dark eats at your sanity.
  5. Amnesia: The Bunker art: a soldier's hands, one holding a revolver, as a pale clawed creature reaches out of a dark tunnel SurvivalAmnesia: The BunkerFrictional's later game: a WWI bunker, one creature that hunts by sound, and a generator you must keep running to hold back the dark.
  6. Extreme close-up of Elster's shadowed face with glowing red eyes against a deep red background, drawn in a pixel anime style PsychologicalSIGNALISA Replika searches an off-world facility of corrupted machine-people for someone she lost; identity, memory and a reality that slips, with scarce ammunition.
  7. Alien: Isolation key art: Amanda Ripley's face inside a space helmet lit green against black SurvivalAlien: IsolationOne alien you cannot kill, loose on a failing space station: hide in lockers and vents and trust the motion tracker.
  8. Narcosis screenshot: a large tentacled sea creature lunges at the diver's arm inside a dark flooded room, with the suit's oxygen gauges at the bottom PsychologicalNarcosisAlone in a heavy dive suit on the dark Pacific floor after a disaster, with oxygen running out and panic twisting what you see; the closest to PATHOS-II's crushing sea.
  9. STASIS: BONE TOTEM key art: a woman with a scratched, bloodied face inside a diving helmet, wrapped in a pale tentacled growth Puzzle horrorSTASIS: BONE TOTEMAn isometric point-and-click descent from an abandoned oil rig into a vast underwater base, with corpses, fungal growth and a corporation's buried secret.
  10. Still Wakes the Deep key art: the silhouette of a man filled with the image of an oil rig, glowing over a dark sea SurvivalStill Wakes the DeepA 1975 oil rig breaks apart in a storm as its crew is remade into something else, and you can only hide, climb and run.
  11. Iron Lung art: the grainy red surface of an ocean of blood PsychologicalIron LungSealed in a tiny submarine at the bottom of a blood ocean, seeing out only through grainy photographs: SOMA's crushing deep, pared down.
  12. Mouthwashing art: a single bloodshot eye inside a red outline shaped like a dripping mouthwash drop, on black PsychologicalMouthwashingA short first-person story aboard a wrecked space freighter whose crew falls apart while waiting for a rescue that will not come.
  13. System Shock 2 remaster key art: the metallic face of the AI SHODAN with glowing green eyes and wires spreading out like hair SurvivalSystem Shock 2: 25th Anniversary RemasterWake from cryo sleep on a starship whose crew are gone or changed, watched by a rogue AI; more fighting than SOMA, the same dread of what technology did to people.
  14. Prey key art: Morgan Yu in a red suit and glowing helmet stands beneath a huge black, smoke-like alien shape that holds the Moon and the Talos I station SurvivalPreyA space station overrun by aliens that can look like any object; more action and powers than SOMA, with the same questions about who you really are.
  15. Scorn screenshot: a vast bone-like biomechanical palace with pipes and spires rising out of purple fog SurvivalScornA wordless world of flesh and machinery fused together, with puzzles of living machines and a small, scarce arsenal.
  16. Stowaway screenshot: the pilot stands in a purple reactor room with blood on the floor and fleshy pipes around a central column 2D horrorStowawayFree and under half an hour: the last pilot of a salvage ship, a dead crew and something aboard, in a voiced point-and-click.

Observation is the closest in spirit. You are SAM, the AI of a crippled space station, and you see only through its cameras and a small probe while the last crew member asks what happened to the others and to you. SOMA asks what a copied mind is; Observation puts you inside one. Routine is the closest in feel: a quiet lunar base built to an 80s vision of the future, terminals to read, no waypoints, and machines that hunt you while you run and hide. Observer: System Redux follows a 2084 detective who plugs into the brains of the dead, where memories loop and turn into nightmares.

For Frictional Games' own work, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the game SOMA grew out of: a dark castle, no weapons, monsters you can only hide from. Amnesia: The Bunker is their later, more open game, with a creature that hunts by sound and a generator to keep fuelled.

If it was the sea that stayed with you, Narcosis puts you in a dive suit on the Pacific floor with your oxygen running out, and STASIS: BONE TOTEM goes down from an oil rig into a vast underwater base, played as an isometric point-and-click with puzzles. Still Wakes the Deep stays above the water on a 1975 oil rig breaking apart in a North Sea storm, where its crew is remade into something else and you have no weapon at all, and Iron Lung seals you in a tiny submarine at the bottom of an ocean of blood, seeing out only through grainy photographs.

For space instead of the deep, Alien: Isolation gives you one creature you cannot kill on a failing station, SIGNALIS asks about identity and memory through a Replika in a facility of corrupted machine-people, and Mouthwashing is a short, bleak story about a stranded crew. System Shock 2 and Prey are the games SOMA's story owes something to: more fighting and more tools, but the same dread of what technology did to the people aboard. Scorn has no words at all, only a world where flesh and machine are fused. Stowaway is free and takes under half an hour.

If you only try one, play Observation for the questions or Routine for the atmosphere.

Questions

What games are like SOMA?

Observation, Routine and Observer: System Redux share its sci-fi dread and its questions about minds and machines; Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: The Bunker are by the same studio.

Are there underwater horror games like SOMA?

Narcosis puts you in a dive suit on the Pacific floor, STASIS: BONE TOTEM descends into a vast underwater base below an oil rig, and Iron Lung seals you in a submarine at the bottom of an ocean of blood. Still Wakes the Deep is set on an oil rig in a North Sea storm.

Is there a free game like SOMA?

Stowaway is free on itch.io: a short sci-fi horror point-and-click about the last pilot of a salvage ship and something aboard.

Can you fight in games like SOMA?

In Observation, Routine, Narcosis and the Amnesia games you mostly hide or run. System Shock 2 and Prey give you weapons, with SOMA's kind of story behind them.

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