SOMA is less scary than Amnesia, but a better game. Gameplay-wise, it's more of a successor to the adventure game parts of Amnesia than the horror parts, but far better designed. It's able to introduce you to puzzles and hint at the solutions purely through the environment, and so far none of them have taken me out of the story. When you think of other games in the genre, that's actually pretty rare.
That said, there are definitely some spooky parts where monsters want to kill you, they just aren't the focus of the game. It's got a real powerful, eery atmosphere throughout though.
But the real heart of the thing has been the story. Hearing that the best part of a game is the story usually makes me think of "walking simulator" type stuff, which can be hit or miss and often feel like they're not taking full advantage of the medium, and this is not that at all. I've seen a few people compare it to A Machine for Pigs, and while it's closer to that than it is to The Dark Descent, it's much better in damn near every way and is much more of a "game." I'm only halfway through so I can't say for sure, but it's looking to be one of the best game stories out there. A lot of games struggle with pacing, and plot elements that distract from the central theme rather than add to it, but SOMA really delivers on this aspect. The first two hours don't give you much, just slowly build up the mystery of the situation. After that, things really start to click together in a terrific way. And it explores its questions in ways that feel very natural, with text and audio logs that have perfectly good reasons for existing, dialogue that feels appropriate given where the characters are at, and even puzzles.
I really think this whole thing has been super underrated, unless the game tanks hard in the second half.
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