The Game That Broke Me - A SOMA Video Essay
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- Опубликовано: 17 июн 2019
- SPOILER WARNING! This is a video essay on SOMA, and while I don't recount every story event and decision in the game, it is necessary for me to spoil the story.
SOMA is a video game developed by Frictional Games released way back in the distant past of 2015.
Simon Jarrett awakens from one nightmare only to plunge headfirst into another.
This game pushed me through such an emotional roller-coaster of euphoric highs and crushingly isolating lows, that when I walked my girl through the story, I was an emotional wreck. A game I had beaten days ago, upon recounting the journey was still affecting me to the point that I was breaking down in tears again.
SOMA was one of the most powerful video games I have ever played, and I knew I had to make a video essay on it explain why, and hopefully, to excite someone else to follow in my footsteps.
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SOMA is just one of those games you buy because it's on sale, and then you finish it ending up with an existential crisis.
That’s so true I bought this game on sale for 95% off and it was one of the best games I’ve played lol
@@Sezm that was me playing Bioshock for the first time the box cover looked cool so I got it thinking it was just another survival horror shooter with a steampunk look. Boy was I wrong the story the characters the twist the world the lore it was amazing. Probably my favorite game of all time.
@@drakeevans8042 I was thinking about buying it cause it was on sale but I missed it XD but seriously though soma was the best game I’ve played in months
Yes if you want to dread life just find edith finch...
@@donaldtrump9965 Edith finch is on Xbox gamepass should I play it? It didn’t really
Look interesting to me.
I couldn't ever imagine the guilt I'd feel knowing a replica of myself is in darkness, scared and alone while I'm in a paradise of theoretical ever lasting happiness.
well keep in mind Simon still had no idea what a "transfer" meant or at the very least fully entailed, and so, at that moment he fully believed he was getting properly transfered to the ark and so thats what the new copy of Simon fully believes in at that moment on the ark(that he is the one and true Simon and that there isn't one down in the sea trapped forever) it just shows you a Simon where he realizes what's happened and then shows a Simon that truly believes he is the only copy left
I'm certain Simon knew a Simon would be left behind, he just didn't expect the one left behind would be him. After playing I went on a Let's Play binge, and after so many rewatches it's strongly hinted that he knew but chose to suppress it. He was the one to say "like the pilot seat at Omicron." He knew. He just thought he would carry over like every single other time since his coin flips had always landed on heads for him -so to speak.
@@elheber without a question Simon knew, but the coin flip is just as real as the spoon from the matrix lol, the only reason he wins the coin flip so to speak, is so the story can go on and conclude
@@averyleier7634 It's only natural he would think he'd carry over. Even if the player wasn't around to follow one of them for the story, Omicron Simon always had won the coin toss.
@@elheber there is no "coin toss". It's the perspective of the player.
The creepiest part was when Simon heard the other Simon in the room behind him.
catherine? why was he still talking??
what time does that happen
@@charliemurdergoat12369 50:16
And still was too dumb to understand
What bothers me is why did neither of them think to copy Catherine? At least that way that Simon would have someone to talk to
This whole game would be so much less depressing if there were robots or whatever, together and holding conversations like Simon and Catherine. To me, that's not a terrible existence.
The part of this game that broke me, was when Sarah said, "At least I won't have to turn 30." She was in her 20's, she died so young, in so much pain.
Now Imagine all those thousands of 17-20 year olds running off the landing boats at D-Day into the machine gun spray of death and you gain some perspective on human suffering ;)
@@ataarono Now imagine letting people feel things without having to minimize their perspective so you can feel special.
@@j154326 Imagine letting people feel special without shaming them so you can feel morally superior
@@ataarono Imagine me giving a shit. I made a comment about the emotional impact of a scene from modern media, you had to act like a spoiled 5 year old who wasn't getting enough attention, but hey, guess no one is allowed to show or comment on emotion because people died storming the beaches of Normandy.
Earthen Deific Why you pissed lol he’s completely right. Many people undermine what happened that day just because they weren’t alive. Also in what way does pointing that out make him special?
The way that catherine talks whenever simon yells makes me so sad
he is kind of a stupid dick
@@daltonbedore8396 I mean he is kinda confused bc he woke up as a robot
It's how a human would react, and while it makes us feel bad. We are showing sympathy for a character that exists in fiction, and making them human in our eyes. If even for just a moment, which really drives home what Zygart covered in this video.
@@daltonbedore8396 As Tabbigus said, he woke as a robot seemingly right after he got his brain scanned so I think I'd be a stupid asshole too lmao. That shit sounds scary
The voice actors did a damn fine job.
The saddest part is that Simon didn't have to be alone in the end. Catherine's cortex chip overloaded at the Omega Space Gun due to digital stress because of the fight with Simon.
There was also his clone higher up he could of been friends with.
I mean simon is under a lot of stress and he doesn't explode, I think it has more to do with the power going out possibly.
I wonder if it is possible for him to somehow get back to the other body and install Catherine into it.
@@jet100a Simon has a body. Catherine is in a high tech can opener
@@jet100a No, Catherine's overload is mentioned before in the game as a possibility, mainly for being inside the Omnitool, that's why Simon isn't under the same danger of just overloading and exploding.
For a second I was like “why didn’t Katherine finish the upload before the ark launched to make sure that they made it to the ark before they launched?” But then it came to me, the Simon that was left behind would probably keep canceling the launch because it knew it was going to be left behind. Perpetually leaving the ark stranded under the water for eternity. Katherine needed to make the upload finish at the last second to prevent it from being cancelled by the Simon that was left behind.
Jesus fucking Christ
Catherine should consider herself happy that she found a dumb dumb like Simon, who till the end didn't quite grasp the concept of memory copying.
Whoa
that honestly is mind blowing
She knew Simon was a legacy scan.
He was a prototype brain scan - everyone had probably used his scan at least once.
Catherine would have used his scan countless times to perfect her ARK.
Catherine lied by omission so much to Simon that when he was excited to see her at the end, it just felt saddening.
This whole game gives me strong “I have no mouth, but I must scream” novella vibes
YESSSS IT DOES
i thought that the minute I heard about an AI controlling everything. At least they're in paradise.
@@emilymikeska5679 A virtual paradise with no further purpose or goal. So unless an alien civilization somehow finds The Ark and tries to bring back humans using their genetic code (which I believe The Ark has), humanity is virtually extinct.
@@thesilver7238
another terrifying thought is the computers eventual decay
while the arc has been made to be as stable and strong as possible, radiation , asteroids and other possible threats as it careens through space means they’ll disappear one day without warning, and what data they carried could get corrupted and the last instance of humanity could fizzle out
Basically, soma is the cautionary tale about copy pasting files instead of just moving them.
Moving is just cut and paste. Cutting and pasting from a different drive to another would require copying, then deleteing the copy.
Moving things on the same drive is just changing pointers, not cut is done.
@@WingMaster562 Good point. Essentially it is the same thing happening in the story. There really is no such thing as "moving" data is there... there's copying, and then there's copying and deleting the original data.
Can't belive this game make me sad about the innocent text file i deleted for fun
I was thinking while watching this that might have been a source of inspiration for this story. Funny something so small like that can have such a deep impact on me.
You still think you can "move" data? Oh, my sweet summer child...
SOMA kinda gives the quote “there are fates worse then death” more realistic depending on how you look at it
The worst part is they could've easily made this much more depressing and horrifying. They were holding back a ton so the players wouldn't get too bummed out
@@Kushufy flip
Your loved ones dying
@@Kushufy for me the fact that you lose Catherine makes it so bleak
@@abcd123432802 where does she go? I don’t understand why she went away at the end
The fact that simon forgot how the transfer works AGAIN makes me think he will be happy in the arc forgetting that there are versions of him, atleast one, living alone for as long as there arent ways to end their life.
Ignorance can be bliss?
Thats a good point because when they did the transfer his last copy remembers seeing the launch but the old copy never went physically. Thats a crazy feeling.
@@ataarono no, ignorance is the bliss of not seeing the oncoming car as you foolishly cross the street. It doesn’t make it hit you any less hard, just removes your ability to get out of the way.
@@feartheghus eh at least you don't see it coming
but then again cath kept using words such as transfer Deliberately hiding the truth from him, atleast to an extent
It’s a damn tragedy and also great that this game isn’t more well known. It’s a masterclass in storytelling, but also way too real to be healthy.
I know I’m probably very late but, how come?
It's healthy. It's an important lesson on trans-humanism
i thought it was super well known like markplier and all the big youtubers played it when it came out
@@jonnybarrera3355 not exactly well known
@@phil331 but sadly most just treat it as "haha funny amnesia game spooky oh noes" instead of actually touching on the theme of the game
"Simon, you lost the coin toss, we both did" hits you in the gut
edit, a year later:
i have seen the comments saying it wasnt a coin toss. cool! but the emotional impact of that scene doesnt change. its still upsetting. its still sad. its sad that there was- or maybe wasnt- any chance to go with your consciousness. thats sad. i dont really care about the technicalities.
Pshh, there wasn't even a coin toss. Nothing changed for them here, there is just a new one there now. New data in the drive that is a person.
The coin toss is just a coping mechanism. There is no coin toss.
@@BlackWingGenesis "Coin toss" is metaphor for point of view. You can either end up with point of view of your scan, and live on...or with point of view of you old self and die.
@@TheShabick There is a distinct illusion of a coin toss though. While obviously which ever body you are physically in is never going to change, when you sit in the pilot chair being scanned there is an unknown element. Are you the memories in the old body, or the memories being copy/pasted into the new hard drive? That there is the coin toss. Like the zealots said, in that brief moment you exist in two places at once and are identical to each other. Again, there's no real coin toss the Simon that sits down in the pilot chair is the one getting back up, and he's an idiot for not realizing this the first damned time.
This never made sense to me. There isn't one conscious switching between two bodies. There is one, and it becomes two. Both are conscious both are separate. But granted this does sound like some shit people would find hope in in such a Fucking desperate horrific situation.
The way Catherine deflects Simon's questions and changes the subject when he talks about being a robot suggests that at some point, after a while the realisation causes insanity when they realise what they are and start thinking about it. Every single robot you meet is insane, Simon is 'fresh' so to speak. Catherine wants to make the most of the time they have to launch the ark.
Now that’s just majorly fucked up 😫
Well I reckon, that like any mind it would take time to become insane, like years of doing the same stuff, so it's not really a matter of time as it is a matter of not answer a tough question.
@@ryanw459 I dunno man, she still saved him, at least in a way, it is just a same he did not get to die with her down there
yes but simon can also by player choice embrace transhumanism or basically is able to think hopefully about his existence instead of feeling dread or a loss of person hood but simon likely will go mad like all the others trapped on earth while his latest self lives in a digital ending
@@Bequester Catherine could have been trying this for many years before simon. using the other people to complete certine projects to make the push for the ark possible, or could have constantly been rebooting Simon like the other guy over and over until he finally got it right or didn't go insane. maybe some of those robots were simons too. our perception of time in a situation like this is completely moot at this point. the last human alive thought that she wasn't even 30 yrs old and thats obviously not true. a million years could pass between catherine booting you up and shutting you down and you wouldn't even know the difference.
I think this game really epitomizes why the whole "upload your brain to live forever" idea used in a lot of stories isn't nearly as good as it's cracked up to be. While there's a version of you that will live on forever, that won't really be *you*, you'll still die just like you always would, while that other version would be completely oblivious to your existence.
You will die but at the same time wake up in a different body. When you wake up in the other body you will still feel that it is you and just woke up. Weird but I'll still take it.
It's impossible to BE the copy. For us anyway.
@@sbsftw4232 Yeah I grasped this now.
And it would go on to live other existences, oblivious of the others.... Like reincarnation heheh ehhh I am gonna creep myself out
So what? You know what they say you die twice, one time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time. With brain scan you'll only die once.
I honestly think that the "good ending" in the Ark is just as unsettling as the "bad ending" because of the few thousand year time limit on their lives and the fact that anything they do is now just unimportant bits moving around in a computer. I feel that it's like a family celebrating because their loved one was just given 1 more week to live instead of them dying that day. The ark was a last desperate attempt to buy time before inevitable extinction.
but they will live in the ark far longer lives thousands of time repeated while you will in your flesh body only live short and only once and the ark gives them the freedom to experience everything imagineable while we are limited. The unsetteling part is realising that both are equally just unimportants bits moving around vs unimportant flesh moving around
For them, it is reality. Nothing they do in the Ark is less "real" then what they would do on Earth.
@@Nitidus thats what makes it more disturbing
@@Nitidus Also, saying the ark is just "unimportant bits moving around in a computer" is like saying we're unimportant cells moving around in a tiny blue ball, because that's what we are in the grand scheme of things. Doesn't mean that life isn't worth living. We don't need a grand purpose or a guaranty that we'll live on forever to enjoy life or existence. Even if everything ends one day, so what? It's worth it for as long as we're here. Same goes for the ones living in the ark.
The ark may be discovered by aliens, who would descan them back to humans, maybe even with consciousness continuity.
The “last human on earth” scene is likely one of the most underrated pieces of video game storytelling.
It honestly brought tears to my eyes
Because its hard to do right
The whole story of the game is the best example of story telling in video game history I've watched the whole playthrough of this game years before I watched this video and even then I thought the same thing
I think that’s because the ending overshadows it
Because inevitably it will happen
The horror really doesn't start until they realize they created the virtual reality with a beta version of Bethesda's creation kit engine.
HAHAHAHA
Ah fu-
@@humha7613 *ERROR 40286: The program has encountered an unexpected error and needs to close.*
Imagine you wake up in the beta version of star citizen
OMG I WAS SO INTO THIS VIDEO, IT'S ATMOSPHERE AND EVERYTHING AND- AHH!
This is too funny, it threw me completely off xD
the ending of SOMA was probably the most dread I've ever felt while playing a video game
I was left with the question of if it is possible that the simon's left behind were able to reach the surface then could they just wander and live there?
@@glitchyfox8706the diving suits would degrade in the harsh environment and plus, what is there even to see? I mean, the pressure suit Simon could climb the space elevator as some other lady did but there would be nothing to see out there. The sun blocked by ash and the sea extending for miles with no way to reach the barren surface anyways.
The bit with Amy is even more disturbing when you realize she's been there on "life support" for a year. And you only have to pull one of the cables, meaning you can leave her alive. Arguably a fate worse than death. In fact, that pretty well describes this whole game.
What happens if you shut off her life support immediately after entering her room without speaking to her?
@@SamuelBlack84 She dies
@@SamuelBlack84 she dead and you just robbed her idk
If he didn't shut it, He can talk to amy instead really being alone
WAU provides her with the "dreams" so it's not THAT bad) In any case it's not your (Simon) call to make, she clearly says that she doesn't want to die and making such a decision for her is inhumane to say the least.
Amy saying "I want to go home" hurt so much to hear
The voice acting in this game is beyond amazing
Whoah I randomly skipped ahead in this video to _exactly_ that part while reading this comment :o
I feel the «it WAS» realy hits the nail
I stared at the "Disable" button on the life support unit for what felt like forever.
It was like something a kid would say. Really sad
You want to know what’s ironic? Sarah, the one, final person on Earth, the loneliest character in the entire game, sat next to the entirety of mankind the entire time.
Were they really mankind? Or just ai copies?
@@Moz29 Yeah, they were still human minds, it's the same as cloning a person
@@moustacheman9176 But they aren’t the same, isn’t that why the main character struggled with his identity? He knew his mind didn’t fit his new body etc. With clones that problem isn’t as obvious.
I killed Sarah though because why the fuck wouldn't you
@@Moz29 Just because they aren't the same person doesn't mean they aren't a person
I never realised how damn good the voice acting in this game is, they all did a great job to make the experience feel even more real and immersive
This game brings up so many interesting, unique, and terrifying questions about existence, consciousness, and the meaning of humanity. It's really a case study of philosphy.
I literally go into psychosis when it comes to reality though thankfully I don't hurt myself I just freak out internally and hang on.
@@drazapatos hahahahah of course it isn't 🤣 wow you obviously never questioned and experienced the* question of the nature of reality before. Otherwise if you did my comment would of made sense 🤦🎉.
been covered and, pun intended, done to death. the study has been done, conclusion is the conundrum itself.
excistance is for reproduction and conciousness is a byproduct of that. nothing else to it
Catherine knew exactly was going to happen and she knew Simon wouldn't get it and that he would think HE was going to be transferred on to the ark. she let him think that and i dont think it was entirely just to have him do what she needed. i think she wanted to give the Simon who went on the ark peace of mind. to think they made it and not feel guilty for leaving another version of him down there. it's why she rigged the scan and the launch at the same time even though it wasn't necessary. up until the last second he believed he was going to be transferred to the ark, that concept carried over and the Simon on the ark will always believe that. at least he'll be happy. this game still has me thinking
@luvin zel "Fuck the game/character because I refuse to understand it." Nice take.
Catherine did what was best. She let Simon believe his stupidity.
You're trying to treat consciousness as *just* data in a harddrive to move around. The game makes it clear that each consciousness created by the scan is a new individual from the moment it wakes up. Diverging paths and minds. You copy the data available but you can't just fry the mind thats left in the chair and pretend the split never happened.
That's what the whole suicide cult in the station was doing. "Cutting" the original data so it was just a transfer. There is no coin toss, there is no gaming the system to be the only "one" version.
@luvin zel Did you miss the whole last section where I addressed the Cut and paste shite you bitched about?
Or did you get distracted by deciding to bitch some more and be a dick on top of it?
@luvin zel And there we go with insults and lulz.
Fuck off, troll.
@luvin zel sorry but if you look at the very low level, cut and paste is just copy and paste and delete. That's why for instance if you cancel a cut and paste you're just reverting the copy.
The machine just copies the bits of the first file and writes them somewhere. When it's done it clears all the bits of the first file.
There's nothing special about the original file and it doesn't "keep" any property by cutting and pasting or drag and dropping.
@luvin zel Sometimes the system will simply move the address of the file instead of making a copy of the whole file. In this case this isn't like you would move an object in the real world.
Let's say the folder is a street and the file is a house and you want the same house in another street, in the case of a copy and paste you now need to make a copy of the house in the new street, but for the cut and paste what happens is the system simply renames the street to the name of the targeted street.
Catherine is the epitome of "why are you booing me? I'm right"
Underrated comment
And, I don't feel bad for thinking this when I played. Thank You, friend.
we could all learn from catherine
I think there are multiple copies of Eric Andre in our world
That's probably why she caught a wrench to the back of the head
I work with the dementia patients on a daily basis. Dementia is the umbrella term for any mental degradation that affects 2 or more brain functions (logic, memory, etc). The scariest part of this game for me are the parallels to aging/dementia, especially memory loss. I have shown a woman a video of herself (recorded 2 years prior) and she didn't recognize herself or her own daughter in the film. Loved ones of dementia patients often say that "They are not themselves anymore". I have met and aided patients for 6 years and watched them decline. I don't have a loved one close to me that has dementia yet, my parents and grandmother are safe so far, but I dread the day they look me in the eye and don't know my name.
At what point during that mental unraveling do they cease to be them? Do they feel it? Do they recognize that they're slowly slipping? Or do they have moments of lucidity at which point they can look in a mirror and realize they have new wrinkles and age marks that only form over time, time that they don't remember? Some patients are the former, others the latter. Some people get mentally "stuck" at a certain age. A 82yo female can look in a mirror and ask how she should do up her hair for her first day in high-school. Pointing out her physical appearance does nothing, she believes she is 14.
It's terrifying. It keeps me up at night. The idea that this organic machine that keeps my brain fed and floating could break down at any moment is terrifying. This game encapsulates all of this.
For all the power that humanity has, for all our medicine and knowledge, the only thing we know for sure is what we perceive. I think I'm sitting on my bed at 1am writing a bunch of existential dread into a comment section. Am I? Or am I laying in a nursing home staring at the ceiling and reliving this one moment because this game and this video was profound enough to survive to the very end?
Well?
I've seen this up close as well. Close enough that the game doesn't scare me at all really. No fiction is scarier than reality in this case, I'm afraid. The brain is a very rickety little piece of augmented reality machinery, and when it goes awry, it really goes awry.
My great grandma had dementia and would frequently forget her son and damn near kick him out the room, but almost always remembered her grandson even though he was years older than her memory of him. I can't imagine how my grandad felt going through that every visit and growing up with those memories really influenced the way i think about memory and immortality now. Rationally I wouldn't want to live a long life if I'm no longer able to have a meaningful existence, but what if i can't even realize I'm living a life i don't deem meaningful? Or if I'm living a life that's only meaningful to others around me and not to myself?
@@mikicerise6250Well even if it doesn't measure up, at least the game awakens many thousands more people to these ideas and concepts.
NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE!!
Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I'm curious what you would think with Clive Wearing's case. He suffers in not being able to remember anything besides his wife.
Ughhhhh watching Sarah's death scene made me tear up again. This time was worse because I'm older, I almost sobbed. I would also want to die, there's no way that loneliness wasn't overbearing and absolutely soul crushing. I'm so glad this game isn't real, at least as of now.
Have you ever wanted to die for real? I certainly have
@@SamuelBlack84 yeah, why do you ask?
@@squishish Just curious
It will never be real lol what do you mean
It's already is real, this is just a crappy ark.
That’s it. From now on, I’m never going to copy and paste files again.
Have fun recreating everything from scratch when your computer dies.
The files don't feel.
They don't even simulate feeling.
It's okay.
@@toolatetothestory
Do they story?
Do they?
@@pugasaurusrex8253 I am pretty sure they don't, yes.
@@toolatetothestory but what if they do but we just never knew?
Why is the voice acting so top notch tho? When she almost cries while being yelled at? I FELT THAT
Same
e
@Justin Mason *you're
@@connah6161 chad
@@meltedWax169 cool
The only game to give me a geniuely sense of fear & dread, I had an existential crisis after playing. I questioned my own existence & that was something that really caught me off guard.
I've questioned my existence since I was a toddler
@@SamuelBlack84 you'll question it more if you look up the mayor of Lannach
@@skullcrusade3436 I did, nothing but gibberish
Play Life is Strange
Them: “Video games aren’t art.”
Soma: “Hold my robo-tentacle.”
Nier Automata: "Hold my android butt"
Who said that? Video games are the combinations of all known art forms.
@@UberNoodle Sorry, don't know who that was.if 3D modelling are crafts, then the same can be said to Michelangelo's statues.
Soma isn't the best example of video games as art. It's basically a walking sim and this story would work perfectly in a different medium.
You can see Video games as art if you want but to me, Video games aren't art cause they're something more special than art.
Now imagine our first alien contact is one of those satellite arks containing the last bit of consciousness from an extinct race
Your pfp makes this comment better
@@eieiejjr I think it makes all my comments better but not sure if I'm right or just cocky
Now wouldn't that make for an interesting movie.
Isn't that basically the plot of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Episode: The inner light?
@@RIMP20 was never a fan of space politics 3000 so I wouldn't know
I still think the ending would've been more harrowing if they were switched. After the countdown it does into the ark. Then after the credits you go back to Simon and Catherine on earth.
I agree that it'd be more harrowing, but personally I like the order of the emotional roller coaster as it stands now. 'cos yeah we definitely should get hit hard by the duality and the tragic fact that Simon-in-the-abyss still exists and always was going to, but then going from there to the Ark-perspective makes the player (or at least, made me) really feel speechlessly in awe of being alive and grateful for it.
There’s many ways this could have subjectively ended better. I would have preferred if they just omitted the ark ending. And left you with Simon and Catherine underwater.
@@Ty-wf6mg That would have been really dark but a good ending. I like what they did though with the ark, it was showing that it was really worth it but also really not worth it at the same time. Very interesting moral choices in this game.
Ah, I disagree. I like it the way it is. The real gut punch is Simon being left behind. In the dark, alone. That fits the game better and has the best feel. Not the best feeling, but makes you feel the most.
So I prefer it upfront in the climax moment. I think the scene after the credits is just to decompress, and maybe give some ppl that hate boo hoo endings a little pat on the back.
If I had to just choose one, the horrific one is certainly better. But I do appreciate the closure of the second ending, if only because I'd be wondering if the launch even worked otherwise.
It kind of defeats the whole setup to Simon's disappointing final revelation. The whole game is essentially Simon 3's memory (bar the ending), hence we do switch bodies from Simon 1 to 2 to Simon 3 but not from Simon 3 to Simon 4 (ark Simon). We are already supposed to infer that we aren't going to go on the ark. The whole coin toss analogy is false and basically a ruse by Catherine to convince Simon to continue with the plan even-though it was never going to help him personally.
Personally I would have preferred they didn't have the Ark ending at all. It would be much more tight narratively because you would really only be playing with Simon 3's memory.
Whoever wrote this story was insanely creative to have come up with this. This is not „a game“. This is a piece of art, an amazing, thought-through, brutally depressing piece of art.
I just realised the reason Catherine died was because her stress level exceeded the limit just like Brandon.
FUCK whyd you have to make me realize that
So Simon left alone is entirely his fault?
@@CapralHarrison yea
Don't tell me she died bro. I'd lose my fuckin mind if I knew I DID THAT.
RIP Asian Cortana
It's really weird how the ending is simultaneously happy and sad. Really makes you realize how strange the "same person in two places" thing is
The choices (killing the WAU or not, killing the humans left behind, erasing the scans, etc.) are all about The Continuity in the end. "Should you leave a crippled, doomed version of yourself behind while you continue?" The sum of all those choices is what you think about the end... A copy of humanity/earth can continue, but what should happen to the original, crippled, doomed humanity... Should you mercy kill that doomed earth?
@@elheber yeah this part was completely left out of this video. There is even more to this game.
@@elheber to me id say allow them to live because there is a chance of something new the earth is going mars level baren in soma the WAU is the last chance at life on earth and all the ai while suffering may regain consciouness or the WAU might finish its ai research and create perfect sapient ai copies like simon basically my view is its better to leave them alive rather then have NOTHING be alive because then at least theres a SMALL chance at a future
The ending was garbage. Simon suddenly had amnesia out of nowhere. How is that possible? How does he suddenly forget that there is a "coin toss". The ending ruined the game for me
@Queen Court honestly, I do think that a scientific approach (even if close to just try-and-error) will still result in better results faster than what evolution itself would produce. Its not like evolution itself offers any less suffering.
We only saw the first few prototypes of what could have been a long lifetime of the WAU. Do we really judge the WAU for its first baby steps where it had limited resources and thus options available to it? The WAU had to deal with a dilemma. And for what it archieved in such a short time and limited resources is actually kind of impressive when you think about it. I think we prematurely would be shutting it down. Simon was the best example for a first breakthrough. What else could the WAU have created shortly afterwards?
15:45 that line really hurt me, hearing someone say with so much fear and pain that they wanna go home, and knowing that their home is gone forever...my biggest fear
Unless, by home you mean the afterlife
@@SamuelBlack84why the fuck would home be a place you've never been lmao
@DustyyBoi I think it's the idea of returning to god
@@SamuelBlack84 i think wanting to return home makes more sense, given the fact that she said she wants to return home
@DustyyBoi Not possible after the comet. Maybe in her desperation, she's just sick and tired of everything and wants peace even if it is just an illusion
Regardless, it's one line in a video game. We all have lives to live
Love the contrast between the final words between “power suit Simon” and “ARK Simon”. The “Catherine, Catherine?” said by both Simons at the end have vary contrasting tones that when you hear the positive version, it forces you to think about the other Simon left behind at the bottom of the ocean.
Right. The "power suit Simon" was doomed from the start, but the "ARK Simon" was created the instant the transfer completed. The so-called "coin toss" is just an illusion. Power suit Simon can never get on the ARK, whereas the ARK Simon was always on the ARK. 🤔
"I wanna go home" f*cking killed me. Like..it genuinely made me wanna stop playing, or find a different way to do the puzzle. I felt so bad for doing that to her. Cheers to the voice actor, she did stellar.
do you mean not kill her? you could have spared her, but given the ending there was no saving her
@@veru6907 it would've left earth simon someone to talk to
@@crassiewassie8354 true, that was a misstep
I wish you could tell her that she will be home and that her suffering will finally end before you literally pull the plugs. It hurts so much to see her in agony yet not wanting to die knowing it could end at last.
@@crassiewassie8354 true, but she was already almost dead, i dont think there would be much to talk to, and also she was stuck in one place
I am confused how this game makes me feel genuinely hurt inside. It's so sad, and authentic. I think if I played this in VR, it would have really messed me up all the more.
The concept of playing this game in VR sounds more horrifying than the entire game by itself tbh
I'd love this in vr i need it now
I own a PSVR if this game ever comes out I will 100% get it
@You Done Messed Up You're making no fucking sense
@@moth8775 Exactly like wth 🤦♂️
Told the story so well that I didn't even realize it was a horror game
This game is honestly the most well written game I've ever played. It's just one of those stories that can ONLY work as a video game.
Experiencing the story passively through a book or a film wouldn't give you the same weight. In the game, it's YOU making the decisions. It's YOU understanding the weight of your actions. It's... You... Living it.
It's so insanely powerful. This game deserves all the credit it can get.
I love games that only work as games. Got more examples? I'll think of some.
@@807D14M0ND5 Spec Ops: The Line? Yeah pretty much everybody heard about it by now, but the way that narrative totally twists the typical hero power fantasies is so mind blowing! And it uses every little detail to push that narrative forward - menus, transitions, music, loading screens...
Not the best sci-fi, not even the best sci-fi horror. Those titles belong to Mass Effect, and Dead Space. Though it IS the best FPS sci-fi survival horror. It just barely surpasses A Machine For Pigs, which still counts, even though it's not "in the future." Sci-fi doesn't mean futuristic; it can, but defaultely, does not definitively mean futuristic. This game is VERY next level, and most people who finish it, won't even fully get it, but that's because of how well written it is. You can write things that are complex and deep, and hard to comprehend (like Lovecraft), or you can write more for a mainstream, casual audience. Frictional is VERY good at writing for the former. They excel at deep moral and philosophical questions, as well as existential dread, making them the best (currently existing) horror game developer. No one comes close, outside of Visceral, but they got eviscerated (pun-intended) by EA . Thanks EA 🙄😞
@@monkeysk8er33 mass effect? that's gotta be a joke right
@@ExHyperion Nope. Why do you falsely believe it's a joke? You trolling?
Seeing Catherine open her arms to embrace Simon and then tell him, "It's okay, Simon. Everything's alright now" makes me feel even worse for the robot-Simon left alone under the ocean.
I was surprised that the player didn't get a choice in going or not going to the ark. There are multiple choice moments in the game regarding life or death but I'm the end you can't choose for yourself.
I often wonder if the Simon and Catherine on the Ark had a relationship
@@807D14M0ND5 Well yeah, there's never any choice there to make. The "coin toss" metaphor is an illusion. The original doesn't have a choice about remaining the original, and the copy doesn't have a choice about being the copy. The game's storytelling point of view was never a choice for us the players either, it just showed us the continuation-Simon each time up until the last divergence, and for that one, it showed us both sides of the "coin". I'm really glad it didn't give us any way to be forced to just view one ending or the other ... I think the duality, and being forced to recognize that both endings are real, is a brilliant ending.
@@ItsAsparageese I realize but still felt strongly about not wanting to go into the ark in the first place. I guess it wasn't my place to tell the protagonist what he wanted. But they discussed the ark and what it would be a lot. From the first questionaire I indicated that I would choose death over electronic life.
@@807D14M0ND5 Ohhhhhh I misunderstood what you meant! I thought you meant a choice of whether the player perspective would go with the Ark-Simon or Abyss-Simon, but now I see that you meant giving the player agency over Simon letting himself have a copy sent onto the Ark at all. That makes more sense haha.
I do still think it serves the story best to have us see things go the way they do ... plus, it's consistent with Simon's character that he'd be clinging onto some sort of hope for a different life instead of being stuck in the sea, and also it's consistent for him to not fully grok the harsh truth that the original-him will remain ... But yeah, I see what you're saying now and I can see an argument being made for it. Yeah it's interesting how the player inserts our own thoughts into the storyline/actions but only to a small extent, and how the character as written has to remain within certain parameters to complete the story's point. I hadn't thought before now about what a nuanced and frictiony sort of conflict that is that the writers had to balance when determining where our agency would end and his would begin.
The voice acting in this game is just top notch.
I felt Sarah. I just don’t want to die alone. I watched my mom die, I saw her take her last breath and it just reminded me of that. When it’s done it’s done. This is definitely a deep game. We just gotta remember to appreciate all aspects of life right now because we don’t know if we’ll ever lose it.
I just finished SOMA about half an hour ago, stopped dead in my tracks, sat and thought long and hard. I then looked up to see what other people think of it, and I'm glad everyone loved it. I let the old Simon live, I pulled the plug on Sarah because she wanted me to do so, I listened to Johan Ross and ended the WAU (it cost Simon half an arm, but it was the right thing to do), and I feel like I've done everything I could as best I could. I like to imagine that after the power suit Simon gets out of the pilot seat he goes and calls his old self over the intercom.
Well they can't open the main doors without a working Omnitool so...
And if that doesn't make you want to replay the game to ease your conscious, nothing will!
There was a deconstructed omnitool in the room with simon 2 he might’ve fixed it
But if you chose to kill the WAU, wouldn't the old Simon be killed along with it?
After all, it was only the "power suit Simon" that had the modified structure gel...
@@rogier5591 True. Yeah well Power Suit Simon is doomed to die alone, or live alone, and I don't know what's worse. I have to imagine it's the second option. I'd just end it all right there after a good while of staring into the deep dark ocean.
@@balkanwarrioram2299 I feel ya. There's nothing left for him. Only darkness now.
It does raise the question if he can "end" it though. At around 15:05 in this video Amy clearly states that "nothing is allowed to die". I know this is refering to the way that the WAU behaves, but perhaps it is also inherent to the structure gel somehow? I'm not so sure.
I mean, how come Simon doesn't bleed out after losing his entire hand? He doesn't even seem to mind once it's gone. He just goes on without it. What other parts of his body could he do without? After all, he's just a dead body in a diving suit with a bunch of wires running through it.
But hey, maybe his system/consciousness crashes due to the existential stress causes by the prospect of being in darkness, alone, forever. Like we've seen with Catherine and Brandon Wan, there's only so much a copied mind can handle before the plug is pulled.
Man, every answer/theory leads to more and more questions.
I just finished it yesterday btw. I'm not much of a horror game fan, so I had to push on and take breaks in between (especially at Theta)... but I am glad I did. It's easily in my top 10 games. The story is actually comparable to a great scifi novel. It's amazing.
I was left feeling that one of the reasons Simon can't seem to realize what copying himself that final time entails is that he's literally unable to process and remember it. He's a prototype copy, and Catherine herself mentions at some point that he's "simpler" than the more advanced copies. He feels like himself, yes, and he seems to function like human Simon would, but the kind of abstract thought that goes into imagining how his consciousness won't go on is beyond him. He has been copied already, sure, but before the ending he's never experienced being the Simon left behind.
This is a generous interpretation of Simon, because it seems many (most?) people who play this game are just as dumbstruck as Simon when he realizes he didn't make it on the Ark. But, this would be the best possible interpretation for Simon because if the Simon on the Ark can't realize he left the copy behind, it would avoid unneeded trauma on him.
Hm, dont forget he is a prototype copy of a brain thats damaged which will soon be the cause of 2015 Simons death.
Or it was just done to get a better emotional response in the moment and to have this story happen in the first place. Even if it doesnt hold up once you think a bit longer about it. And I am sure in some cases the audience might not have fully grasped the concept yet either. Afterall we havent experienced being "the copy left behind" ourselves yet. It is still something diferent to actually experiencing it compared to just imagining it, and not everybody can imagine it. To not take away from those players experiences they might have to make it this way.
I think it's more that he forgot that that happens when you copy your brain, I mean i did.. 2 times, both when you needed to switch the suit and when you needed to launch the ark. Because Catherine makes you believe that you're getting on the ark 100% and you're so ready and hyped that you forget what making a copy of your brain means.
@@wal_rider8479 This is why I don't think it's necessary to assume Simon is defective is some way being a prototype. He seems to have as much emotional depth as many people do.
I believe Catherine makes Simon/players believe he's getting on the Ark because she sincerely believes they are getting on the Ark. The problem is that Catherine's philosophy is drastically different than Simon's and these players'. She believes that the copy is equivalent to the original, but Simon, and I would expect these players, obviously disagree. I think people and Simon say Catherine lied because when she says "they're on the Ark", she means the copies, and expects that by now Simon should know this (especially after his first-hand experience with being copied onto new media).
I would wager strongly that most everyone who shares Catherine's philosophy knew exactly what would happen when they were about to launch the Ark, but those who agree with Simon would be far more likely to be surprised. If anything, I'd rack it up to confirmation bias.
@@kynnedy Yeah it's one of those things you have to wonder that you're not the target market for this, how something that is downright obvious, specially after he was copied to the other body that there were now two of him, is something that somehow surprises people. The story is not bad, but it's not great and heavy handed, specially being derivative if you have read or watched sci-fi before this.
It's one of those things that people say others "don't get it" because for them it's so great and original.
I wonder how much of a difference would it make, if Frictional Games switched the order of the last scenes: the loading is complete and we wake up in the ARK. And then after the credits we get back to Earth to see the ''previous'' Simon.
Simon B in “heaven” saying:” suck on that Simon C” XD
I remember reading somewhere that test audiences found that version too depressing. I think this ending is bittersweet enough - the latest Simon reunites with Catherine on the Ark but the game reminds us that their paradise is simply a little satellite above a destroyed Earth. The sight of the blackened planet and the sad music playing at that part really hit home for me that the thousands of years of human history is over and that humanity as we know it is truly extinct.
Or what if the launch would have failed. There would be no point then, death, stop thinking, no way out... That would have made no sense.
@Sardonicus i don't think you're wrong, its just your comment about the coin flip irks me, because its never even a coin flip, that's the point of Simon "building his new body" to show that's it's just a copy of his brain, this scene alone should've made Simon realize what was going to happen when he launched the ark, the fact he didn't, to me personally just makes the ending all the more heartwrenching. Because in a reverse of that situation earlier on is a Simon(dead or not) in the same position as the one from the end, i.e nothing left to do and nowhere to go
@Sardonicus but you appear misunderstand my point too, i am telling you there is no coin flip its not the proper way to explain the concept , its literally the spoon from the matrix, its not real and doesn't exist, its only purpose is too explain(very poorly) what's going to happen to him, let me put it this way the devs could've ended the game on the scene where Simon builds his new diving suit/body hybrid thing, would it have been unfulfilling? yes but the same message would've been there, as in the camera still in the POV of Simon 1 just watching Simon 2 go play the rest of the game only for him to end up just the same as Simon 1 without the player ever getting to know that fact. And then they could've just cut to the POV of Simon 3 without ever getting to play Simon 2. And keep in mind Catherine is manipulative, she'd explain it in such a way so he wouldn't understand or figure out what she means, given his first reaction after he gets "transferred" i actually don't think he would've launched ark if he understood what it meant for him in that moment or at the very least wouldn't have wanted his scan on the ark knowing in his heart what he did, as for "flatter and less dynamic" if he understand that's he's piece of data and not going completely insane, then he can't be too flat or that much less dynamic then future scans, mostly cause the technology itself doesn't seem to have changed much if at all for brain scans so i cant imagine new scans would be rougher/have more dynamic to them.
At 57:26, when he listens to Sarah fade away... That's the moment that this game broke me. Humanity doesn't end when the sky is lit aflame, chaos reigns, and the oceans dry.
It ends quietly... One lost soul residing in the ruins of a laboratory being kept alive for seemingly years by machines in total solitude... No food... No sunlight... Just the sound of a machine telling her that her heart is still beating.
A chimera of machine, corpse, and AI is the only solace she finds in her last breaths. Her last thoughts were not of hope and prosperity but of dread, anguish, and the knowledge that humanity dies with her. It's such a tragic end.
Hundreds of thousands of years of human life ends this way. From fire, to electricity, to air travel, to space travel, to the internet... And it all ends in a rotted and rusty dormitory miles underwater.
I always thought it was very telling about Catherine's character that she dismisses every consciousness that they encounter, but is so headstrong in the belief that the ark, her ark, is the only facet of human existence that matters. An ark that there's little reason to only make one of, aside from feeding her savior complex.
Did you want to go on the ARK?
The ark idea seems really pointless especially knowing it would eventually die in a couple thousand years granted not hitting an asteroid lol
@@Killtastixz The point is perhaps some alien life out there finds them before they die. A countdown to destruction, yeah, but much better than staying on earth until definite shutdown
@@Killtastixz A lot of people doesn't believe in the afterlife, and a lot of those people doesn't believe that existence for an average of 80 years is pointless. I'm one of those people.
@@Killtastixz a couple thousand years is pretty good all things considered. Would all of today be pointless since we're doomed to cease existing as a race at some point in the future, be it 20 or 200000 years in the future?
What still hurts is that that Catherine still knows that her copy and Simons copy are still down there but now she has a choice will she tell him or let him continue living in ignorance
I think Simon knows. He's done it before after all. He might just be happy that he got "the lucky flip of the coin" and try to not think about it.
@@QuayNemSorr from how he reacted at the scene saying “we made it”
and how back on earth he thought his already there consciousness would go to the arch, I think that the copy waking up in the arch because they don't have a separation in memories the copy thought he was the original Simon from earth who made it.
the copys body language had hope and wonder he'd never thought about the process of mind transfer/copy he simply thought he'd get to go even though he knows how it works already.
He just keeps forgetting and disregarding it until he's proved wrong and remembers the copy process how one is always left behind. He won't get the chance to be proven wrong and remember because the arch copy can't be recopied.
She'll let him live without telling him, imo. He has been thru so much, and I don't see the point of her telling him that when he could just blissfully live in the ARK.
@@imbored4322 ignorance is bliss in a way
She won't tell him
Somehow, even with all the hints, and blatant contradictions along the way, I, like Simon, thought he'd literally get on to The Ark too. I cheered when it shot off like him, and slumped down as the full weight of reality set in. How this game brought me so far along, for 18 hours of play, and still fed me just enough to maintain my naivety, I'll never know, but I'm glad I remained ignorant to the end, like Simon. Beautifully done!
I was in the same boat as you. I though Simon would literally get on the ARK. I often imagine how it wouldve been if they fliped the endings. Like, they would first show that Simon got on the Ark, everything went fine, and he meets with Catherin and the credits roll. We, the player, are all happy, that we came along with this amazing journey and finally succeeded. And just as the credits end, we see the real ending, the Simon that was left behind. All alone. That wouldve been super fucked
The game and our own experiences and thoughts about video games set it up for to think how you did. It does it on purpose to shock us into seeing the other reality. It’s really good at hiding that fact of the copy and coin toss.
Catherine lied about the coinflip to make him feel better and get him to move on to launching the Ark.
U know whats horrible about this? Simon 4 thinks that he is Simon 3 and that he went to the arc. Simon 4 doesnt know that Simon 3 is still sitting in the Abyss... all alone.
@@ademturan7137 It would be more horrible for Simon 4 if he did know. But we as the audience have to deal with it.
1:02:51. If you ever are by someone's side as they are dying, please grant them the experience of holding their hand. I would wish someone to do the same to me, even if it were a complete stranger. Because we are all human after all.
When I first saw the Sarah scene I was under 30.
Today I turn 30. I am officially older than the last human on earth in SOMA and that just.. hits different.
wait until you hit 40 like me... hits WAY harder. I remember playing half-life when it came out thinking how much older gordon freeman was than me.. i was 16 i think and he was 27 in the first game
Honestly, the ending seems even scarier and more lonely than navigating the underwater base, both the scenes where Simon is left alone in the pilot seat and the shot of the satellite panning out infinitely.
The last scene left me feeling empty. I didnt feel happy nor sad when watching the satilite drift into space I didnt know what to feel.
The last scene fucking irked me, I felt sick, pain even, even if the other you is on the ARK, you, the you that you were controlling is stuck down there until your battery dies, alone in that cold, desolate room.
@@no698 oh, yes! Even disregarding the fact that one of those you's is doomed to die in that grave of an abyss (which isn't easy), the thought of the ARK being an artifact of a now fully extinct race - humankind - fills me with existential sadness and makes me feel hollow in a way.
@@no698 game's ending's extreme emotional impact aside, I kinda dislike the comet premise of it.
I mean, come on. With the ability to shoot massive payloads into space from the bottom of the ocean (which is pure BS, if we're being honest), land-based versions of that coil-gun *must* have been even more powerful. Which in turn would enable the construction of space-(Lunar?)-based cannons. I'm sorry, guys. No matter how big that comet is, under a barrage of super-accelerated ordinance it would go down (as much as it can go 'down' in space, lol), not to mention the more subtle options of changing that thicc girl's albedo where it matters.
I'd much prefer that it would be an extremely powerful solar flare, a CME that would hit the Earth dead-on. It would be up to the writers and science consultants to come up with precise (preferably VERY precise) numbers, but as a result we would still have a barren, scorched Earth, maybe even with its atmosphere half-stripped.
@@no698 And why the hell aren't space colonies a thing by then if such magnificent launch-tech is available?!
Alright. Now I'm only making myself look like a party pooper, I know.
A great game.
@@HTWW I think what they used to launch objects was too small for the size of the ship needed to have humans sustain life in space
I still remember when I heard the Omicron Simon ask if something went wrong. I remember being genuinely angry with Catherine, walking up to the terminal like an angry gorilla. Then she explained and all I could feel was empty
The reveal about Simon’s “situation” really caught me off guard. I was floored.
This game made me go "YOU'VE GOT TO BE SH*TTING ME. NO, HELL NO!" multiple times throughout my first playthrough. A truly outstanding experience. It doesn't matter what you like or don't like to play, you need to try this one.
One of my favorite horror games top 1 on the list i was so scared played this 2 years ago God long time ago best story and wtf moments and what the hell is that moments i have ever had and also the first horror game I've played ever in my life
It was not my first horror game, but it was the first that left me feeling "off"
@@CeramicQuill hahaha yeah thats true too you right
Nah too scary for me
i am SOBBING right now at this like actually SOBBING when i heard his screams at the end realizing that there was a version of him happy yet, he was stuck there and then when everything shut down and he was yelling oh my god it killed me
for me, when catherine disconnected and Simon said 'I don't want to be alone' really hits me hard 😭
I love these comments cause the story only gets richer when people mention an aspect you didnt pick up on the first time. Like you saying everything shutdown I thought it to be the story fading out for the viewer, but you helped me realize it was the WOW shutting Pathos down because it completed its protocol of preservinng humanity, now that the ark has launched successfully the pathos location no longer requires power and Simon is left alone with his thoughts and what are essentially floating corpses speaking with the voice of a king gone person. And if you left the other Simon alive you have the discomfort of knowing both are left to roam this graveyard till they too become ghosts. And theres no ligt or air or temperature regulation.
Yea its pretty effed up stuff XD
Running a 50% chance to show either the ARK or stuck Simon is such a good idea for the way this game ends.
I think it shows both. But stuck Simon is before the credits, and Ark Simon is after the credits
@@tiagoviana263 it does
But there isn't a 50% chance at all there is no coin toss no matter what u will always lose
@@russian_knight ik im saying that would be a good idea
@@russian_knight it shows both Simons at the end
I still legitimately cannot watch Simon kill that robot for its chip. I looked around for a solid hour for a chip in hopes I wouldn't have to hurt the guy in the robot or the K8 who had been helping me, but I was forced to kill one of them. The K8 being afraid of me afterwards was devestating.
4:20
Damn, suffering was so good they came up with suffering 2.
it also means passion
The Suffering and The Suffering 2 is a thing
@@thebadwolf3088 ties that bind?
Wait until they release Depression 2
hahahhahahahahahaahahaha that's exactly the take i needed after this rollercoaster
"What makes us human?"
Oh boy here we go, existential crisis ahead.
existential crisis ahead, be weary of sadness
Its weird how Simon several times sais something like "I dont want other Simons relive this horror agin" But at the same time he wants to live so much, even when he finds he is nothing more than cortex chip conected with dead body in diving suit full of structural gel...
It's easy to make decisions for others because they aren't you and their decisions don't generally affect you. When it's your own sense of sense you're impelled to obey the strongest instinct of all: self-preservation
12:48 I can't tell you how many times I've played this game, and I never knew I had another option than to kill Karl. I was literally sobbing the first time I had to do it. This game hits hard.
When Simon first transfered body's and reacted like "Catherine? What's wrong? Did it fail?" I thought the best option would be to kill that Simon but then seeing it from the other perspective at the end when Simon is left alive while his other half goes to the ark, it made me realise like "wow, would that really be the right choice? Because Simon is 100% still conscious and for the most part, a human"
Seeing things from both perspectives is important on making a decision, that's one thing I took away from this
I feel like the non transferred Simon should be kept awake and able to make the choice himself, instead of the other Simon making the choice
If anything, that reinforced my decision to kill the first Simon.
Can you imagine being stuck at the bottom of the ocean, no other people alive apart from you and a couple of people, many of which who are seemingly insane or close to it and all of which who are stuck in place? Not to mention they might all die when you kill the WAU, because if I remember correctly, it's the thing powering them.
That is truly a fate worse than death. There's a reason isolation is one of the best torture techniques. You begin to lose your mind the longer you're isolated. I, personally, would rather die than end up like Simon. Any of the Simons left behind. All your doing is delaying your suicide, if you even retain the mental faculties to commit suicide after being isolated for so long.
@And-Nonymous yeah true. I guess it's how well you know yourself and whether you predicted one version not getting transferred as an outcome, if you suspected it beforehand "original" you could have already come to a decision, and "transferred" you would remember the decision. It's so interesting to think about
Agreed, but I feel killing the old one was still the best choice; It maintains a sense of progression and cognitive continuity.
The problem with the consciousness dealio is that it's a copy, not a transfer. You coule say being murdered by "your copy" would be a horrifying concept... But that's only if you think of yourself as you are in the past. Leavin the old you to suffer is a far worse fate than simply ending his stream of consciousness and living on.
If you don’t kill him then the Simon at the end of the game gets to know someone else is still there to hang out with.
This game honestly should’ve gotten more attention than what it got on release.
The game’s been out since like 2015. I got the game for free through the Epic store.
Wait we did? I "MIGHT" play it but at the same time i did watch this whole video.
I think it got ignored cause people passed it off as just amnesia but underwater but it really shouldn't have. It's obviously got similar mechanics and is also a walking simulator but the story is so engaging it doesn't deserve the ignoring it got
@@toxicsquirrelboy To be fair it wasn't just the marketing team that decided to portray the game that way. That IS how the game is on top of being existential and philosophical. They added an entire separate game mode designed to help people appreciate the game more for it's deep themes & not it's sub bar horror game cliches that permeate it's design. Hiding behind boxes from scary monster is boring for me. SOMA is a much better & more haunting game when every single thing you encounter is not mindlessly attacking you.
fuck when was it free?
god how could i miss it
I got it for free on gog, so . . . basically same
when i finished this game it was at 2am in my basement in pitch darkness and i probably just stared at my tv while the credits rolled thinking. no video game or piece of media in general has made me feel what soma made me feel
i always thought cathrine was the wau for the longest timen or an evil persona. she just seemed so nonchalant about so much of what was going on except when it came to the ark. by the end i realized she was just determined not to let any emotions stand in the way of realizing her goal even at the cost of her present self staying under water.
in the Matrix Morpheus explains to Neo about residual self image and its why Neo looks normal. It appears to manifest itself in this game when Simon breaths hard after running long period of times. i found it comical since when does a robot need to breath?
I hate how Catherine's death is called an "accident " while there is a bloody wrench right next to her that was clearly used to kill her. I wonder what happened to the guy that killed her, I did not pay enough attention to his name.
Wouldn't it be easier on her to think it was just an accident?
@@Joseph-ic8xd Yes, that is the reason simon says it was an accident. However, I'm talking about the people who were actually there when it happened. They saw the dude grab the wrench and break Catherine's skull with it and yet they call it an accident.
@@quazar4773 Oh yeah true true, idk maybe just the fact that humanity was hanging on them there and then that tensions were so high further confrontation could have just made us extinct? Like maybe they just went with "accident" because they had to play it safe to make sure it got where it had to go safely. Either way screw whoever hit her smh.
@@Joseph-ic8xd Who knows. I'm pretty sure there is information on the guy that killed her where all their beds were where you meat the only human left.
The diving suit manual states that the suit augments the strength of the wearer to compensate for underwater movement. I took it that the guy who hit her just wanted to knock her head a bit but did not realise the suit artificially increased his strength until it became a killing blow. I am pretty sure that he didn't mean to hit her so hard as to kill her.
51:49 "It's not like you cut it and paste it, you're literally copying it, putting it in a different body".
That's the thing now. There is no such thing as transferring data in computers. No "cutting" between different storage devices. Only copying and deleting. When you cut on PC, it basically acts as copying and deleting once copying is done. So a cut is literally a scan-suicide like some people in the game were doing.
Actually, when you perform a Cut on a file and move it somewhere else in the same file system...the inode of that file just changes. It leaves the data where it exists on disk and then more or less sets up a new inode that exists in a new location but refers to the same data. Now when you cut and paste to a different drive, then the old file and inode gets deleted.
I don't know what 'cut and paste' is when I've only ever been taught 'copy and paste' in ICT classes, even though mother says 'cut and paste' a lot and lets me correct her, but I understand from some video I saw ages ago that copying and pasting the same thing over multiple places just makes it like lose bits of itself every paste, which doesn't make sense but hey I guess something's gotta go.
Like if you keep copying and pasting a picture over different machines and harddrives, it loses its quality over time?
Maybe I've misunderstood that, but I can understand that happening with the brain scan, things getting lost in transference, considering how much data is in a brain.
@@Roadent1241 Cut and paste on the filesystem, which does a file move or copy doesn't lose any bits. You're probably thinking about how re-saving a JPEG from an image program losses quality, because JPEG is a file format that uses lossy compression meaning that every time you edit it (even if that edit doesn't actually modify the image) the compression method losses a bit more of the detail.
@@danfr Oh right, well there goes my idea for a story thing XD Thank you for explaining it.
The creepiest part about this game to me is when you’re at the bottom of the ocean … so dark and mysterious
I’m autistic and I REALLY relate to Catherine. People react to me in a very similar way, she avoids eye contact, and she doesn’t have any friends- I have always struggled to make friends. It really effected me that she made a real friend. It also really effected me how violently people reacted to her throughout the game, and how she couldn’t understand why everyone else was reacting badly to what was happening, when what was happening just didn’t emotionally effect her the same way. I also found it interesting that being a robot is something she adjusts to easily. I often joke with my friends that I feel like a robot compared to other people. Autistic people have fundamentally different experiences of relating to our senses of selves and our relationships to other people. Catherine’s story… reads like an autistic story to me. This game will stick with me.
"It also really effected me how violently people reacted to her throughout the game" What do you mean by that? As far as I can tell and remember, nothing like that really happened.
They weren't /violent/, they were upset for not being given clear information if it's about the MC lashing out at her, and rightfully so. She is affected emotionally in some ways, but less in others. Second time, it's Simon's fault for not listening to her so that's all on him.
She wasn't attacked because people thought she was "weird" like Sarah said, but because of a disagreement about the future of humanity which is extremely realistic.
All in all, Catherine is cool.
Would you idiots just stop, just stop... Alright.. Just appreciate the well written characters and overall story and from there, You don't have to compare yourselves with any of the characters. You don't have to share anything either, oh cmon you guy's can't honestly expect everyone who saw your comment to inevitably believe everything you wrote, you do know don't you? At this point I'm used to seeing it constantly, but at some point it gets incredibly annoying to notice every time. Oh and Charlie Sharp you should take heed to what I'm saying to you about all this, and try not to make everything about yourselves in the future.
Regardless if you see this as either me shaming you or it being an advice in some way, read it.
@@gungatz6696 ok
@@gungatz6696 you are a miserable person
It was so important that they ended the game the way they did. Not the post credits scene, but the ending. I would’ve enjoyed it even if it had just cut off there, leaving you melancholy, but knowing the ark did make it. The post credits scene was just a nice cherry on top.
I think switching it around would have been more horrifying - it cuts right away to the ark, you think all is great - and after the credits it cuts to Simon, still on the bottom of the ocean...
@@katerkarlo3499 That shit would’ve been so bittersweet. Like, damn.
I think it's good they showed the ending, especially the ARK floating off into space. It really drives home that, that's all that's left of humanity. That's the only worthwhile part of humanity that's left, and it's not even on Earth anymore.
The only way out is in. Heaven exists as a state of mind :)
@@katerkarlo3499 I thought it does that for a "bad ending"
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
-Philip K. Dick
Thats where you’re wrong!
*takes loads of Acid and Shrooms*
Dick.
@@goromi8340 swearing is haram
Theoretically, if everyone stopped believing in, say, gravity; it might actually go away.
Quantum phenomena act differently depending on whether they're observed or not.
Therefore you are not real.
Just finished it, im happy someone put this much care into a video about Soma. What a game. Been on my list for a long time, i feel foolish now getting "until dawn" instead of soma."until dawn" is good but wow soma got me thinking.
Sub earned lol
I was lucky to get it on a knockdown sale of just £2 which is very handy considering it doesn't exist on a physical copy
The voice acting of Cathrine is absolutely amazing, Nell Mooney did an fabulus job bringing her to life(pardon the pun). And let us be honest, Cathrine never lied.
My god, the voice acting. Its so real that it hurts
It's the swearing, brings so much more emotion to it.
U capitalize God
@@joe6269 You* Also.. Fk god.
It's really weird, that Catherine is only completely "sane" person inhabiting robot body through whole game, that is fully aware of their condition and didn't require outside help to figure it out.
Catherine is probably abnormal because other character said she is "weird".
Yeah. But I do understand her logic.
@@sety5591 perhaps it's why she adapted so easily to being a robot.
@@sety5591 yea I mean you can kinda tell she wasnt the best human being ever, back when she actually was a human
From my perception, it's possible that Catherine is slightly autistic. She didn't fit in very well with the others, back when she was a human.
I don't think she found the transition to being a robot as jarring as other people may have. I doubt she was very attached to being a human, all things considered. She didn't find it unsettling to be inside a machine.
Something I don't think I've seen anyone mention here, there's 2 Catherine's in the ark.
Think about it, everyone uploaded themselves before they were going to send it initially so Catherine is already in there. But as shown at the end game Catherine gets uploaded with Simon, so there should be 2 Catherine's in the ark. Someone'll correct me if it's mentioned in game. But imagine how freaked out Simon is going to be if he see's Catherine one day and she doesn't recognize him, because it's a different Catherine. Which makes me ask another question, can they kill each other in the Ark? It's not within the scope of the games themes (I think) But thinking about there being 2 Catherines in there brought it to my mind. Would it simulate you dying and end you or would you 'respawn' ooor would it set you back to the initial scan like with Brandon when his stress levels got too high.
Also assuming you don't kill him Heavy Simon could go and hangout with light suit Simon though he'd have to climb all the way back up and assuming he can get through the doors.
I would assume that she just updated her brainscan. Ark wasn’t actually running prior to launch, I suppose
Thank you, for this. I've been trapped in a dying body, and experiencing a lot through RUclips. This was something special; I don't know if I would have have known about, if not for your effort and amazing presentation. It's 3 years late: but I hope this finds you well. Thanks again.
I hope you can find some peace in the end. After all, life is nothing without that harmony of the mind in which you can consider all of your choices and impacts on the world.
I hope you're doing well. Improving, even! If not...reexperience the things you love
This game still takes up space in my brain years later. It's a shame more people haven't played it.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
-Philip K. Dick
Im pretty sure that ive red a dystipian short story many years ago.
Humanity gave all the responsibility to machines, first slow but it evolved into something bad.
Protecting humans at all costs and so they made them immovable and preserved them with nutrients for eternity whilst theyre fully conscious
The existential horror of both leaving Simon's old body (with another Simon in it) _and_ the ending both still make me pause when I think about them. I don't think I'll ever forget SOMA.
Sarah: At least I won't have to turn 30, yay.
(I cried.)
Been crying through this whole thing
That got me hard… Poor, poor girl. So young, but already looked so drained of strength and life.
FUCKING DEPRESSING
**cries in mid-30's**
@Ben Kenobi just know that life is mysterious and nobody knows anything. We think we know what happens when we do but we don’t at all. Worry not about just the destination, but the entire journey itself
This is honestly my absolute favorite video essay on SOMA. It lets me go through the same emotional journey, revelations, highs, and lows, and its just so good. I've listened to this over 3 times at least and its just so good. Its not just an explanation of the story or gameplay or anything like that, this video essay feels like an experience.
Idk, I was originally upset at Simon for not comprehending how the ARK worked but then I remembered Catherine lied to him. She knew he didn't understand how it would work and that's why she tried to shut down the original Simon after the body swap, to hide the truth from him but got caught. She was capable of explaining it like this video did, as a copy and paste instead of a cut and paste and still choose to continue leading Simon on knowing damn well he did not understand how it would work. A coin toss is very much the wrong way for her to describe it to him because there is no coin toss, the only thing left to chance was if the ARK would successfully launch into space.
I don't blame Simon for getting mad at her in the end, he was led to believe there was a chance for him to wake up on the ARK when that was never a possibility. Just looking at how she reacted to being told they should wait and think about launching the ARK vs keeping it 100% safe makes me distrust her. After all that time of not having a "real" person to talk to and the first guy to come along she is still thinking about what she wants before considering how the guy might feel. The Simon on the ARK will eventually realize he left himself back there to die a slow agonizing death and Catherine more than likely would give him the same spiel of "You're on the ARK and that Simon isn't, get over it".
In the end I don't think Catherine cared about making it onto the ARK herself, I think she only cared that her project was successful and carried out how she wanted it to regardless of the ethical questioning of it all. She doesn't care about saving humanity (because let's be honest, this wasn't saving anyone), she only cares about her project working and being used because from what we're shown the ARK is that really wouldn't be any life most people would want to live.
I also think why she tried to hide it is because if you look at the audio and computer files, they got pissed when they realized what Simon ultimately did. In fact, one file refers to her as a "verbal punching bag" and was told by an employee to kill herself after realizing he was still here
I don't even play games, but I've sat here riveted. Its criminal this doesn't have millions more views. Great job.
Deserves Billions of views. All the views. I cannot think of a theme more important than this
These comments brought me back to this video, and re watching the first couple min, why didn't Simon realize he didn't need to eat, drink, pee, before he realized he "was" a robot? Why didn't _I_ realize he didn't?
@@juliannah5721 Because you won't really feel the need to do any of those things when you're in shock either. That combined with the fact that not much time passes between him waking up and learning the truth, and his brain actively forcing him not to think about those things.
You should play games it's great entertainment and storytelling
Amazing game. anyone had hasn’t played it should try it
Catherine: Ctrl+C/ Ctrl+V "Now what was that other command.."
Simon: Uhhhh
Catherine: Alt+f4
This is great
@@-Kal- alt e
End Task on System32
Simon should've known how to press shift+delete
Played this a long time ago and I've watched a lot of analysis and all but yours is so good: the perfect mix of explaining the history, the moral issues, keeping the important game sequences without talking over it. Really good production, one of the best!
This is one of the best and most well formatted videos i’ve seen in quite a while. This was a great watch, thanks for making it! 11/10.
The saddest part about SOMA is that humanity did go extinct the ARK only just extended the human experience by a couple hundred or thousand years. Since the ARK is just basically the matrix satellite supported by a power system eventually the parts will degrade, or be damaged , a rock the size of a pin could hit the solar panel and all energy on the ARK would be gone. And there's nothing the residents of the ARK could do, since their just electricity running through circuits there's no way for them to interact with the physical world their only saving grace would be ironically if Simon could still contact them & work with them (which by shooting the ARK drained all power is now impossible) .Simon a bookkeeper from 2015 would have no knowledge of how to build anything and without power he would only be left with days before wither he dies or all other residents die. Or hopefully intelligent life regrows on Earth (near impossible) or they meet an intelligent alien life while drifting through the galaxy.
Who knows, the WAU itself could evolve into a helpful intelligence in time to "rescue" the Ark. Unless you kill it, I suppose.
not necessarily. depending on how the whole computing power thing turns out and how the thing is constructed. When they have enough energy and computing power a day in real time could be many many years inside the arc. Our brains dont use a lot of power. Running a simulation of the arc world will take some more, but not really insane amounts. So in those 1000 years many million years of experiences may happen inside the arc.
And if power degrades they could compensate that for a very long time by turning down the computation speed - for the people inside their perception of time would not change.
The time inside the arc may as well be ten times longer than all of human history so far.
@@TheVergile Still, they will die at some point. So in a way, they didn't accomplish anything.
@@aleksakocijasevic6613 yeah, its not a sustainable population. to small. lacking the necessary automation and infrastructure for repairs.
but then again all human experiences end some day. unless you find a way to create new digital life from the existing brainscans there is a limit to how long people will want to live. once everything is said and done people will want to die. i doubt with auch a small population there would be many willing to go on after what feels like a million years to them
Theres a line Zygart kinda passes over but I caught it during the Cutscene. "This isnt about you anymore, this about humanity, Here, there's nothing, out there? There's hope." Hope is one of those words people misunderstand alot, its not assured.
This shit hit different at 2am. I already feel that Soma is a game/story that does not get the credit it rightfully deserves but you really drove this home. I watched someone play through this and it was an emotional roller coaster then. Just watching and listening to you revisit some of those moments from the game still feel the same. The ending for me is one of the darkest and saddest in gaming period...maybe stories in general. Yes I cried . Lol. If you don't question what it means to be human after this game, you weren't paying attention.
Oh dude, I also had it randomly in the recommendation and I thought why not, it was a great game, I want to see how that shit broke this man too
And like. I cried again, even tho I knew what would happen. This is really an amazing game
@@juliaswierkosz7954 I agree. This is an amazing game.
this is the game that broke people, everything about them, torn apart... if not, then you did not get the point or dont fathom the weight of every key moment in that game... that game, SOMA is not a horror game for the jumpscares, but for the mind and the soul, had to glue my dumb brain together for a full month and still have mental scars about this damn game, its too good in a bad way but that somehow it is still good, i mean after you get over it you are a different person, i believe that after this game you can weigh your and others life a little bit more than before
@@dogesanic819 well said. This game def scarred me. Thinking about the ending as I type still causes my eyes to well up....not out of sadness but just...WOW! You have to experience the game is all. Its insane how well the question "what does it mean to be human" is captured here.
@@dogesanic819 I got a pretty appropriate term for this game: Philosophical horror.
I have only ever seen one other game that dabbles in the same theme, and that's the visual novel Saya no Uta. The original japanese version, not the shitty english one.
While SOMA focuses on questions like "what is consciousness?" and "what does it mean to be human?", Saya no Uta explores the concept of how our morality is affected by our perception of the world, and what it truly means to love someone.
In SnU, lots of fucked up and horrible things happen, and you would be utterly amazed at how your view of said things changes based on which character's perspective you are seeing the story from at the time.
On top of that, it somehow manages to be one of the most engaging and intimate love stories I have ever seen, all while challenging your view of what exactly love is and what it means to commit.
If you want to play the original, you need to find a translation patch. However, it's definitively worth the extra effort since the english version is nowhere near as good.
This video is amazing. Ive always wondered about this game. You should really consider making more videos. Would love to see them
Thank you for making this. I share your feelings to the point where years later, I needed to look up essays like this to help process my thoughts and emotions on the subject. The special dread and beautiful sadness this game inspires flicks into my mind regularly. What a great experience and what an amazing video!
Soma: A game about a man being confused for 6 hours
that's pretty much life
I mean id be confused if I woke up in 2103, was now a robot, was underwater, and was being constantly haunted and terrorized by a warden unit
Someone did some sleuthing and it turns out the game takes place over the course of 2 months (Simon is woken up in March and launches the Ark in May). Crazy to think about. The EMF outputted by WAU creatures like Fleshers probably temporarily shut Simon down (why they teleported everywhere), we have no idea how long they were stuck in the crash at Delta, nor do we know how long Simon was stuck in Aker’s structure gel mess. Catherine implies time for machines is fluid. Fascinating, really.
Simon did bother me for 'not getting it' through most of the story. But then it occurred to me that Simon was the first copy for AI research; nothing a real engineer would use for development as Katherine says. So I've always taken his mental limitations as a limit on the copy that was made of him. If this is true then there are further implications for the Simon on the satellite. If Katherine's modern copies are the complete person then how much of old copy Simon is missing? Were those gaps filled by 'extra' code to make the copy workable for AI research? How 'less' of a life does copy Simon on the satellite because parts of him are missing?
Some people may point out that Katherine made a copy of Simon using her modern technique. But remember she is making copies of copies. They cannot ever be as precise because the missing bits are already gone. When you watch the uploads at the end, the load times for Katherine and Simon are very different. Katherine, being a complete copy, takes longer. So for Simon, is his upload sped along because he is less data as an old 'stock' AI copy model? Katherine is a pretty savvy person. So I also think it is possible that she recognized the problems with Simon's copy and possibly filled in the gaps so that copy Simon on the satellite was more complete.
6 hours? Yeah. Sure. if you rush through it and don't bother to do something substantial.
the fact that all of Simons copies, upon their creation, dont realise they are entirely separate beings that were born just seconds ago, and then when you put yourself in their shoes and imagine those very beings using their empathy to realise how this must be for the predecessor, seeing its copy run off whilte its stuck where its at. That predecessor can also use its empathy to imagine how the copy must feel like it, and think it is it, that everything it will experience will also be what the predecessor experiences, since the copy doesent realise it is a copy. The result would probably be a mix of jealousy and numbing dread.
There’s something very satisfying with this game. Other than the story, the aesthetic and the sounds of pre-recorded messages and microphones coming from robot voice boxes sounds awesome.
SOMA was so good! I loved the game! "Deliver us the Moon" was one of the only other games that I really felt immersed completely.
ugh yes i adored deliver us the moon, such a beautiful experience
ARK Simon's "Catherine?" Sounded so soft and stress free, it felt chilling, unfitting almost.
To ARK Simon this whole shit was like a cool Sci-Fi movie
@@Josuh why do you say that?
You think that Simon's time during soma, up until the space gun, felt like a sci-fi movie to him?
@@FFKonoko Horror Sci-fi
Because both of them are very pretty and bad people so when they get a happy ending ( depending on how you look at it) is a weird feeling, especially considering Simon has been inhabiting a dead body for all of the game.
@@cryojudgement2376 It’s unfair to call Simon a bad person when he literally had no choice in the matter and felt guilt about his “condition” the more he came to understand it. This guy has died 3 times (first his human body, then his body back at Omnicron, and finally the him that didn’t make it into the ARK) all the while being perfectly realistic in how he believes he’s the real Simon and not a copy, to the point of borderline delusion simply because his mind can’t cope with the actuality of what has happened to him. Now Catherine is another matter entirely since she knows everything and tells Simon nothing, manipulating him and not addressing any of his moral concerns to suit her own goals; he’s just a device to her. But Simon? Can’t agree with you about him.
The reason the ending feels weird isn’t because of something as superficial as “right” or “wrong” (concepts the entirety of the game spends blurring the line between). The ending feels weird because, as Simon says, the copies of them on the ARK aren’t actually them...and like Simon we’re forced to accept that. How can we be happy for the Simon on the ARK (believing himself the real one) when we know that OUR Simon is still at the bottom of the ocean, alone? It’s depressing, and it makes you realize that you’ve never actually been the real Simon, only the one that won the coin toss.