SOMA is a wonderful choice. It's creepy enough, but what really stood out to me were the horrific implications of choice. In many games where choice is present (Dishonored, Until Dawn, Heavy Rain, Bioshock), it's made clear from the beginning that your choices WILL ultimately affect the outcome. This is usually done through character exposition and button prompts. The most unsettling thing about SOMA, to me, is the fact that the game often presents you with a life-or-death choice, and then leaves you to it. No button prompts, no voiceover about "it's up to you", and no apparent effect on the ending. I first noticed this when I came across an individual on the floor, connected to a horrific life-support machine by hoses, mostly lucid and in great distress. You have the option of speaking a few lines of dialogue with her, and she mentions the machine is keeping her alive and "won't let her die". After exhausting her dialogue options, I explored the room and noticed I could interact with the hoses plugged into her torso, and I realized I had the option of unplugging her. This proved to be an unexpected moral quandary; would killing her be a mercy? It's not like she asked me to end her suffering. If I DID leave her, how long would she remain here, plugged into this bio-mechanical computer? How long HAD she been there? What was I supposed to do? I won't tell you what I chose, but I can confirm it had zero bearing upon the ending of the game. You'll run into several situations akin to this throughout, and the game will absolutely not hold your hand through them. Hell, you may even miss some. Even without any apparent effect within the game, the choices I made were more meaningful and potent than anything I've seen in a long time, and lingered with me for a long time. Wonderfully unsettling stuff.
