According to Frictional Games blog - no it doesn't affect them, you can still get them in the safe playthrough. All the trophies are about progressing in the story anyway and the game doesn't have a platinum.
I didn't find the encounters scary, I found them shitty, and to tarnish an otherwise worthwhile experience.
I didn't find the encounters scary, I found them shitty, and to tarnish an otherwise worthwhile experience.
The game has an incredible atmosphere and story which are 100% worth the price of admission alone. Those encounters just got in the way of what made the game great.
SOMA isn't a horror game in the traditional sense. It's more about psychological horror than jump scares/encounters so the enemy encounters are a huge juxtaposition to the overall tone.
There's only 2/3(?) encounters in the whole game if I remember correctly and I never had any issue with them but seemingly a lot of people did.
They can be more frustrating than scary to be honest, they aren't super well designed, and the atmosphere, story and environments are all of such a higher quality and can offer a real sense of fear and dread that you'll still get a really meaningful and intense experience this way, it won't be the best way to play for a lot of players, most even, but its a great option to have.
Amnesia was strange with its monster encounters too, there were quite few, but if you died to them it really felt like the game would cheat a bit and spawn them in a different location or with a different pattern so you wouldn't have to really have to deal with them again, but the tension would still be there.SOMA isn't a horror game in the traditional sense. It's more about psychological horror than jump scares/encounters so the enemy encounters are a huge juxtaposition to the overall tone.
There's only 2/3(?) encounters in the whole game if I remember correctly and I never had any issue with them but seemingly a lot of people did.
The game wasn't really a jump scare experience. It's more of an oppressive, existential horror thing.Once the monsters are out, are there any jump-scares left? I love me some atmospheric horror but couldn't stomach Amnesia
The game wasn't really a jump scare experience. It's more of an oppressive, existential horror thing.
It's in no way Amnesia levels of scary. Not even Machine for Pigs scary.
Agree 100%.The game has an incredible atmosphere and story which are 100% worth the price of admission alone. Those encounters just got in the way of what made the game great.
I can't imagine playing SOMA with all of the tension sucked out of the game. It's doesn't even make up a huge portion of the game but not knowing what's around every corner adds a ton of atmosphere and suspense on a first playthrough. Not to mention how death and mortality are huge themes throughout the experience. To each their own I guess. I could definitely see myself using this mode to soak in the environments after my initial playthrough. I think you'd be doing yourself a disservice playing SOMA in this mode on a first playthrough though.
The monsters in Safe Mode aren't out to kill you, but they will react to your presence. "We have to think of them as inhabitants of the environment and make their interactions with the player fit the game's atmosphere and story. I'm actually surprised by how well it all turned out. It fits the game far better than I thought it would when we started working on it. To be honest, it even made me question if this was the way the game should have been released in the first place. But I haven't made my mind up about that yet."
The monsters won't just stand around doing nothing either, and might even attack if you annoy them enough. "So while you can't die, the monsters may still be dangerous if you push your luck too much," says Grip. "This means there's still a sense of hostility in these creatures, which preserves the original intention of making the world feel inhospitable and oppressive. It's details like this that should make Frictional's Safe Mode more compelling, and more naturally integrated, than the Wuss Mode mod. Although it'll be interesting to see how it gets around that fraught moment in the wrecked ship.
I ask Grip if designing Safe Mode has changed the way he'll think about horror game design in the future. "It depends on the game, but we'll think about encounters differently," he says. "I think the biggest problem with SOMA is that the experience of meeting the creatures doesn't really add anything to the themes. They help build the atmosphere, but the stories they generate don't have a lot to do with the game's larger themes of identity and consciousness. Gameplay has to give rise to personal stories that mirror the narrative, and we're making sure this is the case in both our upcoming games."
Because SOMA without the encounters is still an amazing game, more like a walking simulator/immersive sim.
That's not a misconception. It's a different opinion.This misconception about monsters being absent in the safe mode, and the mode being in contradiction with the themes, apparently still lives on.
That's not a misconception. It's a different opinion.
There's no tension whatsoever if you don't fear death. Getting the player to fear for their lives and think about the possibility of death adds a great deal to the game. The story might remain intact without that fear but something is still lost in the process. Going through the game without those sequences turns the entire experience into a theme park ride. I think it would be a lesser experience. You and the game's developers are free to disagree.
Agreed. The encounters were boring hide and crouch walk. You couldn't do anything to affect those encounters besides throw a wrench. And when you died you just respawned. One encounter had me be attacked, then respawn closer to the objective. Sure. The story is very good and the encounters just ruin it, the monsters aren't scary either. I ran up to the first one because it looked interesting, not scary.I didn't find the encounters scary, I found them shitty, and to tarnish an otherwise worthwhile experience.
You're getting hung up on the word "contradiction". That's not really the crux of my argument. I'm not comparing SOMA to other games. I'm comparing it to itself. The fear of death adds to SOMA and taking that fear away lessens the experience. That fear gives the player a tangible connection to the themes of the game. It also adds tension in a more general sense because you don't want to lose progress. Taking these aspects away from the game might not contradict anything but it certainly takes something away from the experience.Untrue. That's also a different opinion. I find something like Silent Hill 2 far more tense than any Resident Evil game, eventhough its monsters aren't really a threat.
The director also said, that the mode isn't in contradiction with the themes of the game.
But you factually do not lose progress. You reset at the very same encounter. The camera is just wonkier than it was. It's insanely irritating and entirely pointless. It's not scary, it's just trying your patience.You're getting hung up on the word "contradiction". That's not really the crux of my argument. I'm not comparing SOMA to other games. I'm comparing it to itself. The fear of death adds to SOMA and taking that fear away lessens the experience. That fear gives the player a tangible connection to the themes of the game. It also adds tension in a more general sense because you don't want to lose progress. Taking these aspects away from the game might not contradict anything but it certainly takes something away from the experience.
Like I said, you and the director are free to disagree.