Soma

[PizzaSHARK]

Whatever floats your boat. I don't care to define things for others for something that people can perceive as subjective.

Issue with Dead Space in particular for me was that they made a atmosphere where it has a lot of material to work with but in the end all you end up doing is preparing for the next peek-a-boo.

So why bring it up, then? As mentioned, literally any game can be scary or a "horrifying experience" if you put yourself in the right mindset.

The book in question doesn't matter. The point was that, sometimes, an artist has a story they want to tell, and that's perfectly fine. Choose-your-own-adventure books aren't a higher form of literature than standard novels.

So why waste players' time, then? Oooh, you better think about this decision before you make it, because it might change things down the line! HAHA, NOPE, JUST YANKIN' YOUR CHAIN THERE, PLAYER!

It made it feel like a game more than anything else. I flick off the flow regulator thingie that the game goes to great pains to make clear that it will break if I flick it off, and... nothing. Doesn't appear to make any difference. I can erase files in a computer - effectively "killing" people - and other than Cathy yelling at me, nothing happens.

So why even bother presenting the illusion of choice? It's stupid.

So then, in the vein of SOMA, I question, does being a watcher of a game make you a player of the game?

Heh.

SOMA is more of a "walking simulator" than Amnesia was, and Amnesia was definitely a game you didn't need to play to experience (assuming you could find a streamer who didn't have a facecam they were screaming into the entire time, anyway...)

In all honesty, you could probably watch a quiet streamer play through SOMA and enjoy it much like as though you were watching a really long movie. There's very little actual gameplay to be had and the story is pretty much what every positive review harps on. There's not really much to explore (besides finding stuff to listen to and read, which you can get from just watching an LP), the puzzles aren't even really puzzles (more like just busywork to pad the game time a bit), and except for one blatantly cheating monster at the end and the automatic chase sequence monsters, most of the monsters are about as threatening and aware as traffic cones, so there's not even much in the way of stealth or avoidance-based gameplay, either.

It'll still probably be more fun to play it, but you'll get plenty out of the game just by watching a quiet person play through it, too.

- - - Updated - - -

Not reading anything that's said in this thread due to spoilers.
Definitely going to play this later. Outlast was the first horror game I've played and it was incredible. Like most things on Steam I don't buy it until its at least 60% off but I might make an exception if the fall steam sale doesn't lower it as much.

Spoilers won't rob the story of its impact. I was tired of stomping around boring underwater environments for the thirtieth time about halfway through the game so I flicked to the end of a guide to ensure that even finishing the game would be worth the time and I still enjoyed the ending.

[Remilia]

So why bring it up, then? As mentioned, literally any game can be scary or a "horrifying experience" if you put yourself in the right mindset.

I didn't, I'm only adding on to what Endus said using someone else's opinion. I don't really care about semantics or no true scotsman thing, it's just someone's opinion on it.