Frictional Games has significantly impacted video games and entertainment as a whole, with two of their best-selling titles acting as pillars in the modern horror genre. Due to the popularity of games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, many horror games in the early 2000s were competing in the survival-horror genre to be the next big hit. While some came and stuck a landing like Dead Space, Codenamed: Criminal Origins, and Fatal Frame, many, many other horror games missed their mark until the triple-A horror genre barely existed by 2010. So when 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Amnesia: The Dark Descent laun✨ched that same year, it was a huge success and ꦦcompletely changed horror games forever
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In 2015, Frictional Games launched Soma to even more positive reviews. Unlike Amnesia, the developer wanted this game to be more narrative-driven, focus more on its graphics and style, and be psychologically disturb🐼ing while still keeping tense horror moments like their first title. Because of this, many players new to the horror genre often ask about which game is better. Do they start with Amnesia, a legendary survival horror classic? Or do they begin with SOMA, ꧙a masterpiece of writing and “psychological horror?”
8 𝐆 Story: ✅Soma Features A Gripping Human Tale
The Dark Descent is in no way a bad story. It has an exciting plot, with Daniel leading the charge as he progresses through a dark castle with terrible inhumane secrets hidden beneath it. On the other hand, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Soma is on an entirel⛎y different level to The Dark Descent in terms of storytelling 𓆏and charac𝓡terization.
The dystopian underwater setting is home to a haunting tale of the human mind and what it means to truly be alive and human. From start to finish, you have to reckon with the uncompromising truth൲ that your brain was copied into another body in the future. As you go through the story, you meet several characters who act as warnings of how technology can go astray and how fragile humans are.
7 ♏ Monster♒s: Soma Contains Mutated Experiments
While the enemies from The Dark Descent are iconic on YouTube for being humanoid fleshy monsters that scream andౠ chase꧃ after you, and have gotten some extreme reactions from YouTubers, there isn’t much variety in them. You have gatherers, brutes, the invisible fish monster, and finally, the shadow. Out of all of them, two are the same just renamed, one you can’t see, and the other is a red fleshy substance that blocks pathways and attacks you when you get too close.
In no way does that mean that those enemies are bad, but Soma steps it up a notch with seven different monsters, each varying in different ways. All of them attack you if you get too close, but they feel very different - some can’t see you, while others can’t hear you, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:there are even fish monsters that you can see and are as small as a piranha an꧟d as giant as a leviathan.
6 👍 Horror: The Dark🐠 Descent Offers Thrilling, Tense Situations
Often when consuming entertainment, whether it be vi🍸deo games, movies, or television, we misinterpret the horror genre with thrillers. These two genres, which are similar on the surface, often complement each other when combined to make phenomenal classics. However, if you’re looking for pure horror, then The Dark Descent has you covered.
Soma is labeled as a psychological horror game because slow burn narrative more along the lines of a psychological thriller film. While Amnesia deals w🐓ith supernatural elements and is specifically designed to horrify its audience with monsters and its story — there is less deeper meaning and more sheer terror. All this means that Soma feels more is a🔯 mystery combined with unraveling the human mind. While there may be some horror elements, it’s not as scary as Amnesia and will not give the same horrifying sensation.
5 ♋Puzzles: Tie ꦬ
Frictional Games has done some꧋thing unique — it has found a way to include difficult puzzles within its game without taking away from the story or atmosphere. Everything in The Dark Descent and Soma feels natural and at home in their setting, with only minimal steps to be able to solve what at first seems to be complex problems.
The difference between the two is that The Dark Descent has setups with puzzles where you must go back to specific areas to get something to sol🧔ve an even bigger puzzle. While on the other hand, Soma uses more contained puzzles to enter certain places or do certain things to keep the story flowing smoothly. It really is a matter of preference here as to if you prefer re-exploring old areas for new secrets or just straightforward puzzles but they both have their merits.
4 Additional Content: The Dark Descent Has Excellent Community-Made M🌠ods
When it comes to additional content for the game, Soma never received any major updates, in stark contrast to The Dark Descent. Although there are some cไommunity-made mods for Soma that are excellent in their own right, The Dark Descent has hundreds more with a community that is still very active and new mods still being released.
However, The Dark Descent also has officially released extra content with Amnesia: Justine. The story of a woman who wakes up in her cell with amnesia and a phonograph that explains in her own voice to pass a series of tests. You can save people or let them die, l🅷eading up to multiple endings depending on your choice. Plenty of mods build upon the game, just like Justine, making the game infinitely more replayable.
3 𓃲 Setting: Ti🤡e
The Dark Descent is set in the Prussian castle, Brennenburg, home to Alexander, th🥂e game’s main antagonist. Everywhere you visit you will be trapped inside this castle,ღ and nothing is out of place or out of the ordinary except for the game’s final levels, where you find a church and a sanctuary for an orb where you find Alexander’s most precious rooms and secrets.
Compared to that, you then have Soma, which is set deep underwater after almost all life was recently wiped out due to a comet. The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:undeওrwater facility is called PATHOS-II and features eight underwater sites and one site on the land destroyed by the comet. Each site holds some responsibility, whether it be generating power, researching marine biology, or transferring cargo between locations. Because of this distinction, each 👍one is laid out differently, with various obstacles and challenges to overcome.
2 Gameplay: The Dark Descent Is Actively Engaging ꦇ
Soma is a fantastic story-driven psychological thriller featuring unique monsters♑ with tense chase scenes and even more tense stealth areas. But, there is way more dialogue and times when you walk around PATHOS looking at and reading notes. In terms of gameplay, The Dark Descent surpasses Soma.
Not only are you constantly on the move being chased by grunts or forced to hide, but you’re also actively figuring out puzzles. When you’re not doing either of those, then there is a good chance you’re platforming or being jump scared by the nightmares of the castle. The game constantly engages you with little downtime compared🐻 to Soma, where the narrative takes center stage.
1 ꧋ Results: Be൩tter For Different Reasons
Overall, both games are immensely entertaining for their own separate reasons. On the one hand, you have the horror classic with 𝔍intense gameplay to complement the tense horror situations. And on the other hand, you have a na♓rratively fantastic psychological thriller with aspects of horror spread out and designed to slowly build dread.
Each game excels in its own area, which is why they’re considered pillars of the horror game genre. If you want fear, fast-paced action, and lo🌊ts of 𒅌lore, then play Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and if you want fear, a great story, a🦋nd excellent art and design, then Soma is your ticket.