14 DAY TRIAL // The newly announced Soma project from Frictional Games has not yet received many clear details about the story or the gameplay, but Creative Director Thomas Grip says that the experience will subvert plenty of the players’ expectations and will aim to manipulate their reactions.
The developer tells Gamasutra in a wider interview that the company, since the launch of its first Amnesia game, has sought to probe the depths of the human mind and how it could be influenced to develop new ideas and act irrationally.
Soma will not feature any combat, but Frictional Games plans to offer more options than ever to interact with the environment, although not all of them will be beneficial for the player.
Thomas Grip says, “Interesting things spring up when you put people in situations that you have to evaluate according to an imaginary mind model.”
He says that his team is experimenting with audio and visual cues to see how players are reacting to them and is designing Soma by subverting its suppositions about what’s safe and what can lead to a horror moment.
The developer adds, “In Amnesia: The Dark Descent we were using this for cheap scares, and the deeper thematics came on at a very late stage. This time, I want to explore how far we can take this kind of thinking. I know it's going to be a bit risky. We couldn't have done it in the past, though, because we hadn't had enough experience with how players react.”
Frictional Games says that Soma will be launched on the PC powered by Windows and Linux, the Mac and the PlayStation 4 from Sony.
The move to a console will allow the team to show off its unique brand of horror experience to a wider audience and will give it a chance to work with new types of hardware.