It’s been more than a decade since I used to enjoy watching YouTubers freak out while playing ‘Amnesia: The Dark Descent’, a game that revolutionised the horror genre for many people, including myself.

Then, in 2015, Frictional Games released their next game, ‘Soma’, one I sadly never got around to playing back then. Now, ten years later, thanks to Abylight Studios, it’s being rereleased on the Nintendo Switch 2, and I finally had the chance to dive into this horror classic.

The game takes place in 2015, where we wake up in the apartment of Simon Jarrett, a man recovering from a serious car accident that has left him with a traumatic brain injury. In a bid to find answers, Simon agrees to undertake an experimental brain scan in the hopes of getting a more precise diagnosis. Things don’t go quite as planned, though, as Simon reawakens in unfamiliar territory.

Much to our protagonists’ disbelief, we quickly learn it’s no longer present day; the year is now 2104 and somehow, we’re now stranded in a large deep-sea facility in the Atlantic Ocean named Pathos-II. Navigating the many abandoned sections of the stations, Simon meets his one and only ally, Catherine, a researcher whose mind has been transferred into a robot, unable to move. We transfer her mind into our Omni-Tool.

What follows is a gruelling 9-hour journey through Pathos-II to save humanity, packed with heartbreaking revelations about Simon, some brilliant back-and-forth voice acting between the two main characters, heavy plot twists, and moral choices that actually left me feeling quite guilty. Narratively, it definitely stuck with me. It’s very much story first, horror second, and the scares benefit because of that at times.

There are some seriously tense monster encounters, creeping through dark sci-fi hallways, playing a game of cat & mouse without knowing if the monster was actually behind me. .. and when there was something behind me? Pure panic. Those chases got my blood pressure up and had me properly stressed. The monster AI, when it was at its best, meant I had to keep on my toes as even the slightest sound meant they were on me within seconds.

I wish more of them had that same impact. Some of the monster encounters felt too predictable, which took the fear out of it. Instead of being scary, they ended up feeling more tedious than anything. Thankfully, as I mentioned earlier, the story carried me through, as I still wanted to learn what was to come, but I won’t forget the rush some of the creatures of Pathos-II gave me.

The atmosphere plays a significant role in setting the tone. Whether you’re creeping through the dark, abandoned hallways of the research stations or trudging along the ocean floor between them, even if it was easy to get lost at times, you really feel the weight of being one of the last living people on Earth.

You can also interact with numerous objects, picking up chairs or fire extinguishers to smash windows, and move cables around to restore power. The puzzles aren’t too tricky and are pretty straightforward, but they’re satisfying because you’re physically doing everything yourself. Pressing buttons, pulling levers, sealing pressure chambers. It makes you feel like you’re totally in control of the situation.

Additionally, the computers around the station offer bits of lore about the people who once worked there, adding more depth to the story already unfolding. Learning their backstories made some of those moral choices I mentioned earlier hit even harder on the conscience.

Haunting piano and synths follow you throughout, adding even more tension to the already heavy atmosphere. As for performance, the Nintendo Switch 2 handled the game really well, with no hiccups at all. It’s worth noting that I expected this, given that it’s not a particularly demanding game by today’s standards.

Soma still stands as a perfect example of what great horror can be, a decade later. Its story is heavy, both emotionally and thematically, ironically mirroring the crushing isolation of being trapped beneath the ocean, while the monster encounters can be hit or miss, the ones that land are truly terrifying, and that’s more than enough for me. If you’ve ever been on the fence about playing it, there’s no better time than now.

Written by: Dylan Kocins