Frictional apologizes for Soma silence with a new screenshot

Soma

Remember Soma, the underwater first-person horror game from Frictional Games, the psychological sadists who gave us Amnesia: The Dark Descent? Of course you do—it hasn't been that long since we talked about it, after all. Even so, Frictional recently took to Twitter to apologize for the lack of communication.

"Sorry for all the silence! We're closing in on Beta and everyone's working hard to get there," the studio tweeted yesterday. "Once that's done, we'll reveal more!"

Soma, at least what we've seen of it so far, is very much a Frictional joint, but with a decided sci-fi bent this time around. It takes place in an underwater research facility called PATHOS-2, where the machines, for reasons unknown, have begun taking on elements of self-awareness. This, of course, leads to all sorts of unpleasantness that you will have to deal with, even though you'll almost certainly be woefully ill-equipped to do so. It was revealed in late 2013 but has actually been in development since sometime in 2010.

To distract the impatient masses, Frictional tossed out a new SOMA screenshot, seen above. It's dark, as you'd expect, and appropriately creepy when examined up close: There's what appears to be a dead guy with a malformed skull (or maybe just a super-evolved brain), some blood, and a sort of indeterminate thing with lights that I'm really not looking forward to running into when I play the game. Can't wait.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.