Soma, Frictional's new horror game, arrives in September

Soma

The dime has finally dropped on Soma, the upcoming new horror game from the team that made the hallucinogenic, let's-leave-the-lights-on-forever-mother, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Frictional Games announced today that Soma will be out on September 22, and also released a 12 minute gameplay trailer that starts slowly, gets weird, and then veers into some classic Amnesia-style creepiness.

The footage is taken from about an hour into the game, and while the protagonist is obviously confused, he's not suffering from amnesia: He has an established past, and knows who he is. Frictional also said that there's a lot more to see and do in this level than is shown in the video, and outcomes may vary depending on how you play.

Soma has taken so long—development began in 2010—because of the difficulty in handling its themes and gameplay without sinking into "ham-fisted exposition," Frictional wrote on the PlayStation Blog. "Getting this right has been extremely hard as it’s not something you can easily iterate on. Creating that disturbing sense of existential horror just right takes hours of setup. It also requires a lot of assets to be in place before it can be tested properly. So while other games can make several iterations a week on their foundational elements, it’s taken us roughly a year for each iteration."

Part of me thinks that if I had any sense at all, I'd stay as far away from this game as possible; but another part—the part that makes the purchasing decisions, for better or worse—can't wait. Find out more about the horror that lurks in the black depths of the sea at Somagame.com.

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.