Frictional Games has just released another teaser trailer for SOMA, their upcoming horror game for the PS4. The creators of Amnesia: A Dark Descent are no strangers to scaring gamers silly, but now they're taking their unique brand of survival horror to outer space.
The teaser doesn't reveal too much but in a post on the Playstation blog Creative Director Thomas Grip states that SOMA is only a week away from an alpha build, where more than half of the game will be playable. The game length currently around 5 hours which means that the final game will take around 8 hours or so, which is to my mind perfect for a game like this. Frictional Games' titles so far show they care more about what the entire experience is like than most- there's no filler, each moment means something and expands the story. And besides, your brain probably couldn't take much more terror.
The alpha build is critical for Fricttional because it's only when the game is in a playable state that they can start focusing on how the narrative is unveiled, pacing the story (and the scares) to make for an optimal experience. He's laid out the 5 goals of the game as such:
Goal 1: The feeling of playing a narrative
Goal 2: A coherently crafted world
Goal 3: Gameplay with plenty of variation
Goal 4: Deep, disturbing themes that make you think
Goal 5: A pervasive sense of horror
He expands greatly on each of those goals on the Playstation Blog, talking about how the game should be "utterly terrifying" and how it must be "emotionally tasking to progress". Oh, we're in for it.
Grip writes that SOMA is heading towards a 2015 release on the PS4 and that "we think this is shaping up to be our studio's best work so far - by a wide margin." Check out the "Theta" trailer below. More as we hear it!