# SOMA

19 Hacker News commenters recommended SOMA and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend SOMA for its existential sci-fi horror and a story that works only because you play it first person. Critics mainly say its choices have few consequences and its ideas feel shallow.

## Why people recommend it

- Existential sci-fi horror (2 comments): "One of my favorite games, and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good existential sci-fi horror." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361338)) "SOMA is existentialism 2.0" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361546))
- Better than reading about its ideas (2 comments): "the experience of exploring the through the game was so much stronger than reading about them in a text book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47472543)) "a much better presentation of the topic than reading about it in a scifi novel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48382995))
- Only works in first person (2 comments): "I simply love how the game tackles this in a way that can only be done with an interactive first person PoV." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361512)) "It put it you in the center of the experiment." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48372225))
- Decisions carry weight without rewards (2 comments): "no external reward or punishment, you need to carry the burden of your own decisions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296553)) "it makes you be the guy who has to unplug the thing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48372505))

## What people warn about

- Few consequences for your choices (2 comments): "There also aren't really any consequences to anything, it's pretty much entirely up to you to think about them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48380746)) "these kinds of consequences aren't really there, but otherwise nothing really comes out of anything you do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48387275))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Sid Meier's Pirates!](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sid-meier-s-pirates.md): 61 recommend
- [Grim Fandango](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grim-fandango.md): 41 recommend
- [Myst](https://hackerapproved.com/p/myst.md): 31 recommend
- [Monkey Island](https://hackerapproved.com/p/monkey-island.md): 29 recommend
- [Doki Doki Literature Club](https://hackerapproved.com/p/doki-doki-literature-club.md): 25 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SOMA", https://hackerapproved.com/p/soma/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).