SOMA
Hacker ApprovedRanked 7 of 24 adventure games by recommenders
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.
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.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 90%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 9.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Existential sci-fi horror
“One of my favorite games, and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good existential sci-fi horror.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)” “SOMA is existentialism 2.0”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)” Better than reading about its ideas
“the experience of exploring the through the game was so much stronger than reading about them in a text book”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Major leap towards reanimation after death as mammal's brain preserved” “a much better presentation of the topic than reading about it in a scifi novel”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)” Only works in first person
“I simply love how the game tackles this in a way that can only be done with an interactive first person PoV.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)” “It put it you in the center of the experiment.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)” Decisions carry weight without rewards
“no external reward or punishment, you need to carry the burden of your own decisions”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “The Melancholy of Slaying Monsters” “it makes you be the guy who has to unplug the thing”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Few consequences for your choices
“There also aren't really any consequences to anything, it's pretty much entirely up to you to think about them”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)” “these kinds of consequences aren't really there, but otherwise nothing really comes out of anything you do”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)”
Other adventure games people recommend
The four most recommended other adventure games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sid Meier's Pirates! | 61 | 11 | 85% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Grim Fandango | 41 | 8 | 84% | 3 | 20 yrs3 owners | — |
| Myst | 31 | 7 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Monkey Island | 29 | 3 | 91% | 9 | — | Approved |
| SOMAThis page | 19 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
30 of the 32 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Because of science fiction like the short story Lena [1] and the video game Soma [2]”
“these kinds of consequences aren't really there, but otherwise nothing really comes out of anything you do”
“a much better presentation of the topic than reading about it in a scifi novel”
“There also aren't really any consequences to anything, it's pretty much entirely up to you to think about them”
“it makes you be the guy who has to unplug the thing”
“It put it you in the center of the experiment.”
“I think its exploration of the topics was pretty shallow.”
“One thing that's great about SOMA is that the AI isn't nessessarily very capable and that's part of the problem”
“I like to get into heated debates with friends that have played SOMA about whether or not the events in the ending that is presented to you were all necessary and effective”
“SOMA is existentialism 2.0”
“less God, more WAU from SOMA or the Ocean from Solaris.”
“I simply love how the game tackles this in a way that can only be done with an interactive first person PoV.”
“One of my favorite games, and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good existential sci-fi horror.”
“SOMA was a cognito-hazard for me and my roommate in college; we played it in the dark together”
“no external reward or punishment, you need to carry the burden of your own decisions”
“The whole Amnesia series, and SOMA (cannot recommend enough) also do something similar.”
“the training efficiency means it can run on very constrained hardware”
“A great exploration of the pitfalls of "preserve humanity" as a reward function is the video game SOMA.”
“A great exploration of the pitfalls of "preserve humanity" as a reward function”
“the experience of exploring the through the game was so much stronger than reading about them in a text book”
“an extremely critical examination of this entire concept”
“Lots of parallels to the (very good) videogame SOMA.”
“If you were going to do this game as a proper immersive sim instead of an 'on a rail' story, the decisions a player had freedom to make could involve the player's beliefs”
“SOMA's is a story I'd be proud to have written.”
“It would have been a more emotionally complex game if he’d made his peace with the reality of the situation”
“One of SOMA's more subtle, and much more effective, narrative choices was to make its protagonist and its player character two entirely different people.”
“This was certainly the most annoying aspect of the game for me.”
“the in-game protagonist pretty much ends the game still seemingly not understanding what the hell is going on”
“it still invokes the same type of emotion and thinking SotC does when you play it”
“It's a beautiful, relaxing, euphoric high. Probably highly addictive.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.