I noticed the video and some concept art of the early beta of the game from 2013, probably when the game was announced and the site went online, with the first gameplay trailer.
Though there are many similar areas with this game, and they seem somewhat lower resolution textures (maybe the game was using HPL-2 at that time), but the story seems very different overall, with different enemies, areas and plot elements (some references in the intercom records about a secret organisation like in Penumbra, Catherine is uploaded directly in Simon's mind like a second partition, etc.)
While I totally LOVED the final Soma game, the setting, the story, the gameplay, the endimg, EVERYTHING!!, I am also really fascinated by this alternate storyline!
Is there any way to get a version of the beta? I'm totally sure the Devs still got it in a playable state in their archive somewhere...
I know, I know, it's a beta, it doesn't represent the full game's quality, it's unstable, full of bugs, missing textures, etc (I know I used to work as a game beta tester), people will laugh at it, etc...BUT...I would PAY as much as for the full final game to play through the beta!
Please, is there any way we could get acces to this early version, provided as-is, with no technical support and no responsability of the Devs for any crashes resulting in PC damage, data loss or such situations???? At least a full playthrough video...I want more of this great masterpiece of digital art!
It could be released as a bonus or as paid content, eventually even a ported mobile version to run on IOS an Android devices...
UPDATE: Poll added.
I think many things in the vertical slice video were even better than in the final game. The voice acting hears by far more "dramatic", the atmosphere in the ship wreck is more danger at all. Monster music is very creepy and so many locations were different. They re-worked A LOT! From the 5 years development it seems like they wasted 1-2 years with early stuff that got finally cutted out or re-done. I like the final game, but the vertical slice feels more horror.
(09-29-2015, 09:48 PM)Googolplex Wrote: [ -> ]I think many things in the vertical slice video were even better than in the final game. The voice acting hears by far more "dramatic", the atmosphere in the ship wreck is more danger at all. Monster music is very creepy and so many locations were different. They re-worked A LOT! From the 5 years development it seems like they wasted 1-2 years with early stuff that got finally cutted out or re-done. I like the final game, but the vertical slice feels more horror.
It sort of reminds me a lot of Penumbra Black Plague for some reason...Judging by the content found in the vertical slice video and artwork folders, I thing Simon would have had a nightmare / hallucination similar to Philip, where he would revisit his appartment and memories of his life. Maybe it would be just like when Philip had to survive the hallicination in order to resist infection from the Tuurngait virus (the "dream" was the way your mind interpreted the virus getting over), in Simon's case the WAU would try to assimilate his mind and it would interpret it as a dream, which if he escaped he would escape the assimilation attempt.
I had a big déjà vu about Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in Amnesia, what with the whole trapped-inside-a-shell thing Catherine Chun mutters about. Maybe that was the idea that started it all.
It seems as if the original SOMA was more about a copy of Simon's consciousness trapped inside a simulation rather than being copied into the future inside a robot. Somebody at Frictional thankfully thought this really didn't invest the player emotionally, so they went for the crash and brain-scan, and back into reality, which I believe is much better. From that video, it also seems like the game was going to have stronger Cthulu vibes...
I'm glad they went with the new direction. Not that Vertical Slice's was bad, but it had already been done, so to speak.
Somewhere along the way they got their bearings sorted out, and directed the game towards uncharted territory. By the time they started thinking about or making the live-action videos they had it all figured out.
Dialogue lines and voice-acting were a bit better... Both were the weakest parts of current SOMA, in my opinion. Too much use of the word "fuck", for instance - a really cheap and vulgar way of trying to make dialogues sound "real".
Ahh...I really miss Penumbra's descriptions, like those in the beginning about isolation and fear; some of those deeper insights about human nature got lost in SOMA in a sea of dead-end Kantian conundrums.
(09-29-2015, 10:01 PM)AlterVision Wrote: [ -> ] (09-29-2015, 09:48 PM)Googolplex Wrote: [ -> ]I think many things in the vertical slice video were even better than in the final game. The voice acting hears by far more "dramatic", the atmosphere in the ship wreck is more danger at all. Monster music is very creepy and so many locations were different. They re-worked A LOT! From the 5 years development it seems like they wasted 1-2 years with early stuff that got finally cutted out or re-done. I like the final game, but the vertical slice feels more horror.
It sort of reminds me a lot of Penumbra Black Plague for some reason...Judging by the content found in the vertical slice video and artwork folders, I thing Simon would have had a nightmare / hallucination similar to Philip, where he would revisit his appartment and memories of his life. Maybe it would be just like when Philip had to survive the hallicination in order to resist infection from the Tuurngait virus (the "dream" was the way your mind interpreted the virus getting over), in Simon's case the WAU would try to assimilate his mind and it would interpret it as a dream, which if he escaped he would escape the assimilation attempt.
Losing the dream would end in the brain-in-jar sequence from the teaser.
(09-30-2015, 12:38 AM)1eyedking Wrote: [ -> ]It seems as if the original SOMA was more about a copy of Simon's consciousness trapped inside a simulation rather than being copied into the future inside a robot. Somebody at Frictional thankfully thought this really didn't invest the player emotionally, so they went for the crash and brain-scan, and back into reality, which I believe is much better. From that video, it also seems like the game was going to have stronger Cthulu vibes...
I'm glad they went with the new direction. Not that Vertical Slice's was bad, but it had already been done, so to speak.
Somewhere along the way they got their bearings sorted out, and directed the game towards uncharted territory. By the time they started thinking about or making the live-action videos they had it all figured out.
I also like the story from the final, published version of the game more then the beta, it is much better to know that everything is actually real rather then a dream / simulation.
Regardless of that, I would still love to play or at least watch through the entire beta...it would feel like a totally different game.
I'd also wish that the deleted scenes of the Depth movie (that was split into the Transmission episodes) were released.
If the Devs would ever consider making a boxed edition of the game, there should definately be a SOMA Collector's Edition containing the game on Blu-Ray or 4 DVD-s, a poster, an artwork book, the official soundtrack on CD, a DVD with the Transmission series, and a very limited and expensive release bonus special collector's edition could have a steelbook for the game disks and a bonus DVD containing the beta and the original unedited Depth movie (or at least the deleted scenes). That would be the greatest thing for us die-hard Frictional fans like myself, who have been along since Penumbra Tech Demo!
Interesting enough that the first hotfix/patch for SOMA on steam removed that bonus/e3 content folder.
(09-30-2015, 12:38 AM)1eyedking Wrote: [ -> ]Dialogue lines and voice-acting were a bit better... Both were the weakest parts of current SOMA, in my opinion. Too much use of the word "fuck", for instance - a really cheap and vulgar way of trying to make dialogues sound "real".
The writing and voice acting in the beta were not good - quite terrible in fact. Not only were they much better in the actual game, they were overall quite good in my opinion. I was very impressed by Catherine and I thought Simon was very convincing. I liked some of the side characters too, like Brandon Wan and Strohmeier.