The Game That Broke Me - A SOMA Video Essay

I appreciate you're work it is a masterpiece

As great as it is to hear more about this game.. this dude talks painfully slow. I was hoping for info, or to hear someone discuss the concepts in the game.. not a slow synopsis of everything that happens. 🤦‍♂️

It was a mercy that Catherine did not spend extensive time explaining to Simon that it is a copy-and-paste, not a "coin toss", or else Ark Simon would NOT have been happy for the rest of his Arc life.

SOMA is horror perfection it added the entire book of phobias in it then added new ones into it that we never expected. It really made use of video game logic like being FPS you don't see who you really are the entire time.

I replay this game for a lot of reasons. This year, it was to rethink the application of AI on our own world, transhumanism, and of course, for a cathartic cry in the dark while I think (for me) it is very human to not want to die alone... 😢😂

The game sucks...

I keep coming back to this video whenever I feel like getting mindfucked and every single time it just seems bleaker and bleaker. I've come to the conclusion that if you can't be your body and your mind at the same time, you are never entirely you, never fully human or alive. Seems like even with the Ark surviving in space for thousands of years, mankind died on Earth, as it might have always been it's fate.
This game throws so many questions at you, each of those questions spawning more questions and implications, and you're left in front of a screen thinking about a problem you know damn well is unsolvable. Brilliant piece of art and, to me, proof that no other medium will ever make you feel as intensely and personally as videogames will.
10/10 essay, I can only imagine how frustrating I't be to try and convey the importance of this game's themes but you did amazing.

Jfc can’t believe this managed to get over a million. The commentary is awful

Honestly, they should have just repopulated the world with their copies and just rebuilt the world with that paradigm. Each copies may start as being that same person but each unique copies will eventually gain their uniqueness as they experience life individually. They can destress from the dreariness of the world by going to the ark from time to time. No need to shoot it up to space where they can't do anything on the physical world. At least with copies uploaded to bodies, they can go back to the surface and rebuild it for the next humans. Catherine really is dumb for sending the ark to space.

They're lucky WAU didn't go rogue when it gained awareness of space and turn into AM

The last humans last words being "To the Stars" fucking gave me CHILLS

Came back here, after 4 years...maaan, the final remarks are priceless

Good video, but ngl the way you pause after every other word is pretty irritating

this game means so much to me, still.

The destruction is absolute

Is it at all possible that Catherine is the Wau?

You sound like creep back in the day "Number 2222.......it's the number 2". I can't remeber who it was, was it zach, or ony i can't find it

“Cut and pasting files” is actually pretty accurate to what the cult is doing. When you do so on a computer, you aren’t actually moving data. It copies to a reservoir, deletes the original, then you write it to the desired location, deleting the copy. There’s no actual continuum between the 3 copies of the file, yet the illusion of continuity is perceived like we’re moving a physical document from one folder to another in meatspace. To all outside observers, the new file in the new place is identical to the old, only the computer knows what really just happened.

This game broke my heart. I was in tears during the credits

imagine if they gave you the happy ending first and then

The mention of ‘Bioshock: Infinite’ at the end. <3 I too had to take a breather after playing. To this day, it’s one of my favorite games & franchises.

would be interesting to see what simon3 does if simon2, sarah, and even robin are left alive lol

SOMA was the game that convinced me that maybe the entire transhumanist brain uploading thing isn't such a great idea after all.

If this wasn't enough to destroy your mind, go watch White Christmas.

Yeah soma is a really good game. Althou it's literally NieR: Automata lite

still waiting for your content man

Once in a while I remember this masterpiece of a game and binge watch it again for the life crisis comments. It's great but this is literally torture to my soul

excellent, underrated game

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

Great video.

It was hard for me to pick if I should terminate or not to terminate the Simon before the transferring self to that better diving suit... in the end I did but it was not hard to find the right ethical choice... like every single one in this game, this was insane journey...

SOMA is the type of game you'd buy on a steam sale and play it just for easy achievements, but once you finished it you’ll get scarred for life, damn, this game is an underrated masterpiece

Wanna know something that sucks about this game if you think about it? The emergence of simon in a basically cybernetic body elimates the need to even use the ARK. Making ambulatory mechanical bodies means "humanity" could survive on the damaged planet surface.

Imagine if the order that the two outcomes came in was 50/50 so either you made it to the ark and then realize you left the other Simon behind or you were left behind and then see what could have been

Nice Essay.

Also Simon is kinda an idiot.

I dont know why I romanticize digitalization of my conciousness. But I do.
Reminds me of the encounter in Stellaris where you find exactly that ARK Thingy of another species and with unlocked tech you also can decide to give them Robot-Bodys again.

Simon sells drugs, hardcore drugs.

What ur doing to brandon and simon is the same thing thats happening to you doh..at 35min in video. I bet im right...its obvious
.😂🤔😉

🗣️ WITH DEALING WITH EXISTENTIAL DREAD OF CONSCIOUSNESS WITH THIS ONE!

Absolutely love this game and it feels just as impactful every time i replay it.

Ending got me bru😔 finished it 3years ago everytime i see it man what a story

This is the best video I've watched since the MGS2 AI video by some other guy I can't remember the name of..

simon just really a dumbass

reminds me of the movie the prestige, spoilers* but Robert had a similar machine that would clone himself (body and brain) for a magic trick, except when he flipped the switch the original Robert would be killed offstage by drowning in a box. He was quoted "It took courage... it took courage to climb into that machine every night... not knowing... if I'd be the man in the box... or the prestige."

This game is basically the plot of the Necrons but with a meteor instead of Super Space Cancer.

i really appreciate your video essays!

After I finished this game, I think I cried for like two days whenever I thought about the Simons still stuck at the bottom of the ocean.
I like to watch these analysis type videos a couple times a year because I can't bring myself to play the game again. Great work!

I literally replayed this game a couple of days ago. I still sob at the ending, the music, the capsule slowly fading into the unknown stary distance. Breathtaking.

very interesting, thanks

Could Simon find his first version? I wouldn’t mind near eternity with another person, even if it’s a clone of me.

Catherine isn't a human. It is an AI virus.