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Frictional Wants to Postpone Death in ‘SOMA’

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There’s a lot to look forward to in the coming year. If you’re a fan of the horror genre, there’s no shortage of horror games that are worth getting excited about. Of the myriad games we have on the way, the one I’m perhaps most looking forward to is SOMA — the next project from Amnesia developer Frictional Games.

Frictional Games creative director Thomas Grip recently took to the studio’s official blog to share his thoughts on a reaction video for Alien: Isolation. In it, players react with terror and relief when their character is captured and killed by the xenomorph. While Grip mentions the Alien: Isolation video specifically, he’s only using it as a jumping off point for his article — not as a criticism toward that game. Grip sees this as a problem for all horror games to avoid, including SOMA.

“If you watch the video you can see that the players aren’t being freaked out of their minds when they die. They’re laughing, and feeling relief. And the death sequence is non-interactive, which further enhances this sense of sitting back and becoming a spectator.”

Frictional Games is working on remedying this issue by postponing the player’s death, so as to prolong that feeling of suspense and anxiety as long as possible, because when the player dies, it gives them a brief reprieve from the horrors on-screen.

“The only proper solution is to make sure that death is postponed. Outlast has a monster that throws you to one side, giving you a chance to run off, a mechanic that works well in its story. Daylight has damage build up on the screen, which gives you time to escape. Both of these are great ways of extending the terror. Some kind of death must happen sooner or later, though, or the player will quickly realize that the monster is harmless – and that’s no good at all. When death occurs I think it’s important to remove this sense of repetition. For instance, in Amnesia we changed the map a bit after each death (which in some cases led to additional scares).”

I’m glad he brought up Outlast, as I’ve always felt that game handles death in a smart way. In related news, Outlast: Whistleblower released today, and I hear it’s pretty good.

SOMA arrives on PC and PS4 in 2015.

Gamer, writer, terrible dancer, longtime toast enthusiast. Legend has it Adam was born with a controller in one hand and the Kraken's left eye in the other. Legends are often wrong.

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One of Clive Barker’s Final Convention Appearances Will Be at New Jersey’s Monster Mania in August

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Clive Barker

We told you earlier this month that horror legend Clive Barker is leaving the convention scene behind to focus entirely on his writing, with various upcoming projects in the works.

A series of final appearances from Barker will begin at Days of the Dead Chicago this month, and we’ve learned Barker will also be coming to Monster Mania in New Jersey.

Clive Barker will be signing at Monster Mania 59 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which runs from August 2 – August 4, 2024. Stay tuned for more info from the convention.

Barker’s official statement earlier this month explained, “… it’s time to focus entirely on writing. I’m not stopping public events because I’ve lost delight in meeting you all over the years. I’m as passionate as ever about sharing my imagination with readers and moviegoers around the world. In the very room where I’m writing these words, I have the manuscripts for a very large number of projects (Thirty-one of them), some very close to completion, others still telling themselves. There are some wild projects in this collection of works, whether close to finished or done. There are also stories that you all knew I would be finishing.”

“Abarat IV and V are amongst the books at my feet,” he continued. “So is the Third and final book of The Art and the sequel to The Thief of Always. There are also return visits to characters and mythologies you may have thought I would never return to.

“I hope I am still able to surprise you in the decades ahead.”

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