Wednesday 28 October 2015

SOMA Part 3

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUqY4j1L6hs

A nice light start to the episode as Ross and Barry sing "Under the Sea" and swim around confused. So, Simon is a robot?

They swim around in the water until they come to a switch and some more exposition happens. They then come across a weird robot with a red light that tells them not to be greedy and knocks them out. (again, what's going on?!)

They wake and continue exploring confused, managing to avoid the red light robot this time. They find another robot with a white light stuck under a rock and free it, wondering what it'll do.

They come to a round metal door and the robot they rescued comes along and helps them open it. The robot reminds Ross of Weebo, the robot from Flubber but he doesn't remember what her name was.

They head in through the door towards a barnacle filled airlock where the water drains. It's back into dark and spooky corridors now, complete with a torch.

Just as Barry says "Oh I have a flashlight", Simon in the game says "Where did I get a flashlight?" and Barry goes "Good question!". "Good Question, Robot Simon!" adds Ross and some more flashback exposition happens.

They come across a weird pulsey robot thing and when they poke it, it sucks their hand in like they were plugging into something. Strangeness....

Ross actually had this long held notion that if he was dying or sick he'd upload himself into a robot in order to be an "immortal animator", but now as he plays this game he's a little scared of the idea and laughs a little nervously.

Soon after some more audio message exposition, they explore the scary dark cylindrical tunnel. Ross reckons it's the Nickelodeon Slime Factory.

They come across a disturbing sight of a half-woman, half-robot on some kind of life support and asking for help. They unplug her from the machine and head back. Ross wonders if they really had to do that and Barry says yeah but... I have no idea. Not sure of anything in this game!

They go into some kind of vehicle which travels along the tunnel before it crashes. They try coming up with various theories as to what is happening in the game at all. I can't really offer anything myself so I'm open to discussion about this!

After more tunnel exploring they come across another of those pulsating socket things which they now call "butt-holes" and stick their robot hand in it. The door just opens ajar and water leaks out. While backtracking they find a door marked "Exit" which leads back out into the ocean.

They wade away through the water, keeping an eye out for more red-eyed robots like the one that knocked them out earlier.

They find a place marked "Lamda" and head in to its airlock.

The fear really starts now as they come across a weird robot thing with white disco ball lights coming out of its head. "Don't look at it!" warns Catherine as they try to flee. Ross reckons it looks like an enderman from Minecraft!

They find Catherine... or at least what's left of her, but she's fully self-aware about being a machine. What follows is a weird conversation where she asks Simon to take a chip she ejects for him. Pretty darn unsettling...

They then insert her chip into the omnitool and continue talking to her on it where she explains the most bizarre stuff. She then gives Simon another task to which he replies "Sure Cath", like he's actually getting used to this crazy scenario. At least someone's here to make him feel in any way at ease!

Ross reckons this would make for a really good Dr. Who episode!

They find another butt-hole and plug into it. Dunno what happens in the game but it's a bit of comic relief for us watching!

They reach some bunk beds in another room and then decide to call it a day. The end slate of the episode is the two of them sighing with relief!

They're pretty scared! I find the game endlessly mysterious and weird but also dark and sad. I think if I were to play this game I'd like to share the experience with someone like the way Ross and Barry have each other here.

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