Video game developers are constantly learning. That’s why the game design process is such a deep and intrinsic one. After all, what might sound good on paper, may not be as good as you think once it’s put into a game. So, thus you change it. Or, you can make changes after a beta test, or the game’s release…or several years after it in the case of SOMA. The sci-fi horror game did impressive people on a lot of levels when it came out, but it had one fatal flaw: the monsters.
Not that they weren’t scary or anything, but many fans and critics noted that they were incredibly aggressive, making the game much more difficult to the point of rage quitting. To that end, players made a mod called “Wuss Mode”, which literally took away the aggressive of the monsters. The mod was so popular, that it’s the most downloaded mod for SOMA. And, Frictional Games took note of this, so they made an official version of this called “Safe Mode”, and it’s going to be put into the game on December 1st.
So, what will Safe Mode do? Well, according to Director of SOMA and Frictional Games founder Thomas Grip, it will also take away the killer instinct the monsters in the game have. This will make them very passive in the game. But, it will not make them fully docile. So, if you cross them, you better be ready for a response.
Interestingly enough, Grip mentioned to PC Gamer that this new version of the game might have been how Frictional Games should have done things in the original version:
“To be honest, it even made me question if this was the way the game should have been released in the first place.”
He also mentioned that Wuss Mode/Safe Mode has changed the way they view encounters with monsters, which likely will influence future games they make.
