1000xRESIST is probably one of the most criminally underrated games I have ever come across, though underrated might not be the correct term. From what I can tell, everyone who has played it seems to have loved it, and rightfully so. I won't go on a pointless rant about how much I loved this game and what makes it so good; enough people have done that already. I'll just give a brief breakdown of why I enjoyed this game as much as I did, and hopefully convince you to give it a try.

The gameplay functions more like a walking simulator, consisting mainly of running around and talking to people, and while it is well done in its own right, the focus is certainly more on the narrative. Speaking of which, the narrative and writing are incredible. The story is original and engaging, and the writing is exceptional—to the point where it wouldn't feel out of place in classic literature. It deals with a lot of very complicated topics like generational trauma, oppression, cultural differences, immigration, revolution, post-humanism, and many more. All these themes are condensed into a relatively short game, however none of them feel rushed or like they didn’t get the attention they deserve.

The visual style is equally impressive. While the out-of-place-looking character models were irritating at first, they started to feel very fitting by the end. All the emotional moments of the game feel authentic, and the amazing soundtrack ties the whole thing together perfectly.

If you enjoy narrative-driven video games, you need to play this game. Fair warning though, it deals with some heavy topics and I needed a minute to digest everything afterwards, so maybe finish it on a free weekend or when you have some time on your hands.

SOMA is one of the greatest executions of classic cyberpunk that I have seen to date. While it might seem atypical for the genre due to the lack of huge cities, bright neon lights, and advertisements plastered all over the place, the themes the game focuses on are all the more typical, especially for early cyberpunk. While the focus of current works within the genre seems to have shifted more towards the future of capitalism, early works much more regularly made the relationship between humans and machines, as well as the difference between them, take center stage. SOMA follows those themes well, dealing especially with the relationship between the mind and the body, as well as, in some way, the existence of the soul. What makes us human, and what does it mean to clone someone's mind?

All this is done amazingly well in terms of the story. I won't go in-depth on the story and the world because figuring all that out is a huge part of what makes the game so enjoyable, but all the themes are wrapped into a very engaging story with characters that are believable and well-written.

The only thing that holds this game back a bit is the jank that is present in most aspects of gameplay. While I did find most of the puzzles quite fun, and the interaction with objects shows some age but feels good once you get used to it, I did have a bunch of technical difficulties throughout my playthrough. Granted, I am on Linux, so this might not apply to everyone, but the native Linux version was very unstable for me—it crashed regularly while tabbing out, and things like the gamma setting didn’t work at all. The Proton version was alright but had some windowing issues that were fixed by setting it to windowed mode and fullscreening the game through my window manager. Halfway through my playthrough, the game would only show a black screen upon starting; this was fixed by verifying the game files.

I played the game on Safe Mode because I am not good with horror, and usually, fighting in horror games just feels like a frustrating chore to me. While I knew the monsters couldn't kill me, they still managed to scare me, and the general atmosphere did not suffer.

Overall, SOMA is an experience you shouldn't miss out on. It's fairly affordable on sale and pretty short at around 8 hours of playtime. Normal Mode will give you a pretty traditional horror game experience, while Safe Mode will turn the game into more of a walking simulator, so depending on your preferences, it can be played either way.