When comparing SOMA vs Super Meat Boy, the Slant community recommends SOMA for most people. In the question“What are the best PS4 (PlayStation 4) games?” SOMA is ranked 12th while Super Meat Boy is ranked 53rd. The most important reason people chose SOMA is:
SOMA’s atmosphere is a combination of various things. It can be the feeling of loneliness when you’re exploring a rundown and desolate lab. The feeling of anxiety as you trek along the seafloor and you’re only surrounded by muffled sounds and the bubbling of the water. The feeling of fear as you dive deeper into the ocean and the sun becomes more distant. It’s an extremely immersive atmosphere, which is something that many modern horror games don’t have.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great atmosphere
SOMA’s atmosphere is a combination of various things. It can be the feeling of loneliness when you’re exploring a rundown and desolate lab. The feeling of anxiety as you trek along the seafloor and you’re only surrounded by muffled sounds and the bubbling of the water. The feeling of fear as you dive deeper into the ocean and the sun becomes more distant. It’s an extremely immersive atmosphere, which is something that many modern horror games don’t have.
Pro A horror game for Sci-Fi enthusiasts
SOMA is set in the future, so it has all that futuristic goodness. Things like robots, AIs, underwater laboratories, diving suits designed to endure immense water pressure, and much more. SOMA is a thoroughly enjoyable Sci-fi experience.
Pro Thought-provoking story
Like many horror stories, it delves deep into uncovering the central mystery of what’s going on. There are many unsettling events and revelations along the way, bringing up philosophical questions about consciousness and identity. It’s the type of story that sticks with you long after you’ve finished it and is worth experiencing at least once.
Pro Play through iteration is fast
When you die, you spawn quickly to try again. Many games draw out the death, and have to reload. Super Meat Boy immediately re-spawns you so you waste no time.
Pro Forgivingly tight controls
The addition of a "run" button adds a lot of depth to levels, keeping the run-jump-repeat loop more interesting. The characters have acceleration as well, which demands finesse.
Pro Large number of levels
This is not a game you are going to complete in an afternoon. With 240 levels scattered across 7 worlds there is a lot to play in the game.
Pro Unique visual style
As is typical of Ed McMillen's games, it looks like nothing else out there. The art style is 2D based but heavily unique with a vector graphics cartoony look.
Cons
Con Not for mainstream horror enthusiasts
SOMA focuses heavily on psychological horror by maintaining suspense and creating a very creepy atmosphere. If you’re looking for jump scares, gore, and other thrill-inducing horror aspects you might be sorely disappointed.
Con Very linear level design
While other horror titles have branching paths and open areas you get to explore, SOMA is very linear even in its ocean exploration sections. This feels like a failed opportunity to create an even better game.
Con No HUD (head-up display) or map
You have to memorize the layouts of the underwater facilities, since there is no HUD or overlay map system. Even though there are several computer terminals scattered through the game that provide access to rudimentary maps, there's no way to save them.
Con Cut-scenes lack polish
Between the games gameplay are cut-scenes that fill the player in on the evolving story, sadly the artwork and polish for these cut-scenes shows quite a bit that this is an indie game made by two people as they are a bit unrefined.