Last week Frictional Games, the makers of the Amnesia horror games, put up a new teaser website for what is, presumably, the studio’s next game. The site and a live-action teaser trailer show what appears to be a new sci-fi game that incorporates artificial intelligence in some way. Today, Frictional released yet another teaser for Soma through the website.
Like the previous video, this one is also live-action. It stars the same red-headed researcher from the previous trailer, referred to in the website text as AM Engineer Imogen Reed. She sits down for an interview with a partially self-disassembled machine lying on a workroom floow. The machine, referred to as “Mockingbird” in the site text, argues with Reed and refers to itself as Adam Golaski. Then the human Golaski shows up.
Two videos in and there is still little to go on to determine what Soma might be about. Still, there are clues. In addition to the obviously spooky nature of the AI in the videos, the character in the videos is referred to as “AM Engineer.” AM is the designation of an artificial intelligence in a famous Harlan Ellison short story called I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. If there is a connection and the name is not simply an homage, it would mean that Frictional is indeed making another horror game, as the short story itself is a classic of sci-fi horror.