Frictional Games may be working on a 'SOMA-style' project

Amnesia: The Bunker creative lead Fredrik Olsson recently teased that other parts of Frictional are assembling a game like the much-loved SOMA.

Image via Frictional Games
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SOMA is easily a highlight among Frictional Games’ trademark horror designs for a lot of fans, and we could be getting another taste of that style and setting. Frictional Games’ current upcoming project is Amnesia: The Bunker, which once again pits players against a monster and challenges them to escape. However, creative lead Fredrik Olsson recently shared that the studio recognizes fans’ love for SOMA and the studio has allegedly been preparing something in that vein.

Olsson let the cat out of the bag on a new SOMA-like game in a recent interview with DualShockers. It was during that interview that Olsson shared that Amnesia: The Bunker might not be the only game Frictional Games is working on.

“We are still very much interested in doing more SOMA-style stuff. He [Frictional Games co-founder Thomas Grip] is still very much working on a bigger project that you can say has much more of this kind of philosophical stuff like you saw in SOMA.”

Olsson wouldn’t say much more than that about the project, but it seems clear that Amnesia: The Bunker isn’t the only project on the studio’s agenda.

SOMA screenshot of a character fused with machines.
SOMA was much beloved for its oppressive and lonely underwater atmosphere, terrifying creature designs, and moody philosophical narrative.
Source: Frictional Games

SOMA came out in 2015 and got a lukewarm Shacknews review at the time, but has since become one of Frictional’s most celebrated titles, right behind Amnesia: Dark Descent. It put players in a deep undersea establishment full of forcibly mutated figures and put players face to face regularly with the question of identity, individuality, and the recognition of self. Amnesia games can be just as heady, but the upcoming title, Amnesia: The Bunker looks far more about survival and escape by any means necessary over philosophical ponderings. Nonetheless, it comes out in May 2023, and we have no idea when or even what Frictional has in store for us after.

Even so, if it’s truly a SOMA-like game as Olsson stated in the interview, it looks like fans of Frictional’s brand of horror have something to look forward to even after Amnesia: The Bunker is out. Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available here at Shacknews.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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