Topic: Soma - What Metroid Prime HD could look like.

[Pixelated Pixies]

Horror games and movies really aren't my thing, as I find them very stressful, but what I've always appreciated about the genre is that it's often capable of evoking a sense of atmosphere or the feeling of occupying an actual place in a way that other genres don't always achieve.
 
It was with some interest then that I watched the first gameplay trailer for Frictional Games' Soma, a follow up to the highly regarded Amnesia, but I suspected it was a game I would probably never actually play. The opening sequence confirmed that Soma was going to be a First-Person Horror game, that it was to be set in a grimy hospital/lab, and it looked genuinely frightening. What surprised me, however, was what happened at about the 1:55 mark when the character in the demo caused a dilapidated wall to crumble; because behind that wall lay...Metroid Prime?
 
The second I saw the twisting corridor, with it's intertwining of the artificial and the natural, the flowing water, the natural lighting, and then heard the crackle of electricity and the low hum of machines, the thought was immediate: This is what Metroid Prime could be.
 
Reading some impressions and forum comments after the fact, I certainly wasn't the only one to make this comparison. Arguably the aesthetics of this latter half of the trailer are more influenced by Alien than Metroid (which makes sense given that Metroid was itself a pastiche of Alien), but I just can't shake the idea that the Metroid series would benefit greatly from a visual treatment similar to the one on display in Soma.
 
It's really kind of exciting to even think that a new Metroid Prime game could look this good in HD. When and if Nintendo ever do decide to the bring the series back it will no doubt look very different, but this first Soma trailer has certainly wet my appetite.
 

[Oblivion]

I got more of a System Shock 2 impression.

[ShyGuy]

That looks pretty cool.

[Gwellin]

Am I the only one who gets pulled out of a dramatic game scene when I can't see my feet during an obvious moment like lying on a table?

I understand not not showing the body during normal gameplay, even though it very possible to do, but for a cinematic moment like that I consider it inexcusable.

[ThePerm]

Am I the only one who gets pulled out of a dramatic game scene when I can't see my feet during an obvious moment like lying on a table?

I understand not not showing the body during normal gameplay, even though it very possible to do, but for a cinematic moment like that I consider it inexcusable.

thats a pain in the ass to set up though

[MetalMario2]

As long as it looks more like Metroid Prime and less like any of the other Metroid games, I'll be good.

[ShyGuy]

Am I the only one who gets pulled out of a dramatic game scene when I can't see my feet during an obvious moment like lying on a table?

I understand not not showing the body during normal gameplay, even though it very possible to do, but for a cinematic moment like that I consider it inexcusable.

thats a pain in the ass to set up though

I think the first place I saw it done really is a mod for the original Max Payne game. It was a third person game, but the mod made it first person. They locked the camera around his head area and it worked.

[Gwellin]

Am I the only one who gets pulled out of a dramatic game scene when I can't see my feet during an obvious moment like lying on a table?

I understand not not showing the body during normal gameplay, even though it very possible to do, but for a cinematic moment like that I consider it inexcusable.

thats a pain in the ass to set up though

I think the first place I saw it done really is a mod for the original Max Payne game. It was a third person game, but the mod made it first person. They locked the camera around his head area and it worked.

Mirror's Edge is the best example of First Person Feet that I've seen, but I'm not expecting all FPS games to have a visible body at all times. For a cinematic opening like Soma, they could have made something special just for jumping off the table.

[Oblivion]

Considering Outlast literally just did what you guys are talking about (and they didn't do just feet, every part of the body was tangible), I don't think it'd be that difficult.