Xbox One games fans will soon get to play a top reviewed PC and PS4 title, that will also ship with its very own console exclusive feature.
SOMA is a science fiction survival horror adventure from Frictional Games, which has been praised for its gameplay style and been available on rival platforms for sometime.
Fans got the good news this week that the long two-year wait is almost over, with SOMA being released on December 1, 2017.
SOMA stands out from the crowd with how it balances the horror setting of the game that also aims to explore some of life’s bigger questions.
And this has led to something new being added to the game when it launches on Xbox One later this year.
“While SOMA has its share of creepiness, it is not, as this post hopefully makes clear, a pure horror game,” the creative director of SOMA, Thomas Grip, explains.
“At its heart it is a narrative-heavy sci-fi experience. The monster encounters are there to make the world feel more alive, to reflect particular concepts, and to up the stakes.
“Unfortunately this has meant that there are some people who – because they don’t like being terrorized by deadly creatures – have been unable to experience the story.”
This has led the Frictional Games team to add a special new mode to the game, which has been confirmed as “console exclusive” by Microsoft.
“Because we want more people to be able to explore the story and to interact with our fundamental premise, we’ve decided to present the console exclusive Safe Mode, a version of the game where there are no hostile encounters and where you can simply focus on the unfolding narrative,” Grip reveals.
“We hope this will let even more people dive into the mysteries of consciousness and question what it means to be human.”
The development team haven’t fully fleshed out exactly what that will mean for players, if Safe Mode will eliminate all the monsters, or just make it so they don’t attack.
As stated above, SOMA’s new mode is only a console exclusive, meaning that PS4 games fans are the only ones who look set to miss out on the free new update, at least for the moment.
A new title for the Xbox One in December will come as a boost to both the base console and the Xbox One X as Microsoft head into the final month of the holiday season.
As you might expect, the month will be devoid of many big new releases, with Hello Neighbor and Okami HD also confirmed for launch.
There are other DLC releases being planned for December too, including the Curse of Osiris expansion for Destiny 2 and Not A Hero content for Resident Evil 7.