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It's got some brilliant writing and voice acting as well. It's also not too long a game, I played about an hour a night and completed it in a week. It's not a giant time sink like some games try to be.

I'm definitely interested to hear about similar games - I was never able to find anything that quite compared. Amnesia looked quite dated and unpolished by comparison after playing SOMA and I couldn't quite get into it.

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I've never found anything that compared either.

I recently had another pleasant hard sci-fi surprise, though: Horizon Zero Dawn. I didn't expect it to take the backstory (or even the main story) seriously, but it did, and it did a brilliant job of it.

I had exactly the same prejudice. "Shoot robot dinos with a bow and arrow" doesn't sound like a premise that could possibly have a decent underlying story, but they actually pulled it off.

There is nothing like the story and atmosphere of SOMA, but some notable games in the ballpark of "unique, low combat, engaging story" are:

Obduction, The Talos Principle, Alien Isolation (some combat), INFRA (creepier than expected)

I found Kairo to be a little gem in this style.

Frictional's first game, Penumbra: Overture also fits in my opinion (although not if you already consider Amnesia to be too dated).

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