Sea horror SOMA's no-death Safe Mode is now available on PS4
Time to dive back in.
Developer Frictional Games has released an update for the PlayStation 4 version of SOMA, its superb underwater horror adventure, adding the 'Safe Mode' option that arrived on Xbox One and PC at the end of last year.
Safe Mode is designed for those that find SOMA's stealth sections either too tough or too overwhelming. Once the optional mode is enabled, the game's monster will merely react to your presence inquisitively, rather than try to attack you on sight.
As Frictional explained on its blog when the new mode was released last year, "Monsters might sound and act more threatening if they spot you, so there is still an incentive to being careful, but it's no longer mandatory to keep hidden".
Despite these tweaks, the new mode retains SOMA's deeply unsettling atmosphere, as well as all puzzles and events that were in the original version.
As a happy bonus, Safe Mode also makes it a lot easier to explore and appreciate SOMA's more interesting corners - something that could be quite a chore when trying to avoid the game's roving monsters in their original guise, especially in the labyrinthine areas .
Thomas Grip, founder of Frictional Games and director of SOMA, discussed Safe Mode, and the rationale behind it, in more detail last year, prior to its release on Xbox One and PC. PS4 players can download the update now.