Frictional GamesAs part of its launch, Nintendo’s new console, the Switch 2, got an influx of updates for older games, from first-party titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to third-party offerings. Now, another ten-year-old game is getting not just a Switch 2 upgrade, but also its first-ever release on the Switch, and it’s worth checking out for psychological horror fans.First launched in 2015, Soma was a hit on PC, its initial platform. A first-person horror game from the developer of Amnesia, Soma tells a sci-fi story that derives its scares less from monsters (though they’re also present) than from its pervasive atmosphere of existential dread.In Soma, you play a Simon Jarrett, a man who begins the game going to the doctor for an experimental brain scan, only to wake up in a much different, more horrifying place when he wakes up. From then on, the game takes place in Pathos-II, an underwater research facility on the brink of collapse, where Simon is one of the last living people surrounded by terrifying abominations.After release, Soma rather famously got an update that makes these monsters non-hostile, intended for players who just want to experience the story without the stress of having to avoid getting torn apart along the way. Flipping that switch does make Soma a more focused experience, albeit a less exciting one in some ways, but however you approach it, unraveling the story of what’s really going on in Pathos-II is the game’s main draw. Unlike survival games like Resident Evil, these monsters aren’t enemies to fight as much as they are obstacles that illustrate just how dire the situation is in the underwater world you’ve found yourself in.Soma is careful about doling out its plot. You’re seeing through Simon’s eyes, and the game never pulls away to explain to you anything that Simon himself wouldn’t know. That means that, at least until certain dramatic moments in the game when you learn even more of the truth than Simon does, his confusion and yours are one and the same.The claustrophobic atmosphere of Soma adds to its existential horror. | AbylightIt’s not just a game about wandering in the dark, though. Simon is accompanied by Catherine, an AI recreation of a long-dead human. As the game goes on, it becomes clear that a different type of AI is responsible for the state of Pathos-II, though exactly what they’re trying to accomplish is only fully spelled out later.Whether you’re playing the version of Soma with aggressive or passive enemies, the question of what to make of these AI constructs is the game’s real conflict. It’s a game that wrestles with the questions of what makes us human and when we might cross over into being something else, and in how much value there is to survival itself when you’re living in increasingly extreme circumstances. Soma may not come to any genuinely novel conclusions about those ideas, but its grotesque exploration of them through a sci-fi horror lens is still fascinating.Finally launched on Nintendo Switch in late July 2025, Soma also got a Switch 2 update the week after the port’s release. Rather than releasing a Switch 2 version of the game, the existing Switch release has a few improvements on the new console. The patch adds an improved resolution with faster loading times and a higher frame rate. That’s not as much as full Switch 2 editions of some games have offered, but for a free update to a decade-old game, it’s plenty.