Games as Critical Literature: Playing with Transhumanism, Embodied Cognition, and Narrative Difference in SOMA

Video games provide players with unique opportunities to play with identities and stories, and at times this narrative play can lead to new, potentially queer encounters with difference, embodiment, and humanity. This chapter explores SOMA (Frictional Games 2015) as a case study for narrative play and embodiment in games. A first-person, narrative game set in a post-apocalyptic world, SOMA tasks players with surviving and confronting themes of transhumanism, embodied cognition and identity, and the political costs of posthuman futures. SOMA exemplifies narrative difference in games and beyond––how we construct, play with, and experience our worlds differently.