We're quite used to knowing a lot about a horror game before it eventually comes out, but Soma lurks, leaping out to give us the occasional glimpse at a dark new environment and then vanishing back into the stygian nightmare of development.

The announcement of today's closed beta gets us closer to release. The team's latest blog post states that "we now have a build of SOMA that contains all of our desired features. There are still a few bits of art, a few sounds etc. missing, but the game is pretty much complete content-wise." 40 beta testers will offer their thoughts, and the final phase of development will respond to the feedback.

A new screenshot introduces us to a pleasantly chunky lump of technology that wouldn't look too out of place in Alien: Isolation. Concept art also shows a "robot testing" faciility apparently set underwater.

We're looking forward to this one. Frictional earned a reputation for creating oppressive horror worlds with Penumbra, Amnesia: A Dark Descent and A Machine for Pigs. Soma may have been "crazy hard" to make, but it oozes promise, as Sam notes in his hands-on preview.