This game disappointed me so fucking hard, that i've been regularly checking for negative reviews here in seek of validation, despite playing the game a year ago.
Why am I like this.
Why am I like this.
It's kind of like playing Submachine 3 (2006) except your mouse cursor is an anime lady.
does resident evil have lesbian androids and badass communist propaganda? I DONT THINK SO
Quite possibly one of the prettiest games of a modern era. Puts most other attempts at translating classic survival horror structures to shame.
Somehow manages to also bring a fresh and exciting narrative to the table. It's carried by its presentation, but if you're won over by the visuals the story will likely grab you alongside it.
Lacks some form of subtlety in its aesthetic, which is to say that it doesn't bother to hide where its inspiration comes from. Wish more games were like this. Makes it feel more personal in an odd way.
Soundtrack is pretty good too.
Yah, anyway, play this or you suck at video games and I rebuke you
Somehow manages to also bring a fresh and exciting narrative to the table. It's carried by its presentation, but if you're won over by the visuals the story will likely grab you alongside it.
Lacks some form of subtlety in its aesthetic, which is to say that it doesn't bother to hide where its inspiration comes from. Wish more games were like this. Makes it feel more personal in an odd way.
Soundtrack is pretty good too.
Yah, anyway, play this or you suck at video games and I rebuke you
SIGNALIS is a game that has received an immense amount of praise since its release. It caught my eye shortly after, as I’ve only really gotten into survival horror games in the past year or so and they have quickly became one of my favourite genres, so seeing a brand new indie game paying homage to the old RE games, and in a way that people were loving, was an exciting sight, so I decided soon after to buy the game. It was a bit unfortunate to come out of the game with disappointment and confusion, mainly due to not understanding entirely what people love so much about it, but I think some people are overlooking some pretty blatant flaws in the game.
First of all, is the often times clunky controls. There were multiple occasions where I was trying to leave a room in a hurry while being chased by enemies, only for the button prompt to either not show up, or show up and not allow me to activate it, leading to me getting hit. The enemies themselves are also a very flawed area of the game for me. It felt extremely unfair for enemies to be able to hurt you just from being next to you. If there was an attack animation, then fair enough, but that isn’t the case. All you need to do is stand beside any enemy and you will instantly take damage for no apparent reason. But that isn’t the only thing with the enemies. They tend to lean more towards frustrating obstacles that halt your progress and drain your healing items and ammo, rather than engaging challenges to improve the overall game and your progression. Placing large numbers of enemies in rooms is way too frequent and tends to be a massive nuisance where you either have to push your way past and almost always get hit, or waste all of your ammo on to get rid of. The controls don’t help either. When you press the aim button, it feels to me as though the crosshair should go straight onto the enemy, rather than requiring you to manually aim at them (This is more of a personal issue than one with the actual game, but it still damaged my impression of it to be honest).
The boss fights were also a fairly disappointing aspect of the game. The first one can be very tedious to fight, especially if she is stunned next to a pillar, which makes shooting the weak spot nearly impossible. Apart from that, the fight was pretty fun. The second boss fight was pretty pathetic though. You can very easily stunlock it with the pistol or the revolver, making quick work of it and allowing you to get past it without even getting hit. Final boss though was awesome. Proved to be quite a solid challenge with a nice, varied moves. Definitely a strong way to end the game.
Level design is, for me, the most important aspect of a survival horror game, with it being the crux of whether or not I’ll stick with these types of games. I can certainly say that the game delivered in this area. The simple grid-like layout of most of the areas in the game was a bit concerning at first, making it look quite simple, but it ended being quite effective. The puzzles were often times complex and engaging, but there were some exceptions that tend to be too far on the convoluted side. A few nitpicky things for me, for example, are when you use a key to open a new room, which only contains one item… another key. I find these kinds of things really annoying, as they’re so unnecessary and feels like its just there for padding.
The radio mechanic was a refreshing change of pace for the genre as well. It brought quite a few new and original challenges for both combat and puzzles, which was definitely an interesting and successful addition.
I know I’ve complained so much about this game, but I promise this is the last one: the inventory system. I shouldn’t need to backtrack to storage boxes as frequently as I did. 6 item slots feels like no where near the amount you should be given. It was incessant. I played through the game on survival difficulty and only really felt comfortable if I had heals, stun prods, and a gun. So that’s 3 slots filled straight away, leaving me with just 3 slots for key items and other pickups. I was probably returning to the storage boxes every 10-15 minutes. This is probably one of the biggest areas the game suffers honestly. It really halts the game’s momentum at certain points. I feel like the developers should have either given you 2 or so extra slots to begin with, or do what RE2 Remake did, and allow you to obtain items that increase these slots. Maybe even change it so key items can be picked up infinitely and regular items are what take up inventory space?
But anyway, I feel like I need to mention that I did enjoy the game for the most part. Filling this review with complaints was not my intention, I just find it easier to pick flaws than to point out what gets done well. The story was really interesting (amazing ending) and there was clearly a huge focus and a lot of care put into the game’s world and lore. The cutscene after finishing the nowhere area was absolutely phenomenal. Honestly, all of the cutscenes were great. The art design of them was brilliant. I’m definitely curious where rose-engine will go next if they continue with this level of passion. I think the problems with the game would’ve been easier to deal with if the game was shorter. For me, survival horror games work way better in a shorter form. Perhaps the game could’ve been cut down to 6-7 hours?
First of all, is the often times clunky controls. There were multiple occasions where I was trying to leave a room in a hurry while being chased by enemies, only for the button prompt to either not show up, or show up and not allow me to activate it, leading to me getting hit. The enemies themselves are also a very flawed area of the game for me. It felt extremely unfair for enemies to be able to hurt you just from being next to you. If there was an attack animation, then fair enough, but that isn’t the case. All you need to do is stand beside any enemy and you will instantly take damage for no apparent reason. But that isn’t the only thing with the enemies. They tend to lean more towards frustrating obstacles that halt your progress and drain your healing items and ammo, rather than engaging challenges to improve the overall game and your progression. Placing large numbers of enemies in rooms is way too frequent and tends to be a massive nuisance where you either have to push your way past and almost always get hit, or waste all of your ammo on to get rid of. The controls don’t help either. When you press the aim button, it feels to me as though the crosshair should go straight onto the enemy, rather than requiring you to manually aim at them (This is more of a personal issue than one with the actual game, but it still damaged my impression of it to be honest).
The boss fights were also a fairly disappointing aspect of the game. The first one can be very tedious to fight, especially if she is stunned next to a pillar, which makes shooting the weak spot nearly impossible. Apart from that, the fight was pretty fun. The second boss fight was pretty pathetic though. You can very easily stunlock it with the pistol or the revolver, making quick work of it and allowing you to get past it without even getting hit. Final boss though was awesome. Proved to be quite a solid challenge with a nice, varied moves. Definitely a strong way to end the game.
Level design is, for me, the most important aspect of a survival horror game, with it being the crux of whether or not I’ll stick with these types of games. I can certainly say that the game delivered in this area. The simple grid-like layout of most of the areas in the game was a bit concerning at first, making it look quite simple, but it ended being quite effective. The puzzles were often times complex and engaging, but there were some exceptions that tend to be too far on the convoluted side. A few nitpicky things for me, for example, are when you use a key to open a new room, which only contains one item… another key. I find these kinds of things really annoying, as they’re so unnecessary and feels like its just there for padding.
The radio mechanic was a refreshing change of pace for the genre as well. It brought quite a few new and original challenges for both combat and puzzles, which was definitely an interesting and successful addition.
I know I’ve complained so much about this game, but I promise this is the last one: the inventory system. I shouldn’t need to backtrack to storage boxes as frequently as I did. 6 item slots feels like no where near the amount you should be given. It was incessant. I played through the game on survival difficulty and only really felt comfortable if I had heals, stun prods, and a gun. So that’s 3 slots filled straight away, leaving me with just 3 slots for key items and other pickups. I was probably returning to the storage boxes every 10-15 minutes. This is probably one of the biggest areas the game suffers honestly. It really halts the game’s momentum at certain points. I feel like the developers should have either given you 2 or so extra slots to begin with, or do what RE2 Remake did, and allow you to obtain items that increase these slots. Maybe even change it so key items can be picked up infinitely and regular items are what take up inventory space?
But anyway, I feel like I need to mention that I did enjoy the game for the most part. Filling this review with complaints was not my intention, I just find it easier to pick flaws than to point out what gets done well. The story was really interesting (amazing ending) and there was clearly a huge focus and a lot of care put into the game’s world and lore. The cutscene after finishing the nowhere area was absolutely phenomenal. Honestly, all of the cutscenes were great. The art design of them was brilliant. I’m definitely curious where rose-engine will go next if they continue with this level of passion. I think the problems with the game would’ve been easier to deal with if the game was shorter. For me, survival horror games work way better in a shorter form. Perhaps the game could’ve been cut down to 6-7 hours?
This may be the closest we’ll ever get to a psychological survival horror game in the same vein as Silent Hill, which out of all the PS1 era survival horror titles, is clearly the one Signalis pays most respectful tribute to while injecting key elements into something totally fresh. The presentation is stellar and visually stimulating. Might be one of the very best in recent memory that pays attention to and great care for UI design, general character designs, and overall art direction. It also controls near perfect, with the only technical hiccup I have gripes with is how aiming can sometimes be but it can be easy enough to ignore.
It’s hard to talk about the story because I still don’t quite have a good grasp on what’s being told here with these characters in the setting they're in. This is intentionally abstractly told, leaving it designed for player interpretation, which I think is an aspect of older Silent Hill that this doesn’t really nail well. I’d compare this more easily with the first Silent Hill because their storytelling is very similar in approach in how they put great importance on emotional vibes over straightforwardly comfortable comprehensibility but Silent Hill gave me grounded enough characters that I can navigate through this surreal experience. Harry Mason is a boring protagonist, but he’s the awkward “straight man” we can immerse ourselves in compared to Elster who is conceptually already pretty cryptic in an even more cryptically designed world that’s hard to digest unless you know German or Japanese very well. It creates this emotional disconnect with the protagonist and therefore my attachment to this kind of narrative that’s being unfolded by me. People gravitated towards the story despite what I’ve said, and I can understand why, there are some pretty interesting and strong vibes this game carries really well. I only wished it completely worked for me to get the hype.
Other than that, my other problem is this could’ve been reasonably cut shorter by an hour or so. The last stretch is pretty annoying because of this. I think having the inventory limit being strictly just six made managing your items way too tedious because of how many special items you need to collect to finish certain puzzles to progress through the story. Taking away your map felt like an interesting challenge because of how you probably relied on it alot to move around easily but I think they began relying on this too much than necessary. The combat folds into an easy formula that starts eliminating some of the tension; the game is kinda aware(?) and just throws swarms of different enemies in rooms to compensate, and the map design was falling into samey territory of just lifting straight from Silent Hill 1’s last stretch but this time in space. The final boss is pretty cool in concept but misses the mark with how it tries a bit too hard to be mindfucky, literally. What’s just a straightforward boss to beat became almost unplayable at certain moments because of how hard they tried to make it feel distorted and critical.
I’d still say this is worth playing if you really miss that classic survival horror itch and want to play something new rather than just replaying. Especially if you’re looking for something close enough to the vibes of older Silent Hill and want something to fill in that endless void Konami created. It’s ambitious and was made with tons of artistry and passion by the developers, even if I didn’t love I still commend and enjoyed seeing it bleed throughout the game.
It’s hard to talk about the story because I still don’t quite have a good grasp on what’s being told here with these characters in the setting they're in. This is intentionally abstractly told, leaving it designed for player interpretation, which I think is an aspect of older Silent Hill that this doesn’t really nail well. I’d compare this more easily with the first Silent Hill because their storytelling is very similar in approach in how they put great importance on emotional vibes over straightforwardly comfortable comprehensibility but Silent Hill gave me grounded enough characters that I can navigate through this surreal experience. Harry Mason is a boring protagonist, but he’s the awkward “straight man” we can immerse ourselves in compared to Elster who is conceptually already pretty cryptic in an even more cryptically designed world that’s hard to digest unless you know German or Japanese very well. It creates this emotional disconnect with the protagonist and therefore my attachment to this kind of narrative that’s being unfolded by me. People gravitated towards the story despite what I’ve said, and I can understand why, there are some pretty interesting and strong vibes this game carries really well. I only wished it completely worked for me to get the hype.
Other than that, my other problem is this could’ve been reasonably cut shorter by an hour or so. The last stretch is pretty annoying because of this. I think having the inventory limit being strictly just six made managing your items way too tedious because of how many special items you need to collect to finish certain puzzles to progress through the story. Taking away your map felt like an interesting challenge because of how you probably relied on it alot to move around easily but I think they began relying on this too much than necessary. The combat folds into an easy formula that starts eliminating some of the tension; the game is kinda aware(?) and just throws swarms of different enemies in rooms to compensate, and the map design was falling into samey territory of just lifting straight from Silent Hill 1’s last stretch but this time in space. The final boss is pretty cool in concept but misses the mark with how it tries a bit too hard to be mindfucky, literally. What’s just a straightforward boss to beat became almost unplayable at certain moments because of how hard they tried to make it feel distorted and critical.
I’d still say this is worth playing if you really miss that classic survival horror itch and want to play something new rather than just replaying. Especially if you’re looking for something close enough to the vibes of older Silent Hill and want something to fill in that endless void Konami created. It’s ambitious and was made with tons of artistry and passion by the developers, even if I didn’t love I still commend and enjoyed seeing it bleed throughout the game.
i have never felt an emptiness so comforting, disgust and depression and darkness so effortless in their omniscience. they carved their pneumatics and sonics into my senses, strangling my amygdalae with hooks and barbs of indiscriminate love.
i can only recount my experience in broad, emotional strokes- as if to make sure i never forget the decisive futility of it all, i browsed the final screenshots from my first playthrough as my brain finally caught up to my heart, demanding release. i withered and cried in mourning of people and places who don't exist. i felt cradled and blessed in that moment, and i wasn't sure if i deserved to know such divine clarity.
signalis bore holes deep into my flesh and bone of blackest nightmares, of the loudest louds and a thousand, thousand deaths and rebirths consuming my synapses with the wisdom and light of infinite sorrows, a kindness i fear i will never be able to repay for as long as i live. it is one of the most beautiful pieces of human creation i have ever endured, and its memory will persist long after i am nothing but ash and dust.
i can only recount my experience in broad, emotional strokes- as if to make sure i never forget the decisive futility of it all, i browsed the final screenshots from my first playthrough as my brain finally caught up to my heart, demanding release. i withered and cried in mourning of people and places who don't exist. i felt cradled and blessed in that moment, and i wasn't sure if i deserved to know such divine clarity.
signalis bore holes deep into my flesh and bone of blackest nightmares, of the loudest louds and a thousand, thousand deaths and rebirths consuming my synapses with the wisdom and light of infinite sorrows, a kindness i fear i will never be able to repay for as long as i live. it is one of the most beautiful pieces of human creation i have ever endured, and its memory will persist long after i am nothing but ash and dust.
"PERHAPS, THIS IS HELL."
I had high expectations for Signalis since its release in October 2022 but was busy catching up to the genre with Silent Hill and Resident Evil to fully understand the depth of the survival horror era.
What a ride it's been, to come to the conclusion of nearly 30 years of survival horror with Signalis.
It was breathtaking for the entirety of my playthrough and I loved playing it.
But what's more is the understanding behind it. I had no problem witnessing the result of the magnificent community that worked together to ensure proper explanation and theories about the world to us and the audacity from the devs to make a deep enough story that self drives anyone to craziness as it did to the characters from the game.
The fact that two people created this game amazes me, and the level of detail and love that emanates from it makes me really grateful that inde dev can now express themselves to a wider audience thanks to the digitization of games.
Signalis is not a reference dump.
What's the difference between a good reference and a bad one, or between homage and plagiarism?
It’s the purpose, and Signalis' aim, to bring such a tragic story to life, moves me.
It's a compelling story of romance, purpose and promise.
A story in which the boundary of identity between gestalt and human is revealed in a magnificent movement of devotion.
I had to read a few theories online to fully understand some very simple plot details from the game's documentation. But I think it's part of the beauty of video games to be able to create a community that helps each other in a never ending loop of friendship that crosses the boundary of distance between players.
I love tank control, I love Tchaikovski, I love Lovecraft, I love romance, I love time traveling and loop, I love difficulty, I love NieR, Neon Genesis Evangelion, GinEiDen and Monogatari. What more to ask than Signalis to be one of my favorite games of all time ? God, I love video games.
I had high expectations for Signalis since its release in October 2022 but was busy catching up to the genre with Silent Hill and Resident Evil to fully understand the depth of the survival horror era.
What a ride it's been, to come to the conclusion of nearly 30 years of survival horror with Signalis.
It was breathtaking for the entirety of my playthrough and I loved playing it.
But what's more is the understanding behind it. I had no problem witnessing the result of the magnificent community that worked together to ensure proper explanation and theories about the world to us and the audacity from the devs to make a deep enough story that self drives anyone to craziness as it did to the characters from the game.
The fact that two people created this game amazes me, and the level of detail and love that emanates from it makes me really grateful that inde dev can now express themselves to a wider audience thanks to the digitization of games.
Signalis is not a reference dump.
What's the difference between a good reference and a bad one, or between homage and plagiarism?
It’s the purpose, and Signalis' aim, to bring such a tragic story to life, moves me.
It's a compelling story of romance, purpose and promise.
A story in which the boundary of identity between gestalt and human is revealed in a magnificent movement of devotion.
I had to read a few theories online to fully understand some very simple plot details from the game's documentation. But I think it's part of the beauty of video games to be able to create a community that helps each other in a never ending loop of friendship that crosses the boundary of distance between players.
I love tank control, I love Tchaikovski, I love Lovecraft, I love romance, I love time traveling and loop, I love difficulty, I love NieR, Neon Genesis Evangelion, GinEiDen and Monogatari. What more to ask than Signalis to be one of my favorite games of all time ? God, I love video games.
As a pretty big horror fan, I was very much looking forward to playing Signalis earlier this year when I finally got it. I’d heard a ton of really good things about it and it felt like it was about time. I was not at all prepared for the existential dread that awaited me. And also for how great Signalis truly is.
On a gameplay level, Signalis follows the basic gameplay formula of the survival horror titles of old; there’s a clear focus on resource management, a ton of puzzle solving and the fixed camera angles to go along with it. In this department Signalis isn’t groundbreaking or anything, far from it, but that’s not its aim. This is a game that’s more about refinement than it is about revolutionizing the genre, which is totally fine (especially considering how this style of game has gone out of fashion, in the mainstream at least). Signalis combines the harsh resource management of Resident Evil on PS1, along with its level philosophy, and the structure and puzzle design of the golden age of Silent Hill to great results. The difficulty curve here is a designer’s wet dream, easing the player into the gameplay loop over time while never running the risk of being stale. There’s always something new in each area, a new challenge to confront head on; the pace is so great that I don’t think newcomers to the genre would have any difficulty adapting to it at all. That isn’t to say Signalis isn’t difficult, however; the tight inventory system, in which you’re only ever allowed to carry 6 items at a time, forces you to think about every possibility each and every time you venture out into the horrors that lay in wait. Weapons and ammunition are robbed of all importance as key items needed to progress take up inventory space, leaving you defenseless against all enemies and forcing you to come up with solutions on the fly. Even downing an enemy doesn’t guarantee your safety, as they will eventually get back up when you least expect it unless you take drastic measures to get rid of them, which will cost you even more resources. Again, nothing that’s never been seen in the genre, however all of these pieces coming together really make Signalis a prime example of something that is greater than the sum of its parts; another one of these pieces that makes it so great being the atmosphere.
Signalis adopts a retro-inspired visual style which resembles the PS1 era graphics, and while on the surface it may look like something chosen for the sake of nostalgia there is quite a bit more to it. With this level of graphical fidelity our brains have to fill in a lot of the blanks, and for a game that is all about cosmic horror and the fear of the unknown, it’s pretty easy to see why this artstyle fits the game like a glove. The dark hallways of the space station of course have an eeriness to them, but also a very slight sense of comfort as you’re still seeing things you’re vaguely familiar with. As the game progresses, however, this familiarity is pulled from under you, and as you descent further down this hellhole the true fear of that which you don’t even recognize truly sets in. This is all accompanied by masterful sound design and a soundtrack that knows when to pull its punches and when to go for the jugular. Atmosphere in games is always a bit hard to put into words, but just playing a bit of the game really tells you all you need to know. Simply phenomenal.
I mentioned that Signalis falls under the category of “cosmic horror” and honestly that’s about the only way you can describe its story and how its told. Signalis is very vague with its plot, leaving lore and character motivations up to the players who are up to the task of exploring this world (i.e. notes, computer files, pictures, environmental storytelling, etc). Uncovering the horrors that these characters are going through fills you with a sense of dread that few others in the medium can even grasp, and there are several points where it truly feels like the game is toying with you just as much as it is toying with its characters. I’d say it’s the most comparable experience to a classic Silent Hill that has released ever since the disbandment of Team Silent, so props to them. I don’t want to go into much detail here in case someone does decide to give it a go, but it is one downer of a story with few, if any, bright spots that left me feeling quite hollow.
Signalis is a modern classic and one of the greatest to ever do it in my eyes, undoubtedly the best game I’ve played all year. If you’re a fan of horror and haven’t played this, do not pass up the opportunity to do so. It is worth every minute of your time.
On a gameplay level, Signalis follows the basic gameplay formula of the survival horror titles of old; there’s a clear focus on resource management, a ton of puzzle solving and the fixed camera angles to go along with it. In this department Signalis isn’t groundbreaking or anything, far from it, but that’s not its aim. This is a game that’s more about refinement than it is about revolutionizing the genre, which is totally fine (especially considering how this style of game has gone out of fashion, in the mainstream at least). Signalis combines the harsh resource management of Resident Evil on PS1, along with its level philosophy, and the structure and puzzle design of the golden age of Silent Hill to great results. The difficulty curve here is a designer’s wet dream, easing the player into the gameplay loop over time while never running the risk of being stale. There’s always something new in each area, a new challenge to confront head on; the pace is so great that I don’t think newcomers to the genre would have any difficulty adapting to it at all. That isn’t to say Signalis isn’t difficult, however; the tight inventory system, in which you’re only ever allowed to carry 6 items at a time, forces you to think about every possibility each and every time you venture out into the horrors that lay in wait. Weapons and ammunition are robbed of all importance as key items needed to progress take up inventory space, leaving you defenseless against all enemies and forcing you to come up with solutions on the fly. Even downing an enemy doesn’t guarantee your safety, as they will eventually get back up when you least expect it unless you take drastic measures to get rid of them, which will cost you even more resources. Again, nothing that’s never been seen in the genre, however all of these pieces coming together really make Signalis a prime example of something that is greater than the sum of its parts; another one of these pieces that makes it so great being the atmosphere.
Signalis adopts a retro-inspired visual style which resembles the PS1 era graphics, and while on the surface it may look like something chosen for the sake of nostalgia there is quite a bit more to it. With this level of graphical fidelity our brains have to fill in a lot of the blanks, and for a game that is all about cosmic horror and the fear of the unknown, it’s pretty easy to see why this artstyle fits the game like a glove. The dark hallways of the space station of course have an eeriness to them, but also a very slight sense of comfort as you’re still seeing things you’re vaguely familiar with. As the game progresses, however, this familiarity is pulled from under you, and as you descent further down this hellhole the true fear of that which you don’t even recognize truly sets in. This is all accompanied by masterful sound design and a soundtrack that knows when to pull its punches and when to go for the jugular. Atmosphere in games is always a bit hard to put into words, but just playing a bit of the game really tells you all you need to know. Simply phenomenal.
I mentioned that Signalis falls under the category of “cosmic horror” and honestly that’s about the only way you can describe its story and how its told. Signalis is very vague with its plot, leaving lore and character motivations up to the players who are up to the task of exploring this world (i.e. notes, computer files, pictures, environmental storytelling, etc). Uncovering the horrors that these characters are going through fills you with a sense of dread that few others in the medium can even grasp, and there are several points where it truly feels like the game is toying with you just as much as it is toying with its characters. I’d say it’s the most comparable experience to a classic Silent Hill that has released ever since the disbandment of Team Silent, so props to them. I don’t want to go into much detail here in case someone does decide to give it a go, but it is one downer of a story with few, if any, bright spots that left me feeling quite hollow.
Signalis is a modern classic and one of the greatest to ever do it in my eyes, undoubtedly the best game I’ve played all year. If you’re a fan of horror and haven’t played this, do not pass up the opportunity to do so. It is worth every minute of your time.
This review contains spoilers
I. I dream of it often:
II. a younger version of myself,
III. standing at the bottom of the ocean;
IV. arms aloft,
V. mouth agape,
VI. eyes glaring
VII. not seeing,
VIII. not breathing,
IX. still as stone in a watery fane.
I.
There’s me.
I’m dreaming, in the dark with my hair spiraling all around me as if lifted by water’s drifting. My senses arise from a Body and its eyes open suddenly. Turning to the right, the Body sees Myself from outside. I realize I am outside Myself, and that if Myself is not where my perceptions rests, the Body must not be me. These eyes see Myself open my eyes and turn in kind, to face the Body.
It is a look of disdain. I hate my Body- it is a stranger to Myself.
When I wake it is without any sense of rest.
II.
I have lived most of my life inside of a surreal semi-haze. Psychosis and worry disenfranchised me from the comfort of certainty when I was still small, and have since instilled in me a stark skepticism of symbols. A particularly keen fang in the mouth of uncertainty I’ve felt has been in my dreams. What dreams are exactly doesn’t interest me; it is what my personal dreams do.
Where some (often crackpot behaviorists) argue on the nature of dreams as being manifestations of subconscious desire or interpretation of higher consciousness, I simply observe in writing what occurs in my dreaming time. It never means anything, never symbolizes anything, never works with clever conceit or measured intention. I have wormed my way through sleeping imaginations of the most absurd misery and most debased pleasure I could hope to describe and woken knowing these things will never follow me out- knowing that the door is closed and that this side is the side with all of me.
I know dreams annihilate semiotics.
Also, this is a piece about Signalis. (mentioned so I don’t get flagged like on my Returnal review)
III.
A dream about dreaming.
Are you still looking for answers where there are only questions?
Signalis refuses staunchly notions of easy unravelling. It is crafted to invite pondering, interpretation and iteration. It calls constantly into question the reliability of subjective position, on sensory information, on basic causality in narrative form, and it does that with intention. The game’s surrealism and fugue-like nesting of symbols-into-narrative-into-representation continues on past its termination, eating its own tail. The narrative is about one who dreams, presented itself as a dream utterly laden with semiotics and suggested meaning that arrives at nothing aside from its own beginning again.
What it does not seem to intend is a longwinded moralization of the nature of these semiotics in what is already an absurd landscape of gay anime women, (cool) space travel, (cool) and dystopian leftism-as-fascism (UH OH!)
The setting is derived from ours; it is an alternate earth- or more accurate, an alternate solar system. Different names for worlds and peoples, governments that seem to derive semiotically (important) but not directly from real-life regimes The game takes place on multiple planets, on space ships, in cities, and on trains, none of which are connected to one another. Doors leading out of one screen lead you to the wrong side of another. You spend a large chunk of the game in nowhere. You double back to reimagined versions of the same space over and over. The symbols you start picking at on the game’s start begin to grow meaningless, debased out of symbolic significance.
Needless to say, if you haven’t played Signalis, do. Maybe you’ll enjoy it or maybe not- some people don’t do well with horror or will be frustrated by the inventory system. You might just love it because of the aesthetics which is fair because it’s a gorgeous game. Regardless, play it. If all you want is a recommendation, stop here and go enjoy a neat video game.
If you wanna read more about the action of intention and clever use of dreams as a sort of anti-informational condiment for narrative, on we go.
IV.
I do not have a relationship with the people who work at rose-engine. I don’t know them personally and I’m sure that if I want poking around with my lurid hooked digits, I could dig up any number of decontextualized tweets or past creative endeavors that I could point at and say that I think I understand them and their intentions, but I wont do that. I can only state what their intentions seem to be; what I personally think their intentions are and where intention cleverly flirts with uncertainty.
With that said, I find the framing of Signalis as itself being a dream about dreaming to be both very intentional and uniquely effective in acting on its purpose.
One knows that a video game is crafted intentionally. Signalis didn’t spring to life in the space of a fitful evening, but it chases actively a suspension of logic on a scale that goes far deeper than its representations of fragile love, morphic horror, and political bludgeoning. The main character is chasing a woman she loves, the world is full of nightmarish perversions of form, and the stars are ruled by a fascist regime that wears semiotics resembling the DDR. According to a now-deleted tweet by the author of Signalis’s world, it is also one devoid of homophobia and racism… as well as cigarettes, coffee, and alcohol. They then went on inform readers that these facts were not any sort of supplementary lore dump so much as guiding principals they followed in the game- a sort of micro-sized “making of” post.
These things seem, to me, decided arbitrarily to serve Signalis as a whole piece of work, rather than to moralize on the particulars of projecting a future communism into space or the intricacies of anime space lesbians. From my perspective, these elements were instead chose with intention to emulate the way dreams annihilate the precision of semiotics. The significance of the number six, the use of tarot cards, the throughline of gestalts and their replika counterparts that is left unresolved without concrete answers as to where exactly they connect; this is pointed and intentional to make you consider not just the symbols you are looking at, but why you are looking at those symbols at all. You begin to wonder what you hope to learn in the esoteric melange of patterns and repetition, in the same way that treading water in a dream feels like drowning in sweat-stained linen.
V.
Some people think this game is anti-communist. I do not think it is. I think the oppressive regime represented by the game’s New Nation, drenched in the symbology of socialist germany, is an intentional choice by the developers (based in Germany) to further the game’s dreamlike surrealism by dressing up what is unabashedly classical fascism in the symbology of a troubled and failed socialist project.
If read outside of the game’s context, yes. Sure. It looks pretty reactionary- but so does fucking everything after you’ve read some of Lenin’s speeches and you’ve got the fires of liberty, equality and fraternity alight in your breast.
(These are good fires to light, by the way. Never too late to start your reading!)
But I think a little more effort is worth exerting. As many enemies of communism will gleefully point out, men like Hitler and Mussolini began their political careers in the DAP and PSI respectively. On the surface level, the average person may hear this and conclude yes, leftism leads to fascism without actually internalizing that the ascent of these vile demagogues was done through the only the symbolic elevation of populism, worker’s rights, and nationalism without the actual elimination of oppression. This sounds a lot like Signalis’s New Nation, dressed in the symbology of anti-liberalism but without the intention of uplift and equality.
I’m not gonna pretend that Signalis is extremely scathing in its critique of populism without the elimination of oppression, but when you pair it with Signalis’s other narrative tricks of misdirection and its air of unreality, you can pretty easily see that these semiotics are presented intentionally to force you to consider what is actually going on. It also doesn’t provide much of an answer- that’s the point. This is a dream about dreaming, not a moral manual or a nice red book.
VI.
I don’t want to be a man or a woman.
I want to be unbearable.
Signalis is also a dream about dreaming about love, but not widescreen love and the shape it takes on the political stage; the game paints in the messy and loud reds of personal love. What it means to love an individual, what it means to be an individual in love, where the individual ends and the love begins. It is about obsession and dependency. It’s about the dark room you share with your lover, the little house you pace the same little paths in from one end to another. It’s about being with one another, away from the world- until the world forces you to look out the window, because a rock’s been thrown through.
The rock, in this case, isn’t institutionalized homophobia or the violent proliferation of anti-trans rhetoric so much as it is random tragedy. The stone in glass-scatter wreckage is memory loss, it is innavigable distance, and it is illness.
Ariane is sick and dying. Her hair is falling out, and she coughs up blood. She falls out of wakefulness and into terrifying dreams. She wants it to end. It is nothing so dignified and mighty as learned thinkers on a galactic stage waging a war of ideology- the perceived scale is small. The game’s few characters suffer within the word-and-picture dream, both in the moving diorama we play and in the narrative. Grief compounds, trauma is compartmentalized.
Sometimes, love is a kind of horror. Not just because the world is cruel, but often because the world is cruel. The reason we feel grief isn’t only the worldly injustice, though. It isn’t the conditions that lead to the horror; the reason is the loss itself. Grief is love with nowhere to go.
VII.
Out past beyond the field
Inside the birches
Under rising steam:
A small room
To prove I don't exist
To show that I am beyond
This animal form
And this lost mind
Or am I?
The wood heats up and cracks
And pulls apart
The way the body groans
I transform and the stars show
I don't think the worlds still exists
Only this room in the snow
And the lights through the cold
And only this breath
VIII.
One day I’ll simply close my eyes and nothing’ll happen.
IX.
The gameplay is tight, atmosphere very heavy and easy to drop into and stay in. Aiming’s weird, but not enough to upset me. Every piece of visual information is presented inventively and artfully. It doesn’t overstay its welcome. It offers nothing aside from what it is, trusting you to take from it what you will. There's bravery in that as a creative, because it means you are willing to accept some people will misconstrue your intention either willfully or simply out of ignorance. It’s also the most honest way to present any story, in my experience. It doesn’t tell or show beyond its puzzle-box story delivered out of order and with zealous abandon and its sleight-of-hand semiotics.
It drops you into the water, pooling at the base of a stone coffin. It upends a box with some tarot cards and hexagon stones, some radio frequencies and great pillars of black in an ocean of red sand.
II. a younger version of myself,
III. standing at the bottom of the ocean;
IV. arms aloft,
V. mouth agape,
VI. eyes glaring
VII. not seeing,
VIII. not breathing,
IX. still as stone in a watery fane.
I.
There’s me.
I’m dreaming, in the dark with my hair spiraling all around me as if lifted by water’s drifting. My senses arise from a Body and its eyes open suddenly. Turning to the right, the Body sees Myself from outside. I realize I am outside Myself, and that if Myself is not where my perceptions rests, the Body must not be me. These eyes see Myself open my eyes and turn in kind, to face the Body.
It is a look of disdain. I hate my Body- it is a stranger to Myself.
When I wake it is without any sense of rest.
II.
I have lived most of my life inside of a surreal semi-haze. Psychosis and worry disenfranchised me from the comfort of certainty when I was still small, and have since instilled in me a stark skepticism of symbols. A particularly keen fang in the mouth of uncertainty I’ve felt has been in my dreams. What dreams are exactly doesn’t interest me; it is what my personal dreams do.
Where some (often crackpot behaviorists) argue on the nature of dreams as being manifestations of subconscious desire or interpretation of higher consciousness, I simply observe in writing what occurs in my dreaming time. It never means anything, never symbolizes anything, never works with clever conceit or measured intention. I have wormed my way through sleeping imaginations of the most absurd misery and most debased pleasure I could hope to describe and woken knowing these things will never follow me out- knowing that the door is closed and that this side is the side with all of me.
I know dreams annihilate semiotics.
Also, this is a piece about Signalis. (mentioned so I don’t get flagged like on my Returnal review)
III.
A dream about dreaming.
Are you still looking for answers where there are only questions?
Signalis refuses staunchly notions of easy unravelling. It is crafted to invite pondering, interpretation and iteration. It calls constantly into question the reliability of subjective position, on sensory information, on basic causality in narrative form, and it does that with intention. The game’s surrealism and fugue-like nesting of symbols-into-narrative-into-representation continues on past its termination, eating its own tail. The narrative is about one who dreams, presented itself as a dream utterly laden with semiotics and suggested meaning that arrives at nothing aside from its own beginning again.
What it does not seem to intend is a longwinded moralization of the nature of these semiotics in what is already an absurd landscape of gay anime women, (cool) space travel, (cool) and dystopian leftism-as-fascism (UH OH!)
The setting is derived from ours; it is an alternate earth- or more accurate, an alternate solar system. Different names for worlds and peoples, governments that seem to derive semiotically (important) but not directly from real-life regimes The game takes place on multiple planets, on space ships, in cities, and on trains, none of which are connected to one another. Doors leading out of one screen lead you to the wrong side of another. You spend a large chunk of the game in nowhere. You double back to reimagined versions of the same space over and over. The symbols you start picking at on the game’s start begin to grow meaningless, debased out of symbolic significance.
Needless to say, if you haven’t played Signalis, do. Maybe you’ll enjoy it or maybe not- some people don’t do well with horror or will be frustrated by the inventory system. You might just love it because of the aesthetics which is fair because it’s a gorgeous game. Regardless, play it. If all you want is a recommendation, stop here and go enjoy a neat video game.
If you wanna read more about the action of intention and clever use of dreams as a sort of anti-informational condiment for narrative, on we go.
IV.
I do not have a relationship with the people who work at rose-engine. I don’t know them personally and I’m sure that if I want poking around with my lurid hooked digits, I could dig up any number of decontextualized tweets or past creative endeavors that I could point at and say that I think I understand them and their intentions, but I wont do that. I can only state what their intentions seem to be; what I personally think their intentions are and where intention cleverly flirts with uncertainty.
With that said, I find the framing of Signalis as itself being a dream about dreaming to be both very intentional and uniquely effective in acting on its purpose.
One knows that a video game is crafted intentionally. Signalis didn’t spring to life in the space of a fitful evening, but it chases actively a suspension of logic on a scale that goes far deeper than its representations of fragile love, morphic horror, and political bludgeoning. The main character is chasing a woman she loves, the world is full of nightmarish perversions of form, and the stars are ruled by a fascist regime that wears semiotics resembling the DDR. According to a now-deleted tweet by the author of Signalis’s world, it is also one devoid of homophobia and racism… as well as cigarettes, coffee, and alcohol. They then went on inform readers that these facts were not any sort of supplementary lore dump so much as guiding principals they followed in the game- a sort of micro-sized “making of” post.
These things seem, to me, decided arbitrarily to serve Signalis as a whole piece of work, rather than to moralize on the particulars of projecting a future communism into space or the intricacies of anime space lesbians. From my perspective, these elements were instead chose with intention to emulate the way dreams annihilate the precision of semiotics. The significance of the number six, the use of tarot cards, the throughline of gestalts and their replika counterparts that is left unresolved without concrete answers as to where exactly they connect; this is pointed and intentional to make you consider not just the symbols you are looking at, but why you are looking at those symbols at all. You begin to wonder what you hope to learn in the esoteric melange of patterns and repetition, in the same way that treading water in a dream feels like drowning in sweat-stained linen.
V.
Some people think this game is anti-communist. I do not think it is. I think the oppressive regime represented by the game’s New Nation, drenched in the symbology of socialist germany, is an intentional choice by the developers (based in Germany) to further the game’s dreamlike surrealism by dressing up what is unabashedly classical fascism in the symbology of a troubled and failed socialist project.
If read outside of the game’s context, yes. Sure. It looks pretty reactionary- but so does fucking everything after you’ve read some of Lenin’s speeches and you’ve got the fires of liberty, equality and fraternity alight in your breast.
(These are good fires to light, by the way. Never too late to start your reading!)
But I think a little more effort is worth exerting. As many enemies of communism will gleefully point out, men like Hitler and Mussolini began their political careers in the DAP and PSI respectively. On the surface level, the average person may hear this and conclude yes, leftism leads to fascism without actually internalizing that the ascent of these vile demagogues was done through the only the symbolic elevation of populism, worker’s rights, and nationalism without the actual elimination of oppression. This sounds a lot like Signalis’s New Nation, dressed in the symbology of anti-liberalism but without the intention of uplift and equality.
I’m not gonna pretend that Signalis is extremely scathing in its critique of populism without the elimination of oppression, but when you pair it with Signalis’s other narrative tricks of misdirection and its air of unreality, you can pretty easily see that these semiotics are presented intentionally to force you to consider what is actually going on. It also doesn’t provide much of an answer- that’s the point. This is a dream about dreaming, not a moral manual or a nice red book.
VI.
I don’t want to be a man or a woman.
I want to be unbearable.
Signalis is also a dream about dreaming about love, but not widescreen love and the shape it takes on the political stage; the game paints in the messy and loud reds of personal love. What it means to love an individual, what it means to be an individual in love, where the individual ends and the love begins. It is about obsession and dependency. It’s about the dark room you share with your lover, the little house you pace the same little paths in from one end to another. It’s about being with one another, away from the world- until the world forces you to look out the window, because a rock’s been thrown through.
The rock, in this case, isn’t institutionalized homophobia or the violent proliferation of anti-trans rhetoric so much as it is random tragedy. The stone in glass-scatter wreckage is memory loss, it is innavigable distance, and it is illness.
Ariane is sick and dying. Her hair is falling out, and she coughs up blood. She falls out of wakefulness and into terrifying dreams. She wants it to end. It is nothing so dignified and mighty as learned thinkers on a galactic stage waging a war of ideology- the perceived scale is small. The game’s few characters suffer within the word-and-picture dream, both in the moving diorama we play and in the narrative. Grief compounds, trauma is compartmentalized.
Sometimes, love is a kind of horror. Not just because the world is cruel, but often because the world is cruel. The reason we feel grief isn’t only the worldly injustice, though. It isn’t the conditions that lead to the horror; the reason is the loss itself. Grief is love with nowhere to go.
VII.
Out past beyond the field
Inside the birches
Under rising steam:
A small room
To prove I don't exist
To show that I am beyond
This animal form
And this lost mind
Or am I?
The wood heats up and cracks
And pulls apart
The way the body groans
I transform and the stars show
I don't think the worlds still exists
Only this room in the snow
And the lights through the cold
And only this breath
VIII.
One day I’ll simply close my eyes and nothing’ll happen.
IX.
The gameplay is tight, atmosphere very heavy and easy to drop into and stay in. Aiming’s weird, but not enough to upset me. Every piece of visual information is presented inventively and artfully. It doesn’t overstay its welcome. It offers nothing aside from what it is, trusting you to take from it what you will. There's bravery in that as a creative, because it means you are willing to accept some people will misconstrue your intention either willfully or simply out of ignorance. It’s also the most honest way to present any story, in my experience. It doesn’t tell or show beyond its puzzle-box story delivered out of order and with zealous abandon and its sleight-of-hand semiotics.
It drops you into the water, pooling at the base of a stone coffin. It upends a box with some tarot cards and hexagon stones, some radio frequencies and great pillars of black in an ocean of red sand.
If you google "Signalis Ending Explained" you are a fucking idiot
When I saw the space lesbians fall in love, I cried, because I realized I will never go to space, become a lesbian, or fall in love.
Despite an engrossing visual style and an immediately intriguing hook, Signalis doesn't measure up to its opening moments. Playing too close to the survival horror greats that inspired it, the warts of bizarre key collecting and micro managing inventory are preserved here despite the genre largely moving on.
The final act is a slog, and in the end you're rewarded with an ending based upon gameplay factors you weren't even aware of without checking a wiki. I'm sure others will enjoy this endearing throwback to older horror titles, but the execution felt a bit too copy/paste for my liking.
The final act is a slog, and in the end you're rewarded with an ending based upon gameplay factors you weren't even aware of without checking a wiki. I'm sure others will enjoy this endearing throwback to older horror titles, but the execution felt a bit too copy/paste for my liking.
Perhaps This Is Hell
I honestly don’t know how to articulate how much I love this game but I will try. one who has played many games might see derivation and believe there is nothing here but truly I feel like the actual content and storytelling, the themes and visuals, are so rarely done to this degree of excellence, or even done at all in video games, so I implore you to please play this game, because my words pale in comparison to the actual experience.
I honestly don’t know how to articulate how much I love this game but I will try. one who has played many games might see derivation and believe there is nothing here but truly I feel like the actual content and storytelling, the themes and visuals, are so rarely done to this degree of excellence, or even done at all in video games, so I implore you to please play this game, because my words pale in comparison to the actual experience.
Signalis is an immaculately written love letter to survival horror. It manages to be a culmination of the best elements from the best games in the genre, wearing its inspirations on its sleeves while still managing to carve out a unique identity all its own. Its tight controls, tremendous level layouts, and excellently presented story make for an experience that’s easy to get invested in and difficult to put down.
The puzzles are also handled very well, though some of them I will admit left me horribly stumped. Despite this, I wouldn’t really say that the puzzles in this game are obtuse or impossible to figure out. Whenever I couldn’t solve a puzzle, it was generally because of one or two small details that I overlooked. Each puzzle in this game is definitely solvable, and immensely satisfying to figure out.
My only and very minor complaint is that sometimes enemies are placed a little too close to entry ways. Sometimes they’ll just be right there and attack you before you get a chance to even react to them. But this doesn’t happen very frequently, and it’s not at all a major deterrent.
The story is presented in a very unusual, but memorable fashion that really makes it stand out. Much of it is left to interpretation, but you are going to have to do quite a bit of reading if you want to have a semblance of what’s going on. I personally don’t mind this, and if you’re not interested in the story and just want to play the game, that’s still perfectly fine.
Signalis truly feels like an instant classic, one of those games that anyone who’s an enthusiast for video games as a whole, or at the very least horror games, really needs to play. It’s a hauntingly beautiful experience.
The puzzles are also handled very well, though some of them I will admit left me horribly stumped. Despite this, I wouldn’t really say that the puzzles in this game are obtuse or impossible to figure out. Whenever I couldn’t solve a puzzle, it was generally because of one or two small details that I overlooked. Each puzzle in this game is definitely solvable, and immensely satisfying to figure out.
My only and very minor complaint is that sometimes enemies are placed a little too close to entry ways. Sometimes they’ll just be right there and attack you before you get a chance to even react to them. But this doesn’t happen very frequently, and it’s not at all a major deterrent.
The story is presented in a very unusual, but memorable fashion that really makes it stand out. Much of it is left to interpretation, but you are going to have to do quite a bit of reading if you want to have a semblance of what’s going on. I personally don’t mind this, and if you’re not interested in the story and just want to play the game, that’s still perfectly fine.
Signalis truly feels like an instant classic, one of those games that anyone who’s an enthusiast for video games as a whole, or at the very least horror games, really needs to play. It’s a hauntingly beautiful experience.
Signalis is basically what happens when you take the best traits of the two most acclaimed survival horror franchises, Silent Hill and Resident Evil, fuse them together and then slap an anime-esque art style on top of it.
I can't think of the last time I played a new original survival horror game that I genuinely loved like I did Signalis. This was one of the biggest surprise hits of the year so far for me.
If you've played Resident Evil, then Signalis will feel very familiar to you. Inventory management and backtracking are a constant, as well as learning to conserve items/ammo by getting used to sneaking/running past enemies as opposed to always fighting. Alongside that, you'll be solving various puzzles and using key items across the game to progress. Very standard stuff if you're used to survival horror. Signalis is not very innovative with it's gameplay, but if it ain't broke why fix it, right?
I think the gameplay is probably the ONLY area where I have a few mild issues worth addressing. I found there to be a lot of times where I have to shimmy around a door or object a bit just to get the game to interact with it. It's nothing major, but I did notice it a lot throughout my playthrough. It's not so bad when you're just exploring, but when you're trying to run away from enemies and the game won't let you run through the door it can be a little irritating.
Maybe it's just because I'm someone experienced with survival horror and, therefore, I tried to be very careful about using ammunition, but I found most of the weapons and tools in this game to be widely underused by myself. Or just straight up never used at all in my playthrough. Throughout the game, I mainly used just my pistol and occasionally switched it out for the revolver or shotgun. However, the game gives you a plethora of different weapons and tools, like stun prods and flares, to fight enemies, but nothing about the scenarios I faced ever convinced me that I needed to take advantage of these other weapons/tools. As long as you're not trying to be Rambo, I can't see where and why most of this stuff would be really useful to carry around in your already very restrictive inventory.
Where Signalis REALLY stands out, though, is in every other part of its presentation. The old-school PS1-esque graphics look awesome and have a lot of love put into it. I usually find this style in modern horror to be corny, but this is a situation where it works excellently and only adds to the whole feel of the game. The music is lots of great ambient stuff alongside some intense creepy tracks. Very Yamaoka inspired. It goes really well with the whole look and feel of the game.
The narrative of Signalis is probably the hardest one to describe in detail, both due to spoilers and also just because its a very abstract, psychological type of story and I'm nowhere near confident that I fully grasped it all. That being said, though, I was captivated by it and I enjoyed how it explored itself through storytelling within the gameplay, or in its beautiful, cinematic cutscenes that feel reminiscent of some of my favorite animes such as Evangelion, Monogatari, and Ghost in the Shell. It has a surprisingly rich amount of world-building and details that legitimately not only make me want to unravel the main plot, but also want to know more about just the setting in general. It's really good stuff and I think most fans of sci-fi horror will enjoy it for that.
Signalis is an absolute indie game achievement that has swooped past much of the competition this year and become one of the best gaming experiences I've had in 2022. Can not recommend it enough.
I can't think of the last time I played a new original survival horror game that I genuinely loved like I did Signalis. This was one of the biggest surprise hits of the year so far for me.
If you've played Resident Evil, then Signalis will feel very familiar to you. Inventory management and backtracking are a constant, as well as learning to conserve items/ammo by getting used to sneaking/running past enemies as opposed to always fighting. Alongside that, you'll be solving various puzzles and using key items across the game to progress. Very standard stuff if you're used to survival horror. Signalis is not very innovative with it's gameplay, but if it ain't broke why fix it, right?
I think the gameplay is probably the ONLY area where I have a few mild issues worth addressing. I found there to be a lot of times where I have to shimmy around a door or object a bit just to get the game to interact with it. It's nothing major, but I did notice it a lot throughout my playthrough. It's not so bad when you're just exploring, but when you're trying to run away from enemies and the game won't let you run through the door it can be a little irritating.
Maybe it's just because I'm someone experienced with survival horror and, therefore, I tried to be very careful about using ammunition, but I found most of the weapons and tools in this game to be widely underused by myself. Or just straight up never used at all in my playthrough. Throughout the game, I mainly used just my pistol and occasionally switched it out for the revolver or shotgun. However, the game gives you a plethora of different weapons and tools, like stun prods and flares, to fight enemies, but nothing about the scenarios I faced ever convinced me that I needed to take advantage of these other weapons/tools. As long as you're not trying to be Rambo, I can't see where and why most of this stuff would be really useful to carry around in your already very restrictive inventory.
Where Signalis REALLY stands out, though, is in every other part of its presentation. The old-school PS1-esque graphics look awesome and have a lot of love put into it. I usually find this style in modern horror to be corny, but this is a situation where it works excellently and only adds to the whole feel of the game. The music is lots of great ambient stuff alongside some intense creepy tracks. Very Yamaoka inspired. It goes really well with the whole look and feel of the game.
The narrative of Signalis is probably the hardest one to describe in detail, both due to spoilers and also just because its a very abstract, psychological type of story and I'm nowhere near confident that I fully grasped it all. That being said, though, I was captivated by it and I enjoyed how it explored itself through storytelling within the gameplay, or in its beautiful, cinematic cutscenes that feel reminiscent of some of my favorite animes such as Evangelion, Monogatari, and Ghost in the Shell. It has a surprisingly rich amount of world-building and details that legitimately not only make me want to unravel the main plot, but also want to know more about just the setting in general. It's really good stuff and I think most fans of sci-fi horror will enjoy it for that.
Signalis is an absolute indie game achievement that has swooped past much of the competition this year and become one of the best gaming experiences I've had in 2022. Can not recommend it enough.
After hitting the credits and mulling this game over in my head for a couple of weeks now, I find I am disappointed with it. When this game released, it was the hot new shit, and finding new survival horror in the vein of the classics we all love is still pretty rare. So I knew I had to play this game.
I wont even begin to talk about the game's convoluted story, because I did not enjoy it and honestly I did not follow. Maybe I am just stupid, and that is fine. If you wanna have a confusing-ass story, that's your deal, and I don't need to understand the story completely to have a good time, but from my end it sure does feel like a game that is meant to be complicated so that people think it is smarter than it actually is. Like bait for Youtube channels to make videos like SIGNALIS STORY EXPLAINED as so many games do in a post-Souls world. But honestly that's still fine because even with a weak story, the atmosphere, sounds, and music were so on point, I can forgive this shortcoming. The gameplay however, is where this game lost me, and lost me hard.
I found gameplay to mostly miss the mark. I love survival horror classics of the 5th gen/6th gen era so I am no stranger to what some would call outdated mechanics of those games, but when it comes to the implementation of those mechanics here, they are such an annoyance that it really drug the entire experience down for me completely.
The gameplay is mixed between two specific titles, which clearly are Signalis's biggest influences. Those being Silent Hill 2, and Resident Evil 1. These two games are indeed both survival-horror games, but when their mechanics are slapped together haphazardly, it makes for a very wonky experience. The biggest example is the inventory slots, and item box management. This mechanic is straight out of Resident Evil. The problem with this however, is the game gives you only 6 slots, the minimum amount from the first Resident Evil game, reserved for Chris Redfield who was considered the games harder character to play. However, in RE1 most of the items in the mansion are health items and ammunition, which means, if playing efficiently, even with 6 slots, as long as you watch your health and ammo, you wont run into the slot limit, and therefor have to run back to the item box TOO often. Signalis however has many many MANY puzzle items to pick up, multiple in each room, which means to progress, you are forced to pick all of these up at some point or another, meaning many forced trips back to the item box. It feels like item boxes and item limits were included because they are Resident Evil survival horror staples, but not thinking about how they would influence the moment to moment gameplay and exploration of THIS game.
It is even more frustrating when examining the fact that this games primary influence, Silent Hill 2, also has many puzzle items to pick up in many different rooms. BUT, that game HAS NO INVENTORY LIMIT. Meaning exploration is never interrupted. And then Silent Hill 2 gives you items like a flashlight, which you pretty much need at all times to be able to play the game. Signalis also gives you a flashlight, and you pretty much need it at all times to play the game, especially when they start introducing traps, but guess what, THAT TAKES UP ONE OF YOUR 6 SLOTS. See why this mixing and matching doesnt work??? You now have 6 slots, minus 1 for your flashlight, MINUS ANOTHER ONE FOR YOUR GUN, which you will pretty much have on hand at all times. So really you DON'T have 6 slots, you actually have about 4.
The good news is if you are on PC, you can fix this problem that did not need to exist in the first place, giving yourself just about as many slots as you want, and when you do this, the game feels more like it falls into place, and most of the annoyance is removed. The bad news is, if you are on console, you can pretty much get fucked, as not only does Signalis only give you 6 slots, but UNLIKE Resident Evil, the series Signalis idolizes this inventory mechanic so much for, there is no option in game to upgrade your inventory amount. Meaning you will take those 6 slots from start to finish. And yeah, I know in RE1 you cannot upgrade your slot amount, but hey, Signalis devs, did you ever ask yourself why, in almost all future RE games you are able to give yourself more slots and more inventory? And in the case of Resident Evil 1specifically, did you maybe ever wonder why more people play as Jill (who has 8 slots) than Chris (who has only 6 slots)? It's definitely worth thinking about!
I still believe after all that, that this is a game that survival horror fans should play, because even with my opinion of the game's shortcomings, there are still great things to experience here, but the gameplay needs to be improved for the sequel. I cannot see a bigger audience jumping on otherwise.
To not end this on a sour note and whip this around to a positive, if I had to say the kindest thing I can to these developers, it would be this:
YOU GUYS should be the ones remaking Silent Hill 2. FUCK Blooper Team! Never have I felt so close to that initial playthrough of SH2 than hearing this music, being so creeped out by these monster designs, being drowned in this thick atmosphere. It is truly amazing what an indie team with passion can accomplish over a larger studio that just pumps out dogshit and keeps failing upwards.
I wont even begin to talk about the game's convoluted story, because I did not enjoy it and honestly I did not follow. Maybe I am just stupid, and that is fine. If you wanna have a confusing-ass story, that's your deal, and I don't need to understand the story completely to have a good time, but from my end it sure does feel like a game that is meant to be complicated so that people think it is smarter than it actually is. Like bait for Youtube channels to make videos like SIGNALIS STORY EXPLAINED as so many games do in a post-Souls world. But honestly that's still fine because even with a weak story, the atmosphere, sounds, and music were so on point, I can forgive this shortcoming. The gameplay however, is where this game lost me, and lost me hard.
I found gameplay to mostly miss the mark. I love survival horror classics of the 5th gen/6th gen era so I am no stranger to what some would call outdated mechanics of those games, but when it comes to the implementation of those mechanics here, they are such an annoyance that it really drug the entire experience down for me completely.
The gameplay is mixed between two specific titles, which clearly are Signalis's biggest influences. Those being Silent Hill 2, and Resident Evil 1. These two games are indeed both survival-horror games, but when their mechanics are slapped together haphazardly, it makes for a very wonky experience. The biggest example is the inventory slots, and item box management. This mechanic is straight out of Resident Evil. The problem with this however, is the game gives you only 6 slots, the minimum amount from the first Resident Evil game, reserved for Chris Redfield who was considered the games harder character to play. However, in RE1 most of the items in the mansion are health items and ammunition, which means, if playing efficiently, even with 6 slots, as long as you watch your health and ammo, you wont run into the slot limit, and therefor have to run back to the item box TOO often. Signalis however has many many MANY puzzle items to pick up, multiple in each room, which means to progress, you are forced to pick all of these up at some point or another, meaning many forced trips back to the item box. It feels like item boxes and item limits were included because they are Resident Evil survival horror staples, but not thinking about how they would influence the moment to moment gameplay and exploration of THIS game.
It is even more frustrating when examining the fact that this games primary influence, Silent Hill 2, also has many puzzle items to pick up in many different rooms. BUT, that game HAS NO INVENTORY LIMIT. Meaning exploration is never interrupted. And then Silent Hill 2 gives you items like a flashlight, which you pretty much need at all times to be able to play the game. Signalis also gives you a flashlight, and you pretty much need it at all times to play the game, especially when they start introducing traps, but guess what, THAT TAKES UP ONE OF YOUR 6 SLOTS. See why this mixing and matching doesnt work??? You now have 6 slots, minus 1 for your flashlight, MINUS ANOTHER ONE FOR YOUR GUN, which you will pretty much have on hand at all times. So really you DON'T have 6 slots, you actually have about 4.
The good news is if you are on PC, you can fix this problem that did not need to exist in the first place, giving yourself just about as many slots as you want, and when you do this, the game feels more like it falls into place, and most of the annoyance is removed. The bad news is, if you are on console, you can pretty much get fucked, as not only does Signalis only give you 6 slots, but UNLIKE Resident Evil, the series Signalis idolizes this inventory mechanic so much for, there is no option in game to upgrade your inventory amount. Meaning you will take those 6 slots from start to finish. And yeah, I know in RE1 you cannot upgrade your slot amount, but hey, Signalis devs, did you ever ask yourself why, in almost all future RE games you are able to give yourself more slots and more inventory? And in the case of Resident Evil 1specifically, did you maybe ever wonder why more people play as Jill (who has 8 slots) than Chris (who has only 6 slots)? It's definitely worth thinking about!
I still believe after all that, that this is a game that survival horror fans should play, because even with my opinion of the game's shortcomings, there are still great things to experience here, but the gameplay needs to be improved for the sequel. I cannot see a bigger audience jumping on otherwise.
To not end this on a sour note and whip this around to a positive, if I had to say the kindest thing I can to these developers, it would be this:
YOU GUYS should be the ones remaking Silent Hill 2. FUCK Blooper Team! Never have I felt so close to that initial playthrough of SH2 than hearing this music, being so creeped out by these monster designs, being drowned in this thick atmosphere. It is truly amazing what an indie team with passion can accomplish over a larger studio that just pumps out dogshit and keeps failing upwards.
Easily the best game I’ve ever played down to the gameplay artstyle music characters and most importantly the story to the game which is so well done and complex the themes are amazing such as finding your identity/mistaking grief for purpose/love/identity crisis/and the weight of a promise. The game has some of the best endings I’ve ever witnessed with the secret being the best I’ve ever seen overall play Signalis.
This review contains spoilers
Cryptic, tragic, suspenseful, and a loving homage to PS1 survival horror. I’ve seen the critique that this is anti-communism and, no??? It reads more as a condemnation of a totalitarian and militaristic nation which wants to reduce people solely to their role or profits. Governments that have done this are communist in name and name alone, using bastardized, extremist forms of that ideology. It’s moreso a critique of totalitarianism and weaponizing any ideology to fit it, and the metaphorical, or literal decay that is a product. It’s the same as when someone reads 1984 or Animal Farm, and concludes Orwell to be viscerally against Communism, which is simply not the case when the man was a Socialist who spoke against totalitarian states who would weaponize such ideals through his writing. In the case of this game, any indulgence is all but forbidden, or characterized as a fetish when Replikas indulge. When people are characterized only by their function and gross output in a society, love and happiness are luxuries. That’s the message I feel is here. And it’s a haunting one in a story where we have to piece so much together. I don’t think the game is PERFECT, and I wish the gunplay was better, with me finding aiming cumbersome at times. Great game, though. I understand it won’t be for everyone with how its storytelling can be vague, but that’s the intent.
I do think there’s a conversation to be had about its use of DDR iconography (the devs are from Hamburg), but to say that that’s its full message feels inherently wrong, and there’s more to it than that.
I do think there’s a conversation to be had about its use of DDR iconography (the devs are from Hamburg), but to say that that’s its full message feels inherently wrong, and there’s more to it than that.
Last year around Halloween, I decided to challenge myself to start playing some survival horror games. I've been making a conscious effort to broaden the types of games I decide to play; although I love character platformers, action-adventure games, and first person shooters, I also realized that my pool of games was incredibly shallow compared to my friends, who found time to play every AAA mainstream release, plenty of double-to-triple-digit-hour-long RPGs, genres I hadn't even touched like real time strategy games, fighting games, literally any Nintendo game (you get the idea).
So, last year I played through Jill's campaign in Resident Evil Remake, did a full playthrough of Silent Hill 2 for the first time, and fell in LOVE with the first Fatal Frame.
Now, here I am one year and two months removed from that October, and I've yet to revisit these games or indulge in any other similar survival horror titles. That is, until Signalis became a blip on my radar. Something about its aesthetic, its pixel art, its rudimentary PS1-esque character models lacking any semblance of facial features, utterly captivated me.
I made a conscious effort to ignore any press for this game months before and after release because I knew I wanted to play it when I was ready and able to.
Now that I've played it... I'm once again reminded that I've barely scratched the surface of survival horror as a genre.
I enjoyed my time with Resident Evil. I thought some of the puzzles were obtuse but I enjoyed making progress and learning the level layout so much so that I could navigate from one corner of the map to another without even using the map.
Silent Hill 2 was dreary and dismal. A lo-fidelity nightmare world with a cursed atmosphere unlike any other game I've played before or since.
Fatal Frame made combat super fun without sacrificing the oppressive mood of its locations, although its repetition did become a bit much towards the end.
Signalis balances Resident Evil-style inventory management and enemy mechanics (Crimson Heads) with Silent Hill 2's enemy design and gradual, literal descent into nightmare territory.
It wears its mechanical and literary/intertextual influences on its sleeves. The vocabulary of survival horror should be familiar, even to fairly recent newcomers (yours truly), while its visual flair adds shades of 1995's Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion. The work also frequently references "The King in Yellow," which I always found exciting because, coincidentally, it was one of the only other books I set aside time to read this year.
Signalis is an ever-increasing-in-difficulty series of dungeons a la Silent Hill sans the in-between sections. In other words, all dungeons, all the time. My only complaint is that while the limited inventory system does provide some instances of picking-and-choosing, more often than not it's mainly inconvenient and does add a lot of backtracking. However, I do wonder if these environments would feel as real and be as memorable without the backtracking included?
It takes its time, offers some genuinely challenging puzzles, creates dread and panic when necessary, and nails the vibe of a sci-fi Silent Hill. While it doesn't capture the pure, unbelievably "cursed" energy of Silent Hill 2, and I would've liked some more rooms or moments that capitalized on the scares, the fact remains that Signalis remains a solid sci-fi survival horror title, and succeeds in spades.
So, last year I played through Jill's campaign in Resident Evil Remake, did a full playthrough of Silent Hill 2 for the first time, and fell in LOVE with the first Fatal Frame.
Now, here I am one year and two months removed from that October, and I've yet to revisit these games or indulge in any other similar survival horror titles. That is, until Signalis became a blip on my radar. Something about its aesthetic, its pixel art, its rudimentary PS1-esque character models lacking any semblance of facial features, utterly captivated me.
I made a conscious effort to ignore any press for this game months before and after release because I knew I wanted to play it when I was ready and able to.
Now that I've played it... I'm once again reminded that I've barely scratched the surface of survival horror as a genre.
I enjoyed my time with Resident Evil. I thought some of the puzzles were obtuse but I enjoyed making progress and learning the level layout so much so that I could navigate from one corner of the map to another without even using the map.
Silent Hill 2 was dreary and dismal. A lo-fidelity nightmare world with a cursed atmosphere unlike any other game I've played before or since.
Fatal Frame made combat super fun without sacrificing the oppressive mood of its locations, although its repetition did become a bit much towards the end.
Signalis balances Resident Evil-style inventory management and enemy mechanics (Crimson Heads) with Silent Hill 2's enemy design and gradual, literal descent into nightmare territory.
It wears its mechanical and literary/intertextual influences on its sleeves. The vocabulary of survival horror should be familiar, even to fairly recent newcomers (yours truly), while its visual flair adds shades of 1995's Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion. The work also frequently references "The King in Yellow," which I always found exciting because, coincidentally, it was one of the only other books I set aside time to read this year.
Signalis is an ever-increasing-in-difficulty series of dungeons a la Silent Hill sans the in-between sections. In other words, all dungeons, all the time. My only complaint is that while the limited inventory system does provide some instances of picking-and-choosing, more often than not it's mainly inconvenient and does add a lot of backtracking. However, I do wonder if these environments would feel as real and be as memorable without the backtracking included?
It takes its time, offers some genuinely challenging puzzles, creates dread and panic when necessary, and nails the vibe of a sci-fi Silent Hill. While it doesn't capture the pure, unbelievably "cursed" energy of Silent Hill 2, and I would've liked some more rooms or moments that capitalized on the scares, the fact remains that Signalis remains a solid sci-fi survival horror title, and succeeds in spades.
“We are not whole. No matter what you do, she will never dance with us again.”
Holy geez, this game was topsy turvey at every moment when I was playing this. From just crawling in between enemies to just outright getting pissed with the hit detection or getting cucked going through a door when the prompt doesn't show up, only to get hit by a monster really made it slightly annoying, but fun package to play. I've never played a resident evil or a metal gear like, or any of the two for that matter. But I'm glad I got to try signalis and test the waters if I would enjoy the game or not.
As with most of the reviews on this site, my problem with the game was moreso just the little small tidbits here and there, with the occasional loss of ammo during the second chapter which made for a fun but also stressful time running through mobs of monsters. Really don't like that the inventory was limited to six items, as it felt like I had to keep two open for anything that I saw, and if I did happen to pick up something like some ammo and there was a key item in front of me, I had to either force myself to backtrack to a storage box, or just destroy whatever I had on hand just to grab the item. Maybe if the inventory was 7 or 8 slots instead of the six, the amount of backtracking from box to objective wouldn't be so bad, as it would just cut the amount of time going back and forth between your stuff.
As for the gun play, it was fun! When I was forced to fight and not burn my ammo. I've got that tendency where even if I've got 30 bullets in the storage, I'm not planning on burning any of em unless I see a hallway that's inevitable for me to go through without blasting my way through enemies ahead. At least if I did run out of ammo, there was the shove option that worked on occasion, but I would end up getting hit more often than not going for one. Also, aren't enemies supposed to stagger after getting shot in these types of games? When one is already locked on to you and charging you, you're probably thinking, "Oh, this gunshot oughta do the trick. Wait, he still hit me?". Not much of a deal breaker, but a definite pet peeve that I kept having while playing through the game.
Last gripe I had was the lack of a soundtrack when you were out and about doing things. The same track kept playing for what felt like the entire game, and the only time the sountrack decides to change is if you enter certain rooms with particular themes, or the safe room with it's melancholy piano. Those were great! ....Up until I kept hearing the music that plays when a monster spots you for the umpteenth time.
Alright enough about the pet peeves I had. Because this game is kick ass out the gate with its presentation and storytelling within the first few seconds.
Each time you go through a section of the game, you get to see these very detailed shots of your character just overlooking whatever they're looking at the time and it's just so cool. The way the game switches from a 2d topdown to a 3d section during critical story moments was always a treat, and threw me off the first time I experienced it. So many flashes forwards and backwards with the title cards made me feel as If I was watching a monogatari episode, but it never felt uninteresting. I won't be talking about the story much, but to quote another reviewer on here, "Signalis is a story about love." And man, what a story it is! Really left me feeling empty about what I was doing, and if my goal was something even achievable.
Damn it was really good.
Holy geez, this game was topsy turvey at every moment when I was playing this. From just crawling in between enemies to just outright getting pissed with the hit detection or getting cucked going through a door when the prompt doesn't show up, only to get hit by a monster really made it slightly annoying, but fun package to play. I've never played a resident evil or a metal gear like, or any of the two for that matter. But I'm glad I got to try signalis and test the waters if I would enjoy the game or not.
As with most of the reviews on this site, my problem with the game was moreso just the little small tidbits here and there, with the occasional loss of ammo during the second chapter which made for a fun but also stressful time running through mobs of monsters. Really don't like that the inventory was limited to six items, as it felt like I had to keep two open for anything that I saw, and if I did happen to pick up something like some ammo and there was a key item in front of me, I had to either force myself to backtrack to a storage box, or just destroy whatever I had on hand just to grab the item. Maybe if the inventory was 7 or 8 slots instead of the six, the amount of backtracking from box to objective wouldn't be so bad, as it would just cut the amount of time going back and forth between your stuff.
As for the gun play, it was fun! When I was forced to fight and not burn my ammo. I've got that tendency where even if I've got 30 bullets in the storage, I'm not planning on burning any of em unless I see a hallway that's inevitable for me to go through without blasting my way through enemies ahead. At least if I did run out of ammo, there was the shove option that worked on occasion, but I would end up getting hit more often than not going for one. Also, aren't enemies supposed to stagger after getting shot in these types of games? When one is already locked on to you and charging you, you're probably thinking, "Oh, this gunshot oughta do the trick. Wait, he still hit me?". Not much of a deal breaker, but a definite pet peeve that I kept having while playing through the game.
Last gripe I had was the lack of a soundtrack when you were out and about doing things. The same track kept playing for what felt like the entire game, and the only time the sountrack decides to change is if you enter certain rooms with particular themes, or the safe room with it's melancholy piano. Those were great! ....Up until I kept hearing the music that plays when a monster spots you for the umpteenth time.
Alright enough about the pet peeves I had. Because this game is kick ass out the gate with its presentation and storytelling within the first few seconds.
Each time you go through a section of the game, you get to see these very detailed shots of your character just overlooking whatever they're looking at the time and it's just so cool. The way the game switches from a 2d topdown to a 3d section during critical story moments was always a treat, and threw me off the first time I experienced it. So many flashes forwards and backwards with the title cards made me feel as If I was watching a monogatari episode, but it never felt uninteresting. I won't be talking about the story much, but to quote another reviewer on here, "Signalis is a story about love." And man, what a story it is! Really left me feeling empty about what I was doing, and if my goal was something even achievable.
Damn it was really good.
lesbians.............
Signalis is a tense, gripping sci-fi survival horror that feels like a return to form for the genre with its focus on resource management and exploration. The game remains engaging through its excellent worldbuilding and trippy storytelling with even trippier visuals that manage to blend low-poly PSX horror and Seinen anime aesthetics surprisingly well.
Although this sounds weird, Signalis heavily reminds me of Zero Ranger, despite these being two games in completely different genres. Both are indie darlings that also happen to be incredibly derivative - so much that they almost feel like some kind of crossover fanfiction at points, but despite this, they execute their central ideas well enough to remain fresh and original.
What's so derivative about Signalis you may ask? Well, most of the gameplay mechanics evoke classic Resident Evil, the thematic storytelling is a mishmash of Silent Hill and NGE, and this game's visual direction thing of regular jump-cuts to large block Kanji (AKSHULLY, it's Hanzi in this case) against monochromatic backgrounds is basically one big long-running Monogatari reference. Somehow these conflicting inspirational elements manage to work, even if it gives the impression of Signalis being less cohesive than it could be otherwise.
I previously mentioned the focus on exploration and resource management, and yeah for the most part it's done well here. A common complaint I'm seeing is about the restrictive six-item inventory limit, but I didn't really have a problem with it in my 9.5 hour playthrough. It may be because I did my first playthrough of Resi 1 with Chris Redfield (bruh) so I'm used to this kind of restriction, but I suspect it might have more to do with the fact that the inventory restriction genuinely doesn't feel as painful here as it does in classic resi games.
For better and for worse, you're never far away from where you need to be to use an item you just found, and most items are one-use before being cleared from your inventory. Additionally, sneaking past enemies is super viable here due to the generally slow enemy attacks and wide corridors, meaning that much of the time I didn't even need to carry a weapon either.
Overall though I liked the restraint that Signalis shows in its gameplay. It's a very pure experience with good gameplay density - not bogged down with any pointless upgrade systems or tacked-on RPG mechanics. Even the first-person walking sim sections felt pretty good at respecting your time.
In true classic survival horror fashion, there are many puzzles in Signalis you must complete in order to progress. These puzzles are generally solid, doing a good job of establishing an internal logic that isn't too obtuse for the player to follow but also just complex enough to feel rewarding to figure out. I especially liked the puzzles which utilise the radio frequency mechanic, which involved a lot of creative applications.
Unfortunately the exploration between these puzzles is quite lacking. The level design is far from the best this genre has to offer. There's little in the way of circular design that expands upon itself to make backtracking satisfying - for the most part you'll be exploring isolated floors of corridors with little else to spice things up. The key hunting can be incredibly transparent too, with there being some times where you just find a key to open a door to find another key with nothing else in between. As a side note, there were also some encounters that would have been better as a unique one-off, such as the "radio battle" against infected Kolibri units. I was really impressed the first time I saw one of these but by the fourth or fifth time the novelty wore off and it felt tedious to fight them, especially with other enemies poking at you simultaneously.
Admittedly I wasn't paying too much attention to the story, so I'm not gonna give a deep dive by any means here, but the vibes of the storytelling were on point. I loved the worldbuilding of this dystopian sci-fi settting built upon a mysterious "bioresonance" technology, the distinction between the different Replika units is great, and I liked the undeniable lesbianism between the main characters. The communication of the finer details of the narrative are obtuse for their own sake (if I was being cynical, one could call it "video-essay bait"), and this kind of storytelling approach via disconnected, wishy-washy lines of poetry usually doesn't do it for me, but like I said, the vibes are on point.
Although this sounds weird, Signalis heavily reminds me of Zero Ranger, despite these being two games in completely different genres. Both are indie darlings that also happen to be incredibly derivative - so much that they almost feel like some kind of crossover fanfiction at points, but despite this, they execute their central ideas well enough to remain fresh and original.
What's so derivative about Signalis you may ask? Well, most of the gameplay mechanics evoke classic Resident Evil, the thematic storytelling is a mishmash of Silent Hill and NGE, and this game's visual direction thing of regular jump-cuts to large block Kanji (AKSHULLY, it's Hanzi in this case) against monochromatic backgrounds is basically one big long-running Monogatari reference. Somehow these conflicting inspirational elements manage to work, even if it gives the impression of Signalis being less cohesive than it could be otherwise.
I previously mentioned the focus on exploration and resource management, and yeah for the most part it's done well here. A common complaint I'm seeing is about the restrictive six-item inventory limit, but I didn't really have a problem with it in my 9.5 hour playthrough. It may be because I did my first playthrough of Resi 1 with Chris Redfield (bruh) so I'm used to this kind of restriction, but I suspect it might have more to do with the fact that the inventory restriction genuinely doesn't feel as painful here as it does in classic resi games.
For better and for worse, you're never far away from where you need to be to use an item you just found, and most items are one-use before being cleared from your inventory. Additionally, sneaking past enemies is super viable here due to the generally slow enemy attacks and wide corridors, meaning that much of the time I didn't even need to carry a weapon either.
Overall though I liked the restraint that Signalis shows in its gameplay. It's a very pure experience with good gameplay density - not bogged down with any pointless upgrade systems or tacked-on RPG mechanics. Even the first-person walking sim sections felt pretty good at respecting your time.
In true classic survival horror fashion, there are many puzzles in Signalis you must complete in order to progress. These puzzles are generally solid, doing a good job of establishing an internal logic that isn't too obtuse for the player to follow but also just complex enough to feel rewarding to figure out. I especially liked the puzzles which utilise the radio frequency mechanic, which involved a lot of creative applications.
Unfortunately the exploration between these puzzles is quite lacking. The level design is far from the best this genre has to offer. There's little in the way of circular design that expands upon itself to make backtracking satisfying - for the most part you'll be exploring isolated floors of corridors with little else to spice things up. The key hunting can be incredibly transparent too, with there being some times where you just find a key to open a door to find another key with nothing else in between. As a side note, there were also some encounters that would have been better as a unique one-off, such as the "radio battle" against infected Kolibri units. I was really impressed the first time I saw one of these but by the fourth or fifth time the novelty wore off and it felt tedious to fight them, especially with other enemies poking at you simultaneously.
Admittedly I wasn't paying too much attention to the story, so I'm not gonna give a deep dive by any means here, but the vibes of the storytelling were on point. I loved the worldbuilding of this dystopian sci-fi settting built upon a mysterious "bioresonance" technology, the distinction between the different Replika units is great, and I liked the undeniable lesbianism between the main characters. The communication of the finer details of the narrative are obtuse for their own sake (if I was being cynical, one could call it "video-essay bait"), and this kind of storytelling approach via disconnected, wishy-washy lines of poetry usually doesn't do it for me, but like I said, the vibes are on point.
A triumph of sci-fi horror audiovisual design, with a narrative that some will find frustratingly oblique but whose deliberate ambiguity largely worked for me. Gameplay-wise, it’s not quite on the same level (it could have stood to be a bit shorter, as the backtracking does start to get tedious by the end, especially given the strict inventory limit), but as someone who hasn’t played many old-school survival horror games, I still enjoyed this homage a lot.
I wanted to like this game more than I did, I really truly did.
While impressive for a small scale team, ultimately some frustrating aspects of the gameplay really weighed down the experience. The amount of times I took damage from being unable to properly interact with a door or an item.... way too many to count. And what worked in the 90s doesn't always translate well decades later. Understanding this is a call back to that generation of gaming but that doesn't exclude you from improving on that genre. The 6 item limit felt even more cumbersome in this title than it did in the original games of the survival horror genre.
Still, I recommend it for a playthrough if you can get pass those annoyances. The art direction is nothing short of fantastic and really shines, just maybe not enough to outshine the issues.
While impressive for a small scale team, ultimately some frustrating aspects of the gameplay really weighed down the experience. The amount of times I took damage from being unable to properly interact with a door or an item.... way too many to count. And what worked in the 90s doesn't always translate well decades later. Understanding this is a call back to that generation of gaming but that doesn't exclude you from improving on that genre. The 6 item limit felt even more cumbersome in this title than it did in the original games of the survival horror genre.
Still, I recommend it for a playthrough if you can get pass those annoyances. The art direction is nothing short of fantastic and really shines, just maybe not enough to outshine the issues.
Signalis has cool aesthetics and a lot of style. The gameplay is very close to being Resident Evil (which doesn't overly appeal to me) but not quite as successful.
The visuals and audio here are incredibly striking. This is one of the coolest renditions of an abandoned space facility I have seen. Rose-Engine has nailed the aesthetics and doing it with graphics that look like they were ripped straight from Metal Gear Solid is impressive and inspired. This facility creaks and groans, with intense music cues kicking in to warn you of encroaching enemies and heighten the tension in all the right ways. Though I found myself growing desensitized to the enemies themselves, the visuals and audio never stopped working.
I found Signalis hard to play in a few ways. This is gameplay that is a lot like Resident Evil -- equipment scarcity and puzzle solving through crest/key/socket wrench collection with the occasional environmental brain teaser.
Combat works fine and plays well but with enough friction that I was never quite comfortable. Enemies (especially bosses) feel like they take an arbitrary number of bullets to kill, preventing me from having a clear idea of the power of my weapons or character. This is exactly like RE.
Equipment scarcity makes expending bullets on enemies a weighty decision, but running by most of them is so easy that it soon becomes the obvious, repetitive strategy. The inventory limit is extreme and adds to this scarcity in a way that is more tedious than challenging.
The key/lock mechanics here never seem to be tied to anything, which makes fetching keys and opening doors often feel perfunctory and meaningless in a way that is unsatisfying. Keys are found sitting on a random desk or in a locker, giving no sense of place to the puzzles or sense of life to the people that were in this facility. This sort of level design works best when the player can make intentional plans based on information they are gaining and have those plans pay off. Through my time with Signalis the only plan I made was "I guess I explore the only place I haven't been."
The environmental puzzles were mostly cute little brain teasers that work well and are similar to things you have seen before. Connect fuses in a fuse box in a certain order, hit switches in a certain order, etc... The one exception is a water leveling puzzle that is a bit tediously complicated, though it seems like the developers identified this, since there is a note in the room that just gives you step by step instructions (!?!?).
The environments themselves, though evocative and cool, are too samey and feel too arbitrarily connected for me to ever really have any sense of place or direction. I never had a clear idea of where I was or the layout of the facility.
The narrative felt very overwrought to me during my time with Signalis. It seems like something interesting might be going on, but it is plastered over with no-context quick cuts, shaky-cam or glitchy footage that is meant to be disturbing, and heavy-handed references to tropes or other media. This type of 'horror' storytelling often feels like it gets in the way of whatever is interesting about the narrative, and I found that to be true for me here as well.
If you love survival horror games, this one may strike a chord and it is probably even worth checking out for an hour or two for the expertly crafted visual and audio experience. It is unfortunately definitely not for me, so I have abandoned it.
The visuals and audio here are incredibly striking. This is one of the coolest renditions of an abandoned space facility I have seen. Rose-Engine has nailed the aesthetics and doing it with graphics that look like they were ripped straight from Metal Gear Solid is impressive and inspired. This facility creaks and groans, with intense music cues kicking in to warn you of encroaching enemies and heighten the tension in all the right ways. Though I found myself growing desensitized to the enemies themselves, the visuals and audio never stopped working.
I found Signalis hard to play in a few ways. This is gameplay that is a lot like Resident Evil -- equipment scarcity and puzzle solving through crest/key/socket wrench collection with the occasional environmental brain teaser.
Combat works fine and plays well but with enough friction that I was never quite comfortable. Enemies (especially bosses) feel like they take an arbitrary number of bullets to kill, preventing me from having a clear idea of the power of my weapons or character. This is exactly like RE.
Equipment scarcity makes expending bullets on enemies a weighty decision, but running by most of them is so easy that it soon becomes the obvious, repetitive strategy. The inventory limit is extreme and adds to this scarcity in a way that is more tedious than challenging.
The key/lock mechanics here never seem to be tied to anything, which makes fetching keys and opening doors often feel perfunctory and meaningless in a way that is unsatisfying. Keys are found sitting on a random desk or in a locker, giving no sense of place to the puzzles or sense of life to the people that were in this facility. This sort of level design works best when the player can make intentional plans based on information they are gaining and have those plans pay off. Through my time with Signalis the only plan I made was "I guess I explore the only place I haven't been."
The environmental puzzles were mostly cute little brain teasers that work well and are similar to things you have seen before. Connect fuses in a fuse box in a certain order, hit switches in a certain order, etc... The one exception is a water leveling puzzle that is a bit tediously complicated, though it seems like the developers identified this, since there is a note in the room that just gives you step by step instructions (!?!?).
The environments themselves, though evocative and cool, are too samey and feel too arbitrarily connected for me to ever really have any sense of place or direction. I never had a clear idea of where I was or the layout of the facility.
The narrative felt very overwrought to me during my time with Signalis. It seems like something interesting might be going on, but it is plastered over with no-context quick cuts, shaky-cam or glitchy footage that is meant to be disturbing, and heavy-handed references to tropes or other media. This type of 'horror' storytelling often feels like it gets in the way of whatever is interesting about the narrative, and I found that to be true for me here as well.
If you love survival horror games, this one may strike a chord and it is probably even worth checking out for an hour or two for the expertly crafted visual and audio experience. It is unfortunately definitely not for me, so I have abandoned it.
the creator of this game,,,,, yuri stern,,,,,,,,,, YURI stern,,,,,, yuri,,,,,,, girls making out,,,,,yuri ,,,,,yuri ,,,,robot girl yuri...
I have two big issues with SIGNALIS. Otherwise, it's mostly excellent.
Those two big issues are...
1. The inventory system. I can't believe at no point does the game offer the player the opportunity to upgrade the amount of inventory slots. You get a measly six, and you always have to carry your flashlight, a weapon and some ammo, so you tend to only have three slots to play around with. And it stays that way, THE WHOLE GAME! The last segment has enemies everywhere, in tight rooms where you simply can't run past them. Often, you have to go to the store cabinet, pick out a weapon fit for the situation, run off and use it, run back to the save room and switch weapons. And that's not even mentioning the many many times I ran out of room to store items, so I'd have to run back to a save room, dump what I had and then run back. It's a pain in the arse and gets really grating towards the end. I understand the devs are trying to mimic the old-school survival horror games of the PS1 era, but the funny part is that early Resident Evil did a better and more balanced job of creating tension through limited inventory space than SIGNALIS does.
2. The story suffers from a typical case of being overly cryptic and vague. You see this all the time in indie games. Developers will often opt for a storytelling aesthetic that leaves most of the events up to the interpretation of the player, but the main reason they do this is to create less work for themselves. Which, y'know, I get, because if only two people are working on a game then obviously money is going to be tight, but the fact of the matter is, SIGNALIS is too ambiguous for its own damn good. By the end credits, I felt like I was none-the-wiser as to what was going on. I had to look up theories on Reddit. This means I was nowhere near as invested as I wanted to be. Silent Hill 2 this ain't.
That's a lot of complaining for a positive score I know. Sorry to focus so much on the negatives, but SIGNALIS could so easily have been a mini-masterpiece. It gets pretty much everything else right. It's a love letter to the classic survival horror games in (mostly) all the right ways. It looks great, it sounds great, it's deeply oppressive (although not particularly scary) and the puzzles are varied, well balanced and satisfying to solve. I had a great time with it.
But it could have been perfect.
Those two big issues are...
1. The inventory system. I can't believe at no point does the game offer the player the opportunity to upgrade the amount of inventory slots. You get a measly six, and you always have to carry your flashlight, a weapon and some ammo, so you tend to only have three slots to play around with. And it stays that way, THE WHOLE GAME! The last segment has enemies everywhere, in tight rooms where you simply can't run past them. Often, you have to go to the store cabinet, pick out a weapon fit for the situation, run off and use it, run back to the save room and switch weapons. And that's not even mentioning the many many times I ran out of room to store items, so I'd have to run back to a save room, dump what I had and then run back. It's a pain in the arse and gets really grating towards the end. I understand the devs are trying to mimic the old-school survival horror games of the PS1 era, but the funny part is that early Resident Evil did a better and more balanced job of creating tension through limited inventory space than SIGNALIS does.
2. The story suffers from a typical case of being overly cryptic and vague. You see this all the time in indie games. Developers will often opt for a storytelling aesthetic that leaves most of the events up to the interpretation of the player, but the main reason they do this is to create less work for themselves. Which, y'know, I get, because if only two people are working on a game then obviously money is going to be tight, but the fact of the matter is, SIGNALIS is too ambiguous for its own damn good. By the end credits, I felt like I was none-the-wiser as to what was going on. I had to look up theories on Reddit. This means I was nowhere near as invested as I wanted to be. Silent Hill 2 this ain't.
That's a lot of complaining for a positive score I know. Sorry to focus so much on the negatives, but SIGNALIS could so easily have been a mini-masterpiece. It gets pretty much everything else right. It's a love letter to the classic survival horror games in (mostly) all the right ways. It looks great, it sounds great, it's deeply oppressive (although not particularly scary) and the puzzles are varied, well balanced and satisfying to solve. I had a great time with it.
But it could have been perfect.
signalis is so cool i wish the german language was real
Signalis is my favorite game this year, at a glance it looks like just another PS1/PS2 style horror game like the multitude we've seen the last few years, but this is an entirely different beast altogether.
Gameplay:
A pitch perfect mix of old and new, it feels exactly like playing Resident Evil on the PS1, albeit with the perspective of MGS, but with a slew of modern conveniences, quality of play improvements and a masterful knowledge of balancing. The enemy encounters ratchet up in difficulty at a perfect pace, the exploration becomes more and more complex but never throws too much at you, and the puzzles are challenging but never feel unfair; staying true to the spirit of the classics whilst not being afraid to add unique interactions or gimmicks. This game will have you scratching your head but never quitting out of frustration, it feels great to play but never sacrifices the characteristic 'clunk' of a classic survival horror game.
Story:
Taking place in an interesting sci-fi world, with well-developed and engaging characters, and finely balanced surrealist elements interwoven throughout; this is psychological sci-fi horror at it's best. The story is where the inspirations for the game really rear their heads; the king in yellow is directly referenced in the first moments of the game. And whilst the writing shows a lot of literary influence more than anything else; the structure of said writing and the presentation of the characters narrows down the video game influence from general survival horror to a very specific selection; Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. The way characters are treated and appear in the world, the way the world acts as an extension of the characters psyche, and of course the true surrealist machinations of everything that happens reek of those first two games; I'll say no more here, but if you know, you know.
Art:
Where to start... from the striking and affecting direction of cutscenes, to the beautiful anime-inspired artstyle characters within them are rendered in - to the fantastic character animations and environments that drip with atmosphere. Every character design is perfect and every location feels distinct and storied. Moreover there's more to it than that; having dreams be told through a first person perspective helps them stand out and almost feel more real and present than reality, making you wonder what is keeping Elster outside of her body and wowing you with more amazing visuals. The pixelated yet detailed look of the game makes for a unique look even amongst it's PS1-inspired contemporaries, and the way puzzle areas look and how the puzzle zones reflect back out into the 2D art in the game proper is genuinely impressive. Every puzzle feels like it's had unique mechanics made for it and every room oozes with steamy, fleshy, dark atmosphere.
I could go on for days about this game, I've been chipping away at it for a week now and even before some of the late-game events I was already sure this is easily one of my games of the year. Signalis does everything right, and it's two-person dev team should be proud of and adulated for this achievement.
Gameplay:
A pitch perfect mix of old and new, it feels exactly like playing Resident Evil on the PS1, albeit with the perspective of MGS, but with a slew of modern conveniences, quality of play improvements and a masterful knowledge of balancing. The enemy encounters ratchet up in difficulty at a perfect pace, the exploration becomes more and more complex but never throws too much at you, and the puzzles are challenging but never feel unfair; staying true to the spirit of the classics whilst not being afraid to add unique interactions or gimmicks. This game will have you scratching your head but never quitting out of frustration, it feels great to play but never sacrifices the characteristic 'clunk' of a classic survival horror game.
Story:
Taking place in an interesting sci-fi world, with well-developed and engaging characters, and finely balanced surrealist elements interwoven throughout; this is psychological sci-fi horror at it's best. The story is where the inspirations for the game really rear their heads; the king in yellow is directly referenced in the first moments of the game. And whilst the writing shows a lot of literary influence more than anything else; the structure of said writing and the presentation of the characters narrows down the video game influence from general survival horror to a very specific selection; Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. The way characters are treated and appear in the world, the way the world acts as an extension of the characters psyche, and of course the true surrealist machinations of everything that happens reek of those first two games; I'll say no more here, but if you know, you know.
Art:
Where to start... from the striking and affecting direction of cutscenes, to the beautiful anime-inspired artstyle characters within them are rendered in - to the fantastic character animations and environments that drip with atmosphere. Every character design is perfect and every location feels distinct and storied. Moreover there's more to it than that; having dreams be told through a first person perspective helps them stand out and almost feel more real and present than reality, making you wonder what is keeping Elster outside of her body and wowing you with more amazing visuals. The pixelated yet detailed look of the game makes for a unique look even amongst it's PS1-inspired contemporaries, and the way puzzle areas look and how the puzzle zones reflect back out into the 2D art in the game proper is genuinely impressive. Every puzzle feels like it's had unique mechanics made for it and every room oozes with steamy, fleshy, dark atmosphere.
I could go on for days about this game, I've been chipping away at it for a week now and even before some of the late-game events I was already sure this is easily one of my games of the year. Signalis does everything right, and it's two-person dev team should be proud of and adulated for this achievement.