Really good game that has amazing atmosphere but also has some minor annoyances that show up a lot throughout. Inventory management was good overall, but I feel like the flashlight should be just built in and can be toggled with a button, rather than needing to be equipped and used in the inventory every time. I also thought the hitboxes on interactable objects and doors could be sometimes too sensitive and sometimes not sensitive enough, leading to a few cheap hits from enemies just because a door wouldn't open when I'm mashing the button to open it.
The bitterness of death and the joys of life
Signalis is a game with so much depth that you could delve into it for hours upon hours after finishing the game, exploring each and every little detail. Looking into the lore is crazy. The soundtrack of the game is phenomenal and sets the tone for the game perfectly (it's now all in my playlist).
The art is beautiful to the point where I felt the need to screenshot every second when a cutscene played.
The gameplay is not its strong suit, not to say it's bad; it's enough to carry the game until the very end and not deter from a replay either, but nonetheless, the game should be played with other factors in mind instead, as that's where it truly shines.
Here's a quote from the game below, and if it interests you in the slightest, then I highly recommend checking this game out.
"It is calling to me from below.
the song of a god
that whispers to the sleeping.
A dark sun is setting.
Over the black ocean
a red eye in the sky
staring, unblinking, forever
and deep below the earth.
await answers to questions
yet unasked"
R̵͉̔è̷͕͇̈́m̵̤̋͜e̷̠͆̀m̵͔͒̌b̵̡̗͗͗e̵͓̽r̶̨̡̀̎ ̴͆ͅo̶̙̯̓͘u̸̡̓r̷̰̒ ̸̗̈́p̷͎̒͐r̶̘̔̋ǒ̸̫̾m̶͈̘͒i̵̱̹͘s̴̳͗͜e̸̱̘͝
Once finished with the game, I definitely recommend watching some videos diving into the lore and what people think the true story is. Although I do believe the best way to experience this game is to go in blind and play before watching anything of the sort.
Signalis is a game with so much depth that you could delve into it for hours upon hours after finishing the game, exploring each and every little detail. Looking into the lore is crazy. The soundtrack of the game is phenomenal and sets the tone for the game perfectly (it's now all in my playlist).
The art is beautiful to the point where I felt the need to screenshot every second when a cutscene played.
The gameplay is not its strong suit, not to say it's bad; it's enough to carry the game until the very end and not deter from a replay either, but nonetheless, the game should be played with other factors in mind instead, as that's where it truly shines.
Here's a quote from the game below, and if it interests you in the slightest, then I highly recommend checking this game out.
"It is calling to me from below.
the song of a god
that whispers to the sleeping.
A dark sun is setting.
Over the black ocean
a red eye in the sky
staring, unblinking, forever
and deep below the earth.
await answers to questions
yet unasked"
R̵͉̔è̷͕͇̈́m̵̤̋͜e̷̠͆̀m̵͔͒̌b̵̡̗͗͗e̵͓̽r̶̨̡̀̎ ̴͆ͅo̶̙̯̓͘u̸̡̓r̷̰̒ ̸̗̈́p̷͎̒͐r̶̘̔̋ǒ̸̫̾m̶͈̘͒i̵̱̹͘s̴̳͗͜e̸̱̘͝
Once finished with the game, I definitely recommend watching some videos diving into the lore and what people think the true story is. Although I do believe the best way to experience this game is to go in blind and play before watching anything of the sort.
when the l̶̞̘̥̤̖̮͓̱͉̱̮̤̺͊̒͜͝ͅe̵̢̟̹̖̳͔͑́̍̀̑t̴̨̠̟̞̺̟͔̰́̆̽̄͜͠͝ ̸̯̙̪̖̫̳̣̗̭͖̳̞̀͋̈̋̅̇̊̔́͐͐͝m̷̱̤̯̹̼̼̘̭͊̈͌͂̓͆̌͂͠͝ȩ̴̳̲̘͚̈́ ̸̢̡̢̼̳̝̮̺̟͙̰̥̙͎̣̋͛̆̀̾ͅd̵̝̱̯̭̤̙̖̊̏͐̌̀̽͜i̶͇̙̖̥̫̳̟͖͔͔̞͎͖͍͔͐̿͗́̽̊̑̓͝ȩ̶̤̝͙͇̳̑̈́̈͛͊̉̂̓̈̅̍͂̋̅͠͠͠ yuri makes you cry at 1 a.m :c
Really solid survival-horror game that reminded me strongly of REmake, although I'm sure there's a lot of influence from other horror classics that I've never played myself.
Puzzles felt consistently clever and balanced, the analogue aesthetic creates a lovely spooky atmosphere, and the inventory limitations are always keeping you on your toes, forcing you to make important decisions.
I probably shouldn't have played this on the hardest difficulty with the limited inventory on my first playthrough, because the enemies just became annoying after the halfway point. I found it to drag a bit around this same part, although again, this is probably because I had the difficulty cranked up too high because I was worried the defaults would be too forgiving. A good chunk of my deaths were on purpose so I could reset back to my last save after I made a tiny mistake, or I'd just quit to menu and reload to wipe away the bullets I might have just wasted.
The aiming can also feel a bit off sometimes, like I can't target the enemy I'm pointing at. I played with a controller, for the record. I would definitely recommend the "Revised" inventory option, which I switched to maybe 80% through the game once I realised it just saved me having to re-equip my two modules all the time. It doesn't take away from the strict inventory, as all other key items, weapons and ammo still take up space.
Glad I finally got to experience this for myself after hearing nothing but good things for over a year now. I'd sooner revisit REmake though, but that's a high bar to clear.
Puzzles felt consistently clever and balanced, the analogue aesthetic creates a lovely spooky atmosphere, and the inventory limitations are always keeping you on your toes, forcing you to make important decisions.
I probably shouldn't have played this on the hardest difficulty with the limited inventory on my first playthrough, because the enemies just became annoying after the halfway point. I found it to drag a bit around this same part, although again, this is probably because I had the difficulty cranked up too high because I was worried the defaults would be too forgiving. A good chunk of my deaths were on purpose so I could reset back to my last save after I made a tiny mistake, or I'd just quit to menu and reload to wipe away the bullets I might have just wasted.
The aiming can also feel a bit off sometimes, like I can't target the enemy I'm pointing at. I played with a controller, for the record. I would definitely recommend the "Revised" inventory option, which I switched to maybe 80% through the game once I realised it just saved me having to re-equip my two modules all the time. It doesn't take away from the strict inventory, as all other key items, weapons and ammo still take up space.
Glad I finally got to experience this for myself after hearing nothing but good things for over a year now. I'd sooner revisit REmake though, but that's a high bar to clear.
There was a part of this game where someone said something along the lines of "its like it was rebuilt by someone who doesn't understand how it works," and I really don't think I could come up with a better way to describe what its like to play signalis
Signalis is a fresh introduction to games like Silent Hill for me, i hear about such games from a friend but ive never tried one out, i heard she loved this more than Silent Hill 2 which piqued my interest, and im really really glad it did. This is a beautifully put together game, the music is amazing and the art is wonderful, i struggle to describe these things as anything other than beautiful. The world is fun to explore and navigate and the puzzles are engaging with the clues being not too obvious. The setting of S-23 Sierpinski is one of tragic happenstance that you experience little by little reading pages left behind, only going through the aftermath of it all with the occasional hopeless Replika survivor. The symbolism and memories and how it meshes so easily with the real world, it confuses you as you wonder how and why is this happening, you want to understand every piece of this story as the pieces given to you are so very intriguing. The later state of S-23 Sierpinski in which it becomes more invaded by a nebulous meat mass of sorts is ever more depressing as it makes you realize more and more that those here will not be saved, and this is a place that is a shadow of its former self and the people it held. The Eule enemies are nothing to worry about, a standard enemy of sorts, but the more specialized like Storch and Mynah etc are nothing to scoff at, if they were alone. However this game is great at overwhelming you in this place that screams at you that you do not belong, and so these enemies are thrown in with each other to create more panic in the player, and speaking personally, it worked really well!!! The Kolibri were so overwhelming to me when they were the only entity in the room, but combine that with two Storches and Eules and i couldnt think at all, it was just panic panic panic panic! Dont be fooled however, this is a love story more than it is a horror story, one that made me tear up, in how a select few are able to do. Delicate are the details laid out, little by little you piece together what happened and why Elster is here. A game with a truly beautiful romance between two women, something i always find so beautiful and captivating (likely because im also a lesbian), that you only partially see up until the end. To see that love being here, in threat of being lost in this world where nothing thats happening makes sense, is just so very tragic to me. Also to point out the experience i had, i had gotten to the Promise end. Something about love is so pure, it hurts when something so despairing drives a wedge between it. If theres anything id say to my friends about this game its to please play, for no matter what you like, i think this is extremely worth the experience.
Phenomenal horror game that spins an enthralling and compassionate story by gradually drip feeding the player information through gorgeously designed levels with gripping atmosphere.
Not perfect, but very close. Almost a testament to the human condition - which seems fitting for the story the game is trying to tell. Definitely Evangelion-core.
Not perfect, but very close. Almost a testament to the human condition - which seems fitting for the story the game is trying to tell. Definitely Evangelion-core.
This game just really desperately wants people to make video essays about it
This review contains spoilers
Signalis is a game that no matter how you interpret its cryptic telling of a story, it will stick with you and haunt you
maybe for weeks
maybe for months
It's fascinating to me how much room for interpretation Signalis leaves for the player
Its story can be seen as either a hellish endless cycle or as a long, painful journey to become or reach something greater
Its ending can be seen as tragic or fortunate, haunting or relieving, hopeless or hopeful
Or at least, that's how my interpretations blended with those of others look like
Yours might not and probably won't
And that's where I think the beauty lies in this game
As there are no answers where there are only questions
maybe for weeks
maybe for months
It's fascinating to me how much room for interpretation Signalis leaves for the player
Its story can be seen as either a hellish endless cycle or as a long, painful journey to become or reach something greater
Its ending can be seen as tragic or fortunate, haunting or relieving, hopeless or hopeful
Or at least, that's how my interpretations blended with those of others look like
Yours might not and probably won't
And that's where I think the beauty lies in this game
As there are no answers where there are only questions
I want to say it's the closest experience to the Silent Hill series, but I don't want its uniqueness to be obscured.
Sound, music, graphics, narrative, story, storytelling, presentation, and gameplay are all polished to create a tremendous atmosphere. I can't even put into words how in love I am with this game, it's gonna have a cult following for years to come.
Sound, music, graphics, narrative, story, storytelling, presentation, and gameplay are all polished to create a tremendous atmosphere. I can't even put into words how in love I am with this game, it's gonna have a cult following for years to come.
This review contains spoilers
Making a throwback title to an older style of video game that is no longer nearly as prevalent is a difficult thing. Comparisons to your inspirations are inevitable and regardless of how good you are or how original your concept is, you will inevitably be called a clone - Dusk to Quake, Yooka-Laylee to Banjo-Kazooie, and in the case of rose-engine's Signalis, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Developed primarily by two people, Yuri Stern and Barbara Wittmann, Signalis is perhaps the most popular of the recent indie push for a return to classic survival horror gameplay. While the genre has been seeing a revival broadly speaking with entries of all sorts of budgets, the independent space has certainly stuck to being more "classical", and that's reflected in Signalis in many ways.
Signalis, then, takes inspiration from these old-school horror games in the best of ways. The game plays like a strange combination of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and as someone who has played the vast majority of both franchises, I can safely say that rose-engine took the right parts of both franchises to combine into one thoroughly satisfying package. Signalis has the fixed camera angles that both games often had but features the more hardcore, difficult combat of Resident Evil with the esoteric, symbolic puzzles of Silent Hill. While the surface-level gameplay elements of these franchises are aped, rose-engine delves deeper and lifts some of my favorite design elements from those games. The beloved crimson head system from the Resident Evil remake has been brought over - while flares are not nearly as scarce as kerosene and you won't be panicking nearly as much over which enemies are advantageous to kill, this is a system that I am ecstatic was brought over. The developers demonstrate a remarkable knowledge of what makes a survival horror game fun to play. You're not given nearly enough ammo to take every enemy on, and you're given fairly scarce albeit manageable inventory space (the original release was far stricter!). On tougher difficulty modes, Signalis can be a real challenge. I was barely scraping by a lot of the time, and while the game seems to think I'm a more aggressive player based on the ending I got, I like to think I was fairly conservative with the ammo I used and focused more on defensive items and evasion instead of firearm combat. I always appreciate a survival horror game that can royally kick my ass to hell and back and while Signalis is hardly the most difficult I've ever played (just try Resident Evil Zero on hard mode), I appreciated that I was constantly on my feet. Stealth is also a bigger deal than most survival horror games I've played - while there are stealth elements in say, Silent Hill, with the flashlight being more likely to attract enemies, in Signalis it's far more important. Running for even a split second can attract enemies with a screech and if one wishes to avoid confrontation (and you will) you need to be able to pace yourself. Even if you don't see enemies, no room is safe, because many of them can crawl out of the floorboards and invade areas you previously thought safe. This especially gets turned on its head when you're forced to enter dark rooms where you're forced to use the flashlight, immediately alerting every enemy in the general vicinity to your exact location. Puzzles are more complex than the average Resident Evil puzzle, and a lot of them consist of what I call "maintenance puzzles". The best maintenance puzzles make you feel like you're solving a real technical problem, and Signalis does this quite well! It especially makes sense considering what Elster is designed to do, and these puzzles never get as bad as say, Resident Evil 3's water puzzle. Meanwhile, it still has many symbolic puzzles in the vein of Silent Hill and these can often be quite difficult too. Many of these, such as an astronomy/tarot puzzle near the end, require you to remember information across long distances and while I don't think these are unfair, you certainly should bring a notepad with you. I especially enjoyed the puzzles that required toying with Elster's radio, as those felt especially immersive. If there's anything at all I found annoying about this game, it's that it's too "live" if that makes sense. Picking up an item in an RE or SH game temporarily pauses the game so you won't be ambushed by enemies while grabbing it. This not only gives the player brief respite but it also makes it tougher for enemies to get cheap shots at you. Signalis doesn't do this and it makes running into populated rooms to grab an item and leave unnecessarily more difficult in ways that just feel cheap instead of fair. This is the only real issue I have with the gameplay though, it really is exceptional.
If you've had anyone elevator pitch Signalis to you, it is most likely for the narrative if anything else. Not to keep comparing the game to its inspirations, but playing through Signalis made me feel like how players must've felt playing through Silent Hill 2 for the first time back in the early 2000s before members of Team Silent ended up explaining their intentions and more unclear parts of the narrative. Rose-engine certainly doesn't intend to give you answers; Signalis is a rather confusing experience and that works for its benefit. More A24 than Adrian Lyne, the game's cutscenes can often be a barrage on the senses. Because this is how the game conveys its narrative, it's difficult to separate the writing from the presentation, but I will say these cutscenes are extremely stylish and sear memorable imagery into your mind for months to come. That's not to say Signalis is an anvil, in fact, it's a rather subtle experience with many clues and pieces of symbolism dripping through the cracks in the experience. There are a lot of questions posed by the game, both literal and philosophical, and I was fairly swept away thinking about its combination of literary references, worldbuilding, and non-verbal character development. It's rather strange, actually, that Elster is a character I felt connected to by the end, despite her speaking so few words. Her relationship with Ariane Yeong, a forbidden love never meant to be, is something I connected to a lot. I suppose I'm a sucker for two lovers coming together despite their circumstances, especially if it ends badly for them a la Romeo and Juliet. I also quite liked Adler as an antagonist; his micromanaging nature slowly coming apart and being driven insane due to living the same days over and over again and gradually coming to that realization is truly terrifying. It's deeply emotional and deeply resonant, and the game toys with you as you play, such as having a very convincing fakeout ending midway through. The game doesn't hold your hand and doesn't explain itself, and while I believe I've come to a solid conclusion as to what happened, I also think there are still a lot of gaps in my understanding that'll likely be filled in over the years as Stern and Wittmann become more loose-lipped as all creatives inevitably do. I also appreciated the amount of worldbuilding expended for each of the Replika units, such as their personality traits, what they're made for, their distortions, and found the concept of each of them requiring a "fetish object" to stay sane particularly interesting. If I had to give any sort of criticism, it's that the supporting characters don't exactly have the same resonance or involvement as say, Silent Hill 2's characters do. They're not irrelevant and they work very well within the game's intended contexts, but we don't get to know them nearly as closely or intimately and therefore it doesn't hit as hard when they meet their inevitable conclusions. This is a relatively small nitpick, as their sequences are fairly effective nonetheless, but I wish we had gotten to know them more than we did. If you can't tell, I'm somewhat struggling to explain why Signalis, as a narrative, was so effective for me, but I'd say it's a master in tone and implication. A lot of the political conflicts within its world setting are implied and the game gives you just enough to keep you thinking about how the mechanics of its world work. The game never lets up and speaks to the depths of the soul in the same way the best Silent Hill games do, and while it might not always stick the landing, it still gets a gold medal in those departments.
Another one of the most notable elements of Signalis is its presentation. Designed to resemble the classic survival horror games of yore with low-fidelity graphics, low-poly models, and pixel art sprinkled with a dollop of anime-inspired character designs, Signalis manages to be as stellar to look at as it is to play. At first, the game's environments appear to be entirely two-dimensional, similar to the pre-rendered backgrounds that said PSX classics had, but in reality, they are three-dimensional environments carefully crafted to look exactly like a 2D background and that illusion never breaks. When the game smashed my ignorance into a red paste by zooming into a 3D closeup of what I had previously assumed was a 2D object, my jaw nearly hit the floor. While this does explain the remarkable amount of fidelity the game can achieve, knowing this fact doesn't take away from it, rather it makes you appreciate the impressively precise staging of each room to make things appear the way they do. This is the Unity engine used as brush and canvas. The game's lighting system is great as well - your flashlight will beam through often poorly lit areas as you pad quietly through bloodstained halls, with inky black shadows twisting and contorting into figures that may or may not be unspeakable horrors lurking right out of your peripheral. I quite like the blur/glitch effect on the enemies, as it helps make them feel unworldly and inhuman. The user interface was also a particular favorite of mine. Its appearance as a display showcasing Elster's vitals and core functions not only once again reminds me of Resident Evil but it's more immersive than that franchise's offerings, mimicking an old-style CRT display. The game's cutscenes are also impeccably directed. These cutscenes blend 3D graphics and 2D spritework fairly seamlessly and are edited together intelligently with jump cuts, match cuts, intertitles, and many visual homages to its cinematic inspirations (such as a particular shot of Elster's eye fluctuating between many colors, a clear homage to the iconic psychedelic eye shot from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey). The cinematography in these scenes is insane - while a lot of games nowadays put a lot of effort into their camerawork, few feel as artistically staged as what rose-engine has managed to achieve here. It seems that whenever there needed to be a wide shot, a wide shot was done. A close-up? It was done. The deliberate and meticulous nature of the shot composition, editing techniques, and sound design made me nearly squeal as a film buff myself. When these cutscenes are equally as responsible for conveying the narrative as the writing itself, it is of utmost importance that they are of a quality of this caliber.
Speaking of the sound design, the game's score was composed as a collaboration between two musicians, 1000 Eyes and Cicada Sirens. What results is a mixture of sounds old and new, inspired and original. The comparisons to the works of Akira Yamaoka are inevitable; honestly, it's difficult for artsier horror games to escape his overwhelming influence, but Eyes/Sirens manage to make a score that takes from the ethereal, soul-sucking atmosphere and gnashing, industrial hellscapes that Yamaoka was so masterful at delivering and manage to take their own spin on it. No doubt about it, Signalis' score was heavily inspired by the games of old, as all of the game is, but this is not to say it is derivative. While the game is filled with electronic undulations and industrial grinding, there is a warmth present throughout via a lonely piano underscoring the game's emotional climaxes. Tracks such as "Die Toteninsel (Emptiness)" and "The Promise" are emotionally crushing songs that one cannot hear without flashing back to the game's most impactful moments and will go down as some of the most iconic tracks in horror gaming history. I quite liked the frequent manipulation of human noises, such as the distorted breathing on "Cigarette Wife" and glitched shouting on "Become Whole Again". While saferooms in survival horror games are often associated with relaxing, yet tense themes (you are safe now, but you cannot stay), Signalis' variant feels downright hostile in a way I love. When the game grinds metal and gears for combat, it is when it is at its most reverent to Yamaoka, and while these tracks are extremely tense and effective in the moment, I wish they featured more of the subtle melodies that his industrial tracks tended to have, with the particular exception of "Riot Control" which appears to have an orchestral chorus ripped straight from the depths of hell. Out of the game's nearly two hours worth of music, however, my favorite track is by far "Sea Smoke", a relatively simplistic track featuring a piano and atmosphere that reaches deep within my soul and its combination of beauty, sorrow, and horror cannot be properly conveyed. All in all, Eyes/Sirens as a duo have managed to produce a score that, for all intents and purposes is executed perfectly for what the game needs. While I might have some nitpicks about the originality of the game's more industrial combat themes, these are just that: nitpicks. After all, if they work perfectly for what the game needs, why complain?
Signalis was a surprise. I don't think anyone expected the game to be nearly as game-changing as it ended up being. Survival horror is a more niche genre than many realize, with many games falsely advertising themselves or being branded by the wider gaming community as "survival horror" without any consideration as to how the fathers of the subgenre actually played. In the public consciousness, the genre has long since been dominated by Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the former of which switches between survival horror and action horror regularly on a game-by-game basis and the latter of which has not seen an uncontroversial title since 2003 and had largely been dead since 2012. While Resident Evil has never gone away and remains a pillar of the horror genre, and Silent Hill is poised to make a large comeback with multiple new titles in the works, I'm beyond touched by the fact that a new age of survival horror has dawned upon us. Filled with fresh new faces and a plethora of options to choose from, I'm ecstatic to hoist Signalis up as the face of the modern survival horror movement. A true arthouse modern classic made largely by only two people out of a pure passion for the genre, Signalis succeeds with an engaging modernization of retro game mechanics, a highly emotional narrative that doesn't hold your hand, a graphical presentation both low-fidelity and technically impressive, and a soundtrack that will go down as one of horror's most memorable. Any flaws I find with the game, and there are a handful, are just nitpicks and aren't to be taken terribly seriously. If you're a horror fan, you must play Signalis. If you're not a horror fan, you must play Signalis. I can easily see this being a gateway drug for people to enjoy the old classics as well.
Signalis, then, takes inspiration from these old-school horror games in the best of ways. The game plays like a strange combination of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and as someone who has played the vast majority of both franchises, I can safely say that rose-engine took the right parts of both franchises to combine into one thoroughly satisfying package. Signalis has the fixed camera angles that both games often had but features the more hardcore, difficult combat of Resident Evil with the esoteric, symbolic puzzles of Silent Hill. While the surface-level gameplay elements of these franchises are aped, rose-engine delves deeper and lifts some of my favorite design elements from those games. The beloved crimson head system from the Resident Evil remake has been brought over - while flares are not nearly as scarce as kerosene and you won't be panicking nearly as much over which enemies are advantageous to kill, this is a system that I am ecstatic was brought over. The developers demonstrate a remarkable knowledge of what makes a survival horror game fun to play. You're not given nearly enough ammo to take every enemy on, and you're given fairly scarce albeit manageable inventory space (the original release was far stricter!). On tougher difficulty modes, Signalis can be a real challenge. I was barely scraping by a lot of the time, and while the game seems to think I'm a more aggressive player based on the ending I got, I like to think I was fairly conservative with the ammo I used and focused more on defensive items and evasion instead of firearm combat. I always appreciate a survival horror game that can royally kick my ass to hell and back and while Signalis is hardly the most difficult I've ever played (just try Resident Evil Zero on hard mode), I appreciated that I was constantly on my feet. Stealth is also a bigger deal than most survival horror games I've played - while there are stealth elements in say, Silent Hill, with the flashlight being more likely to attract enemies, in Signalis it's far more important. Running for even a split second can attract enemies with a screech and if one wishes to avoid confrontation (and you will) you need to be able to pace yourself. Even if you don't see enemies, no room is safe, because many of them can crawl out of the floorboards and invade areas you previously thought safe. This especially gets turned on its head when you're forced to enter dark rooms where you're forced to use the flashlight, immediately alerting every enemy in the general vicinity to your exact location. Puzzles are more complex than the average Resident Evil puzzle, and a lot of them consist of what I call "maintenance puzzles". The best maintenance puzzles make you feel like you're solving a real technical problem, and Signalis does this quite well! It especially makes sense considering what Elster is designed to do, and these puzzles never get as bad as say, Resident Evil 3's water puzzle. Meanwhile, it still has many symbolic puzzles in the vein of Silent Hill and these can often be quite difficult too. Many of these, such as an astronomy/tarot puzzle near the end, require you to remember information across long distances and while I don't think these are unfair, you certainly should bring a notepad with you. I especially enjoyed the puzzles that required toying with Elster's radio, as those felt especially immersive. If there's anything at all I found annoying about this game, it's that it's too "live" if that makes sense. Picking up an item in an RE or SH game temporarily pauses the game so you won't be ambushed by enemies while grabbing it. This not only gives the player brief respite but it also makes it tougher for enemies to get cheap shots at you. Signalis doesn't do this and it makes running into populated rooms to grab an item and leave unnecessarily more difficult in ways that just feel cheap instead of fair. This is the only real issue I have with the gameplay though, it really is exceptional.
If you've had anyone elevator pitch Signalis to you, it is most likely for the narrative if anything else. Not to keep comparing the game to its inspirations, but playing through Signalis made me feel like how players must've felt playing through Silent Hill 2 for the first time back in the early 2000s before members of Team Silent ended up explaining their intentions and more unclear parts of the narrative. Rose-engine certainly doesn't intend to give you answers; Signalis is a rather confusing experience and that works for its benefit. More A24 than Adrian Lyne, the game's cutscenes can often be a barrage on the senses. Because this is how the game conveys its narrative, it's difficult to separate the writing from the presentation, but I will say these cutscenes are extremely stylish and sear memorable imagery into your mind for months to come. That's not to say Signalis is an anvil, in fact, it's a rather subtle experience with many clues and pieces of symbolism dripping through the cracks in the experience. There are a lot of questions posed by the game, both literal and philosophical, and I was fairly swept away thinking about its combination of literary references, worldbuilding, and non-verbal character development. It's rather strange, actually, that Elster is a character I felt connected to by the end, despite her speaking so few words. Her relationship with Ariane Yeong, a forbidden love never meant to be, is something I connected to a lot. I suppose I'm a sucker for two lovers coming together despite their circumstances, especially if it ends badly for them a la Romeo and Juliet. I also quite liked Adler as an antagonist; his micromanaging nature slowly coming apart and being driven insane due to living the same days over and over again and gradually coming to that realization is truly terrifying. It's deeply emotional and deeply resonant, and the game toys with you as you play, such as having a very convincing fakeout ending midway through. The game doesn't hold your hand and doesn't explain itself, and while I believe I've come to a solid conclusion as to what happened, I also think there are still a lot of gaps in my understanding that'll likely be filled in over the years as Stern and Wittmann become more loose-lipped as all creatives inevitably do. I also appreciated the amount of worldbuilding expended for each of the Replika units, such as their personality traits, what they're made for, their distortions, and found the concept of each of them requiring a "fetish object" to stay sane particularly interesting. If I had to give any sort of criticism, it's that the supporting characters don't exactly have the same resonance or involvement as say, Silent Hill 2's characters do. They're not irrelevant and they work very well within the game's intended contexts, but we don't get to know them nearly as closely or intimately and therefore it doesn't hit as hard when they meet their inevitable conclusions. This is a relatively small nitpick, as their sequences are fairly effective nonetheless, but I wish we had gotten to know them more than we did. If you can't tell, I'm somewhat struggling to explain why Signalis, as a narrative, was so effective for me, but I'd say it's a master in tone and implication. A lot of the political conflicts within its world setting are implied and the game gives you just enough to keep you thinking about how the mechanics of its world work. The game never lets up and speaks to the depths of the soul in the same way the best Silent Hill games do, and while it might not always stick the landing, it still gets a gold medal in those departments.
Another one of the most notable elements of Signalis is its presentation. Designed to resemble the classic survival horror games of yore with low-fidelity graphics, low-poly models, and pixel art sprinkled with a dollop of anime-inspired character designs, Signalis manages to be as stellar to look at as it is to play. At first, the game's environments appear to be entirely two-dimensional, similar to the pre-rendered backgrounds that said PSX classics had, but in reality, they are three-dimensional environments carefully crafted to look exactly like a 2D background and that illusion never breaks. When the game smashed my ignorance into a red paste by zooming into a 3D closeup of what I had previously assumed was a 2D object, my jaw nearly hit the floor. While this does explain the remarkable amount of fidelity the game can achieve, knowing this fact doesn't take away from it, rather it makes you appreciate the impressively precise staging of each room to make things appear the way they do. This is the Unity engine used as brush and canvas. The game's lighting system is great as well - your flashlight will beam through often poorly lit areas as you pad quietly through bloodstained halls, with inky black shadows twisting and contorting into figures that may or may not be unspeakable horrors lurking right out of your peripheral. I quite like the blur/glitch effect on the enemies, as it helps make them feel unworldly and inhuman. The user interface was also a particular favorite of mine. Its appearance as a display showcasing Elster's vitals and core functions not only once again reminds me of Resident Evil but it's more immersive than that franchise's offerings, mimicking an old-style CRT display. The game's cutscenes are also impeccably directed. These cutscenes blend 3D graphics and 2D spritework fairly seamlessly and are edited together intelligently with jump cuts, match cuts, intertitles, and many visual homages to its cinematic inspirations (such as a particular shot of Elster's eye fluctuating between many colors, a clear homage to the iconic psychedelic eye shot from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey). The cinematography in these scenes is insane - while a lot of games nowadays put a lot of effort into their camerawork, few feel as artistically staged as what rose-engine has managed to achieve here. It seems that whenever there needed to be a wide shot, a wide shot was done. A close-up? It was done. The deliberate and meticulous nature of the shot composition, editing techniques, and sound design made me nearly squeal as a film buff myself. When these cutscenes are equally as responsible for conveying the narrative as the writing itself, it is of utmost importance that they are of a quality of this caliber.
Speaking of the sound design, the game's score was composed as a collaboration between two musicians, 1000 Eyes and Cicada Sirens. What results is a mixture of sounds old and new, inspired and original. The comparisons to the works of Akira Yamaoka are inevitable; honestly, it's difficult for artsier horror games to escape his overwhelming influence, but Eyes/Sirens manage to make a score that takes from the ethereal, soul-sucking atmosphere and gnashing, industrial hellscapes that Yamaoka was so masterful at delivering and manage to take their own spin on it. No doubt about it, Signalis' score was heavily inspired by the games of old, as all of the game is, but this is not to say it is derivative. While the game is filled with electronic undulations and industrial grinding, there is a warmth present throughout via a lonely piano underscoring the game's emotional climaxes. Tracks such as "Die Toteninsel (Emptiness)" and "The Promise" are emotionally crushing songs that one cannot hear without flashing back to the game's most impactful moments and will go down as some of the most iconic tracks in horror gaming history. I quite liked the frequent manipulation of human noises, such as the distorted breathing on "Cigarette Wife" and glitched shouting on "Become Whole Again". While saferooms in survival horror games are often associated with relaxing, yet tense themes (you are safe now, but you cannot stay), Signalis' variant feels downright hostile in a way I love. When the game grinds metal and gears for combat, it is when it is at its most reverent to Yamaoka, and while these tracks are extremely tense and effective in the moment, I wish they featured more of the subtle melodies that his industrial tracks tended to have, with the particular exception of "Riot Control" which appears to have an orchestral chorus ripped straight from the depths of hell. Out of the game's nearly two hours worth of music, however, my favorite track is by far "Sea Smoke", a relatively simplistic track featuring a piano and atmosphere that reaches deep within my soul and its combination of beauty, sorrow, and horror cannot be properly conveyed. All in all, Eyes/Sirens as a duo have managed to produce a score that, for all intents and purposes is executed perfectly for what the game needs. While I might have some nitpicks about the originality of the game's more industrial combat themes, these are just that: nitpicks. After all, if they work perfectly for what the game needs, why complain?
Signalis was a surprise. I don't think anyone expected the game to be nearly as game-changing as it ended up being. Survival horror is a more niche genre than many realize, with many games falsely advertising themselves or being branded by the wider gaming community as "survival horror" without any consideration as to how the fathers of the subgenre actually played. In the public consciousness, the genre has long since been dominated by Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the former of which switches between survival horror and action horror regularly on a game-by-game basis and the latter of which has not seen an uncontroversial title since 2003 and had largely been dead since 2012. While Resident Evil has never gone away and remains a pillar of the horror genre, and Silent Hill is poised to make a large comeback with multiple new titles in the works, I'm beyond touched by the fact that a new age of survival horror has dawned upon us. Filled with fresh new faces and a plethora of options to choose from, I'm ecstatic to hoist Signalis up as the face of the modern survival horror movement. A true arthouse modern classic made largely by only two people out of a pure passion for the genre, Signalis succeeds with an engaging modernization of retro game mechanics, a highly emotional narrative that doesn't hold your hand, a graphical presentation both low-fidelity and technically impressive, and a soundtrack that will go down as one of horror's most memorable. Any flaws I find with the game, and there are a handful, are just nitpicks and aren't to be taken terribly seriously. If you're a horror fan, you must play Signalis. If you're not a horror fan, you must play Signalis. I can easily see this being a gateway drug for people to enjoy the old classics as well.
The loss of self and co-dependency unraveling us as individuals in the face of attrition and calamity and longing; the paradoxical yearning for closeness and distance in youth of belonging and being an individual in the face of oppressive societal norms. Signalis is an incredibly ambitious psychological horror game taking obvious cues from predecessors such as Team Silent and classic Resident Evil game design, but is a disservice to simply dismiss it as nothing more. It sits in the rare territory of motivated game design down to a 'T'; puzzles, combat, inventory, down to its items reiterate and hone back to its themes successfully, never letting me forget what the game is communicating to its audience.
Its blend of heavily tailored symbolic motifs and nods to cinematic giants ala Solaris, High-Life, The Shining and Persona to cosmic horror classics as the King In Yellow, it does an immaculate job filtering these influences into more than pastiche, and into a nuanced depiction of psychological breakdown and bond between two people hanging on to blind love and hopeless faith.
The amalgamation of genres from cyberpunk, psychological and body horror as well as fascistic dystopic sci-fi somehow work in tandem and feed off of one another perfectly in Signalis. Each piece jumping back and forth to individuality and our bodily relation to either abstract concepts as the state or to literal tribalistic mentalities humans succumb to, albeit big or small.
Signalis regularly poses the theme of extreme conformity from an oppressive totalitarian regime to the immense isolation when trying to navigate and maintain the self and identity. Both at ends and as people strive to balance one over the other, our hive-mind tendency invariably leads us in ways to an inevitable conforming; whether to the bonds we share with people, interests, love, etc. We are extremes in ourselves and border on insanity when either/or are met to the ends of pulling us at the arms and breaking apart an integral piece in ourselves: choice, malleability, and acceptance.
I was surprised to have actually cried a few minutes after the game ended, the sobering feeling from processing what just unraveled. It's a game that I've been waiting for for some time from demos to the end product. Seeing it now finished and fully realized in its scope, it surpassed any expectation I have. Not since Silent Hill 2 have I felt inner turmoil in a video game pointing back a mirror at myself in a sincere way, and from it, deep appreciation. Like any good narrative and literary work, it allows the audience to piece together the pieces without forcing cryptic language for the sake of cryptic language. It's a devastating piece of art, and will haunt me for days, weeks, months, however long my mind has to dwell on the honest and earnest depiction of the self it begs us to question.
Its blend of heavily tailored symbolic motifs and nods to cinematic giants ala Solaris, High-Life, The Shining and Persona to cosmic horror classics as the King In Yellow, it does an immaculate job filtering these influences into more than pastiche, and into a nuanced depiction of psychological breakdown and bond between two people hanging on to blind love and hopeless faith.
The amalgamation of genres from cyberpunk, psychological and body horror as well as fascistic dystopic sci-fi somehow work in tandem and feed off of one another perfectly in Signalis. Each piece jumping back and forth to individuality and our bodily relation to either abstract concepts as the state or to literal tribalistic mentalities humans succumb to, albeit big or small.
Signalis regularly poses the theme of extreme conformity from an oppressive totalitarian regime to the immense isolation when trying to navigate and maintain the self and identity. Both at ends and as people strive to balance one over the other, our hive-mind tendency invariably leads us in ways to an inevitable conforming; whether to the bonds we share with people, interests, love, etc. We are extremes in ourselves and border on insanity when either/or are met to the ends of pulling us at the arms and breaking apart an integral piece in ourselves: choice, malleability, and acceptance.
I was surprised to have actually cried a few minutes after the game ended, the sobering feeling from processing what just unraveled. It's a game that I've been waiting for for some time from demos to the end product. Seeing it now finished and fully realized in its scope, it surpassed any expectation I have. Not since Silent Hill 2 have I felt inner turmoil in a video game pointing back a mirror at myself in a sincere way, and from it, deep appreciation. Like any good narrative and literary work, it allows the audience to piece together the pieces without forcing cryptic language for the sake of cryptic language. It's a devastating piece of art, and will haunt me for days, weeks, months, however long my mind has to dwell on the honest and earnest depiction of the self it begs us to question.
Do you like Resident Evil? Classic Survival Horror in general? This game is a must play, by all means. It's kind of hard to talk about this game in general without spoiling it hard so really all I got to say is play it for yourself.
What I was surprised the most on was how invested I got into the story. It's very vague and debatably relies too much on readable in the environment but it leaves just enough to the imagination to both tug at your heartstrings and feel satisfying at the end.
My only other issue if anything is just some of the puzzles at the end. Not to say they were bad per se, but they really stumped me hard to the point where I did end up looking up the solutions, which I really never like doing in these kinds of games. Maybe I'm just a dumb outlier here and others didn't need to look it up for themselves, but honestly it was minor compared to the rest of my positive experience.
Beautiful artstyle, story, atmosphere and even some really creative puzzles for the most part aside from the end! I felt some MGS with the usage of the radio frequencies, really creative stuff. Give it a shot if you love these games and haven't gotten to it yet. You won't regret it.
What I was surprised the most on was how invested I got into the story. It's very vague and debatably relies too much on readable in the environment but it leaves just enough to the imagination to both tug at your heartstrings and feel satisfying at the end.
My only other issue if anything is just some of the puzzles at the end. Not to say they were bad per se, but they really stumped me hard to the point where I did end up looking up the solutions, which I really never like doing in these kinds of games. Maybe I'm just a dumb outlier here and others didn't need to look it up for themselves, but honestly it was minor compared to the rest of my positive experience.
Beautiful artstyle, story, atmosphere and even some really creative puzzles for the most part aside from the end! I felt some MGS with the usage of the radio frequencies, really creative stuff. Give it a shot if you love these games and haven't gotten to it yet. You won't regret it.
Pretty good sci-fi survival horror game, good story and characters, musics were fire.
Inventory management was kinda hard tho.
Inventory management was kinda hard tho.
Um dos melhores jogos que já joguei. Achei a arte do game lindíssima, a trilha sonora também é absurda e a história é bem cativante, principalmente o plot junto aos personagens.
única coisa que deixou a desejar é uma forma de melhoria de armas/ inventário. O que deixaria o jogo mais interessante, mas isso não tira o seu mérito.
Recomendo bastante! Ele lembra bem os primeiros Resident Evil!
única coisa que deixou a desejar é uma forma de melhoria de armas/ inventário. O que deixaria o jogo mais interessante, mas isso não tira o seu mérito.
Recomendo bastante! Ele lembra bem os primeiros Resident Evil!
Could possibly be the best horror game ever tbh
I usualy don't write about games I haven't finished but I think I played enough of Signalis to where I have qualified myself and i do have opinions.
Signalis has some things to say but the plot and themes feel like they're trying a bit too hard to be vague and shadowy when, at the core of what Signalis is trying to do, is pretty touching. Using motifs of industrialization, automation, and authoritarianism seen from a gritty German aesthetic is quite interesting; using these to tackle a love story is a good idea. Unfortunately, the power a story like that should pack is lost a bit in a haze of ambiguity and I'm left a bit confused and disinterested by the end.
While the thematic elements round out to be a solid attempt at what they were going for from a design perspective the systems in place are a bit of a mess. The culprit here is the inventory system. It's completely unnecessary and poorly implemented. Signalis, like most fruits that fell from the Team Silent tree, has a key fetish; the things are falling out of your pockets. The issue is that the game wants you to engage in combat, going by the abundance of resources for combat such as health and ammunition. With all of these resources on top of the absurd amount of keys, you end up being more frustrated by the commute back to the big red inventory box. This also disincentivizes combat. This endless running around really does suck the tension out of the whole experience. By the end, I had no respect for the enemies or the threat they were meant to pose. Unfortunately, the only thing that did produce even a little tension was the absolutely incredible opening fifteen minutes, which was really good and got me to the seven-hour mark by the power of it alone.
There is something to be said about the audio and visual design which, for the most part, is really good. I think the anime-esque character design is a very questionable choice that, again, serves to zap the experience of seriousness and tension. This is mostly made up for by the awesome environmental design and fairly neat enemy design.
The audio is crisp and generally effective. Some of the industrial clangings can really drone on and become irritating after you get into the habit of just running around enemies rather than just engaging them. Silent Hill 2, for which comparison is inevitable, does this better because silence and variety in sound are much more thoroughly explored while Signalis can be a bit loud at times. However, this can be a plus if you interpret this aspect as more of a play on how repressive the environment is as you're always being watched by some sort of camera which was a cool touch.
Overall, I couldn't really bring myself to see the end. I had pretty much pieced together what happens but couldn't be bothered to sit through the combat, exploration, or key tomfoolery. I did end up googling the ending and I was mostly right.
Can't recommend but I am excited to see what these talented folks have cooking next.
Signalis has some things to say but the plot and themes feel like they're trying a bit too hard to be vague and shadowy when, at the core of what Signalis is trying to do, is pretty touching. Using motifs of industrialization, automation, and authoritarianism seen from a gritty German aesthetic is quite interesting; using these to tackle a love story is a good idea. Unfortunately, the power a story like that should pack is lost a bit in a haze of ambiguity and I'm left a bit confused and disinterested by the end.
While the thematic elements round out to be a solid attempt at what they were going for from a design perspective the systems in place are a bit of a mess. The culprit here is the inventory system. It's completely unnecessary and poorly implemented. Signalis, like most fruits that fell from the Team Silent tree, has a key fetish; the things are falling out of your pockets. The issue is that the game wants you to engage in combat, going by the abundance of resources for combat such as health and ammunition. With all of these resources on top of the absurd amount of keys, you end up being more frustrated by the commute back to the big red inventory box. This also disincentivizes combat. This endless running around really does suck the tension out of the whole experience. By the end, I had no respect for the enemies or the threat they were meant to pose. Unfortunately, the only thing that did produce even a little tension was the absolutely incredible opening fifteen minutes, which was really good and got me to the seven-hour mark by the power of it alone.
There is something to be said about the audio and visual design which, for the most part, is really good. I think the anime-esque character design is a very questionable choice that, again, serves to zap the experience of seriousness and tension. This is mostly made up for by the awesome environmental design and fairly neat enemy design.
The audio is crisp and generally effective. Some of the industrial clangings can really drone on and become irritating after you get into the habit of just running around enemies rather than just engaging them. Silent Hill 2, for which comparison is inevitable, does this better because silence and variety in sound are much more thoroughly explored while Signalis can be a bit loud at times. However, this can be a plus if you interpret this aspect as more of a play on how repressive the environment is as you're always being watched by some sort of camera which was a cool touch.
Overall, I couldn't really bring myself to see the end. I had pretty much pieced together what happens but couldn't be bothered to sit through the combat, exploration, or key tomfoolery. I did end up googling the ending and I was mostly right.
Can't recommend but I am excited to see what these talented folks have cooking next.
As somebody who's not exactly a survival horror enjoyer, I have to say that gameplay-wise I kinda lost interest in the middle of it (the Nowhere section or whatever it's called). Dealing with the enemies started to feel like a hassle at some point. But the art direction of the game is just so incredibly well executed, that is the thing that kept me going through the game. The first time I see what the game does when I refuse to save the game, I legit got one of the heaviest chills I ever got from experiencing art. I respect the heck out of the game, even if I don't enjoy playing it as much as I would like to. Also the story is a mindfuck that I do enjoy to a certain extent, although ultimately it's too obtuse for me.
Perhaps it is ironic that humans in Signalis are referred to as “Gestalts”, a term that refers to a part that makes up a greater whole. In contrast, Signalis is filled with many ideas that, while well-executed in isolation, fail to complement each other at best and actively detract from each other at worse.
The worst example of this is the setting and atmosphere of the game. Signalis occupies a terrible compromise between the atmospheres of old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill. RE’s horror comes from its grounding in reality, the fact that all monsters you face are explainable scientific mutations that serve a practical purpose as bioweapons. SH is the opposite, the monsters are otherworld, and often have anatomy that would be detrimental to have for an actual living being. The horror comes from the fact that these things should not, perhaps even cannot, exist.
Signalis has decided to have its cake and eat it too by making the source of the monsters be both psychological and physical; they result from radiation poisoning that itself results from psychic projects of a girl sick with radiation poisoning. This leads to enemy and world design that conflicts with itself; the horror from the grounded atmosphere is at odds with horror from its otherworldly atmosphere. The sci-fi dystopia you live in is explained in much greater detail than SH’s touristy town flyers but in much less detail than RE’s cold and calculated scientific reporting. The monster designs look like psychological mesh, but the game reminds you constantly that they are just infected. Ultimately, the two atmospheres feel duck taped together and poorly thought out.
Which is a shame because like I said, the individual parts here are amazing. The capital S survival horror is even stricter than old-school RE and made me feel more terror than those games ever did. The artsy references to German expressionism and fractals are refreshingly well thought-out in contrast to the copy-pasting from Wikipedia that so many other games fall back on. The main romance is tear-jerking and well-executed. The idea of robots having specific neural patterns for tasks that you need to socialize them to instead of being GAI that are basically just human is the most realistic approach to anthropomorphic robots I’ve seen in fiction, which I say as someone who actually works in AI.
But it all feels scattered and conflicting. The replika’s instruction manuals take away from the emotion intensity. The Evangelion-style cuts to Lovecraft quotes take me out of the intense struggle to just survive. The flashing German and Chinese text takes away from the active pondering the game is trying to make me do because I don’t speak those languages. All the genius in the moment-to-moment experience is ruined by the game’s inability to keep a consistent tone and identity. It’s a whole worse than the sum of its parts.
The worst example of this is the setting and atmosphere of the game. Signalis occupies a terrible compromise between the atmospheres of old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill. RE’s horror comes from its grounding in reality, the fact that all monsters you face are explainable scientific mutations that serve a practical purpose as bioweapons. SH is the opposite, the monsters are otherworld, and often have anatomy that would be detrimental to have for an actual living being. The horror comes from the fact that these things should not, perhaps even cannot, exist.
Signalis has decided to have its cake and eat it too by making the source of the monsters be both psychological and physical; they result from radiation poisoning that itself results from psychic projects of a girl sick with radiation poisoning. This leads to enemy and world design that conflicts with itself; the horror from the grounded atmosphere is at odds with horror from its otherworldly atmosphere. The sci-fi dystopia you live in is explained in much greater detail than SH’s touristy town flyers but in much less detail than RE’s cold and calculated scientific reporting. The monster designs look like psychological mesh, but the game reminds you constantly that they are just infected. Ultimately, the two atmospheres feel duck taped together and poorly thought out.
Which is a shame because like I said, the individual parts here are amazing. The capital S survival horror is even stricter than old-school RE and made me feel more terror than those games ever did. The artsy references to German expressionism and fractals are refreshingly well thought-out in contrast to the copy-pasting from Wikipedia that so many other games fall back on. The main romance is tear-jerking and well-executed. The idea of robots having specific neural patterns for tasks that you need to socialize them to instead of being GAI that are basically just human is the most realistic approach to anthropomorphic robots I’ve seen in fiction, which I say as someone who actually works in AI.
But it all feels scattered and conflicting. The replika’s instruction manuals take away from the emotion intensity. The Evangelion-style cuts to Lovecraft quotes take me out of the intense struggle to just survive. The flashing German and Chinese text takes away from the active pondering the game is trying to make me do because I don’t speak those languages. All the genius in the moment-to-moment experience is ruined by the game’s inability to keep a consistent tone and identity. It’s a whole worse than the sum of its parts.
I absolutely adore on how this indie game could make old-school horror survivor a potential comeback.
This particular genre and style can still fit into modern standards and this game is proof of it.
Everything from the artstyle, Design choice, sound design and overall gameplay is perfect.
This particular genre and style can still fit into modern standards and this game is proof of it.
Everything from the artstyle, Design choice, sound design and overall gameplay is perfect.
Signalis is legitimately one of the best games I've ever played. it's a bit weird tbh, when I first beat it I came away thinking "huh, that was a really good game, time to move on with my life". but in the weeks since then, it's kinda really taken over and consumed my brain. there's just so so so much to love about it. I love the world, I love the characters, I love how miserable the story makes me (because of how much the characters and their struggles mean to me), I love the gameplay, I love the music, I love the vibe, I just love it all!!
I don't want to go into too much detail, because I like to avoid putting spoiler in my reviews, but honestly I could describe exactly what my takeaway from the game was, and then you could go and play it and read things completely differently.
if you like survival horror, or Silent Hill, or robot girls, or lesbians, or especially all of the above, I'm begging you to play this game with no additional knowledge. it's truly a lifechanging experience (and once you've beaten it come talk to me about it, I desperately need an outlet lmao)
I don't want to go into too much detail, because I like to avoid putting spoiler in my reviews, but honestly I could describe exactly what my takeaway from the game was, and then you could go and play it and read things completely differently.
if you like survival horror, or Silent Hill, or robot girls, or lesbians, or especially all of the above, I'm begging you to play this game with no additional knowledge. it's truly a lifechanging experience (and once you've beaten it come talk to me about it, I desperately need an outlet lmao)
This review contains spoilers
Playing Signalis makes me feel sick.
This isn't a knock against Signalis, it's more the opposite. The repugnant stench of this world physically makes my skin crawl. A universe with a depraved government, deconstructing and dismantling the individual into easily trainable worker ants to benefit the government. The minds of what's left of humans being pumped into replicant bodies, reproduced and manufactured en mass. Controlling these minds through perfectly constructed stimuli to create manufactured responses, creating fetishes for their minds to latch onto and embrace, to hold dearly and continue to chase the rabbit down the hole forever.
Our protagonist goes through searching for their partner, and yet as the entirety of this story unfolds, it brings me to the same headspace that Silent Hill 2 took me. In many ways, this game feels like a response to Silent Hill. James Sutherland is a character we identify with, feel his struggles, but come out the other side realizing he was just the same as all the others venturing in Silent Hill. Lost, confused, maddened by sins and desires that he attempted to keep hidden to himself. He breaks through this, since he was given the potential to change. He has the agency to. Elster doesn't have that. She seems destined to repeat this cycle over, and over, and over again, because she's after the same fetishized response. At least, that's been my reading on a single playthrough. Much of the game warrants the story and the world to be dissected with multiple playthroughs, and maybe some light reading of The King in Yellow. Each playthrough will bring a new ending depending on your actions in game, similar to Silent Hill. I managed to get the ending where Elster breaks her promise to see her lover again, breaking her arm attempting to pull open the latch off the ship and dying in the red apocalypse surrounding her mind space. I looked up the other endings to see if any of the other ones were more hopeful. They didn't seem to be. Each ending seemed to fit well like a glove, and to me, they appear to reflect that endless cycle that Elster has been performing. It makes me feel sick to my stomach to think about.
Again, I'm sure there's much I must be missing, misinterpreting, or just plain wrong from this reading. I write like I know what's happening, but I may just end up being the king of r/woosh. Signalis uses it's abstractions to leave many things up to your interpretation, and it's refreshing to see, but I am not the person who's going to enlighten you with all the answers. At least, not with a single playthrough.
What's more concrete is the gameplay. This was the first survival horror game I've beaten besides Silent Hill 2, so it's given me a slice of what the Resident Evil brand of survival horror can offer. Combat consists of managing ammo to kill mindless drones, inventory management, and running away if the times get rough. Dancing your way through enemies often leads you to rooms where you can solve puzzles, and the two dance in sync with one another, building on top of each other. Many of the puzzles within the game I managed to solve on my own, which is a shocking state of affairs on my part. The only one I had slight trouble with was the ring puzzle towards the end of the game, but that's because I figured I was missing a ring, as well as thinking the note to provide the correct order was a glyph only true blue Signalis lore experts who are much smarter than myself would be willing to take a crack at. As it turns out, all the words were just spelt vertically, and reading them meant reading backwards.
It's fascinating to see the clear inspirations within Signalis, yet the game manages to create something wholly it's own, with it's own voice to cast out into the world. It's a testament to this game's greatness. What's holding me back to proclaim my full and utter love for Signalis comes down only to my own preferences. Horror is not my thing. Horror that's effective and well done envelopes me with their sickly ideas and causes my skin to stand up and crawl away. The high tension bringing about highs of survival instincts become lost on me when all I can think about is just how deeply and profoundly fucked up it all is. There's a deep and caring appreciation for this genre that I hold in high regard, but I don't like thinking about what these characters may be going through within this game. All I can see is hell, and I don't like staring at it.
But Signalis is worth staring at. Even if just for a little bit.
This isn't a knock against Signalis, it's more the opposite. The repugnant stench of this world physically makes my skin crawl. A universe with a depraved government, deconstructing and dismantling the individual into easily trainable worker ants to benefit the government. The minds of what's left of humans being pumped into replicant bodies, reproduced and manufactured en mass. Controlling these minds through perfectly constructed stimuli to create manufactured responses, creating fetishes for their minds to latch onto and embrace, to hold dearly and continue to chase the rabbit down the hole forever.
Our protagonist goes through searching for their partner, and yet as the entirety of this story unfolds, it brings me to the same headspace that Silent Hill 2 took me. In many ways, this game feels like a response to Silent Hill. James Sutherland is a character we identify with, feel his struggles, but come out the other side realizing he was just the same as all the others venturing in Silent Hill. Lost, confused, maddened by sins and desires that he attempted to keep hidden to himself. He breaks through this, since he was given the potential to change. He has the agency to. Elster doesn't have that. She seems destined to repeat this cycle over, and over, and over again, because she's after the same fetishized response. At least, that's been my reading on a single playthrough. Much of the game warrants the story and the world to be dissected with multiple playthroughs, and maybe some light reading of The King in Yellow. Each playthrough will bring a new ending depending on your actions in game, similar to Silent Hill. I managed to get the ending where Elster breaks her promise to see her lover again, breaking her arm attempting to pull open the latch off the ship and dying in the red apocalypse surrounding her mind space. I looked up the other endings to see if any of the other ones were more hopeful. They didn't seem to be. Each ending seemed to fit well like a glove, and to me, they appear to reflect that endless cycle that Elster has been performing. It makes me feel sick to my stomach to think about.
Again, I'm sure there's much I must be missing, misinterpreting, or just plain wrong from this reading. I write like I know what's happening, but I may just end up being the king of r/woosh. Signalis uses it's abstractions to leave many things up to your interpretation, and it's refreshing to see, but I am not the person who's going to enlighten you with all the answers. At least, not with a single playthrough.
What's more concrete is the gameplay. This was the first survival horror game I've beaten besides Silent Hill 2, so it's given me a slice of what the Resident Evil brand of survival horror can offer. Combat consists of managing ammo to kill mindless drones, inventory management, and running away if the times get rough. Dancing your way through enemies often leads you to rooms where you can solve puzzles, and the two dance in sync with one another, building on top of each other. Many of the puzzles within the game I managed to solve on my own, which is a shocking state of affairs on my part. The only one I had slight trouble with was the ring puzzle towards the end of the game, but that's because I figured I was missing a ring, as well as thinking the note to provide the correct order was a glyph only true blue Signalis lore experts who are much smarter than myself would be willing to take a crack at. As it turns out, all the words were just spelt vertically, and reading them meant reading backwards.
It's fascinating to see the clear inspirations within Signalis, yet the game manages to create something wholly it's own, with it's own voice to cast out into the world. It's a testament to this game's greatness. What's holding me back to proclaim my full and utter love for Signalis comes down only to my own preferences. Horror is not my thing. Horror that's effective and well done envelopes me with their sickly ideas and causes my skin to stand up and crawl away. The high tension bringing about highs of survival instincts become lost on me when all I can think about is just how deeply and profoundly fucked up it all is. There's a deep and caring appreciation for this genre that I hold in high regard, but I don't like thinking about what these characters may be going through within this game. All I can see is hell, and I don't like staring at it.
But Signalis is worth staring at. Even if just for a little bit.
I love how the most important crystal clear thing about this game is that elster and ariane loved eachother, simple as.
ghost in the shell coded + RE coded + ps1 ass game amazing stuff just go play it
ghost in the shell coded + RE coded + ps1 ass game amazing stuff just go play it
PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK
Remember our promise.
Replay. I was wrong about this one. It's a modern classic. How the heck did only two people make this?
First of all I'd like to thank my buddy Mokey for generously gifting me this game so I could finally play it. Truth be told I HAD tried around an hour of this on game pass, when it first came out, but it wasn't hitting at that time, so I decided to shelve and I am glad I came back and got a chance to complete this really interesting unique game.
First of all, if we're scoring on vibes this game is a 10/10. Just wonderful vibes, insanely spooky feeling, some great tension and atmosphere, and a killer soundtrack (I love me some classical music, and this game filled that love for me hard.)
I think the story is very interesting, and I won't fully to pretend to understand it (even after looking some stuff up). It's not my favorite, but I really do appreciate them not spoon feeding you everything and letting you kind of discover things for yourself here and make your own assumptions.
I have a couple of pretty big complaints about the game. I think the gameplay itself is just fine at best, and really annoying at others. Aiming just never seemed to consistently go where I wanted it too, where in a survival horror game you really need to make every shot count.
I also really hate the incredibly limited inventory system. I'm not wanting 20 slots or anything to make it trival, but an upgrade to go from 6 to 8 would have gone a LONG way at some point in this game (I'm fine making tough choices, but there's a lot of time that the game just became me entering a room, picking up items, running back to a save room and then progressing).
Finally, there's a section later in the game that is downright rage inducing, making it difficult to travel around, and some rooms that are just filled with an insane amount of enemies. There's already enough tension in the game, this pulled it to far.
I do wish they game had a bit of a bigger budget, I think there's a really special idea here, that if a bit more money could have been put into this you could have ended up with something TRULY special. That being said, I still really enjoyed my time with it overall, and it's cool to see some unique fresh survival horror out there. Definitely check it out if that seems appealing.
First of all, if we're scoring on vibes this game is a 10/10. Just wonderful vibes, insanely spooky feeling, some great tension and atmosphere, and a killer soundtrack (I love me some classical music, and this game filled that love for me hard.)
I think the story is very interesting, and I won't fully to pretend to understand it (even after looking some stuff up). It's not my favorite, but I really do appreciate them not spoon feeding you everything and letting you kind of discover things for yourself here and make your own assumptions.
I have a couple of pretty big complaints about the game. I think the gameplay itself is just fine at best, and really annoying at others. Aiming just never seemed to consistently go where I wanted it too, where in a survival horror game you really need to make every shot count.
I also really hate the incredibly limited inventory system. I'm not wanting 20 slots or anything to make it trival, but an upgrade to go from 6 to 8 would have gone a LONG way at some point in this game (I'm fine making tough choices, but there's a lot of time that the game just became me entering a room, picking up items, running back to a save room and then progressing).
Finally, there's a section later in the game that is downright rage inducing, making it difficult to travel around, and some rooms that are just filled with an insane amount of enemies. There's already enough tension in the game, this pulled it to far.
I do wish they game had a bit of a bigger budget, I think there's a really special idea here, that if a bit more money could have been put into this you could have ended up with something TRULY special. That being said, I still really enjoyed my time with it overall, and it's cool to see some unique fresh survival horror out there. Definitely check it out if that seems appealing.
A game that makes you sit bolt upright and exclaim, “Wow, I liked Silent Hill and Evangelion too! Thanks for the casual reminder, Rose Engine!” Endlessly derivative, fetishistically cryptic, dull as dishwater, and marred with some needlessly obtuse game design and outmoded mechanics. I’m glad other folks seem to be gravitating toward this one, but I was decidedly not a fan.
for me the takeaway was lesbians are the most powerful force in the universe
This review contains spoilers
Gestalt is an unified configuration of elements (biological, symbolical, physical, etc.) that has properties or characteristics that cannot be derived from the mere sum of its parts.
Signalis is a game of many different inspirations: survival horror, symbolist paintings, weird fiction, anime, retrofuturism, and many, many more. Yet to describe Signalis as belonging to any "canon" of its influences, or a more abstract "successor" is a disservice to the game.
Many (especially the least flattering reviews) have focused on this aspect of the game; it's successful (or failed) attempt at capturing the identity of some of the most beloved and influential pieces of art of this "era". Does it play like the memory of playing Resident Evil? Does it make you feel just like the time you played Silent Hill 2? Does it slowly creep on you like the slow descent into the madness of Lovecraft? Does it create a meaningful metaphor like the one that Evangelion left you with? Does it beacon you like Arnold Böcklin's evocative Isle of the Dead?
I find these questions utterly vapid.
I could talk about how the "classic survival horror gameplay" is perfectly executed, being at the same time deeply rewarding for the adept and knowledgeable, and incredibly punishing for those who don't have a grasp on it. How the constant threat of lingering enemies, the fear of losing your last hour of progress that you so stupidly forgot to save, creates a balance of tension on the player comparable to the one experienced by the character.
I could talk about the artstyle: a perfect blend of gorgeous pixel art and PSX models with a "slick, modern look" that fits perfectly the motifs of it's archaic but futuristic technology. The glitching and scanlines of the player's world married so perfectly to the setting of the game. How this principle extends not just to the visuals, but to the sounds; both music and effects. The soundtrack, the radio signals, the screams, the shots, the beating of the flesh. Everything coming together cohesively to deliver the setting with impeccable immersion.
I could even about how the ways to achieve the endings explore a deeper relationship between the player and the character. Elster's final "choice" is based entirely on how the player approaches the game (and yes, this includes the Artifact ending). It may be frustrating for certain "completionist" players, but that's the point: you're not meant to get everything, you're meant to experience what your Elster would do. That's your "true" ending, that's what happened in the loop you played. The requirements are so obscure and impossible to fully control (for the three "base" endings) exactly so that the player can feel a deeper connection between their style of play and the ending they got.
The Artifact ending is just yet another iteration on this. Approaching the game as a game. The ARG elements are simply yet another "playstyle", and thus deserving of its own ending, carrying possibly the same "meta" connotations that the playing session did.
But even all this is just scratching the surface of Signalis. This is just the sum of the parts.
-
The King in Yellow is a fictional play in the homonymous book by Robert W. Chambers. The play appears as a connecting tissue between all the different stories of the book, as a forbidden entity, something that for some unknown reason drives character to madness or ruin.
Signalis's narrative is convoluted to say the least. Questions often lead to more confusion than a definitive answer; and while there's definitely plenty to figure out by paying close attention, not everything is meant to be "solved".
Living in [current year], lore discussion is inevitable. People fighting with each other and themselves to find the one true reading of the game. The dreaded question: "What is this game actually about?". Humanity? Personhood? Conviction? Love? Loss? Trauma?
As many have said, but it warrants repeating, there is no true answer. Signalis is not an allegory, the violent imposition of THE reading of the work.
Signalis is about a lot of things.
I, as a queer lesbian so deeply obsessed with futuristic bodies, can't help but make it about love. A love so strong and so resonant that it breaks the whole fabric of the world.
Of course, my reading of this continues, but that's the main point. And while I do think that people downplaying or outright opposing the weight of the romance in the narrative are blind and obtuse at best (and "not-so-nice-people" at worst), I do think one can get plenty more out of this game, without it necessarily nullifying anything else.
The searches for the one true meaning are, frankly, insane. Nothing is gained by forcing Signalis into a box of allegory, making unbreakable links between what is figurative and what is "actual".
You can, obviously, interpret Signalis wrong, but the right way, the correct answer, is nowhere to be found.
-
Gestaltzerfall is shape decomposition. When a complex shape is observed for a long time, it decomposes in the mind of the observer, only appearing as the connected parts that make it.
I don't think there's anything quite like Signalis.
It is not "Silent Hill 2 but". It is not "Lovecraft but". It is only Signalis.
I finished this game long before writing this review. I had thought "what a nice little game" at first, until I found myself slowly thinking about it more and more.
It has stayed as a constant presence in my mind more than any game ever did. It is now an inseparable part of me. It shaped me.
Signalis is an experience unlike any other.
It's love, it's pain, it's fear, it's joy.
It is hope, it is angst. It is death, and it is life.
Signalis is a game of many different inspirations: survival horror, symbolist paintings, weird fiction, anime, retrofuturism, and many, many more. Yet to describe Signalis as belonging to any "canon" of its influences, or a more abstract "successor" is a disservice to the game.
Many (especially the least flattering reviews) have focused on this aspect of the game; it's successful (or failed) attempt at capturing the identity of some of the most beloved and influential pieces of art of this "era". Does it play like the memory of playing Resident Evil? Does it make you feel just like the time you played Silent Hill 2? Does it slowly creep on you like the slow descent into the madness of Lovecraft? Does it create a meaningful metaphor like the one that Evangelion left you with? Does it beacon you like Arnold Böcklin's evocative Isle of the Dead?
I find these questions utterly vapid.
I could talk about how the "classic survival horror gameplay" is perfectly executed, being at the same time deeply rewarding for the adept and knowledgeable, and incredibly punishing for those who don't have a grasp on it. How the constant threat of lingering enemies, the fear of losing your last hour of progress that you so stupidly forgot to save, creates a balance of tension on the player comparable to the one experienced by the character.
I could talk about the artstyle: a perfect blend of gorgeous pixel art and PSX models with a "slick, modern look" that fits perfectly the motifs of it's archaic but futuristic technology. The glitching and scanlines of the player's world married so perfectly to the setting of the game. How this principle extends not just to the visuals, but to the sounds; both music and effects. The soundtrack, the radio signals, the screams, the shots, the beating of the flesh. Everything coming together cohesively to deliver the setting with impeccable immersion.
I could even about how the ways to achieve the endings explore a deeper relationship between the player and the character. Elster's final "choice" is based entirely on how the player approaches the game (and yes, this includes the Artifact ending). It may be frustrating for certain "completionist" players, but that's the point: you're not meant to get everything, you're meant to experience what your Elster would do. That's your "true" ending, that's what happened in the loop you played. The requirements are so obscure and impossible to fully control (for the three "base" endings) exactly so that the player can feel a deeper connection between their style of play and the ending they got.
The Artifact ending is just yet another iteration on this. Approaching the game as a game. The ARG elements are simply yet another "playstyle", and thus deserving of its own ending, carrying possibly the same "meta" connotations that the playing session did.
But even all this is just scratching the surface of Signalis. This is just the sum of the parts.
-
The King in Yellow is a fictional play in the homonymous book by Robert W. Chambers. The play appears as a connecting tissue between all the different stories of the book, as a forbidden entity, something that for some unknown reason drives character to madness or ruin.
Signalis's narrative is convoluted to say the least. Questions often lead to more confusion than a definitive answer; and while there's definitely plenty to figure out by paying close attention, not everything is meant to be "solved".
Living in [current year], lore discussion is inevitable. People fighting with each other and themselves to find the one true reading of the game. The dreaded question: "What is this game actually about?". Humanity? Personhood? Conviction? Love? Loss? Trauma?
As many have said, but it warrants repeating, there is no true answer. Signalis is not an allegory, the violent imposition of THE reading of the work.
Signalis is about a lot of things.
I, as a queer lesbian so deeply obsessed with futuristic bodies, can't help but make it about love. A love so strong and so resonant that it breaks the whole fabric of the world.
Of course, my reading of this continues, but that's the main point. And while I do think that people downplaying or outright opposing the weight of the romance in the narrative are blind and obtuse at best (and "not-so-nice-people" at worst), I do think one can get plenty more out of this game, without it necessarily nullifying anything else.
The searches for the one true meaning are, frankly, insane. Nothing is gained by forcing Signalis into a box of allegory, making unbreakable links between what is figurative and what is "actual".
You can, obviously, interpret Signalis wrong, but the right way, the correct answer, is nowhere to be found.
-
Gestaltzerfall is shape decomposition. When a complex shape is observed for a long time, it decomposes in the mind of the observer, only appearing as the connected parts that make it.
I don't think there's anything quite like Signalis.
It is not "Silent Hill 2 but". It is not "Lovecraft but". It is only Signalis.
I finished this game long before writing this review. I had thought "what a nice little game" at first, until I found myself slowly thinking about it more and more.
It has stayed as a constant presence in my mind more than any game ever did. It is now an inseparable part of me. It shaped me.
Signalis is an experience unlike any other.
It's love, it's pain, it's fear, it's joy.
It is hope, it is angst. It is death, and it is life.