Before diving into my personal feelings towards the game's story and themes, I want to touch base on the gameplay and presentation of Signalis.

Ho boy, does this indie gem deliver some of the greatest art direction in any video game. Its perfect marriage of 3D graphics in a 2D aesthetic is masterfully done. Not only do the models genuinely look like sprites, their existence as models allow for immersive lighting and atmosphere that could not be done in a true 2D game. Likewise, the pseudo-sprite artwork gives this game a wonderful retro flare that sets it apart from the classic survival horror games, Silent Hill and Resident Evil. That said, it's beyond obvious that those two franchises have roots deep within the soul of this game. Not many people seem to be bothered by the blatancy of its inspiration, though, and I'm not about to be an outlier. If anything, those classic games are from such a different era and their respective series so drastically abandoned their origins that a new game taking up the mantel is more than welcomed. Signalis understands the beauty of classic survival horror better than modern Resident Evil (regardless of the series' recent strides) or Silent Hill. Excellent resource management, unsettling enemies, clever puzzles, and unbelievable atmosphere highlight Signalis' strengths in the genre. If there were a way to reinvent the wheel, this is it.

Signalis could be considered many things and what it will ultimately be seen as is dependent on personal experience. For me, it was not only an excellent survival horror game. It was a beautifully harrowing look into the decay of memory—the beauty coming from the love that refuses to die but the harrow coming from the pain of being alone until reality itself erodes. The game has its scares, yes, but what really sells the horror is how the world is distorted to an unknown extent by the mental state and emotions of Ariane, the central figure we are pursuing throughout the game. That's the real genius of this game: It is exceedingly difficult to grasp at what is happening is the story because reality is hardly defined. Where it begins, where it ends, why things happen the way they do, and even the state of the world itself are all buried under a multitude of questions. There aren't many answers either, or at least not enough to have a full picture. Instead, the story gives you a handful of clues, uses literary references as context, and asks you to come to your own conclusions through interpretation. I wondered by the end of the game if any of it was even real. How much of it is a dream? How much of it is reality being distorted? How much of it is metaphysical? I can't even pretend to entirely know.

All I know are the emotions it instilled in me. I felt dread, hopelessness, emptiness. This game provoked a lot of feelings in me, plenty of which were not happy. Yet, there's a part of me that really hopes Elster and Ariane were able to find happiness in their eternal dance. Maybe, just maybe, love is the one thing that can outlast everything else. Memory, reality, or the universe itself—love will eventually prevail. Love is forever.

An almost perfect near 10/10 experience. This is one of the very few modern immersive sims that has the same level of openness (both in terms of gameplay and story choices) as a classic like Deus Ex. Reading the wiki after finishing the game I’m struck by how many gameplay mechanics and small story alterations there are that I never thought of while playing. What you can do with the mechanics of the game is almost only limited by your own imagination.

This freedom can be a bit of a double edged sword however. Prey tells you at the very beginning that you can “play your way,” and as a result it is possible to play in a way that ultimately ends up being kind of boring.This isn’t necessarily a criticism but more of a warning to future players.

This is a game primarily concerned with how the player inhabits and manipulates their environment. The entire concept of the Mimics and the fact you can learn to use their copying ability is a testament to this. Accordingly, the most enjoyable part of Prey is the act of exploring Talos 1 for the first time and discovering what you can do with that space. Once you’ve fully explored the station and settled into which gameplay mechanics you want to use the game starts to lose steam. By the end you’ll probably be mindlessly traveling from level to level to finish off remaining objectives and sitting through very long loading screens in the process. This thankfully only happens in the last hour or two of the game, so it doesn’t spoil the overall experience. In a similar vein it’s also very likely that players will become overpowered by the end of the game unless they impose their own difficulty increasing limitations on gameplay to counter this. For example the player has the option to avoid installing any neuromods (abilities and upgrades) during their playthrough which would certainly make the endgame much more difficult and rewarding. If you attempt to upgrade your character as much as possible, however, your endgame very well could be jumping and gliding past every single enemy with ease, which can be a bit boring. This - again - is more of a warning than a criticism. It’s a testament to Prey’s openness that you can pretty easily break the game by the end if you want to. System Shock 2 - Prey’s most obvious influence - is quite similar in this sense and can fittingly be broken in almost exactly the same way. (Brief spoiler alert: on standard difficulty if you fully spec into ballistic weapons, health, and mobility increasing abilities you can turn both of these games into the easiest Doom levels you’ve ever seen)

Story and writing - like with System Shock 2 - isn’t the deepest or most critical, but works really well for a sci-fi horror experience. Piecing together what happened on Talos 1 and the different relationships between characters is incredibly engaging. The fact the 200+ NPCs are all actual named characters with jobs and email correspondence that can be located in the game world is a stroke of genius for this kind of audiolog and environmental based story telling. This kind of story telling in other games - Bioshock for instance - can often be engaging but very artificial feeling. (A lot of digital ink has been spilled commenting on how ridiculous and nonsensical the existence of audio logs is for Bioshock’s world). Prey’s take on this story telling - in line with its immersive sim gameplay - feels incredibly real and adds to the feeling of Talos 1 as an actual place that can be interacted with as such. The way Prey handles its NPCs is IMO one of its best inventions and something I hope other developers have seen and been influenced by. Overall, Preys writing shines brightest when it comes to portraying the relationships between characters and creating a compelling mystery for players to unravel, and it makes some important strides when it comes to storytelling techniques to achieve these ends.

Prey does have some philosophical and political aspirations, and while these don’t fall flat in a juvenile “makes you think” kind of way (cough Bioshock Infinite) they’re not terribly complex. The big questions and moral dilemmas that Prey interrogates don’t go much deeper than the trolley problem and the question of how much we’re willing to sacrifice in the name of progress. This isn’t really a bad thing though. Prey successfully engages with these topics in a way that organically encourages players to think critically about them. I always appreciate it when games try to engage players in this way, and I think Prey deserves some praise for its efforts.

Overall this is a fantastic game and one of the very few contemporary titles that can stand along side the classics of the immersive sim genre. (It’s honestly the only one I’ve played so far but I’ve heard very good things about ctrl+alt+ego and don’t want to discount it before playing). Prey also does quite a lot to advance storytelling techniques and gameplay mechanics in this genre, and I hope it can serve as an inspiration for future designers.

this is far from a perfect game. the combat is tedious and generally unfun and the story leaves some to be desired. that being said, having logged over 600 hours since its release, it’s safe to say it was a pivotal part of my brain development. the characters and soundtrack are among my favorite in gaming to this day. i would also argue that the game is still pretty visually stunning, almost 10 years since its release. definitely the most recent bioware release that i have enjoyed and probably the last 💔