this feels like it was constructed specifically for me and my tastes: a throwback survival horror with low-poly ps1 graphics and brutalist retrofuture aesthetics that goes all in on questions of identity, queerness, companionship, memory, trauma, and decay. in ways, this feels like a sort of grand greek tragedy; in others, it feels like an evolution of the kinds of impressionistic vibes-based horror games that spewed out of the 2000s rpgmaker scene. the ending (i got memory) legitimately destroyed me, and the narrative felt so finely tuned yet so intentionally vague and open to interpretation that i can already tell this is going to live in my head for a while as i turn over what i think happened.
this is a game that proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, be they ludic (resident evil 2, 3, and the 2002 remake of re1, silent hill 1 through 4, nier, metal gear solid 1 & 2) and not (david lynch, evangelion, lovecraft/cosmic horror, eugen bracht, kubrick and the shining, cronenberg, blame!, ghost in the shell). for some, that is to the games detriment; for me, signalis feels like it is in conversation with those other texts, rather than being simply derivative. everything blends together nicely and feels cohesive, and the various elements that have been taken from other works are used effectively to contribute to and build on the thematic ideas that people like lynch, anno, cronenberg, and lovecraft explored in their own work. also, i always appreciate it when a video game takes inspiration or influence from non-video game works of art beyond aping blockbuster action movies or taking a novel art style!
i blasted through this, and even when i wasn't playing it, i was still thinking about signalis. it has pretty much instantly shot up into maybe my top 5-10 games of all time - i'm looking forward to replaying it immediately on survival difficulty and getting that secret ending, too.
this is a game that proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, be they ludic (resident evil 2, 3, and the 2002 remake of re1, silent hill 1 through 4, nier, metal gear solid 1 & 2) and not (david lynch, evangelion, lovecraft/cosmic horror, eugen bracht, kubrick and the shining, cronenberg, blame!, ghost in the shell). for some, that is to the games detriment; for me, signalis feels like it is in conversation with those other texts, rather than being simply derivative. everything blends together nicely and feels cohesive, and the various elements that have been taken from other works are used effectively to contribute to and build on the thematic ideas that people like lynch, anno, cronenberg, and lovecraft explored in their own work. also, i always appreciate it when a video game takes inspiration or influence from non-video game works of art beyond aping blockbuster action movies or taking a novel art style!
i blasted through this, and even when i wasn't playing it, i was still thinking about signalis. it has pretty much instantly shot up into maybe my top 5-10 games of all time - i'm looking forward to replaying it immediately on survival difficulty and getting that secret ending, too.