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.