If you asked me until now, I’d have said Citizen Sleeper was my sleeper hit this year. But Signalis just blew my mind. One of the best times I had with a game this year, which is unbelievable, since it was one hell of a year for games yet again.
I need to think about this a lot more before I can put it in proper writing, but what those two devs managed to achieve in terms of atmosphere and style is stunning. And the fact that it’s clearly being an homage to games from a time, where I was too young to play the clear inspirations, makes this all the more rewarding to play through as an adult. It’s a love letter to clunky ps1 horror survival games, it even doesn’t spare you from the more tedious and unforgiving parts of the era. But it worked for me. The limitations worked wonders, because it asked me to be more resourceful than other games. It made me plan my trips from safe house to safe house, it made me micromanage my inventory to adapt to certain trips. All of it worked so well for me, I didn’t dislike a second I spent with the game. It’s more like I embraced its flaws. And did I already say the atmosphere knocks it out of the park? It really does.

I’m kinda speechless still, because it pushed all my buttons. Holy fuck.