So, this is a kind of game you come back to in 6 months after finishing it the first time and still shake remembering your first experience, whether the shaking is from fear or anticipation, that honestly varies from consumer to consumer, but for me especially it's a healthy mixture of the two. It's an amazing game that is truly unforgettable for me, a few reasons.
One being the art, the art alone is stunningly beautiful. My first playthrough was full of gawking at my screen, I took many screenshots and fell in love with this game. The attention to detail as I was running for my life were truly stunning, I would often find myself intrigued and entrapped by the art of the Gestalts, the propaganda, the Replikas, the reflection in the shards of glass, the shadows beneath the character, the uncanny corpses, and so much more (In other words, spoilers).
Now then, for the second I must commend the writing of this beautifully terrifying story. The writing attributed to the deep and scarring story of Signalis carries a different kind of; I wanna say "eldritch" horror, the kind that you can't really describe, but know oh too well? Another specific kind of horror shown all throughout Signalis is palimpsest horror. Palimpsest horror is a horror in which the old is erased but imperfectly. The new reveals parts of the old in a revealing light showing the 'truth' hiding just beneath the surface of the old. An overwriting in which you know something is wrong by how the surroundings look and the atmosphere feels, but you can't strictly place your finger on what is wrong, or irony is used to make the main focal point, or main character in this case completely ignore it.
The horror story of Signalis occasionally resurfaces in absent minded thought. The interactions with other Replikas, the few Gestalts you do meet, the atmosphere that this game is steeped in, all apply to the story in new way that I have never seen a horror game do make it that much more beautiful and fleeting to me, I love this game and it will be a frequent play for me. If I'm being honest the terror the main character experiences struck an interesting chord in me and I felt the need to shar my love of this game so that others could bask themselves in the complex story of Signalis. Now for my closing remarks, I'm sorry to have made you read so much, but thank you if you did. I hope this inspired you to play this game as a similar post did for me.
Now shall we determine the breaking points of sanity, fathom the monolithic amounts of trauma, and perceive what a fractured mind can omit to survive. Or shall we too fracture before our story ends?
