SIGNALIS

I am still simping off of the aesthetic and Elster. Call me back.

I feel like I'm missing something that everyone else sees with this game, but this just isn't it for me. This game is an interesting experience, but I can't say it's really that enjoyable as a game. I ended this game wishing I could have experienced it without having to play it, and as a result I can't recommend it. Signalis is a horror game with some combat, exploration, and puzzle mechanics. It is clearly an homage to classic horror games in that you have a limited inventory, slow aim / gun firing mechanics, and mostly fixed camera angles. What this game does very well is its atmosphere. The game is certainly spooky, and suffused with an occasional glitchy CRT-feel to it. It very successfully imparts the feeling of a futuristic industrial base where something has gone horribly wrong. The story is not so much narrative as it is the suggestion of a story. The world feels deeper than what they show you, and while there's a clear motivator for the protagonist, don't expect a clear beginning-to-end sort of storyline, the game very much relies on vibes instead, which I'd say it generally does very well. This is all fine if the game was a more limited visually-driven or story-driven experience, but you do get weapons, manage ammunition, fight monsters, and explore maps which require keys to doors, and the game does all of this terribly. The game shows its "retro" feel in the worst way during the core gameplay. Each "stage" is basically a map where you go around finding keys to locked doors. First, you find a key, then you find the door that's unlocked by that key. Behind that door is two keys to two different doors, and behind those doors are more keys which are used to exit the stage. The entire playable portion of this game is this. Just this. You are limited to 6 inventory slots. Want to take a healing item, gun, and ammunition for that gun? That's 3 slots right there. If you want to be more prepared for combat and want a utility item as well, that's a 4th slot. Did you find ammo for two different guns you're not holding? That takes the last 2 slots. Oh, you found the key you're looking for? Nope, inventory full, time to run back to the save room, stash your stuff, run back to the key to get it, then run across the map again to unlock the door which has a different key behind it which again requires you to run across the map to unlock THAT door. It's all just so tedious. Fighting enemies usually consists of aiming at them, waiting 3-4 seconds for the reticle to narrow so you do more damage, then firing once. Repeat 2-4 times depending on enemy strength. Enemies never drop items, and they don't even stay down! As you run back and forth across the map, they'll occasionally pop back up, meaning that if you can just run past enemies, it is always the preferred path because they never cross from room to room. This can mean triggering the horror scream sound effect and combat music very briefly as you cross a hallway from one room to another when trying to quickly cross the map. You will also be called upon to solve puzzles, find clues, etc. The puzzles are generally fine, except you often don't get the context for a puzzle until you've explored the entire stage. Missing a single room to explore can mean the difference between continuing or being hard stuck in a spot. There is also an interesting combination of the standard 2D pixel view during the majority of the game intermixed with 3D first-person segments when investigating items. Again, this gives a strong retro feel to some of the puzzles, if that's a big draw for you. Overall, despite the interesting vibes the game gives off, it's just such a chore to play. I had to push through pretty hard to complete it, and I'm annoyed that each stage was basically just more of the same. I kept wondering if something would change, and it just didn't. In my view, you're better off watching a playthrough than bothering playing it yourself.