Signalis Review

This Signalis review has been in the making for a very long time. I can’t say that I followed the game from the very beginning, but I still went through two preview versions. If you're interested in old-school survival horror games, this title is a real find. And you will enjoy the game even more if you are interested in dark, twisted and bizarre stories.

Signalis is a story set in a cyberpunk setting. An instructive story about a brutalistic dystopia of the distant future. This is simultaneously a zombie apocalypse, the gloomy worlds of Lovecraft, a psychological drama about blurred reality and perception. In short, this game, like an onion, is multi-layered. But if cutting an onion brings tears, Signalis casts doubt on the sense of reality. And then jump off your chair because you made too much noise while walking and the monster found you. According to the developers, when creating the game, they were inspired by such creative personalities as Hideaki Anno, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. Believe me, it's noticeable. Incredible.

In this game, you take on the role of Elster, a robot girl who is looking for her humanoid gestalt partner. Her search leads her to a mining center where something terrible has happened. The halls are filled with inanimate monster robots infected with an unknown virus. Plunging into darkness, the game becomes more and more a surreal nightmare. You must experience it for yourself.

Sleep in darkness

From haunting cinematography to dark anime-inspired visuals, everything feels spooky and desolate. There's a surreal darkness to Elster's aspirations that I can't get enough of. All items are worn and dirty, except for those that may not actually exist. The cutscenes are always short, supernatural, but long enough to make me jump and wonder what I thought the game was about. The characters are scared, exhausted and deceitful. Elster's determination and solid gameplay tie all these seemingly unrelated parts together.

Speaking of gameplay loops, Signalis takes the old-school Resident Evil approach to saves and inventory management. In other words, you have one or two save rooms in each area that you need to return to regularly. Items can be left in crates from save rooms. You have a total of six inventory slots. Luckily, ammo and their corresponding weapons usually occupy the same slot. Unfortunately, if you run out of ammo, the weapon will still take up valuable space.

Stealth is also important in this game. Elster can carry multiple weapons, but has limited ammunition. Resources are always scarce, and even if you find them, you won't be able to carry them all away. Inventory management is the hardest puzzle in the game. For some time I carried with me a photograph of Alina and the Plate of Eternity taken by Elster. This was a mistake and probably made the game more difficult in the early stages.

Signalis is the best kind of fear

"Nightmare" is the best definition of this game. A dark atmosphere, ambiguous characters, and an intriguing yet twisted narrative all complement each other. The result is greater than the sum of its parts. And the deeper you dive into Signalis, the more nightmarish the gaming experience becomes. Enemies take a long time to stun and regenerate quickly. Inventory management is getting tricky as hell. Even the atmosphere and overall aesthetic becomes noticeably darker.

Like most early Resident Evil clones, this game has a lot of inventory puzzles. Fortunately, this isn't the only kind of mystery Signalis has up its sleeve. There are also logic puzzles that require you to either know the instructions or find solutions. Deciphering radio transmissions to open locks is incredibly important. There are many key items and keycards hidden behind this mechanic. Usually two or three programs are broadcast, and you need to choose the right one. So it will definitely have to be trial and error. The same goes for deciding which enemies to permanently kill with found thermite flares.

The only complaint about the gameplay is that it can be difficult to understand what certain items are intended for. With some things (like keys) there is nothing complicated. But others, like the cyborg eye taking grayscale photos, raise a lot of questions. And if you have to go back, the situation with the lack of resources only gets worse. I'm not good with inventory management, so I had to step back a lot of times, which wasn't fun. Running out of inventory space quickly became the scariest thing the game had to offer.

retro horror

Signalis has probably the best visual style that I have not seen even among modern survival horror games. It renders all the elements, including the shadows and vagueness of the PS1 era graphics. I heard that early 3D was the scariest era in gaming. At the time, 3D graphics were advanced enough for developers to create crazy designs. However, the graphics were also quite blurry, and could not fully convey the intention of the creators. The space between a grand idea and grainy technical limitations resulted in an incredibly uncanny experience. Signalis perfectly conveys that unpleasant feeling that you can see something, but this is not enough.

The animation is also incredibly fluid. Watching the pixelated ripples spread with every step is mesmerizing. Signalis has turned the retro aesthetic into its greatest strength by exploiting its limitations. Poor visual fidelity is not a bug, it's a feature. This, of course, does not mean that I have no complaints about the game. One thing that puzzled me is that Signalis ultimately encourages running. This is the only way to overcome the hassle of having to return to the save room. Running draws the attention of monsters, but when you need to quickly get into a new room, it doesn't matter.

Also, it may seem strange, but I think there are too many healing items in Singalis. I made the mistake of wasting most of my inventory early on. Then I went down a level and got more healing sprays. More than needed. This cycle continued until the very end.

All in all, Signalis is an unforgettable and creepy experience. A title that breathes new life into retro survival horror games. Just be prepared for a story with lots of room for interpretation. And the overall design is reminiscent of anime creativity.