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dkirschner's Signalis (PC)

[May 19, 2023 08:02:20 AM]

Signalis is a really great retro survival horror game with strong Silent Hill vibes. The presentation is pixelated, artsy, and stylish. The story is creative and confusing. If it weren't told with such slick presentation, the story would be less enjoyable, but I was rather curious to sort my understanding of what was going on (note: I did not understand what was going on). The gist of it is that you're a Replika, an android created from an original human personality. Because humans are flawed, so are Replikas, and, long story short, the Replikas all go insane in the mining facility where most of the game (supposedly) takes place. You encounter nightmare after nightmare, attempting to survive, trying to find a Gestalt (human) who you have some connection to. You'll also encounter other Replikas who are not quite dead or insane, like the facility administrator, none of whom are helpful.

The gameplay is classic survival horror. You have some guns and melee weapons, limited ammo, a couple tools, and solve a lot of puzzles. One unique thing is that enemies can "reactivate" after being downed, but you can permanently kill them with fire. I did this exactly twice, and it was during a boss fight against the Mynah unit. The Mynah activates two basic Replikas, and will keep activating them throughout the fight no matter how many times you shoot them down. If you set them on fire, then the Mynah can't reactivate them. I cheesed the fight, actually. After burning the Replikas, I just stood behind a pillar while the Mynah tried to shoot me, got tired, and became vulnerable. I shot it until it got back up, and I blocked line of sight again behind the pillar while it fired into the pillar, got tired, became vulnerable, and repeat until dead. It was generally easy throughout the game to run circles around slow enemies, especially when there was an object in the middle, and I was surprised this Mynah boss was dumb enough to fall for it too.

In these kinds of games, you usually have a small inventory, but in Signalis, you have a REALLY small inventory. Six items. At save points, there is a chest that stores infinite items, so you will find yourself often, especially toward the end of the game, running back and forth between save points swapping items from your inventory to the chest. There is a lot to pick up for how limited your inventory is. It added to the tense survival mood for most of the game, but became tedious toward the end when there were a lot more enemies, no maps, and elaborate puzzles. Indeed, the latter one-quarter to one-third of the game has no map, which presents an additional challenge. Prior to that, the map was really useful and well designed, with color coded doors for "been there," "haven't been there," "locked," and "broken." I liked the level layout a lot of the mining facility.

So yeah! I wouldn't have played this but it sounded really solid from reviews, and when I signed up for Xbox Game Pass, there it was. Definitely a standout in this genre. Enjoy trying to figure out what the end means.