i really wanted to like this game more than i did.

borrowing from staples of the survival horror genre, signalis combines resident evil's inventory management system with the atmosphere of silent hill (in particular i was reminded of silent hill 3, owing to both games portraying a lone female protagonist, as well as sharing some choices in enemy design). whether or not signalis actually innovates on these concepts is... another matter entirely.

we'll get to that. i have something much more pressing to talk about first.

which would be the story.

the story feels... vague. you'd miss most of it if you weren't stopping to read every note and document strewn about the game's vast levels, which is fine, but even with poring over every single piece, the plot feels half-baked. i arguably got the best ending of them all, (of which there are four, including a secret ending) and it still felt like there was so much missing.

you play as an android named elster, who is trying to find her partner. that's as much as you have to go on initially, and you never really get much more. for a game so lauded for it's story and characters, it insists on telling you the bare facts without showing why you should care about the characters and their relationship. as a player, you have to want to find ariane because elster wants to. there was little else to compel me, and i wanted to be compelled. i wanted to get invested in the tragedy of these characters :c their little dance scene was cute, at least

there's also a plot detail (arguably a twist?) that happens very close to the end that i don't think is convincingly written or explained. it just happens, as so much of the game does. much of the story is also just left open to interpretation which is fine, and admittedly elster and ariane are just part of a larger plot with many moving pieces. but nothing about the characters felt distinctive enough for me to even wonder much about the wider themes at play, especially since those thematic elements felt more than a little derivative. even the gestalt/replika terminology used is nothing new.

the gameplay i can't fault it for; it's fun, satisfying, and the puzzles are mostly great (i did kinda feel sad that the tarot card puzzle just... gave you the answer). the weapons felt good and i liked having the ability to burn away the corpses of particularly annoying enemies, preventing them from reanimating. the flare gun added an interesting twist to the gameplay as it could be swapped between firing flares and grenades, making inventory management more complex and layered from swapping in and out more types of ammunition.

while it borrows much from its predecessors, signalis' major gameplay innovation lies in its radio-tuning mechanic, which is equal parts fun and clunky. i liked the story significance it has - one small concession i will allow for the writing in this game - and it leads to some interesting puzzle solutions and enemy design. it just, unfortunately, has to contend with some jank in its execution (why quick tuning is not the default operating mode, i have no idea). i wish the game relied on it a little more, though.

the visuals and aesthetics of signalis were what initially drew me in, and i think remain its strongest asset, with well-realised, intentionally low-poly models evoking a nostalgia that seems key to the post-apocalyptic setting. the facilities you explore are largely empty, populated only by a few survivors - several of whom are already fatally injured when you encounter them - and the deteriorating androids that roam the halls, now mindless husks of their former selves. an eclectic mix of cultural inspiration also suffuses the game's atmosphere - a lot of cutscene text is in german, many of the characters have distinctly asian names and the world is saturated in soviet propaganda posters and imagery. i think you could easily make an argument for the intentionality of signalis and all of its idiosyncrasies as an art piece, particularly given that it has such strong aesthetic sense.

while signalis is a fun experience on a surface level, though, i cannot help but feel a little disappointed by so much of the discussion around the game centring on aspects that i personally found to be underwhelming and uninspired.

also i was promised space lesbians and they didn't even kiss

Now that I've had a bit of time to collect my thoughts about this game I still find myself struggling to put into words how exactly I felt about Signalis after beating it, I've seen my fair share of bleak settings, but I think this one takes the cake for how brutal it can be for the characters of its own universe.

It's haunting, dreadful, merciless, and it's communicated to the player extremely well through gameplay, thanks to its overwhelming atmosphere, cryptic storytelling, and how it feels like you are never truly safe from what might be lurking around the corner. And while I think it suffers a bit from its excessive backtracking, it's still worth giving a shot, specially if you enjoy puzzle games.

One thing I'm certain about once the credits rolled, is that now I understand why its fandom is so obsessed with portraying Elster and Ariane in wholesome and cutesy situations, because it's the only thing that might save them from the overbearing feeling of Existential Dread that at least my ending (Promise) left me. But at least, I can find solace in knowing that they both went out together, to a place where time doesn't exist, to a place where they can dance together to the rhythm of the music, to a place where Ariane can finish her paintings, to a place where they can both feel whole again.