A nearly perfect sapphic love-letter to horror and sci-fi.

At the time of writing I've only gotten one ending of Signalis but I'll be getting the others ASAP. I don't even know where to begin with this game, I've been a huge fan of survival horror games most of my life and frankly I think Signalis is one of the best ever made. It's got a fun, tense gameplay loop, the item management may be a bit of stress to some people but after a bit it clicked with me and I found joy in planning routes and using resources, also frankly I think a lot of people that play Signalis and games like it are a little TOO hoard-happy, use those bullets baby! The lore and story are tight and interestingly told in a way that reminds me of early Silent Hills or Twin Peaks, where you are given a lot of concrete facts, a lot of symbolism, and you have to kind of discuss and piece together parts, but not in a way where things are overly cryptic or unexplained, quite the opposite. People (read:me) have discussed and theorized elements of Silent Hill's world, lore and symbolism for literal years and I feel strongly Signalis will have this same effect. Sorry if this review is kind of all over the place, I have played a lot of games in my life but this one is new yet already so truly special to me I hope I can make even one person try it out!

Oh man where to begin, like a LOT of people are saying this feels like a long lost game from the PS2/XBOX era. It is absolutely filled to the brim with love and confidence. It's the absolute perfect marriage of rhythm and character action gameplay, in the first level or two things get pretty simple but as you progress the game unlocks more and more gameplay elements and it feels just so satisfying to get those S ranks. It somehow manages to be very busy and fast paced without feeling overwhelming or clunky, I occasionally see some people complain about the lack of a sprint button but everything is done to the beat, try DASH DASH DASH LIGHT ATK, you will move extremely fast and can do that infinitely. For anyone curious I played on steam swapping between my desktop (on surround sound) and steam deck (headphones) and I got a solid 60fps on both the entire game with default settings, the game is insanely well optimized.

The character writing is just absolutely great, every cutscene had me smiling and one cutscene actually made me a little emotional, this cast is absolutely solid and the voice acting is top shelf, Chai is one of my favorite protags in AGES. There are a lot of references in this game, hearfelt references the game wears proudly on its sleeve that brought me a lot of joy when I'd find them hidden around a level or in a cutscene. The game is built on the inspirations of a lot of games and other media that came before it and its proud to display that love in very caring homages that are great without ever taking you out of the world of Hi-Fi Rush.

Without going into spoiler territory there is also quite a lot to this game, there are three difficulties with a fourth unlockable, each has its own challenges and scores, completing challenges gets you unlockables in the post-game in the form of lots of character customization. There's also quite a bit more to the game after the credits roll it seems but at the time of writing I haven't completed the post game just sampled a bit of all of the unlockable things.

As you can probably see if you check my profile, I play a LOT of games but, at the same time, I am quite poor and I have to be very picky with my purchases and Hi-Fi Rush delivered in spades. I can't recommend it enough, it's a new favorite, between Hi-Fi Rush and SIGNALIS I am starting to feel as though we are entering an era of games that captures something completely new while being a love letter to classics of various genres. I sincerely hope there is a sequel in the future I wanna see these characters again, in the meantime I'm going to chip away at getting every achievement! I might edit this review with feelings on the post game and higher difficulties down the line :)

The movement in this game feels absolutely amazing, with really fun and inventive weapons (normal for Insomniac). A sequel with tighter writing and more to do would be a favorite for me I think. There are some issues though, the weapons take a silly long time to level up, even if you 100% the game you wont have used even a fraction of the weapons (not to mention the currency grind) it just feels kinda bad and leads the game to feeling short and incomplete. I doubt a sequel will ever happen but if it does it could honestly be something special. Oh and I loved the character customization!

I went into Pentiment without really knowing all that much about it other than having a genuine interest in its setting and art style. Of course, it being an Obsidian game meant that it could be as brilliant as Pillars of Eternity, original as Alpha Protocol or as boring as Tyranny. After being a bit overwhelmed at the start, what I found was a game unlike any other I have ever played. The level of detail and commitment to its theme and setting is unprecedented. This thing was made by a team of 13 people and the fact that they put so much effort into fonts is just a tiny showcase that this project was clearly a labor of love.

Pentiment is an adventure game with some light role-playing elements that sees the protagonist tackle a murder mystery. The main story beats will be the same regardless of what you do, but you do have a lot of leeway in creating the background and personality of your character and you do impact certain events. You're also on somewhat of a time limit, so this is about doing the best with what little you have. But the thing about Pentiment is that it isn't really about solving a murder. This game is about the journey, it's about your character, it's about the town and the people in it as you witness events unfold over a period of 25 years.

I fully believe it is best to experience this game going in knowing as little as possible, so I'm not interested in going over the specifics. Suffice it to say that this is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant, engrossing and unique games I've ever read.