This game is such a fun mix of things I love, survival horror, especially silent hill, with gameplay of old style Resident evil, with sci fi concepts I love from ghost in the shell and Evangelion and nier.
That being said you don’t need to know about any of those things listed to enjoy this game, the nods to those things are fun if you know but the game and story and emotion can still be enjoyed
I wanna say my only real issue with the gameplay is the small inventory, not because it’s small per se but because the flashlight takes an inventory slot which it didn’t need to.
My only other gripe is maybe we could have used one or two more scenes with two of the main characters you meet during the game, but I also understand that the events in game are up to interpretation.
You’d think that would sully the emotional arc of the game but it doesn’t, when you get all the pieces of info you need the timeline of events prior to the game makes so much sense and gives the player motivation and a reason to care about the main character and her goal.
While the events in game are more muddled between reality and dream much like silent hill
Despite being an entirely different setting and genre this game captures what works about silent hill more than most games trying to emulate it, and I like I said it comes down to emotion.
In the best silent hill games you understand the motivation of most of the characters and care about their journey while the horror and mystery aspects of the game are more vague to add to horror
First time play-through of signalis was scary because you just don’t know what will happen next, even if there isn’t anything in that bathroom stall you sure are scared to find out, because the game is really good with its atmosphere and leaving enough to the imagination, and that to me is the best kind of horror, because what the audience imagines will be 10 times scarier than what is actually there.
The game also has the unique system that silent hill 2 has where depending how you play you get different endings
All the endings are good and each add a little bit of knowledge to your understanding of the games plot
And what’s nice is unlike silent hill 2, exploring and dying and taking your time and killing enemies gets you what I consider the best ending
Also the pacing of each level is amazing it improve upon the resident evil formula, most RE games open up with a more open ended level and get more linear as it progresses
While signalis has those linear sections more so in the middle to take a break between large areas of the game
And it’s last area is also it’s best area both visually and gameplay wise, and actually has a clever and creepy way to make sure you don’t get lost. The game does this a lot have in universe reasons for gameplay things and it does it perfectly
Also there is a gay scene in this game and honestly it’s really cute and tender
Probably my game of the year
That being said you don’t need to know about any of those things listed to enjoy this game, the nods to those things are fun if you know but the game and story and emotion can still be enjoyed
I wanna say my only real issue with the gameplay is the small inventory, not because it’s small per se but because the flashlight takes an inventory slot which it didn’t need to.
My only other gripe is maybe we could have used one or two more scenes with two of the main characters you meet during the game, but I also understand that the events in game are up to interpretation.
You’d think that would sully the emotional arc of the game but it doesn’t, when you get all the pieces of info you need the timeline of events prior to the game makes so much sense and gives the player motivation and a reason to care about the main character and her goal.
While the events in game are more muddled between reality and dream much like silent hill
Despite being an entirely different setting and genre this game captures what works about silent hill more than most games trying to emulate it, and I like I said it comes down to emotion.
In the best silent hill games you understand the motivation of most of the characters and care about their journey while the horror and mystery aspects of the game are more vague to add to horror
First time play-through of signalis was scary because you just don’t know what will happen next, even if there isn’t anything in that bathroom stall you sure are scared to find out, because the game is really good with its atmosphere and leaving enough to the imagination, and that to me is the best kind of horror, because what the audience imagines will be 10 times scarier than what is actually there.
The game also has the unique system that silent hill 2 has where depending how you play you get different endings
All the endings are good and each add a little bit of knowledge to your understanding of the games plot
And what’s nice is unlike silent hill 2, exploring and dying and taking your time and killing enemies gets you what I consider the best ending
Also the pacing of each level is amazing it improve upon the resident evil formula, most RE games open up with a more open ended level and get more linear as it progresses
While signalis has those linear sections more so in the middle to take a break between large areas of the game
And it’s last area is also it’s best area both visually and gameplay wise, and actually has a clever and creepy way to make sure you don’t get lost. The game does this a lot have in universe reasons for gameplay things and it does it perfectly
Also there is a gay scene in this game and honestly it’s really cute and tender
Probably my game of the year