I couldn’t help myself, I needed to replay Signalis. It hasn’t even been a whole year since I first played it, but it’s always lingering in the back of my mind. Without a doubt, it’s my favorite horror game, and one of my favorite games EVER. After experiencing other horror titles, especially Silent Hill 2 and 3, I really wanted to revisit Signalis just to experience things all over again. And even still, it’s still as amazing as it was prior.
One of Signalis’ immediate strengths is its aesthetics. It’s easy to compare it to the likes of PS1 survival horror entries, the original Silent Hill and Resident Evils 1 through 3 come to mind. While that comparison is true, it doesn’t feel 1-1 with PS1 graphics, somewhat of a modernized version of PS1 graphics, if that makes any sense. Having the key elements of how PS1 games look, but not being limited by the limitations that PS1 games had to abide by. As well, I absolutely love how the environments of the games look. I absolutely love the mix of futuristic buildings combined with a sort of natural rot. It’s this blend of artificial and organic creating a unique horror environment that I don’t see much elsewhere.
As well, the game’s atmosphere is amazing. One thing that really sells me with Horror in general is atmosphere, especially the ambience. The droning sounds of machinery, the pulsating sounds of flesh, or the echoes of empty halls. A strong atmosphere really strengthens a game, and Signalis’ atmosphere is amazing. The ambiance is amazing, but when an enemy targets you and it plays the combat track, it’s amazing. I just absolutely love Signalis’ OST. Some tracks are amazing ambient tracks, but some tracks just are, to me at least, complete earworms. The first that immediately comes to mind in this regard is Cigarette Wife. And as well, the harsh sounds of most of the game’s OST makes when the game is calm, playing more classical tracks, hit so much harder.
What makes the game so interesting to me is the ridiculously small inventory space. You only have 6 inventory slots ever. Your inventory never upgrades, from beginning to end you have 6 inventory slots. And while it caused me a little frustration while playing it, having this small of an inventory system is absolutely genius. Think about it for a second. Typically in most games, you’ll want to have extra ammo, multiple weapons, healing items, all because they’re important. But that takes up the majority of your inventory slots, meaning you’ll only be able to get 1, maybe 2 items. And there’s very few locations where you can store items, which means if your inventory is full, you have to go all the way back to store whatever items you got. It creates a need to store some items that would be extremely helpful in order to grab more items to help progress through the game. And on top of that, since you have less items to protect yourself, the game is in turn, more dangerous, more terrifying. This inventory system is absolutely genius in strengthening the horror.
As well, one aspect of the inventory that I only figured out upon replaying the game is how holding ammo, or any stackable item works. Simply put, you can’t have multiple slots of the same item. So for example, pistol ammo stacks up to 20 total. Alongside the 10 ammo loaded into the Pistol, you can only ever hold a maximum of 30 Pistol Ammo. And of course, this total only goes down for even stronger weapons. So even then, the game limits how many resources you can hold at a time, making things even more tense, which I think is absolutely genius.
One aspect that I completely adore in Survival Horror games are the puzzles. I mention this so many times, but when a game requires me to write down information to solve puzzles, I love the game even more. Even though I’ve played this game before I wrote down a full page worth of notes about puzzles in this game. I think that’s just a showcase of how well designed some of the puzzles in this game just are. As well, being able to solve these puzzles myself felt really good. Some of the puzzles that I loved figuring out were tied to the radio, as those especially aren’t as obvious as other puzzles in how they’re solved.
And one of the most important aspects of Signalis I believe is the game’s story. In my previous review of the game, I described my confusion with the game’s story. But that was my initial review, I’ve had nearly a full year to linger on it, and I’ve come to my own satisfying conclusion. Though with that being said, I can’t bring myself to mention specific details here. In one degree, I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone, I think this game is best experienced with as little knowledge as possible. But as well, I feel like this game is more impactful if you’re able to have your own interpretations on what happens in the game, and what it all means. I really love the story of Signalis, and there’s so many aspects of it that I love to examine, but I think it best to experience it for yourself, and not have me preach it to you. What I will say though is that the game has an absolutely genius moment that occurs as a transition between the second and third act, and I wonder how many people were deceived by it.
Even now, after all of the games I’ve played since then, Signalis is one of my favorite videogames of all time, and it’s probably my favorite horror game. There’s so much to it that appeals to me, and there’s so much that’s absolutely genius. While I was uncertain about how I viewed it after my first time beating it, having it linger in the back of my mind, and finally replaying it after all this time, I feel like Signalis is a perfect videogame.
One of Signalis’ immediate strengths is its aesthetics. It’s easy to compare it to the likes of PS1 survival horror entries, the original Silent Hill and Resident Evils 1 through 3 come to mind. While that comparison is true, it doesn’t feel 1-1 with PS1 graphics, somewhat of a modernized version of PS1 graphics, if that makes any sense. Having the key elements of how PS1 games look, but not being limited by the limitations that PS1 games had to abide by. As well, I absolutely love how the environments of the games look. I absolutely love the mix of futuristic buildings combined with a sort of natural rot. It’s this blend of artificial and organic creating a unique horror environment that I don’t see much elsewhere.
As well, the game’s atmosphere is amazing. One thing that really sells me with Horror in general is atmosphere, especially the ambience. The droning sounds of machinery, the pulsating sounds of flesh, or the echoes of empty halls. A strong atmosphere really strengthens a game, and Signalis’ atmosphere is amazing. The ambiance is amazing, but when an enemy targets you and it plays the combat track, it’s amazing. I just absolutely love Signalis’ OST. Some tracks are amazing ambient tracks, but some tracks just are, to me at least, complete earworms. The first that immediately comes to mind in this regard is Cigarette Wife. And as well, the harsh sounds of most of the game’s OST makes when the game is calm, playing more classical tracks, hit so much harder.
What makes the game so interesting to me is the ridiculously small inventory space. You only have 6 inventory slots ever. Your inventory never upgrades, from beginning to end you have 6 inventory slots. And while it caused me a little frustration while playing it, having this small of an inventory system is absolutely genius. Think about it for a second. Typically in most games, you’ll want to have extra ammo, multiple weapons, healing items, all because they’re important. But that takes up the majority of your inventory slots, meaning you’ll only be able to get 1, maybe 2 items. And there’s very few locations where you can store items, which means if your inventory is full, you have to go all the way back to store whatever items you got. It creates a need to store some items that would be extremely helpful in order to grab more items to help progress through the game. And on top of that, since you have less items to protect yourself, the game is in turn, more dangerous, more terrifying. This inventory system is absolutely genius in strengthening the horror.
As well, one aspect of the inventory that I only figured out upon replaying the game is how holding ammo, or any stackable item works. Simply put, you can’t have multiple slots of the same item. So for example, pistol ammo stacks up to 20 total. Alongside the 10 ammo loaded into the Pistol, you can only ever hold a maximum of 30 Pistol Ammo. And of course, this total only goes down for even stronger weapons. So even then, the game limits how many resources you can hold at a time, making things even more tense, which I think is absolutely genius.
One aspect that I completely adore in Survival Horror games are the puzzles. I mention this so many times, but when a game requires me to write down information to solve puzzles, I love the game even more. Even though I’ve played this game before I wrote down a full page worth of notes about puzzles in this game. I think that’s just a showcase of how well designed some of the puzzles in this game just are. As well, being able to solve these puzzles myself felt really good. Some of the puzzles that I loved figuring out were tied to the radio, as those especially aren’t as obvious as other puzzles in how they’re solved.
And one of the most important aspects of Signalis I believe is the game’s story. In my previous review of the game, I described my confusion with the game’s story. But that was my initial review, I’ve had nearly a full year to linger on it, and I’ve come to my own satisfying conclusion. Though with that being said, I can’t bring myself to mention specific details here. In one degree, I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone, I think this game is best experienced with as little knowledge as possible. But as well, I feel like this game is more impactful if you’re able to have your own interpretations on what happens in the game, and what it all means. I really love the story of Signalis, and there’s so many aspects of it that I love to examine, but I think it best to experience it for yourself, and not have me preach it to you. What I will say though is that the game has an absolutely genius moment that occurs as a transition between the second and third act, and I wonder how many people were deceived by it.
Even now, after all of the games I’ve played since then, Signalis is one of my favorite videogames of all time, and it’s probably my favorite horror game. There’s so much to it that appeals to me, and there’s so much that’s absolutely genius. While I was uncertain about how I viewed it after my first time beating it, having it linger in the back of my mind, and finally replaying it after all this time, I feel like Signalis is a perfect videogame.