Signalis is a wonderful love-letter to PSX Survival horror, this doesn't come without it flaws but overall shows why the best of those games hold up decades later.
If I were to limited to a single word for this review, it would be "atmosphere" whilst the game isn't the most terrifying piece of media you'll play the feel of dread between the sounds, music, graphics, filters, enemy designs and cut scenes are all on point and come together to create a very beautiful yet creepy painting.
Graphics wise this game does what many good retro homages do where it tricks you into thinking "this looks like that" whilst being more a version of how you remember things looking. Better than they actually were.
Controls wise, the game doesn't opt for tank controls and in a sense I was disappointed but understand as the loud majority let's call them, really don't remember that method fondly. In place though an aiming system which is as stressful and arguably clunky does give a similar feel to combat whilst making going back and forth (and you will do this a lot) much more modern feeling and smoother.
Story wise I enjoyed what there was and this is one of those games where I immediately am waiting for some class YouTube deep dives. A lot of it is what you'd expect from a spooky game with androids but in my eyes it does it all well, it wears it's inspirations on it's sleeves and I can appreciate that when done well.
I enjoyed my time with Signalis a lot, I was satisfied with how it went and where it ended (I got M) but it was not perfect.
A simple complaint from me was the amount of back tracking.
I don't mind limited inventory, especially considering the games it's trying to be like but Signalis for me suffered due to this as the more time you spend running through the same corridors and rooms just to pick up and drop things off the less scary or even interesting they become.
Overall I enjoyed the puzzles but felt some either were too many parts, exaggerated by the above point or were "too classic" and were things we've all done ten times before.
Good game though, definitely worth playing on Game Pass if you have it - another "retro look runs well on crap hardware" for me.
Also I learnt a little German, that's nice.
If I were to limited to a single word for this review, it would be "atmosphere" whilst the game isn't the most terrifying piece of media you'll play the feel of dread between the sounds, music, graphics, filters, enemy designs and cut scenes are all on point and come together to create a very beautiful yet creepy painting.
Graphics wise this game does what many good retro homages do where it tricks you into thinking "this looks like that" whilst being more a version of how you remember things looking. Better than they actually were.
Controls wise, the game doesn't opt for tank controls and in a sense I was disappointed but understand as the loud majority let's call them, really don't remember that method fondly. In place though an aiming system which is as stressful and arguably clunky does give a similar feel to combat whilst making going back and forth (and you will do this a lot) much more modern feeling and smoother.
Story wise I enjoyed what there was and this is one of those games where I immediately am waiting for some class YouTube deep dives. A lot of it is what you'd expect from a spooky game with androids but in my eyes it does it all well, it wears it's inspirations on it's sleeves and I can appreciate that when done well.
I enjoyed my time with Signalis a lot, I was satisfied with how it went and where it ended (I got M) but it was not perfect.
A simple complaint from me was the amount of back tracking.
I don't mind limited inventory, especially considering the games it's trying to be like but Signalis for me suffered due to this as the more time you spend running through the same corridors and rooms just to pick up and drop things off the less scary or even interesting they become.
Overall I enjoyed the puzzles but felt some either were too many parts, exaggerated by the above point or were "too classic" and were things we've all done ten times before.
Good game though, definitely worth playing on Game Pass if you have it - another "retro look runs well on crap hardware" for me.
Also I learnt a little German, that's nice.
2 Comments
You know, they probably were haha
Not by default though
Not by default though
JimTheSchoolGirl
1 year ago