SIGNALIS
Developer: rose-engine (Yuri Stern, Barbara Wittmann)
For me, when a game necessitates getting a pen and paper out to solve puzzles, that’s a solid green flag that I’m in for a good time. Combine that with a cyberpunk survival horror, and I’m fully on board. But you really need to examine the whole gestalt to truly understand.
Signalis is on solid ground as a survival horror - you’re alone with limited resources, in a dark and creepy environment surrounded by relentless killers, and you have no idea what’s going on. The influences from the fathers of the genre are all there, but it expands upon each of them. There are themes of morality around artificial life, transhumanism, and an attitude of disposable humans for the greater good.
The story, in brief, is that you are Elster, a LSTR-class Replika unit - a simulacrum based on an imprint of a human mind - searching for someone after your ship has crashed into a mining facility. As you explore the seemingly abandoned area, you encounter other Replikas - twisted and corrupt - and an ever-increasing number of supernatural events. The lore is played out through emergent worldbuilding as you find documents and files, each offering insight into what’s happened.
Despite the lurking horrors, resource management is your real enemy - you’re limited to 6 inventory slots, meaning you have to strategically plan what you’re carrying. You could certainly put all your eggs in the weapons basket, but you risk finding yourself caught on death’s door, or you could attempt a pacifist approach, testing your reflexes in a party room - the choice is up to you. But you will need to leave some space for puzzle pieces, which you’ll be doing most of the time.
Some of the puzzles are decided challenging. In classic survival horror fashion, you’ll find unusual key parts that must be moved from one room to another, inspected, or assembled. Other puzzles will put you into a first-person view for some old-fashioned point-and-click good times. But you’ll also need to use your big brain deciphering codes, utilising your radio, and, if you can understand it, translating a bit of German.
That last part isn’t strictly necessary for finishing the game, but the fact is, Signalis isn’t presented entirely in English. German is the primary language of the game world, with Chinese coming a close second, along with a smattering of others. The game, thankfully, translates things needed to finish for you, but if you do understand the other languages, there are a lot of very subtle details. For example, our character of Elster - elster means magpie in German, a bird capable of recognising itself, mimic human speech, and even grieve. An apt name for our MC.
So much of the design is intended to make your hair stand up, to make you wonder if you’re actually safe. Even the save points make an ungodly screech. Threats can, quite literally, crawl up from the floors, previously safe paths are suddenly blocked, and the darkness that allows you to sneak by is also home to certain death. The screen effects and subtle, unexpected rumbles of the controller all add to an intense unease. Cicada Sirens and 1000 Eyes have done an outstanding job on the soundtrack, which stands alone as a truly atmospheric collection.
Signalis is creepy. It is unnerving in just the right way. But it isn’t cheap jump scares. There’s a deep, psychological narrative woven throughout the story and the world. And there’s a deeper story - one I won’t spoil - but one I urge you to uncover for yourself. Signalis is decidedly greater than the sum of its parts.
