Summary

Review

As an avid fan of Lovecraft, David Lynch, Kubrick, sci-fi, dreamy-weamy, timey-wimey, loopy-woopy logic, when I read the steam page description of Signalis it was love at first sight. Also deals with one of my favorite horror tropes of person being transposed onto a location, genius loci stuff. Upon play, my opinion became a bit more measured, but I can still say with certainty that Signalis is one of those games where it is more than the sum of its parts. The actual minute-to-minute gameplay isn't always satisfying. I found myself spending a not insignificant amount of time traipsing back and forth to the safe rooms to drop off and collect supplies in order to have enough room to pick up the various puzzle pieces. I think having even one or two more slots would have gone a long way. Though I will say I found the game surprisingly well-balanced in terms of total supplies given in each area. I was always just on the side of feeling hungry for ammo, but never so desperate that things felt unwinnable.

But what Signalis lacked, for me, in gameplay, it more than made up for it in atmosphere, story, and music. Long after I beat the game, I found myself going back to the soundtrack and pondering the meaning behind everything. Special mention btw to Die Toteninsel (Emptiness), Dowsing, The Red Gate, and Become Whole Again as far as music goes. Excellent tracks. Overall a fascinating story, I particularly loved the first-person sequences exploring Ariane's past. I haven't quite come down on how much of the cosmic horror elements were really happening vs what was being conjured simply because of Ariane's interest in and memories of the King in Yellow book being projected into the dream via the bioresonance. I.E. what all was being created vs what was being tapped into? Though if you can't tell the difference, does the distinction really matter?

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