Long time no see! Today we’ll be covering a recently-ish released indie survival horror game called (it’s in the title) SIGNALIS. I’m trying to play through this one blind and I haven’t finished yet, so I’ll only be going over what I know along with some first impressions.
SIGNALIS starts you off on a crashed ship. The player character, a type of cyborg from what I understand, with the designation LSTR-S2301. Her job is that of a combat engineer in a grand futuristic empire… her NEW job is to survive the horrors that dwell on the planet she’s stranded on now. Leaving the ship, she discovers one of the empire’s mining colonies- but something is wrong. Nobody is around and the place has been trashed.
As she explores, she finds some cowering survivors who explain that some sort of sickness transformed most of the other cyborgs into shambling monsters. Equipped with only a shoddy pistol at this point, LSTR delves deeper into the ruined facility to discover the cause of this strange series of events.
As of now, I’ve only clocked in a little over two hours on this game (most of which have been spent on backtracking and wandering around in a confused state because I’m a game journalist), so I don’t know a ton yet. So far I find the game decently enjoyable, though I’m not a fan of how often you’ll run out of ammo. I understand that this is by design to add to the game’s atmosphere, which it definitely does, but I really like how it feels to take out enemies in this game.
The game, despite being categorized as horror, isn’t so much scary as it is unnerving. I think it does this well though, as it’s enough to keep you uncomfortable as you play so as to not let your guard down. The only real “jumpscares” so to speak are when some enemies aggro onto you. They do a little scream, and some of them are lying there presumably dead before they do.
The story closely follows LSTR’s past as well as the overarching mystery of the ruined facility and its diseased denizens, as we’re shown flashbacks of LSTR’s life, achievements, and other such things. I wish it was a little less contained in flashbacks and presented more directly, but again, I’m only a few hours in. It might change to function like that.
As it stands, my opinion on the game is largely neutral. It has been fairly popular on Steam, garnering a 97% overwhelmingly positive rating with thirteen thousand reviews under its belt. I think I need to play more to formulate a more meaningful opinion, but it has definitely cemented itself as a game I want to finish. I’ll update this last section once I’ve finished a playthrough!
Thanks for reading!