What if Resident Evil and Silent Hill had a Cyberpunk baby? – Signalis Review
Signalis put me in the pressurized space suit of an Elster-type Replika that has just woken up from a deep sleep in cryostasis. Standing on the shoulders of the classic gameplay tropes of retro survival horror, the game forced me to conserve resources to try to survive countless horrors while searching for lost memories and a missing partner.
This experience is set in the distant future in which humans have colonized the solar system. Androids are used as workers, protectors, and soldiers for Eusan's totalitarian regime. I played as one of these androids, just waking up after my spaceship crash lands on some far-flung planet. With foggy, scattered memories and only one known path to the core of the planet at the outset, I got the sinking feeling that Elster and I were in for a bumpy ride.
Signalis draws inspiration from works such as The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers, Neon Genesis Evangelion by Gainax/Tatsunoko, and of course, the timeless Blade Runner films. Through cutscenes and documents scattered throughout the game, it explores such classic themes as the relationship between machines and humans and how both identity and memory can be warped by technology.
With the narrative told from multiple perspectives and in a non-linear fashion, Signalis ends up being rather confusing in just one playthrough. In fact, as with many horror classics, I was still left with questions burning in my mind even after several complete runs through the game.In addition to the horror and sci-fi book and movie inspirations, Signalis borrows from revered giants of the survival horror genre: Resident Evil (in terms of gameplay mechanics) and Silent Hill (in terms of thematic elements). Like those titles, I could only carry a small inventory of six items, which forced me to choose between items necessary for progression (i.e., keys) and items critical for survival (i.e., weapons and healing items).
As expected in this type of game, monsters roamed the shadowy halls, putting me in situations where I had to decide to run or stand and fight. Fighting would, of course, cost me precious ammunition. Depending on the difficulty level, fleeing is often the only valid option, as Elster dies with just a few hits and the bosses become bullet sponges in Survival mode. Enemies rise again after a certain amount of time, which just added to the feeling that almost every fight in the game was an unnecessary expense of my precious resources.
Another classic aspect of the survival horror genre is the puzzles, and Signalis doesn’t skimp on those. There are some very familiar puzzles that fans of any survival horror game will recognize, but there are others that are more creative, using radio frequency (à la Metal Gear Solid) to locate an item or area, for example. I must say that the difficulty of the puzzles is on point for a wide audience. None of them are so simple that they are a waste of time, but there also aren’t any “game breakers” like the Shakespeare puzzle in Silent Hill 3 that had many players dashing out to the local game store to buy a guidebook.
Set primarily in various ruined and closed-off locations, Signalis uses a fixed camera perspective and dynamic lighting. These old-school techniques effectively create a rather spooky and restrictive atmosphere. The game also features a film grain filter and CRT mode for those who want to complement the game's slick, stylized visuals with a nice dose of nostalgia.
At a few moments—typically during the transition between levels that are filled with more important dialogue—Signalis implements cutscenes with more detailed visuals of the characters. These scenes usually feature some quick cuts, bringing a flurry of information that will go unnoticed if not careful, similar to the way Elster experiences waves of intrusive, unfamiliar memories...all hitting her android brain at the same time. Subtitles are also cleverly used to represent intrusive voices trying to penetrate Elster's mind.
An ambient soundtrack bolsters the atmosphere, with a smattering of classical piano music in certain areas and more pulse-pounding beats during the boss battles, naturally. There’s no voice acting in Signalis either, which is a shame; I was really hoping to hear some botched and bungled line deliveries akin to what the original Resident Evil “accomplished.”
Signalis successfully executes all the classic techniques that made the survival horror genre popular, but with a most creative, cyberpunk bent. I can definitely see it being a horror fan favorite this October...and even beyond. It’s a damn fine game that doesn’t have many flaws, beyond the difficulty spikes here and there. Highly recommended.
SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5
PLAY IF YOU LIKE:
• The Resident Evil series. Play Singalis if Capcom’s storied survival horror series gets your blood a-pumpin’.
• Sweet Home. Signalis isn’t the NES progenitor of the survival horror genre, but it does hit all the beats that were laid out by this other Capcom classic in 1989.
💬 Have you played Signalis? Let us know what you think of it in the comments! Even if you haven't played it, leave a comment sharing your thoughts on your favorite survival horror games!
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