We’re one day away from All Hallows’ Eve and you have to take a chance before the next holiday shift to get something scary and unsettling into your life. This is where SIGNALIS from Humble Games comes into play. While it might look like some cyberpunk top-down fantasy that is just run and gun, there is more brewing on the inside that says otherwise.
Let’s dig right into this.
Story and Atmosphere
The game starts with your character waking from a slumber, almost being called upon. You have to figure out what the heck is happening, as you wake up and traverse through a very damaged technology-driven area. While you aren’t aware of what exactly is going on, you do know that something has gone horribly wrong and that your partner is missing. As you explore the space station-esque structure, the mystery of what has gone on while you were slumbering becomes deeper and deeper. Armed with your wits and the occasional weapon with limited ammo, you have to solve puzzles, take out mutated horrors, and uncover and discover what is lost.
I adore games that allow you to unravel the storyline with the main character. I know that sounds like a silly thing to mention, but honestly, it’s one of the better narrative experiences that you can have in gaming. When you and the game start out with a blank slate of confusion, and clues are sprinkled everywhere like breadcrumbs from a Grimm fairytale, it’s more than likely going to be a good time. SIGNALIS is a good time because of this, while also getting you in the mood for some straight-up horror, and there is plenty of horrors to go around.
The horror comes easy because of the atmosphere the game creates for you through visuals and lighting. Creatures blend into the top-down atmosphere thanks to film noir lighting. There are creatures hidden in the shadows in most areas, some waiting for you to pass by while they’re lying motionless on the floor in jittery light, and some that run at you. The lighting, the atmosphere, the solemn music that plays underneath like a proper horror show, and a large amount of uncertainty in your survival combined with the narrative create a delicious and devilish experience.
A good story that points to horror with an atmosphere to back it up. It’s perfect in these categories.
Gameplay
You can always tell when developers are huge fans of the Resident Evil series by their gameplay design. The RE structure is well known for making it difficult for the player and requesting that the player make decisions about their actions in nearly every aspect of the design. That structure is comprised of limited weapons, finite inventory space, and random ammo laying around. Those three limitations create a thick layer of strategy you must consider when playing the game. Do you damage smaller enemies with melee or a shock stick to get away from a dangerous situation? Do you take them out with shotguns or other powerful weapons? Is there going to be a bigger enemy down the road that you’ll need the ammo for? These are all questions that point towards strategic elements you must think about in this type of RE gameplay structure, and quite frankly it works with SIGNALIS, especially thanks to the story and atmosphere. It’s a good trio of gameplay designs that build upon an already thick layer of horror. It stokes that uncertainty fire and makes sure that you’re not going into the game with guns blazing.
As for the actual gameplay, it’s a heavy amount of exploring and figuring out puzzles. The exploration portion of the game has you go from room to room and figure out what in the world has gone wrong with the situation you’re in while picking up clues that fill in the blanks. As mentioned at the beginning of this review, you and the main character are totally in the dark about what is happening, so the more you explore and find clues (reports and whatnot), the more everything starts to piece together. The exploration is a good chunk of the game, and that’s not a bad thing at all because it’s fun to find new places and figure out where you have to go next.
The puzzle aspect of the game is stop-and-go. It works in tandem with exploration. As you run into restrictions and access problems, you have to explore to find the solution. Sometimes it means finding items hidden in safes and such. Sometimes it’s just finding items out in the wild that make no sense at first but slowly come together to produce a solution. There are a good number of puzzles to solve that open the exploration up and help put small pieces of the narrative puzzle together. It’s a good balance that doesn’t frustrate you, rather it makes you stop and think at times, even if things are charging at you.
On the weapon side of the equation, yes, there is shooting. You won’t go to this option first, as the exploration and puzzles will occupy your noggin for the most part. There are plenty of guns to use, plenty of weapons to think about when disposing of baddies, or at least delaying them, and these items will help you to create a healthy strategy to get through the game. You won’t be bored in this aspect of the game, but at the same time, this isn’t the main show. This is a necessary sideshow that complements and works with the gameplay design established. You’ll have plenty of targets, but those won’t grab your focus right away during most of this game.
Speaking of targets, there are a fair number of enemies in the game. Some come from the floor and act dead, and some see you and immediately run at you. This is the first game in a good while that made me squeamish and jump during the adventure. While the enemies are mostly tough to see in form, their frightful screams are terrifying as they are alarming. You don’t need to see them to know that they’re there. On the boss side of the tracks, they’re gradually difficult and creative. While I wouldn’t put them in the same unknown and visually uncomfortable category as the lesser enemies, the bosses bring their own style and charm to the horror experience. For example, the second boss in the game is a gigantic guy who is packing a powerful gun. He is well-armored and you have to wait for the right moment to take him down. The space you fight him in is limited, he moves slowly, but he can deliver some ultra-violence quickly. While there is no creepy urgency to him, he still is a creative construct that is more difficult and different from the other enemies. That’s how a boss should be in a game of this type, though I wanted just a bit more frightful horror to the boss experience. It still works in the long run.
On the backend, SIGNALIS is straight-up RE, but not as refined and organized. The inventory space factor is a real kick in the butt. While you don’t have a giant grid to fit weapons and ammo in, like RE, you do get a limited amount of space in a Metal Gear Solid horizontal menu design. The space restriction means that you must decide on what stays in a large inventory box you happen upon (just like in RE) and what you take around on your personal. This backend design works to strategize how you explore and execute. The bad thing about this method is that if you go into a boss fight unprepared, well, the game is unforgiving. You really have to be conscious of the room and read it well before committing to what you do and don’t carry. This is the type of game where it is safe to assume things and prepare for the worst.
Beyond the basics, SIGNALIS does execute some clever design elements. While you have a bunch of readable material and missions to go through as you collect items in the game, one of the cooler gameplay designs in the game is a radio signal. Your character uses a radio signal to translate codes and unlock places you normally can’t get into during gameplay. The radio signal is essentially a tuner you use frequencies that get you where you need to go. I thought this was a cognitively engaging way to design puzzles and execute them. The puzzles were clever, sometimes tough, but also enjoyable with the radio signals.
There are a few other things that add to the overall gameplay design, but that is the crux of them. You will find a deeper-than-expected gameplay design with SIGNALIS, and more importantly, an enjoyable design. It’s truly a mix of horror, exploration, and puzzle.
Let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
SIGNALIS from Humble Games is a horror fan’s dream. It’s simple and deep, contains a hefty amount of horror in its atmosphere, narrative, and design, and will keep you entertained from beginning to end.
