Signalis

(Played on PC through Steam in English with a controller for about 12 hours according to save file. Got the Promise ending for those in the know.)

Yours truly consider video game a vice instead of a hobby because just as they think they are out the bloody thing would pull them back in. While I thought I was done with thinking back about the 1990s in 2022, the act of “thinking back about the 1990s in 2022” grew a mind of their own and decided that they are not done with me. Enters Signalis. This indie horror title received glowing reviews from 2 PC outlets I visit frequently and one young lad I respect. But it was fellow Giantbomb community member Humanity’s form post that made me finally pull the trigger. Well, that plus the Black Friday shopping impulse, even though the game is not on discount. In the end I like the game quite a lot, but I am not going back to my 2022 list and add this one in. Instead, I wrote the following intended to be tongue-in-cheek review.

The what-ifs of year 1999 Common Era was once the hot cake of science fiction. Even good old James Cameron made a stab at that with 1995’s Strange Days, a movie he only wrote and directed by his then still future Academy Award winner of an ex. The year was also when survival horror fans ate well on the original Playstation with Silent Evil and Dino Crisis. Those fans had also been done dirty for the last couple of console generations.

Sorry to those people in advance, since yours truly’s alternative histories of 1999 would not even let they have the original titles they know and love. But 2022’s Signalis is a window into 2 alternative universes where Capcom and Konami did things very differently. I never played anything in Silent Hill or Dino Crisis series, so I guess I do love those alternative outcomes better. Not only because I imagined them.

Alternative 1999 Number One: Shinji Mikami’s Rockwoman

Story wise, Signalis feels like a Megaman game melted down and reforged in the image of Resident Evil. Imagine after Shinji Mikami hit it big with original Biohazard, someone up at Capcom wanted some of that survival horror action-adventure magic on a polygonal Rockman game and assigned Mikami to the project. Kiss the original Megaman Legend goodbye in this universe as well, my fellow admirers of that game.

Legend has it, Rockman was sold as Megaman in English-speaking regions because the original Japanese title reminds people of miners. Then I guess it would be a perfect title for Signalis since the story here is pretty much about things went wrong in a mine setting in the far future where spacefaring civilizations have life like robot called Replica. Maybe change it to Rockwoman given the amount of female characters here.

Mid to late 1990s was now remembered for the beginning of bad CG in cinema, but it was intended to be an era of dark gritty reboot, especially in Japan. Just look at those 3 Gamera movies. Signalis would be in good company at that age. And I guess the duo at Rose-engine also imagined the future in their game not beyond the 1990s.

Alternative 1999 Number Two: Metal Gear Scary

Konami Digital Entertainment as it’s known today is a notoriously corporate entity even among the heavily corporate industry of video game. Some of that infamy comes from the fact that its products can be lacking due to not being standardized like say how Activision did with Call of Duty.

Imagine a world where Konami took the success of Metal Gear Solid more seriously while not let it going to their heads. They realized that 1998’s original MGS was praised as a piece of cinematic extravaganza despite its limitation. Top-down for the most part with first person, or point-of-view shots for those prefer film making terms, peppered in goes a long way. When it comes to their then new horror title, they decided to drop the fixed angle and went full-on top-down, except for puzzles, cut scenes or whenever pov shots are needed of course.

Mechanic wise, I would go as far as to say that what Signalis is to 1998’s MGS is like what 2018’s Metal Gear Survive is to 2015’s Phantom Pain. Or Signalis is essentially MGS with zombies for short. Allow me to start with the inventory.

There is the arsenal of your usual pea-shooter pistol, the old trusty pump-action shotgun, magnum, submachinegun and a 2-round hunting rifle. The explosion in Signalis is a flare gun double as a grenade launcher.

There are also what the game calls attachment. One time use stun baton that can one-shot many enemy types. A flare what would burn the bodies of those enemies so they would not rise again, those things are rather rare and yours truly burn the bodies near save rooms for safer backtracking. None-one-time use items include a flashlight, this game has a lot of dark corridors as the genre demands, and a robot eye that can take pictures for puzzle note taking.

Above all those, in an interface sense, there is the radio. The radio is key to many puzzles in the game and one function in combat. There is an enemy type who would foul up the game’s interface, turn to the right channel shown just as they appear, then distortion to interface can be kept at bay.

The game keeps its dystopian vibe rooted even in the tips. Like it does not say “No autosave” but something more in line with “Keep your record. If you did not record it, it does not happen”. Instead of “Running would alert enemies” it says “Don’t run. Don’t disturb the neighbors”. Then there is the infamous Rule of Six when it comes to inventory. I personally was not bothered by it, one comes to survival horror for resource management and it's not one-many-variable thing for me here.

Pac-man style stealth of old MGS games is the name of game here, and one can totally run for it since enemies would not leave the rooms they are in. The gunplay can be tricky at time, with the aim locked on an enemy far from the player character while another is about to bite her face off.

In all seriousness though…

While the combat can be annoying, puzzles in Signalis is where the game shines. The solutions to those requires reading through the notes one picks up very carefully. Even for a late puzzle, one involving picking up a card behind a lock for those in the know, while yours truly did not find solution expressively stated in the notes, they looked at something written in bold many times in the notes and wondered if it’s the answer. Tried it and turned out it’s the solution. Solving those without reading guides is definitely satisfying.

This game kind of keep its third and final act as a mid-credit stinger. The game seemingly comes to a tragic end and sends you back to the title screen like whenever “Game Over” screen. The screen would have the new game instead of load game there but you hit it, instead of new game +, it would eventually greet with “Chapter 3” on the screen, or at least I think it says Chapter 3 in German.

The game is ultimate a fairly effective tragedy that does not leave much room for sequels. And I am quite fond of it for being so.