When a work is meant to evoke a strong sense of nostalgia from its inspirations, there is an interesting balance made between meeting the rose-colored glasses view of what came before it and highlighting the original pieces. The survival horror genre also brings along a far more delicate balance for maintaining a sense of uneasiness without feeling overly difficult or tedious.

I wouldn’t blame anyone for expecting that something has to give, but Signalis masterfully exceeds the inherent challenges it makes for itself and maintains those balances. It delights with familiar elements, only to pull you in with a warped reality stemming from real-life art and influences from the likes of Hideaki Anno and Stanley Kubrick. There is a smorgasbord of different ideas here that would normally muddle everything, and yet, they perfectly work in tandem to keep the experience fresh and fun all-throughout.

The basis of the narrative begins as you might expect: you control Elster as she explores a facility in search of someone important to her, only to discover the monster-filled tragic aftermath of events gone horribly wrong. As the search takes her further in, the mystery of what happened begins to unfold. Helping it stand out is its presentation and setting. Conquered planets, authoritative regimes, and an android workforce (called Replikas in-game) are all wrapped together within a retro-tech universe filled with VCRs and floppy disks.

Elster herself is a Replika, as is nearly every character you come across. While this is the perfect set-up to issue the common Cyberpunk themes of individuality and the expendable nature of people and products, there’s so much more explored at the same time and it’s easy to find ties to our modern-day life. Everything begins to feel much more poignant as the psychological horror seeps in and the line between what’s real or not blurs.

Compounding this are the visuals that harken back to the days of the original PlayStation. Although some cutscenes feature anime-like visuals, other cutscenes and the gameplay itself feature low-poly character models that seem on par with the first Metal Gear Solid. It’s a style choice that banks on your nostalgia and feels like a major success.

The same can be said for the rarely-changing camera angle. Most gameplay is seen from a consistent downward-tilted angle that reminds you of the fixed camera angles Resident Evil once had, even though there aren’t multiple static angles to cycle through. Cutscenes have many more unique camera shots and there are even a handful of first-person scenes that can make one feel incredibly reminiscent of the era.

Some modern enhancements help the visuals feel updated. Something I really appreciated and pointed out previously with my preview piece is the tremendous lighting work. There are a lot of dark rooms and whether it was due to the few light sources already present or those I made on my own with a flashlight and gunfire, I couldn’t get over how much of a change it had. Despite it not being used much, I also have to voice my love for the use of reflections. One of my favorite moments was in a room involving a semi-transparent reflective glass that made the number of enemies seem more than it was. It was a great effect that took advantage of the camera angle.

Another modern aspect is the animation. For the most part, the animations and movement were on par with what my nostalgia told me classic games of the genre were capable of, albeit at 60fps. What felt strikingly different was when that previously mentioned line of reality became less defined. Giant pulsating mounds of flesh begin to appear at a certain point and their animations feel a lot more realistic than everything else. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it looks out of place, but it definitely makes an impression and enhances the atmosphere.

I’d be remiss to not mention the audio as well. A lot of what you’ll hear will be purely atmospheric and that does a lot to enhance how lonely everything feels. The sounds of you or dangerous enemies walking down hallways meanwhile grips your attention as much as the sound of gunfire will. Their inhuman screeching, whether from noticing you or when they’re knocked down in pain, is plenty of uncomfortable motivation to make them stop.

When background music is used, however, you’ll notice. Combat is thoroughly enhanced with a handful of intense tracks and a selection of classic pieces is also used to great effect. Cutscenes don’t make use of any voice acting and are text-based like everything else, and yet they are still brought to life with interesting dialogue and well-suited music.

A lock-on system helps the combat feel fresh. As tempting as it is to shoot everything like crazy when a group of enemies is swarming you, taking the time to line up your shots is immensely satisfying. Along with enemies reviving themselves after a while, it serves as a great deterrent to using all of your bullets. Ammo is tough to come by and it’s better to avoid enemies when you can. If you have to fight, you’ll want to stomp them when they’re down to finish them off rather than using a bullet. This becomes more important as the difficulty ramps up in the second half of the game and harder combinations of enemies are thrown at you.

I will say that having to switch between enemies can be a pain though and it’s the one gripe I have. Trying to shoot a specific enemy is difficult when they’re all confined together in a small area. A handful of times I would shoot a writhing enemy on the floor or someone behind who I wanted to hit. Using a stun prod or a shotgun can help in these situations, but I didn’t always have one on me.

That does lead me to my favorite part of the gameplay though – the inventory. Any room could have an abundance of different ammo, health, or key items to pick up. The six inventory spaces available can be easily filled though and there’s necessary consideration towards what to take along.

I spent a lot of time at a storage box figuring out what I should bring and for me that was a fun strategic element of the gameplay loop. Simply taking a healing item along with a weapon and separate ammo would leave me with half of my inventory. Debating whether I should also take a fully-loaded revolver or forego my repair spray for a flashlight was just as important as choosing whether it was worth going through a hallway of dead enemies that might revive themselves. It’s a core part of the experience and I loved every moment of it.

Puzzles are another iconic aspect of the survival horror genre and there is plenty to figure out here. As with many other parts, they reminded me a lot of Silent Hill in that they’re not as hand-holding as other games. They weren’t quite as hard as the puzzles from that series, but a few do make use of certain items or mechanics in unconventional ways.

Along with the rising difficulty in combat, I felt that the puzzles also began to require more out-of-the-box thinking and even looking through old files for answers. Solving them was overall never too difficult though and figuring out the solutions always felt good.

Each of these elements is strong enough on its own to earn individual recognition. All of the magic happens when they come together though. The appearance of flesh-like rooms and the question of what’s real coinciding with room directions being flipped. Taking too much damage causes glitch artifacts to appear over both the camera and the inventory screen. Optionally using the photo module or flashlight can make certain segments a lot easier.

Your experience can vary with the focus key items and limited inventory space. Heading into the unknown with little on you can cut back on the need to backtrack so much. If your inventory space is full and you don’t want to go back and forth too much, there’s also the option of using some repair items before you really need them or destroying your spare ammo. I can’t deny that the amount of backtracking can ramp up during the final sections. However, given the effect that potential reviving enemies have on a player’s strategy, I felt that backtracking is more of a player’s choice and risk here.

I spent practically the entire time playing this with a huge smile on my face. Each puzzle solved was a joyous occasion. Running through a room of enemies without being hit was a triumph. Learning more about the characters that make up this universe and their personal struggles was sad, but also highly entertaining because the story was keeping me on my toes.

Reaching the end left me partly fulfilled and partly confused about whether I had missed anything along the way. Seeing the final results screen at the end left me with nothing but motivation to dive back into the creepy world and start the journey all over again.

Survival horror has changed a lot over the last two decades, but Signalis is a modern evolution of the genre’s classics during the late 90s/early 2000s. It’s carefully crafted with a lot of love and respect for its influences, all the while introducing its own ideas and style. Although it’s not perfect, it’s so incredibly close to it that I can’t see this as anything less than a new survival horror classic. Please, if you’re reading this, go check it out! It’s worth every cent and is an absolute steal if you play it through Xbox Game Pass where it’s launching day one.

A PC Review copy of Signalis was provided by Humble Games for this review.

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Signalis

$19.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• The Many Nostalgic Elements
• Limited Inventory Makes for Strategic Gameplay
• Fantastic Puzzles
• Wonderfully Creepy Atmosphere
• A Gripping Narrative

Cons

• Lock-on System Can Be Difficult With Multiple Enemies