Elster wakes up on a crashed ship. Emerging from cryostasis, she explores the interior. She looks over discarded papers, talking about some sort of Eusan Nation and a ship called the Penrose-512. She finds a picture of a woman with white hair and red eyes. On the back is a code that opens up a locked cryogenic pod. Collecting a broken keycard from the pod and a piece of tape from a table, Elster can unlock a chamber holding an environmental protection suit.
She opens the airlock to a blast of frigid cold air. The outside is freezing, coated in snow and ice, with harsh winds blowing at intense speeds. After walking through the cold desert, she comes across a pit. A stairwell curves down the circular hole, deep into the earth below. She descends the steps, finding an empty floor at the bottom. Empty, except for a hole in the wall just barely big enough to look through.
When Elster looks in, she finds a room. It looks oddly normal, like an 80’s style kitchen. There’s an office desk directly in front of her. The shelf above is full of books. On the desk is The King In Yellow, sat in front of a radio. There’s an old computer beside it. While Elster looks at the book, the radio suddenly switches on. The computer also turns on, playing a message;
ACHTUNG. ACHTUNG.
Elster stares blankly at the wall.
Three. Nine. Four. Eight. Six.
She continues to stare.
Six. Zero. One. Seven. Zero.
A flash of a radio station.
Two. Four. Three. Two. Six.
A flash of an island. A red gate is in the center. THE Gateway.
Zero. One. Zero. Six. Four.
The screen goes red.
GREAT HOLES SECRETLY ARE DIGGED
WHERE EARTHS PORES OUGHT TO SUFFICE.
Elster’s skin starts burning off, like a decaying film tape. It reveals the metal frame she was built upon.
AND THINGS HAVE LEARNT TO WALK
THAT OUGHT TO CRAWL.
A flash of HER. Her…
REMEMBER OUR PROMISE.
Signalis.
That was probably one of the most insane introductions to a video game I’ve ever seen.
Signalis is classified as a survival horror game, with some puzzles for good measure. But it’s also a story. A story of two lovers, separated by an impossible challenge, trying to find each other one last time.
Signalis is a very cerebral game. It makes you feel unnerved, confused, and most of all, really, really sad. To this day, I can’t listen to the soundtrack without wanting to cry. Previously, only the show Cyberpunk Edgerunners has gotten such an emotional response from me.
A very large part of the game is its atmosphere. It nails every single environment it puts the player in. Whether it’s an abandoned facility, a weird, fleshy, underground maze, or a ravaged apartment complex, it always looks fantastic despite the pixelated graphics that the game is made up of.
One thing I’d like to touch on is that weirdly enough, characters and humanoid figures are all 3D objects with pixelated textures slapped onto them. I thought this would feel jarring, but it works very well for making that unnerving atmosphere.
The cinematography is also done excellently. Every time you see a cutscene the creators use unconventional angles to drive home the emotion they’re going for. My favorite would have to be the opening cutscene that I described at the start of the article. In this scene, the camera does not ever change its angle. The entire time, you are looking directly at Elster. While it does cut to text and still images, the angle you see Elster from never changes.
As I previously alluded to, the music is amazing, When you’re in combat the music doesn’t really sound like music. It’s more like a smashing of metals and scraping of materials, all mashed together into a rhythmic song. When you’re just roaming around the facility, the ambient tracks contribute amazingly to the unnerving atmosphere of the game. The songs that accompany the cinematics are gorgeous and perfectly compliment what’s happening in them. My favorites are “The Promise” by 1000 Eyes and Tom Schley, “Cigarette Wife” by Cicada Sirens, and “Die Toteninsel” also by 1000 Eyes and Tom Schley.
The game’s story was most inspired by works like The Shining, Neon Genesis Evangelion, The King In Yellow, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil, to name a few. There are many references to this and many other works in the story, too numerous to mention. PowerPak’s video is an excellent deep dive into every aspect of Signalis.
I’ve tried so many times to write a section summarizing the story. But I’ve realized I can’t. What makes Signalis so beautiful is its nuanced and deep story, which I can’t do justice to in a reasonable time frame. The visual aspects of the story also contribute heavily to the themes and mood, which I can’t properly communicate over text.
Signalis expertly conveys themes of loss, desperation, and finality in a way that hit me hard. The ending left me sobbing and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it in the weeks since playing. I’m planning to go through the whole game again because I love it just so much. I hope that this unnecessarily long article has convinced you to try out this masterpiece of a title, or at least check out the aforementioned video.
