Signalis is the name of an indie game that released in late 2022 made by Rose-Engine, a team of two German developers. Featuring iconic top-down 2.5D shooter gameplay, stealth mechanics, and intentionally limited inventory space, it’s a passionate love letter to the survival horror game genre; inspirations from franchises such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and influences from other creative works such as Evangelion (1997) inspired much of the creative direction towards psychological horror, as well as influences from classic literature like The King in Yellow (1895).

The game tells an emotional narrative based around themes of identity and memory, and how love and loss can greatly distort the mind. Throughout the game, the player slowly comes to realize that many of the first-person memories we’re forced to experience are not even our own; the most critical cutscenes in the game are dream-like memories of characters we hardly know anything about, and the game leaves it up to the player to piece together the context of how they fit into the story. It’s almost as if the game utilizes the confusion the player feels trying to rationalize the messy narrative as a tool for us to understand the confusion the character we play as must be feeling after remembering so many unfamiliar memories herself. I believe this is why playing Signalis has had such an extreme emotional impact on myself, and why many other players feel a similar sentiment.

As for the actual game, the aesthetics of the game are very reminiscent of 80’s technology, intentionally juxtaposed to the game’s scifi-esque, advanced technology. If there weren’t a surplus of interstellar travel, space exploration, and humanoid robots roaming the map, you’d think that the game were set in the past. When one hears the genre “Sci-fi”, cluttered wires and a dark atmosphere isn’t quite what they’d picture.

However, I think this aesthetic decision was intentional. The clean, progressive kind of futuristic aesthetic is nothing like what the story wanted to portray; I think the story wanted to portray a world with much less hope, and (without spoiling, of course) the plot very much aligns with that. Regardless, the intentionally outdated game design both artistically and graphically (the game is pixelated!) makes the game feel refreshing to play.

I cannot emphasize the depth of the plot enough without spoiling the entire story, but I can passionately recommend this game. Putting together the puzzle of Elster and Ariane’s story set in such a brilliantly crafted world was some of the most fun I’ve had in awhile, and I would recommend this to anyone regardless of gaming experience.