Signalis

This game was such an interesting experience that amazed me at every step.  I have seen it for years and had it in my wishlist since close to when it first released.  When I saw gameplay I didn't think much of it at first but then read good things about it over the years and eventually got it when it was free for PlayStation Plus users.  Now I enjoy it so much that I'm considering buying the game in general to support the devs and to buy it on the Switch so I can play it anytime for when I want to play it again.  It is an interesting survival horror game because I never played any from before the first Resident Evil game so I don't know how much similarity it takes from those games but it feels to me like as opposed to making a modern survival horror game, this is made to be like a survival horror game with well balanced mechanics in a generation older than Resident Evil's humble beginnings.  The 8 Bit art is magnificent and the controls are so smooth and well thought out.  But more than that there is a bigger part of the experience with this game.

Before getting into that, I have to talk about sound design and art.  The screech of the enemies is so brilliant especially as it happens last minute that it adds such a level of terror that I never would have expected from a pixel art game.  Granted most of this is achieved with the audio used in places of darkness.  I've always heard talk of the power of good audio design in horror, and this game is just proof of that. But even in times when it's not dark one thing they take advantage of with the pixel art style is due to the graphics being so zoomed out it’s hard sometimes to tell if it’s an npc or enemy and only in the last second of approaching when they screech you know. I feel these are really smart ways of making something more with what little they had.  I like how music is used in the game from the timing to have songs play in rooms full of expository notes to the use of it for puzzles and the choice to have it play on your radio at times and the nice nod to RE1 with Moonlight Sonata playing in one of the save rooms except the funny thing is you hear all of the song except the beginning part that was in RE1. The music besides that is done really well with achieving a more horror-esque Blade Runner kind of vibe.

But now I must go into talking about SPOILERS so if you happen to be reading this and plan on playing the game, I can't recommend enough to go into it blind because this experience is completely ruined if you know what happens.

SPOILER WARNING!

"I want to play this game again. The ending was puzzling but the game is on the shorter end which definitely makes it more enticing to play again. It was quite a bit of fun."   I wrote this in my notes, when I first saw the credits roll.  The end felt underwhelming as there was no final boss fight and I was surprised but not too much to see I got a trophy that said "Failed". I was guessing I just got the bad ending and would have to play again to get another ending.  I looked online on how to get different endings and the thing I kept seeing was about keeping your promise.  In the story this meant to not leave behind the person you're searching for the entire game.  But this ending seemed to just be the protagonist escaping the nightmare she was in.  I noticed the title screen looked different but that happens commonly when a new game plus mode becomes available.  I tried completing the game again because I read a thing about starting a new play through with the new screen which went away when I quit the game and started it back up.  

Upon starting a new game, I slowly started noticing differences or at least things I don't remember happening at the beginning when I first played.  And then there was the big change and it was revealed, I didn't start a new game, this was my save that I got my items back with from my first playthrough and I was continuing the save I had.  The credits were a fake out.  I didn't complete the game.  I still had another couple maps to play through and more of the story and a final boss to fight.  But the thing that made this experience even better wasn't even in the game.  It was the community this game has cultivated.  Seeing Reddit posts about confusion on the ending or how to achieve different endings where people commenting who played the game, were all cryptic and played into the facade that was the fake ending.  Even looking it up nothing was spoiled for me and the surprise still hit as hard as it ever would.  I don't want to go into the story more as that is something that can still be enjoyed with how it plays into this but is definitely intriguing and worth experiencing.  This game is a must for horror fans but also an experience I'd recommend for all gamers alike as it's really not too difficult.