SLA is a game that comes to life by the rose engine and it is a simple classically inspired and pure, honest horror survival gaming experience without repetitive filler content, that offers a unique sci-fi cosmic horror art style and a lyrical storytelling experience that is packaged in Japanese, German, sexy but still fitting art style.
Silent Hill Meets Ghost In The Shell Silent Hill Meets Ghost in The Shell Signalis Review Survival Horror Game
Gamers across all platforms such as Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S consoles, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 along side the Nintendo Switch and PC can purchase the game digitally now and will be available in February 2023 as a physical edition. It's also available on Xbox Game Pass.
Gameplay
Signalis is a simple game that it is a reminiscence of classical survival video games like quiet hill or resident evil. SLA is a top down view, pixel, art, survival shooter that has small melee skills and an inventory of just six items that can be used to explore across the globe.
It's a sci-fi only narrative game for one player with a storyline that drives the drama home with resident evil levels of melee weapons that force the combat fight to take place at weapons length like pistols and shotguns.
It is comprised of interconnected rooms that you explore for keys or other items which aid in solving puzzles by combining items in safe rooms allowing you to carry the tools you need for survival.
There are enemies who can be killed if there is no ammunition in the shotguns or pistols that you find in the game world as you attempt to understand why and how you're doing what you're doing in this enigmatic planet.
The game begins easy and simple, but you will find out that the difficulty gets more difficult as the game progresses, at times, to the point of exhaustion with enemies that revive and appear out of the floors and vents, as well as simple, simple, but thrilling boss fights in a claustrophobic environment.
I'd say it is not the games fault However, if you make progress through the game a lot for 2 or 3 hours in and then you take a break for a couple of days, coming back can be hard since the game doesn't spoonfeed you what you were supposed to do next and because the map is difficult to comprehend, novice players may be put off at first, but use guidelines and strengthen your brain muscles, trust me the pain is worth it.
The variety of the enemy isn't as great for my taste, but it was made by two people, so I can accept that since what's available is mostly simple, classical and efficient use of games that are designed to be survival horror.
Story
The story is set in a dystopian world, presented in a way that prompts you to think and ponder the ending and meaning of the story rather than simply completing the game and be explained what the story is about. You are meant to ponder the story.
Silent Hill Meets Ghost In The Shell - Signalis Review Survival Horror Game
Personally, I found the narrative mechanics of female workers and the male and female representation through the machines in a supposedly communist style work environment interesting.
I'm not going to go into details in order to avoid spoilers I'll just note that this isn't an easy story to digest and leaves you to interpret the story, based on my personal opinion the meaning of the story because it's not grounded in logic or reality, per say.
Graphics/Performance
For the graphics and performance of Signalis the game I won't be doing a deep review because it is a good game and it looks good for its unique art style. It runs efficient and beautifully on any device that you play it on. I honestly hope it comes to mobile like iPhone and Android soon.
https://tinyurl.com/mpcn97z do recommend playing the game on an OLED TV or Monitor as it looks beautiful.
Silent Hill Meets Ghost In The Shell Silent Hill Meets Ghost in The Shell Signalis Review Survival Horror Game
Sound
When it comes to audio, take a listen:
For being done mostly by two people, I believe that the design of sound is simple, yet really effective at creating a claustrophobic adrenaline rush but with a calmness to transforms the entire experience into a roller coaster of survival terror.
Achievements/Fan Service
On the achievements side, the game is actually easy to get all the achievements and according to trueachievements.com, you can get them all with an 8 to 10 hours. You can even finish it in less time if you would like to speed it up.
On the fan service side to things , the anime Japanese character models have adorable, gorgeous, big eyes. The feminine character is portrayed through the art style itself and it feels appropriate and satisfying. So I rate it a thumbs up man of the culture. If you think it's not enough, I'm going to recommend that you go play with grass now. Then, stop the video and go.
Conclusion - Silent Hill Meets Ghost In The Shell Signalis survival horror game review
To conclude, I will say that this is one of the survival horror games that will be remembered in the history books as a basic yet really high-quality Indie developer. The game is a success story that I believe any fan of survival horror. Particularly, classic style, resident, evil and Silent Hill titles needs to give it a chance and try it out.
I don't replay most of my single-player games fully thru therefore I'm not working towards the extra endings, but I can say I'm glad and proud to have had the opportunity to experience this extraordinary journey by the publisher of the rose engine.
I invite you to check out our review in another great Survival horror title Callisto Protocol, a survival horror game Callisto Protocol from the makers of Dead Space