Signalis - The Ghost In The Machine

Signalis is an old-school survival horror game about exploring decaying ruins, considering the meaning of life, reading blood-smeared notes, and locating ever more elaborate keys...
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Fanfare for Space, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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[@radski_fives]

After doing a number of playthroughs of Signalis I can say it is, without peer, the best classical-styled survival horror game to come out not only this year, but in many years. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone that likes survival horror. Despite very blatantly wearing it's inspirations on its sleeve, it simply oozes a unique style of storytelling and presentation I wish everyone to experience.

[@frankiefonseca634]

what about the gameplay though, it's hot fucking garbage

[@alabasterharmony6268]

it's mid

[@5Andysalive]

it's like th RE revivals recently. If you're nostalgic about it, they are great. But as Jon says, some features should stay in the nostalgia box. For new players they are just annoying and irritating. That was controversial on the RE remakes, but adding them to a new game is just a BAD idea.

[@radomus7388]

@@5Andysalive I think saying the game is only really great for people who are fans of old survival horror games is selling the game short. As someone who has never before played games in this genre (except if you count the Shock games) I still immensely enjoyed my time with the game and even consider it my game of the year of 2022. Even mechanics like the limited inventory, while admittedly tedious (especially on a first playthrough) are not without it's purpose and therefore their own upsides

[@lessersphinx3971]

@@5Andysalive I have no nostalgia for old school survival horrors and this game is easily the best survival horror game to be released since Resident Evil Remake (2002) in my opinion.

[@Flotube444]

The devs are TWO people. Two! (Plus one for the music). It is amazing for what it is.

[@FluffyRelic]

"Pick up The King In Yellow?" Y/N Oh boy, Jon is gonna learn something today.

[@christopherhorton4634]

Time is a flat circle!!

[@UnsoberIdiot]

Along the shore the cloud waves break, The twin suns sink behind the lake, The shadows lengthen In Carcosa.

[@ZaberFangAT]

And the company's called Leng Orbital. This is going in very specific directions, isn't it?

[@kiloptislion9988]

What does this mean

[@donovanfaust3227]

@@kiloptislion9988 The King in Yellow is a book of short stories by Robert W. Chambers, while also being a play mentioned within some of those stories, most prevelantly in the story "The Yellow Sign". It is said that reading the play will induce despair and madness in the reader. So if Jon decided to read it he would go mad.

[@PoisonInc]

Absolutely love this game. It mixes Silent Hill, Ghost in the Shell, NGE, number stations... it's a vibe.

[@thedreadpirateroberts7172]

Robert Chambers too with the king in yellow reference, but I'll put my hand up in only this from Michael chtulus latest vid were he made a king in yellow mask.

[@LordRunolfrUlfsson]

(25:50) Per Google Translate: 2) workers quarters, 3) hospital wing A, 4) hospital wing B, 5) maintenance, 6) protector quarters. The map also shows surface acces, factory, command, and mine access.

[@legofisch9753]

Adding to that: The replica names/models are all birds: Elster→magpie, Eule→owl, Storch→stork. Kinda fitting that the player, who tends to grab everything not nailed down is a magpie :D

[@Flotube444]

"It always worries me, when I'm on an Alien moon".... DAMN RIGHT you should be worried EVERY TIME (apparently) when you are on ANY moon!

[@H0lyMoley]

So... Jon's character wakes up in a stasis pod, with no memory, weird cybernetic bits attached, and a mysterious hankering to repair things. Jon: "Man, this is totally Resident Evil." Me: "Man, this is totally System Shock 2." I guess we both wear our gaming histories on our sleeves!

[@richardfarrer5616]

System Shock 2?! You are showing your (relatively young) age - that's also the start of System Shock.

[@H0lyMoley]

@@richardfarrer5616 NO good sir! The hacker from SS1 wakes up in a medical bay knowing exactly why he's there - he's been smuggled abroad Citadel Station by Edward Diego to "hack" SHODAN. He just doesn't know that SHODAN has gone bananas, or that he's about to be attacked by an R2-D2-esque "serv bot". Yes, he lacks knowledge of the events of the last six months, but only because he wasn't conscious during them. And to do him justice, if I woke up in a medical bay and found myself being immediately attacked by a sentient trash bin, I'd be pretty confused too.

[@richardfarrer5616]

@@H0lyMoley A fair point. I focused on the waking up with implants and skipped the amnesia.

[@JohnDCrafton]

Shadowrun (SNES)

[@fallouthirteen]

I just played the game earlier today. I was like "oh so it's Nier Automata but Dead Space."

[@Le_R73]

I don’t know if it’ll be mentioned but I think that series of numbers in German was from a numbers station with the child saying ‘Achtung, Achtung’ then saying numbers that are most likely coded messages for spies They’re a really interesting topic

[@thedreadpirateroberts7172]

I'm aware of numbers stations but I'll happily admit I don't have the balls to go down that particular rabbit hole.

[@UnsoberIdiot]

"s that are most likely coded messages for spies" Pretty sure the only people who know anything are the people actually involved. "Most likely" is meaningless.

[@ankhtahr1401]

Yep, this particular voice is the voice of the East German Stasi voice generator with the official designation Gerät 32620 (literally just "Device 32620"), a device used by East German numbers stations. The same device could be fitted with different voice cartridges, e.g. Spanish and was also used in Cuba a lot. The German voice is very well known among numbers stations enthusiasts, and very distinct due to its pronunciation of the five (Fünf) as "Fünnef" to make it easier to distinguish from other numbers over low fidelity shortwave radio. Voice generators like this are often used by numbers stations for operational security reasons to avoid having the tone of voice of the operator or background noises give away anything about the content of the message or the location or origin of the operator.

[@COMMANDandConquer199]

One thing I loved about this game is how unpredictable the story was. I didn't know what the fuck was going on aside from bits and pieces all the way up until the end, and when the final piece of the puzzle is revealed it all just fucking clicks together. Amazing game. Very glad I gave it a try.

[@sorakasturi3047]

11:20 as soon as I saw the book's name I got excited for where this might go.

[@richardfarrer5616]

*Penrose* ships. *Sierpinski* station. I suspect there are going to be tile puzzles in the future given they r both mathematicians famous for geometry (among other things). Also very impressed by the nearest thing to an accurate lockpicking mingame I've seen

[@josef-ralfdwerlkotte8333]

Well you are not wrong there are tile's and puzzles

[@SheepBeard]

Specifically Fractals. I expect the theme of Fractal Flashbacks is going to keep going

[@FlyingGerman]

As a German, I must say that all the German writing makes it infinitely more creepy for some reason. Also, you can feel how much love went into designing the game world.

[@justsomeperson5110]

For some reason I can just imagine running around juggling key cards whilst desperately wishing for just a single pocket to put them in.

[@mp3545]

YES YES YES The best survival horror game since SH2, an one of my favorite games of all time. I’m really happy to see this get attention here.

[@jeffreyquah]

It’s a shame that the inventory management ruined the game for you. It was annoying to me at first too, until I realised that with a little bit of planning you can easily walk around with four empty slots following a safe room. You don’t need to bring every gun or key item with you everywhere you go. Hope you give this another go in the future, because I really think it’s something special.

[@thatguythere8737]

There is a mod for that already

[@reiseafa8789]

Survival horror is all about planning, execution and improvisation if things gone wrong, inventory management is an important element which makes survival horror working. I really hate people saying inventory management is a bad design universally and people should stop doing it. John for example, if he need to intentionally get hit to get rid of healing item, he shouldn't pick it up in the first place (they should add discard non plot item option though), he either play higher difficulty to force himself choosing between ammo or healing, or don't pick up items he don't need immediately. Survival horror is in a better place than older REs when they give detailed maps to players. First run just explore the map, avoid picking up everything, when explored enough, look at the map and start planning.

[@samuelturner6076]

@@reiseafa8789 But by Jon having maxed inventory he is doing proper inventory management. As you don’t know what will happen in the future it makes the most sense to carry everything potentially useful with you in case you need it. That’s why RE4’s inventory Tetris is so good, because you’re constantly trying to get the most in your limited inventory, and to do so you have to think logically about how you do that. The game at least needs to let you discard non plot items but imo it would be much better design to make plot items non inventory items that you can always carry with you, heck from what we’ve seen so far it makes sense since most of them were small stuff like keycards that you should reasonably always have space to carry with you.

[@mp3545]

I was disappointed with that take as well. “I don’t like having a limited inventory in a survival horror game” is not really representative of the channel’s usual standards for criticism.

[@Matteosnet]

You can discard certain items in the version I played. Since it's been made pretty clear this uses RE inventory system you will be forced to go back to the locker boxes and dump stuff. You can choose to pick up items in an area later but will need to remember to go back where you left them. In combat encounters you will always not have every weapon as not enough inventory for all ammo types. Generally I kept no healing in inventory and used lockers to heal up as checkpoints most of the time, as it's likely you only receive chip damage in fights and can just run. I personally didn't care that's how things worked because it made it more difficult and tense. When levels are much bigger there are multiple lockers so it makes it feel like a checkpoint system a bit more.

[@britpoint7022]

That title card scene felt straight out of Evangelion and made me really interested in picking this up

[@animatrix1490]

Interesting. The acronym LSTR seems to be pronounced Elster, which is a kind of bird (as seen on the manual). That's also the last name of some important characters in the classic 1950s movie Vertigo, which is a kinda suspense-mystery-psychological horror thing. Wonder if that's an intentional reference

[@fallouthirteen]

Just got around to playing this game earlier today. Man, getting that book (The King in Yellow) my exact reaction was "ah, well that's a good omen". This entire game is just so "you're going to have a bad time" that it makes Silent Hill look like pleasant vacation.

[@Coconut-219]

"Go swaning around on the moon" wasn't a sentence I was expecting from Jon today.

[@TEHSMISH]

I only got into horror in August of last year. Played all the re games in order and actually liked 1 the most, I liked that I had to decide "I need the space, I have the clip inside my gun and one heal" the only item I wish wasn't an inventory slot in signalis was the flashlight. For me signals is the best horror game I have yet played and I can not recommend it enough

[@JCdental]

just get the gun and ammo, the game gives you just enough healing that you need

[@jamesdonoughue4557]

Try the silent hill series

[@TEHSMISH]

@@jamesdonoughue4557 I played silent hill 1 and loved it. Actually made me roll my eyes when I got to the second to last area here

[@KashouWannabe]

This seems to tick a lot of retro vibes. Resi Evil, Silent Hill, Metal Gear1/2 and MGS1 (specifically), the German is giving me some Nier vibes (specific phrases and how they can relate to real world), Fear Effect, Another World, Flashback. Looks like good stuff.

[@sh8dyw8yz]

I can't even articulate how happy I am to see you playing this game, it was easily on the top of my list for 2022

[@ruddygreat4914]

oh my god yes signalis! just finished it earlier today & it's an absolutely amazing game, if this video has you at all interested in it you've *got* to check it out, it's well worth your time

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

For those of you unaware, if you are a Humble Choice subscriber, Signalis is part of the Humble Games Collection right now, free to play for subscribers (Im not affiliated with Humble)

[@thereforedragons]

This game is super pretty. I don't usually go for horror games, but I'm pretty intrigued by this one.

[@Zerakis]

On the topic of horror games, Jon should play the Faith trilogy. It would be fun to see how scared he can get by just a few pixels.

[@franciscorui]

The king in yellow is a story about a play that has strange power over those who read it. I wonder how that relates?

[@scoutobrien3406]

THE KING IN YELLOW?! PUT IT BACK DOWN JON PUT THAT BOOK BACK DOWN AND WAIT TO FREEZE

[@lecakebandito4233]

I bought this due to this gameplay and i loved it so much. Do you think we could get livestream of this at some point?

[@moth-queen]

Stopping by to leave a like and comment as I am currently playing this for the first time.

[@RainMakeR_Workshop]

Why would fairly deep underground be suspiciously warm given the snow above? It’s underground Jon. Thermal mass!

[@HeWhoShams]

"The King in Yellow" Me: Oh no..

[@starvr]

Jon! Why would you want tape that only sticks to ducks? Especially on a space ship with zero ducks on it. LOL

[@richardfarrer5616]

Jon doesn't give a duck.

[@starvr]

@@richardfarrer5616 Probably because there is none on the ship to give. LMAO

[@neverleftpallettown]

Damn this game looks really good alsoooo you're putting out some dope games this month jon~~

[@TheChartreuseLeprechaun]

I don't normally do horror based games. But, this I could make an exception for!!!

[@kakapac6982]

the art style reminds me of blame

[@sass2836]

My GOTY! Can't wait to watch.

[@NoReplyAsset]

it's a bit confusing how every character looks the same in this game. are they all clones of one person?

[@DonChups]

wow, I like this one a lot

[@sprinkdesign7170]

Game of the Decade, seriously.

[@lobomiser5046]

Oh John, you have to do a complete play through of this one haha

[@Dan-jj2vr]

I've always wanted to say "We've got an alive one"🤣🤣🤣

[@fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm not...entirely sure...I do get the point. Am I correct in understanding that we are in HP Lovecraft's space East Germany but with primarily Southeast Asian staff?

[@mr.q8240]

that is my impression too but if true nothing is as seems on the first glance

[@paulstevens1922]

Can't put my finger on why, but I kept getting Parasite Eve vibes from watching you play.

[@quantum5661]

you gotta come back and play it more

[@Mr_TuneNick]

I spent an embarrassingly long time getting out of the first area….

[@bryandaugherty1433]

Did they throw the Halo believe trailer music in the game?

[@M00nh4wk]

MOAR! pls...

[@GrimRX]

German and Japanese influences? Vaguely anime looking game design? *Waiting for Best Girl Asuka to show up.*

[@MrNylarhotep]

I think it's impressive how the developers stick with their style of low-res CRT interfaces and graphics. Granted I can't actually read 90 % of the text they've got in the UI, but why let playability get in the way of style?

[@Mr_TuneNick]

This game also has a “CRT” mode in the visual settings lol adds a heavy CRT filter to the game.

[@themarchinggoblin8294]

Love this game

[@Ennui_Star]

Ohh this looks interesting

[@titanuranus3095]

What does AVA stand for? I know EVA is Extravehicular Activity

[@SkulkingSkullKid]

Alternative Vertical Ascension.

[@zZaxOo]

if you think the inventory is annoying now, wait till you get to the end level where u have to carry all the bloody plates everywhere xD

[@mp3545]

That’s not the end level :)

[@count487]

This reminds me of The Last Station

[@Rydagoh]

Deeper and deeper into the terrifying red sphincter of death 💀

[@rettichdergeile9361]

Resident Evil 1 But with Sexy German/Japanese Robots is something that I can get behind

[@comyuse9103]

leng? the king in yellow? sad i can't watch this video. it pulled me in more than most jon vids but i gotta experience this myself.

[@titanuranus3095]

Why would you ever call something an "infirmary wing" when you can call it a "Krankenflügel"?

[@raereigames]

Would love to see how you play through this. 😁💜💜

[@ennuiincarnate]

Is it a Lister android? Is it cold outside?

[@Schneeregen_]

Her name/designation is "Elster", all Replikas are named after German words for birds. Elster means Magpie.

[@polygondwanaland8390]

I always feel like I'm missing a bit with games like this where you need to speak three different languages to fully appreciate it.

[@baronDioxid]

I guess it's intentionally obscuring. I don't know Chinese, but I'm a German native speaker, so I can say at least 90 % of the German text was just flavour or made it through translation due to being written on environment items and artworks (the only thing Jon missed was the characters/robot models being bird species, I'm not sure how that would become plot relevant lol). It does make the setting more interesting though: why are we robots with German model names working for Korean (?) humans using English and Chinese under a modified GDR flag?

[@polygondwanaland8390]

@BaronDioxid Presumably it's some weird cyberpunk alt-history future where the DDR both still exists and actually turned their industry around. Honestly the German mostly wasn't hard (I recognize a lot of words like Aufklarung from wargames), I just have zero ability to read whatever the east asian script is. I don't when know what I'm missing there, if anything.

[@UnsoberIdiot]

You don't need to really speak them tbh. I only know a handful of german words and some kanji, but I managed to understand enough to know that you don't gain that much by knowing.

[@DelijeSerbia]

Jon - There is something soft and wet inside. That's never good. Claire is not gonna like that comment XD

[@aceufos47]

More please

[@UnsoberIdiot]

Very disappointed that Jon does not know about The King in Yellow. Disappointed, yet sadly not surprised.

[@richardfarrer5616]

Well, it's the only way he has retained (what's left of) his sanity. Glad it's only the book and not the play script.

[@iknowme]

I'm 5 minutes in. Oh God, Presumptuous Jon is gonna run rampant with this one, isn't he?

[@donovanfaust3227]

I mean isn't making assumptions just part of a mystery experience, something we all do? I'm assuming you've never heard of this game if it took you 5 minutes to figure out "Presumptuous Jon" would make an appearance.

[@scbtripwire]

That Replika has terrible posture.

[@MelficeSilesius]

11:43 39486, but the voice said 39487. Or is my hearing now completely shot?

[@baronDioxid]

The line's pretty unclear. It sounds like an English speaker trying to pronounce "Zürich".

[@christopherhorton4634]

The Yellow King? Carcosa! Finally! Time is a flat circle!!

[@UnsoberIdiot]

Where does this "time is a flat circle" thing come from? I don't remember it from Chambers, even though I've read the relevant shorts quite a few times.

[@christopherhorton4634]

@@UnsoberIdiot it's from "True Detective". The killerwre in it, is obsessed with Carcosa

[@5hk33zn]

i like this 1, series?

[@iamarugin]

Those fonts on the memory screen make my eyes bleed.

[@Doktor_Calamari]

Okay... does Jon really not notice the resemblance between Alisa Seo and LSTR.... when both their images are on the same screen?

[@donovanfaust3227]

You're asking if the guy with -1 perception noticed a detail in front of his eyes?

[@5Andysalive]

It's amazing, how having to find keycards and other play time grinding mechanics can take the horror and suspense out of a game and ruin a good athmosphere and story. At least for me. Old RE also had several elements that did that. Even for me famous classics like System Shock 2 stumbled into this issue. Of course that often offered alternative ways past a door. Basically i become too irritated to be scared. I specially remember Doom 3 with tiny, mazy levels they cramped as many doors (+PDA's aka keys to find) in as possible. Which raised many immersion destroying questions. Like "who the hell would build a military Mars base like that"? It became so stupid, it ruined a initially extremely intense game almost completely. So if a story heavy game has fewer gameplay mechanics and is shorter, but tells it's story better, i'm on board. I like for example the slightly walking simulatory State of Mind so much more than thumb twiddling minigame/QTE hell Detroid Human thingy. There is more gameplay but it's, tedious, pointless gameplay for it's own sake.

[@iainjames313]

He picks up the King in Yellow People who know- :|

[@Commandelicious]

The german flag with communist symbols is ... interesting. 11:05 or so.

[@TL13579]

Of course Jon enters the wrong pattern (in the very beginning) 😂

[@JulieanGalak]

"King in Yellow"???? Immediately shut off the game and never play it again!!!

[@richknudsen5781]

The Saturday Night Joke Guy goes into a bar in Bunkie, Louisiana where there's a robot bartender. The robot says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Whiskey." The robot brings back his drink and says to the man, "What's your IQ?" The guy says," 168." The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology. The guy leaves, but he is curious...So he goes back into the bar. The robot bartender says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Whiskey." Again, the robot brings the man his drink and says, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "100." The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser, the Saints and LSU Tigers The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time. He goes back into the bar. The robot says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Whiskey," and the robot brings him his whiskey. The robot then says, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "Uh, about 50." The robot leans in real close and says, "So, you people still happy with Biden?”

[@donovanfaust3227]

I assume if your IQ is lower than 50 the robot tells you this joke.

[@Cherus]

Hello! Dont forget to talk to people multiple times. And look more for notes that lay around and the propaganda posters, you already missed a littlbit of lore!

[@jeffhughes1318]

It's a meh from me.

[@librarianseth5572]

Day 934 of requesting Zoo Tycoon. I know everyone likes games that make them think, but why are all the horror games that come out these days about reliving emotional trauma and/or exploring the human condition? What ever happened to plots like "This is Huge Bob. Huge Bob collects spines. Try to avoid Huge Bob if you can manage it."?

[@donovanfaust3227]

Well the horror genre has kind of always been about exploring the darker parts of the human psyche, it doesn't exactly feel like a "these days" sort of thing. Even something like slasher films, where there's a "Huge Bob", can have surprisingly more depth to them then what can be gleamed from the surface. Also unrelated, but do you ever get a melancholic feeling when you think about the day Jon finally plays Zoo Tycoon and in doing so you will have lost what has become a regular part of your life or do you just plan on immediatlely requesting another game for 2 ½ years?

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

Ooh first comment

[@treycox33]

Not my cup of tea.