Signalis

What caught my attention at first was the art style: pixel graphics, anime characters, a dark sci-fi tone, and the artificial protagonist. It promised everything I wanted in a great game.

A few days ago, I finally decided to buy it, and today on the train I started playing on the Steam Deck.

I'm about 60-90 minutes into the story. I'm just getting started, but it delivers on everything it promises. It feels like Silent Hill, but on another planet, with replikas. I know nothing, but I'm slowly learning. The game teaches me everything through small manual pages and tasks. I find a key card, fix it, reach another location, find a gun, and then use it. Each empty part of the interface starts to come alive. The glitchy CRTish UI is beautiful, but sometimes a little hard to read.

I've already met people, replikas, and gestalts. I love this word. I first became a fan while playing Nier:Automata. I really like that the in-game text on objects and surfaces is German.

So far, the puzzles are not that hard. I have to keep a few things in mind, but I can access everything I've read so far. Hmm... actually, this could become a problem. How will I find stuff later among dozens of documents? Combat is a little hard, aiming is difficult, and I was told to shoot only when necessary and finish fallen enemies with a kick. I'm sure I'll have time to practice.