Signalis is a perfect opportunity to compare classical gaming with modern "cinematic" gaming.
Once upon a time, once games got out of 2d and the early 3d era, we decided as a medium and game fans that games as an art medium was best through its use of interaction. We controlled the character and learned details through our direct involvement while having complete control. Think the intro to Half Life 2. All of it was communicated through as little dialogue as possible. We
saw the way they treated humans, how the Combine sucked the life out of everything, and forced humanity into poverty and piece meal. There was no exposition dump. There was no person constantly yapping at you and explaining what happened. The game let you experience it for yourself. Games had a less is more approach to storytelling, influenced by classical film's "show don't tell" rule and games that gave text dumps or were "cinematic" were generally niche RPGs like Planescape or Final Fantasy. Yet no one was mad because that's what those games were good at. Titles such as Portal, Shadow of the Colossus pushed the medium to its stage of artistic development that was mature and aged. The gaming community overwhelmingly agreed that games could provide a unique type of storytelling. It's why horror games or horror adjacent games like Silent Hill, Half Life, Portal, Dark Souls more were at the forefront of the games as art movement. Games had very much perfected its formula and how to make an engaging, artistically crafted experience while still very much remaining a game.
Then somewhere along something happened in the 2010's and the big boys decided that with their endless supply of resources and budget that games would be better as interactive movies. I'm not sure when this movement started. I'm not even sure who started it. You could point fingers at Kojima but MGS1 is very much a game game despite all the dialogue and story and perfectly knows how to balance the two. You could point your finger at the rise of games like Uncharted which were clearly Hollywood influenced, linear, dialogue heavy romps with little if any interaction or choice but you could also look at the opposite extreme: the rise of the RPG - in particular the wrpg. Heavy dialogue and constant conversations went from an RPG specific thing to a
gaming thing. Ignoring the fact that the more voice acting there was the less complicated these RPGs became (compare the original Fallout to 3). Either way, games of all genres transitioned from crafted experiences that hinged themselves on letting the player experience the world at their own pace to a medium all about communicating the developers' vision in the way they
visioned it. Games transitioned from an interactive medium to a more guided medium.
Gaming messed with perfection because for whatever reason the masses like slick "cinematic" stuff more than the tried and true gaming artistic formula.
I mention all of this because it makes
Signalis all the more poignant and refreshing, and a window in to the gaming of yesteryear.
Signalis stars a robot peace keeper on a mission. The mission is to retrieve a woman. We don't know why but we go to a facility to find her.
All we find is blood and quiet.
We have no idea what happened here but exploring allows us to tie up the details. In old games they'd let you figure things out with context clues or visual clues or written datalogs.
Through exploring we can figure out that the function of this facility is a worker plant facility. People that have infractions get punished, often with death, if they betray orders.
We learn that the main character is one of these "super weapons". Why was one sent? We learn this is how their state functions and this isn't just something unique to the facility but in general. Was there a revolt? Datalogs reveal there was a flu that spread. Could that be related?
The game lets you figure it out through exploration, interacting with objects, and solving puzzles. It's really simple but it's effective and enjoyable. Honestly this is all gaming ever needed to be and I'm not sure why the dramatic shift with games happened. I feel like people would like games like RDR2 much more if they were more respectful of their time.
Others would probably see the lack of cinematics in Signalis to proof that it's outdated or a relic. I think it's just the latest in a long tradition that has been classified as declasse. I can only hope that eventually games get back to the classical feel because I think they're all the better for it. It probably just takes one big budget bomb for games to scale back but I don't think that will ever happen. Shame.
Signalis is highly recommended. Honestly it's games like this that made me consider becoming a game designer at one point in my life. Playing something like this or Resident Evil 2 Remake still gives the itch to want to make a game although I know it won't ever happen. I'm just glad games like it still exist.
What am I doing wrong in Alien Isolation then? I tend to prefer games that don't have handholding and let you figure things out. If you make your case I'll try it again.
I was talking to Potato about Prey. I don't think you're doing anything wrong in Alien. The Outlast styled horror probably just isn't your thing. It's more stealth horror and less survival horror. You're not really meant to fight back in Alien: Isolation.
If you're not enjoying the opening hours, cut your losses. This thing is 18 hours long and basically twice or even thrice the length it should've been.
Not having to fight sounds perfect. I also love stealth games. I just don't understand the stealth "rules". I still feel like I should give it another shot. On paper it sounds exactly my kind of thing.
