Showing posts with label tech-noir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech-noir. Show all posts

The Signifier... Reviewed!

Before I jump into this review... shout out to Raw Fury for supplying a copy of the game!

The Signifier is... hmmm, creepy, scary, and... cool at the same time.

Story: The Signifier is a first-person tech-noir game where you step into the shoes of Frederick Russel, an AI + psychology expert. Fredrick is also a pioneer as far as deep brain scans go, and he dives into those scans via his Dreamwalker technology. He utilizes the tech to make sense of the person and a situation they may have been involved in to determine what happened.

It's very interesting. The tech records the senses + unconscious realms of the mind... so you know it's not going to be a dive into a standard world once you connect.

What you're utilizing is this controversial tech for this time around is to assist in making sense of a recent death. Specifically, you have to find out the truth behind the death of a VP from the biggest tech company in the world. You will see certain things with your bare eyes, but what else is there? That's when the badassness starts to rev up because you aren't just visiting a crime scene... you're a detective and you feel like one... in your pursuit of the truth.

As far as the replay value goes, don't worry about this game being a one time play through... because you have multiple endings in this game (based on your decisions).

Visuals: Visuals... visuals, they can be nice and realistic when you're in the games "real world", but when you're using the Dreamwalker... it looks artsy in an abstract way (or... just creepy as hell). Take a bunch of paper and piece together an image and that's what you (kinda sorta) get in the Dreamwalker based on segments gathered by the scans.

Real-world (Frederick's Lab)

Generated world (using Dreamwalker)

The developer does a good job of changing the atmosphere to give you the chills as you progress in the story. You could go from one spot and see a change in the environment and even the audio. Freaky.

Gameplay: As far as the gameplay goes... there isn't much to the controls as far as complexity goes, but the simple controls don't take away from the action or the challenge. The game can be linear, but the developers took advantage of it by adding other elements in there like... deciphering raw data to figure out where in the space it's meant to go. You can also unlock different areas by approaching an area differently (hint hint).

You get bits and pieces of the recreated world based on what was scanned from the brain... and you have to search through that world in order to uncover more areas of the person's mind. You have to solve puzzles, gather clues, and switch between objective and subjective states in order to put things together. The more you fill in the blanks, the clearer the picture is as far as the recreations go... and you end up going deeper which gives you more access to clues that you will put to use in the outside world in order to help progress the case. I'm telling you... it's interesting + eerie.

One con I can give the game... is its stiffness, the animation could be a bit more smooth... but it doesn't affect the experience.

Price: The Signifier comes in at... $19.99 with the Deluxe Edition coming in at only $21.99 ($2 bucks more = just grab the better edition if you want the soundtrack). Solid price for a really interesting experience.


Story 5

Visuals 5

Gameplay 5

Price 5

5 out of 5 Cool Points