Survival horror is an odd genre. It’s a space where creators can pretty much go anywhere and do anything so long as it scares their audience, and instils within them a need to survive. That’s a fairly loose definition, so some of the most memorable games of the past decade are those that understand this freedom, but also lean into familiar tropes, clichés, and ideas only to subvert them at every turn. Horror fans want to be challenged, surprised, and bewildered.
In recent memory, we have seen countless examples of horror games going beyond preconceived boundaries, whether it beMouthwashing,Slay The Princess, orLethal Company. All these represent entirely unique approaches to horror, and have garnered a culture around them in the form of theories, art, and communities coming together to appreciate them. Like the best horror in cinema and television, games are capable of becoming cultures unto themselves.
The Best Horror Experiences Will Stay With You
This brings me toSignalis, a masterful survival horror indie that was largely developed by the tiny two-person team at rose-engine. I stumbled upon it one day when I was browsing the PlayStation Store, and picked it up to find a melancholic outing into the unknown that took inspiration from everything from Silent Hill to Event Horizon. It’s gothic, considered, and never shows its whole hand.
Most of what you do in Signalis is grounded in the familiar, at least at first. But the more you explore its dystopian world as an android searching for her partner, the more you begin to question everything you see and do, as if you’re sinking into a state of insanity.
Despite all the bloodshed, Signalis is also a beautiful sapphic story about loss, humanity, capitalism, and the lengths you might go to save someone you love. Beyond the amazing quality of the game itself though, the elements of Signalis that mean the most to me exist outside of it entirely.
Its fandom has taken the main narrative and expanded upon it with their own theories, while the two main characters have become an inseparable romantic pairing online who would do anything for each other. In a game which largely focuses on the hardships keeping them far apart, there is something lovingly cathartic about sinking into lovey-dovey fan creations well after the fact.
… And Encourage You To Expand Upon Them On Your Own Terms
Yet this never leaves the original intent behind. If anything, it’s highlighting all that the core narrative does so well. Stellar atmosphere, strong writing, and beautiful characters help to underpin everything Signalis has become, and what it will grow into as players continue to engage with it in years to come.
I’m replaying Signalis with my sister right now, and it’s been a joy to discover its world once again and pick out all the little things I missed, all while watching my sibling delve into its mystery for the very first time. Decades from now, we will look back on Signalis as a horror classic not just for the game itself, but everything it came to represent. The same goes forAlan Wake 2, a sequel from Remedy Entertainment that none of us ever expected to come out, let alone blow the doors off and establish itself as one of the best horror games in years.
Remedy took the original title and made it a distant memory as it delivered an experience that hopped across fictional universes and iterated upon decades of survival horror to give us something magic. But I think the moment that changed everything for Alan Wake 2 was We Sing. It was Sam Lake and company looking directly at the camera and giving us a big ol' wink. Remedy knew exactly what game it was making and which boundaries it hoped to push, and at that very moment, it was handing us the baton and letting us go wherever we liked.
Much like Signalis, we saw imagination run wild on social media with memes, fanart, and a community that thrived on theories, both canon or otherwise. Remedy has always been the best at crafting fictional universes that ask massive questions, but this was the first time it’s done so in lockstep with its fans. Control was the precursor to this modern interpretation of horror, and now we’ve come full circle. Horror is at its most powerful when it is entertaining, thought-provoking, unexpected, and intimately aware of the influence it has.
I’ll walk away from a cheesy fest of predictable jump scares with a smile on my face, but rarely will I spend days, months, or even years thinking about a game unless it has a true reason to stick with me. Alan Wake 2 and Signalis do just that, as do a handful of others from recent years that dare to push horror forward. We need more games like this, along with creators that are willing to create risks, have fun, and ask questions of the macabre.
Signalis
WHERE TO PLAY
Signalis puts you in a dystopian future as Elster, a Replika android in a totalitarian regime. Given a mysterious message from her missing partner, she must search for the truth.
