Am I just supposed to run around them? EDIT: Yes

[jerry gourd]

I am just shy of two hours in and I am wondering if I should get a refund. The game has been fun and atmospheric but i am not sure if a gameplay loop of using slow movement to dodge around nuisances is doing it for me. The fact that shooting them is just a drain on resources because they get back up later is pretty demoralizing. This wouldn't be so bad if all enemies were placed in a way that could obviously stealthed around or obviously not stealthed around. Instead many are placed in ways that it seems like getting detected and just booking it around is the optimal solution, which strikes me as very...lame? Maybe I can get over it, it just strikes me as silly.

I never really played these types of games before, but I have watched videos on them, so I get the impression that this might be some sort of genre trope. So maybe the genre just isn't for me.

It doesn't help that right now I am not sure what to go to find what I need so I am going to have to search all over, and the longer i spend in these areas the more jogging around insane androids I will have to do.

[goka9696]

Game provides you with enough ammo to kill every enemy in it at least once, if not more. You don't have to worry about ammunition too much.

[Teero]

You can shove enemies by pressing the shoot button without having a gun equipped. Just spam the button and your character will push them away as soon as you get in range. I only found out about this when I was doing my survival run with the help of a guide.

I'm no expert in this genre either (only played Resi 2 and 3 Remake) but not engaging with every enemy you come across is definitely a thing and should be considered. Enemies in Signalis have pretty short visibility and as long as you are not running or get too close, stealth is a very viable strategy. Maybe not in later levels due to the more restricted space and increased amounts of enemies but dodging and weaving through most crowds is not impossible.

But I agree with you about the reviving enemies. They just spring back up too frequently and with the crazy amount of backtracking you have to do, even when playing with the revised inventory, you just don't want to waste ammo. Though I'm pretty sure I noticed that the game spawns ammo when you start running out. Probably not forever but they're definitely using low ammo as a method to further unease the player, which is pretty genre standard I would say.

[jerry gourd]

Originally posted by Teero:

You can shove enemies by pressing the shoot button without having a gun equipped. Just spam the button and you character will push them away as soon as you get in range I only found out about this when I was doing my survival run with the help of a guide.

I'm no expert in this genre either (only played Resi 2 and 3 Remake) but not engaging with every enemy you come across is definitely a thing and should be considered. Enemies in Signalis have pretty short visibility and as long as you are not running or get too close, stealth is a very viable strategy. Maybe not in later leves due to more restriced space and increased amounts of enemies but dodging and weaving through most crowds is not impossible.

But I agree with you about the reviving enemies. They just spring back up too frequently and with the crazy amount of backtracking you have to do, even when playing with the revised inventory, you just don't want to waste ammo. Though I'm pretty sure I noticed that the game spawns ammo when you start running out. Probably not forever but they're definitely using low ammo as a method of further unease player, which is pretty genre standard I would say.

Thank you for the detailed response...the game seems passionately made and I wanted to give the genre a try so I will not refund the game and give Signalis a fair shake, I think. Thank you for the tip about shoving as well, I didn't know that was a feature.

I will try to get used to it and think of it as 'not engaging' like you said. I suppose it bugged me because its not quite hiding, and its not quite being chased. It's just ducking and weaving, haha.

[NeloDante]

There's not much backtracking but I guess if you don't have a clear idea of the puzzles once you find them, you will backtrack quite a lot. Some tips and info:
- Enemies react to sound and vision, don't sprint if you can help it and just walk.
- Unequip your weapons at all times unless you know you will get into combat, that allows you for panic-pushes which are incredibly helpful.
- Use your stun prods, they hit in AoE if you do it correctly.
- Use your flares, they can be used as a one-shot melee attack (in the same way than stun prods) that can work on bosses and one shot at least one of them; but make sure you keep one or two availables so you can clear corpses in hallways that you want to backtrack constantly.
- When shooting, aim and wait for the square to become as small as possible thus only shooting when fully charged or when the enemy starts an attack animation so you can stop their attack. If you explore properly everything, don't be afraid of using pistol and shotgun ammo, pistol for stragglers and shotguns for AoE when you're too afraid of using stunprods.
- Contact damage is less damage than their swing, you can abuse this by trading some of your HP in some scenarios. Contact damage also activates the first boss weakness as soon as she touches you. You can trade HP for a quick kill

Pay full attention to every little detail, the story is an actual 10 and you might need to replay the game several times to put the pieces together but it's damn worth it. The only horror games that I have ever thought were a 10 in general, were the first three Silent Hill games and I can assure you that Signalis is on the same level - that's how good this game is, it succeeded where 99% horror games failed.

[Notius]

Originally posted by goka9696:

Game provides you with enough ammo to kill every enemy in it at least once, if not more. You don't have to worry about ammunition too much.

This, plus only the first boss out of 3 in the game require you to shoot them, the rest will provide a way to kill them without using ammo, it just takes a while longer.

[NeloDante]

Originally posted by Notius:

This, plus only the first boss out of 3 in the game require you to shoot them, the rest will provide a way to kill them without using ammo, it just takes a while longer.

Actually, all bosses, no exceptions.

[it's love]

it is indeed an old school survival horror convention, the point is finite resource management and figuring out optimal paths as you complete an area's puzzles

plus enemies are more dread inducing when you know you probably can't take all of them down

[[SEAF] Cheez3™]

part of the fun of signalis is basically:
STUPID DOOR, OPEENENNNNNN OPENNN OH GOD THEY ARE BEHIND MEEEE
*START SPAMING THE KEYBOARD, MOUSE *
ELSTER JESUS MOVEEEEEE!! (u already with red screen)
*DOOR OPENS *
OHTHANKSJESUS.PNG
"damn, I love this game "

[[SEAF] Cheez3™]

Originally posted by rabbit:

it is indeed an old school survival horror convention, the point is finite resource management and figuring out optimal paths as you complete an area's puzzles

plus enemies are more dread inducing when you know you probably can't take all of them down

in my run got promise as ending, and I killed a loooooot of enemies, around 140 or even more.
sadly we dont have meele weps, I would kill every single enemy on the map lmao

[Death is Coming]

It sounds like survival horror may not be your genre. Avoiding battles has always been the best course of action in these games. However, it should be noted that the Promise ending encourages combat, and it's certainly possible to kill ~110 enemies on a Survival run, albeit I was always out of ammo. However, the game isn't impossible to beat without combat. In fact, unequipping weapons allows Elster to push enemies when she runs into them, allowing you a chance to run past them in a pinch. The game also spawn extra resources when you're low on them or die.

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

If you're playing on any difficulty besides 'survival', you should have enough ammo throughout the game to kill most enemies at least once, even if you miss quite a few shots. You can also keep them permanently dead if you use fire, via the thermite flare tools, or the actual flare gun with its default ammo.

Although stressful, it's rare for more than one replika to rise up again in a room, and even then you usually have to pass through the area at least a few times before it might trigger at random. If you have tons of ammo, feel free to put them down again, but if it's a basic EULR (the skull-faced cleaver-wielders), I wouldn't bother re-killing them.

If you are playing survival mode though, you pretty much do have to pick and choose which enemies to just not bother fighting directly, because ammo is way more rare. While it's a nuisance to sneak around or dodge the cyborg undead, it's doable.

[NeloDante]

Originally posted by CtenosaurOaxacana:

you usually have to pass through the area at least a few times before it might trigger at random.

New patch in survival difficulty had Eules getting back up within a single room distance (left the room after killing them, forgot to grab something so I came back, then it woke up). This happened in my last run 3 times.

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

Originally posted by NeloDante:

New patch in survival difficulty had Eules getting back up within a single room distance (left the room after killing them, forgot to grab something so I came back, then it woke up). This happened in my last run 3 times.

I haven't had been that unlucky yet, but you aren't the first one to say that them rising back up is more frequent since the patch.
So far post-patch I've had to deal with mostly the tougher Star units getting up. Just not for awhile though.

[h]

Signalis is a glorified walking simulator in which you run as slow as you walk. Yes, they give you too little ammo to kill all the enemies (and they'll respawn). Yes, that is garbage game design.

It tries to copy the mechanics, design, etc, of some older titles like resident evil. Yes, it fails to do it, and ends up as a pretentious garbage.

I'm not sure why it has such devote fans. But believe me, you're totally right about all of your concerns. Even if you didn't pay for it, or got a refund, you'll be pissed off by the fact you wasted your time on it - on a game that is supposedly great according to 96% of people. Never trust steam reviewers.

[NeloDante]

Lmao I'll bite.

Originally posted by sfnwejnfweifn:

Signalis is a glorified walking simulator in which you run as slow as you walk.

There's a sprint button.

Originally posted by sfnwejnfweifn:

Yes, they give you too little ammo to kill all the enemies (and they'll respawn). Yes, that is garbage game design.

In normal difficulty you have enough ammo to kill everything, hell, even in Survival you also have enough ammo it's just way way tighter to pull. If you cannot do it, guess what, skill issue.
Meanwhile me? I wish we had less ammo even.

Originally posted by sfnwejnfweifn:

It tries to copy the mechanics, design, etc, of some older titles like resident evil. Yes, it fails to do it, and ends up as a pretentious garbage.

Not only it succeeded, it improved it. It also made optional inventory management depending on how you want to play. You don't even know what the word "pretentious" means.

Originally posted by sfnwejnfweifn:

I'm not sure why it has such devote fans. But believe me, you're totally right about all of your concerns. Even if you didn't pay for it, or got a refund, you'll be pissed off by the fact you wasted your time on it - on a game that is supposedly great according to 96% of people. Never trust steam reviewers.

It has devoted fans because it is the best survival horror game that has come out in more than a decade, a game that can perfectly be compared with titans in the genre such as Silent Hill 2 and 3 meanwhile not being inferior in the slightlest.