Pros:
+ Unique art direction that shines bright and uninterruptedly through various perspectives ;
+ Great sound design and one of the greatest soundtracks I've ever heard ;
+ Well-written cast of characters, protagonist included ;
+ Great level design ;
+ Uncomplicated controls and overall smooth gameplay ;
+ Tension does nothing but elevate SIGNALIS due to providing a continuous sense of dread and due to an overall avoidance of cheesy jump scares ;
+ A true survival horror experience of old where its atmosphere and gameplay loop is concerned ;
+ Really tasty puzzles, most of them doable with a bit of thinking. You may or may not find that a couple of them take more than a bit of thinking. I did ;
+ Masterpiece in slow burn storytelling ;
+ Extremely compelling universe that makes collecting lore pieces addicting ;
+ Despite its linearity, the game has more than just one way around things. This may or may not give you a different perspective of the narrative and your surroundings.

Cons:
- Developer rose-engine was stingy with inventory space, which poses a nuisance and creates a need to backtrack a little too much ;
- "Full controller support" is true, but there's a seemingly inherent awkwardness to aiming your firearms with an analog stick when there are multiple targets present.

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SIGNALIS. One of my mates gifted me this game back on Christmas. "It looks like your thing", he said. Humoured - if not challenged - I went in deep about 2 weeks later. A first look and I was sold on it. The atmosphere is thick, the animations are fluid and the color pallette is the best type of bleak. Welcoming, even. The survival horror aspect of this game closely mirrors that of the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles, both in overall feel and in the resource management department, and suddenly you're back to 20 years ago in front of that old CRT TV by yourself. They added the filters to match, too! From the screams of the unfortunate to the eerie soundtrack, the sound engulfs you in a certain way, almost as if you knew it intimally before you heard it. It's homely. It's bittersweet. Painful.

Conversely, the whole gameplay experience is mostly painless, if not for one gripe - the lack of reasonable inventory space. If you haven't played the game, I'm positive that's a bridge you'll hate to cross. In the greater picture, though, this is but a minor complaint. Another thing I personally dealt with was the awkwardness in aiming that comes with using a controller when there's more than a couple targets on screen. As such, if you're on the fence about it I would advise you to use KB+M for your playthrough. Again, a very minor grievance and it didn't keep me from fully enjoying the game, at all. Regarding the thinking puzzles, I can proud myself to have kept to my self-compromise of not looking any of the solutions up. I can recall to a day at work, looking at the pictures I had taken with my phone of what I felt were the necessary clues to solve a certain puzzle, then coming home still clueless and suddenly getting it. As long as you allow for it, many small victories like these feel earned in this game.

It's hard for me to put it into words any further than I already did in the previous section of this review without entering spoiler territory, but I digress. I will say that this is one story and one videogame universe for the ages. I'm not even particularly keen on sci-fi settings and the usual accompanying lore, and that did not matter one bit. I will add that every detail feels scored in with purpose, crafted with such thought, paced in such a way that I can't help but yearn for another story in this universe, preferably made by the same people. Furthermore, I can picture SIGNALIS as a mini-series, or perhaps as a hit movie, especially if made with the stoicness of the german (much in the vein of the Netflix series "Dark", if you happen to be familiar). I dearly hope a pitch will be made at some point.

SIGNALIS is an instant classic and whatever faults you may find in it, you'll also readily overlook them. I couldn't possibly recommend this more if you're an adult gamer. If you miss the gaming scene from the late 90's - but regardless, really - SIGNALIS has the potential to become one of your favorite games of all time.

P.S.: in October 2023 they patched in a some changes to the inventory system to try and make things more comfortable for players. Appreciated change.