The Signifier | PC Review
I love a good, mind-bending story. Many of my favorite films and games utilize science-fiction concepts to provoke thought, while also turning your brain into mush. I also adore murder mysteries, so upon seeing the concept of Playmestudios’ The Signifier, I knew this would be right up my alley. For the most part, my expectations were met and satisfied.
Brain Scramble
You play as Frederick Russell, an AI researcher/scientist who has created a machine called Evee that allows him to enter a person’s mind. An organization called the TSB sends him a dossier and hard drive concerning a deceased woman named Johanna Kast. They task him with finding out the nature of her death. To do this, he must both investigate the crime scene for clues, and enter her mind to study her objective and subjective states for crucial clues. By studying each reality, he can discover raw data and objects that don’t appear in the real world or in one of her other states.
The visuals look fantastic and have a photorealistic quality to them. Entering into one of Johanna’s mind states alters the graphics, distorting and pixelating images. This gave the game an eerie, almost disturbing quality when it needed to be. I also thoroughly enjoyed the puzzles. They’re not in-your-face obvious and require some heavy lifting mentally, but once you solve them the sense of accomplishment is extremely rewarding.
A Glitch in the Matrix
The Signifier did have some issues that hampered my enjoyment, though. Movement felt pretty clunky, which is especially cumbersome in a first-person perspective. I noticed Frederick tended to sway from foot to foot while in conversation, which caused me to feel a tad bit queasy. This isn’t helped by the fact that you can’t move while speaking to another character. I also encountered a glitch that completely halted my progress. I was able to load a previous save and salvage the situation, but it did cause me to have to replay a bit.
The ending also fizzled out in comparison to a stellar story beforehand. I was fully invested in the narrative that was presented, but I felt underwhelmed by the ending I achieved. There was no sense of closure and it didn’t feel like it fit in. A smaller nitpick is the fact that there are numerous typos in the subtitles. This may not bother most players, but pretty much every other line had a misspelled word or improper punctuation.
Diving into the Unknown
Overall, I quite enjoyed my five hours spent in the world of The Signifier. The story was intriguing and the puzzles were rewarding, while the graphics perfectly suited each mental state. I loved being able to jump between reality, and the objective and subjective states to unravel more of Johanna’s life and to discover the cause of her death. I just wish the ending I received had felt better suited to the story, and that the movement of the character was smoother. The glitch I encountered also caused some temporary frustration. If you don’t mind some rough edges and are looking for a fascinating sci-fi game to play, give this game a shot at some point.
This review is based on a PC copy of The Signifier provided by Sandbox Strategies for coverage purposes. It is also available on Mac.
The Signifier
$19.99
Pros
- Interesting Story
- Great Graphics
- Rewarding Puzzles
- Unique Concept
Cons
- Unsatisfying Ending
- Clunky Movement
- Typos in Subtitles
- Potential Game-Halting Glitch
