S I G N A L I S - Nitro Rad

If you're still curious: the engine is fully 3D, the look is achieved with a surprisingly simple technique: orthographic projection.

Shit Gets Rusty, all Doors Locked honestly sounds like a decent survival horror game

That island is a real painting, it's called 'Isle of the dead' it was painted by Arnold Böcklin and was incredibly popular in Germany where the developers are from. A ton of variations have been made and it was once said to be in every home in Berlin.

I had an entirely opposite reading of Adler's character. The world seems to be in an endless time loop and your the one who always triggers it to reset. Alder seems to be the only one who can remember every loop and tries to kill you to end it. You're the one who can't let go and he wants to face oblivion.

Something that has become more clear to me with each review of SIGNALIS I see is that each person thinks the game is about very different things, and yet somehow almost all of these perspecives are 100% valid. I can completely understand how James came to his conclusion about the story, and its the same with just about anyone else. Doomed love, the plights of transhumanism, schizophrenia, totalitarianism, war. Its about all of these things, some of these, and maybe even none of these at the same time. SIGNALIS is a game with a fixed story, but each person pulls something close to them out of it. Its the only game that I've seen do that.

Happy Halloween

23:20 The island paintings are a series of paintings called island of the dead/Die toteninsel. basically the painter kept remaking the same painting, over and over again 5 times, and then 1 more afterwards (the game has a thing for that specific type of numbering, if I recall correctly, 6 in total, but generally presented in the form of 5 and then 1 more) I believe (but its been a while since I looked this up, so I might be wrong) that its also related to some of the classical music in the game that shares the same name

You really weren't lying about calling it "sig-nay-lis" 💀

Framing the gaming industry as an infinite eldritch horror loop that repeats the same thing over and over to slowly grind down your humanity until you go insane started out feeling like a fun joke to break the tension at the end of the video, but the more I think about it, the more relatable and true it feels like...

Nitro decided to upload a Halloweenie video 266 days early. Sometimes I wonder if he just spoils us.

One interesting thing I found out about the enemies at 12:30--if you set your radio to the frequency that flashes right at the beginning of the static encounter, your screen will clear up and the Hummingbird (the radio enemy) will be defeated; checking your status in the menu will show that your mental state jumps all around during the radio spikes. It's tragic when you read the details of the unit this monster inhabits. Super cool little details someone might miss in the frantic energy of this encounter, it creates this setting of madness dressed as runaway frequencies where it remains uncertain what numbers mean anything at all. Intricacies of this type is what makes SIGNALIS masterly for me, and my personal GOTY for 2022. I cannot get this game out of my head, man--odd considering your first finding is that book, the King in Yellow...

Something worth bringing up about most games using a retro aesthetic like this: a lot more people are able to play them. They aren't paywalled behind hardware so much. Uh, with the exception of Cruelty Squad. No idea how that uses up so many resources but it is the first Godot engine game, so hopefully that gets addressed with more techniques and optimization from more games using it...

14:10 Nice touch with the Shining carpet pattern there, always fun to see that pop up in a horror game or movie.

nitro rad is that type of tuber who you get an old video of theirs recommended to you, you watch it, then go "oh wait this dude still makes videos" and then binge the rest of his videos

Love how he cares enough for his audience to put a flashling lights warning.

19:35 The game is 3D. There exists a great third and first person mod for the game. I did a whole playthrough in third person and it felt great.

12:30 The Kolibris (yes, that is what they are called) are my favorite enemies in the game. The way you have to deal with them is really cool, the way you have to use the radio to counter them feels like having a mental battle (because you are). And later on they aren't alone, but with other enemies, so you have to deal with the mental battle and the physical one. Btw, if it serves as an answer for the whether or not the background is 2d or 3d, there's a third/first person mod in development, and it looks great.

i think when falke went to see what was outside she came upon the crashed ship and found both of you, dead already the dying dream of the "white haired girl" she saw seems to be what infected falk in the first place and started the loop. meaning falk is you, you are her, she got enveloped and infected by the love of elster and ariane and started using her godlike powers to try and "keep the promise" when you fight her she even tells you you are one in the same and when she dies she mentions becoming one again, meaning the split that happened in her psyche that caused the everything gets fixed and maybe gives her enough strength to finally make it to the ship once more, and on the final loop adler finally realizes he has lost falk forever because he seemingly figures out who you really are, and thats why he seems to lose all hope "i hate everything" he knows the falke he wants is gone and has become corrupted by new memories and goals

This game understands horror so well; it goes beyond the atmosphere and the visuals, it gets horror down to a mechanical and systemic level. Creating tension with choices like "Do I leave my flashlight behind" is something that should be applauded and looked at as an example of what to do right.

God just how you handled the story section with the audio was just plain amazing, yet terrifying. Could not look away for even a moment during that