A sci-fi horror that folds back on itself, tied into gripping knots by its own plot threads.
Within it, as android-on-a-mission Elster, you are trapped.
VHS cassettes and floppy disks join Soviet futurist spacecraft.
Our present is no different.
Imagining our futures based on decades past with endlessly recycled nostalgia.
Our media landscape dominated by whatever was popular decades ago, suffocating attempts at new expression.
In the words of Godspeed You!
Within that decay, desperate to survive, is Elster and us both.
Elster is denied love, all personal wants superseded by her function as a worker.
Our hopes and desires can feel illusory.
Always out of reach.
As if that wasn’t enough, her identity is challenged by the forces of government and society.
Her body is not made hers to own but dictated by those same forces.
In the face of that slow, creeping dread that easily feels inescapable, Elster does not waiver.
It’s no joke to suggest that despair will kill you.
I understand that feeling, I’ve been there and yet it’s Elster I latch on to.
Her determination in the face of utter bleakness.
Even the game’s conclusion offers no respite, no shelter from the reality of their situation.
She fights onward all the same.
Signalis, for all its unending horrors, stirred up the romantic in me.
Reminding me I can endure anything for the people that matter.
For one person who matters.
Something so reassuring emerging out of its nightmare was one of 2022’s greatest gifts.
If you need someone to talk to, the Samaritans are there to help.
Lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.
Other international suicide helplines can be found atBefrienders Worldwide.
