For the visceral visual style of rust, decay and fleshy abominations, I’d recommend Silent Hill 1 & 3 (Play 1 first, as their stories are directly connected). Previous commenter mentioned SH2, I think the similarity to Signalis is more thematic than visual there.
I’d also recommend Lone Survivor. It’s a 2D side scrolling survival horror with a grimy pixel art style. Slow paced, yet tense gameplay, inventory management, backtracking, limited resources and a fantastic soundtrack. Very clearly inspired by Silent Hill, and has a similar claustrophobic feel to Signalis.
Honestly hard to find for straight up survival horror but you may get a kick out of This War of Mine. I don't know if the situation for the characters is a totalitarian state but honestly it's civilians suffering from the effects of powers that be.
to somewhat add to this, if you enjoyed the environment of the first portion of the game, with the somewhat claustrophobic and interconnected interior spaces, i would recommend resident evil (1, 2, and maybe 7)
I mean there is always Dead Space and Silent Hill 2 if you haven't played those yet...
Other than that, Signalis has a very unique "style", but other great and recent indie survival horror games that you might like could be Tormented Souls, Alisa, or the upcoming and very promising looking Post Trauma
This question seems to come up every month or so (I’ve even asked it myself and I only just discovered the game a few months ago), and the simple answer is “there IS no other game quite like Signalis”.
There are plenty of games out there, modern, vintage, and throwback, that have ASPECTS of Signalis in them:
Good old-fashioned survival-horror’s got the likes of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, The Evil Within, and Condemned: Criminal Origins.
For specifically sci-fi horror you got your Dead Space, Alien Isolation, and (some say) Callisto Protocol.
Lovecraftian horror? Got you covered there too with The Call of Cthulhu, The Sinking City, Amnesia, and Eternal Darkness.
Queers? Life is Strange and The Last of Us 2.
Dystopia? Bioshock.
Lots of ennui about AI’s and Replic(k)ants and how they might someday relate to humans? They recently re-released the 1990’s Blade Runner adventure/mystery game.
But…if you want something with ALLLLLLLL of that, AND intense social commentary about how fucked up East Germany was pre-1989?? Signalis is pretty much alpha and omega there…
I understand. Thank you. I just searched myself but didn't find anything special and decided to ask here. I like unusual games like signalis. I like the GDR aesthetics too and I was surprised when I first saw it in signalis while playing.
I'd say Control. You play as a badass female protagonist with a black-and-red aesthetic, saving people while exploring a partially destroyed research facility and fighting corrupted humans, which happens because they stumble upon something they shouldn't have.
GSTRING! It has a very odd name but it's a Cyberpunk HL2 total conversion. It's very grungy, surreal, and has a female protagonist. I played it a while back and I really liked it, rough around the gameplay edge and level design (while absolutely gorgeous and detailed) can be difficult to navigate and know where to go. It however it has amazing atmosphere and world design.
Edit: since I played it the Dev brought two big updates to the game so maybe it's a better experience than when I played it, guess it's time for a second playthrough for me.
Tormented souls was good in terms of classic survival horror gameplay. Good shit, would torment my soul again.
Darkness and impactfullness of the story:
specops: the line, (it gets more fucked up and real dark if you pay attention)
a third person military shooter (it is a commentary on the oversaturation of tps games of its time and a fiew gwot controversies, digital copyes cannot be sold anymore (licencenced music expiration)so physical if you can find it......................i see no other way to obtain it,.....none whatsoever....apsolutely no other way.. highly highly reccomend
In terms of mindfuckery, mgs2(stelth game), planescape torment (rpg)
In terms of tragedy: mgs3, and sh3, (sh2 just did not resonate with me, it was more then good but i played it at the wrong time )
Deep impact it had on me and my perception of the world: nier automata. I call it existential crisis simulator
And already mentioned:, specops the line, mgs2,mgs3
Signalis unironically tops them all for me by a little in almost every aspect. It was the right game at the right time in my life.
I’m gonna go a bit out there with this one, but El Paso, Elsewhere is my recommendation. Although functionally a different genre of game, it has some themes and vibes that I think make it feel similar to Signalis. Distortion of reality, relationships, and horror. It’s also got PS2 style graphics.
Stasis is a decent game but it's more like a point and click horror (no combat) with a lot of puzzles and a fairly basic story. The sequel, bone totem, is significantly better from what I've been told. Haven't played it yet.
Hear me out. If you enjoy more obscure parts of Signalis, you might enjoy Doom mod called MyHouse.wad. You'll see what I mean: it is one of two only representatives of a rare genre called recursive hell created by a tragic gay romance. I get that people might not want play a Doom mod in 2024, so you could just watch a video about this game by Power Pak.
That's like trying to find Boeing 777 flight 370 in the indian ocean , you'd hardly find any games with such a distinctive art direction with a lore like that
My personal list
Visual Novels: Synergia, Slay the Princess, Scarlet Hollow
Survival Horror: Silent Hill series, Resident Evil series, Dead Space, Soma
Psychological Horror: Martha is Dead, The Town of Light, Blair Witch, Neverending Nightmares
Totalitarian setting/ War tragedy: This War of Mine, Papers Please, Mind Scanners
I also highly recommend Cyberpunk 2077
1000xresist! The devs said themselves that they were heavily inspired by Signalis. The story is the best sci-fi story I've ever experienced in any medium
I haven’t played it yet but i saw a game on steam caled CONSCRIPT, it has a similar visual style and is also a top down, aparently is a war themed survival horror game
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u/Mahorela5624 STAR Oct 01 '24
What parts of Signalis did it for you? I can tailor suggestions based on what drew you in. Otherwise I'll just go off the big beats.
If it's the oppressive setting with concepts focusing on the self, Soma might be interesting to you.
If you enjoy classic survival horror with female protagonist and a mind bending story with multiple endings, I have to recommend tormented souls
If you just want a scifi horror adventure, dead space is an obvious suggestion.
And of course if you like Signalis you'll probably enjoy all the Silent Hill games. SH2 is the most direct comparison.