WHY I LOVE IT
Story
Without going into too many spoilers, I'll try to explain what I really love about the story. First of all, I really enjoy stories about ai and memory loss/manipulation. Signalis has both of these things in spades. The protagonist, Elster, and almost every other character in the game are sentient androids, androids with minds that are copies of originally human minds. And these original memories can resurface,,, that is just SO COOL to me. Also the main drive of the story is Elster literally searching for her missing lesbian lover. As a lesbian woman myself, I have to say I'm a fan. The story is cryptic, confusing, and very much up to interpretation. Some people might have a problem with that but I really like it.
Visuals
I absolutely adore the visuals. First of all, I am a huge fan of Playstation 1 games and the general aesthetic of titles on the system. It's the console that I grew up with, so of course I have nostalgic memories of the games. And Signalis is full of properly chunky and low poly assets that would look right at home on my childhood console - Especially the character models, they look straight out of somthing like Metal Gear Solid. Also there are the obvious retrofuture and cyberpunk influences that permeate the game. Chunky CRT monitors and industrial buttons/environments that look like something straight out of Alien or Blade Runner. I really love this stuff.
Gameplay
Like previously mentioned, the gameplay is very clearly influenced by the first handful of Resident Evil games. Lots of ammo/inventory managment, backtracking, puzzle-solving, and dodging enemies. Now I do like classic RE games, especially 2 and Code Veronica, but the gameplay has never been anything super amazing to me. But Signalis has made me appreciate the formula a lot more. Both engaging and avoiding enemies feels properly good, the weapons feel nice to use, puzzles aren't too cryptic or annoying. Heck, even the 6 item inventory limit, something that I thought would annoy me, really doesn't. It forces smart item managment and backtracking and I honestly really like it! The gameplay is really solid. It takes the classic RE formula and makes it feel even better.