no signal

Beautiful, haunting, atmospheric. Great storytelling. Thanks for making something beautiful.

If you're checking the reviews to see whether you should buy the game, know that the free demo is still out to give you a taste of what to expect in the full version of the game, which I would highly recommend. No signal is a narrative exploration experience set on an abandoned space station orbiting a black hole. The space station's small crew are introduced through various chat logs found by the player over the course of the game. I won't go into much more detail because I don't want to give anything away. You really should go play it yourself. I commend Exodrifter and for keeping a small set of constant tasks not only entertaining but engaging and part of the atmosphere. Even with a help button to keep the game moving, I found myself actively avoiding it so that I could do all of the searching myself because I was so invested in examining every inch of the landscape. In any other game I would be put off by the repetition of tasks and scavenger hunts, but in no signal it makes sense; why would a space station have 20 doors with 20 different ways to open them? The uniformity added to the experience of being not only in unfamiliar territory on this space ship, but alone and having to piece together what happened to the people who are no longer around. The puzzles felt organic and at times even humorous, reminding me of mechanics I had known about the entire time but forgotten to take full advantage of (I won't forget about that safe combination any time soon!) [spoiler]My only disappointment with the game was the lack of voice acting for the crew members. I noticed that there was a lack of music with lyrics/speech, as well as no voice overs for the chat logs. There were five voice memos through the game although I'm not sure who they were meant to be from and they had substantial pieces of the speech cut out. From this, I'm inferring a conscious decision to remove/minimize communication or speech. While I think the absence of language definitely adds to the atmosphere/theme of loneliness explored in a lot of Spirit's later chat logs, I'm an individual who struggles to interpret other people's meaning through text. I found it very difficult to identify with any character besides Spirit throughout the game since we only got to see his perspective of events, and while I was still able to enjoy his story, from what I've read of other reviews I feel as though I've missed out on some other characters that I didn't connect with as well. That being said, I don't think the lack of voice acting is something that necessarily 'hurt' the quality of the game, it's just something that would've drawn me in way more than the raw text logs did. [/spoiler] Overall I give no signal an 8/10 and can't wait for shork%

Pro: Has collectible plushies, challenging puzzles, engaging story, emotional narrative, great atmosphere Cons: 10/10 would play again

Excellently designed adventure puzzle game with nice atmosphere and compelling story. My closest point of comparison is event[0], though this is certainly unique enough and that's just a general tonal reference.

Great game

People have said very nice things and I agree with them but for I wanted ti mention the hint system. It hot the perfect sweet spot of 'just enough help only when I need it' for me.

it really sneaks up on you with an incredible demonstration of emotional context and reframing

I initially went into the game thinking of it as a neat escape room game, but as I found things throughout the game that shed some light on the characters who worked at the space station and events that happened there, it became a lot more than that. The messages found throughout the game made the characters feel realistic and relatable. The sound design, music, visuals, and environmental storytelling go a long way in making the experience immersive. As for the gameplay, the controls were easy to understand and accommodated for different player control preferences. The puzzles were just the right amount of challenge to not be frustratingly difficult but also not so easy that I could just speedrun them. The note-taking feature was extremely helpful and made it so I didn't have to use something external to record important information. I ended up not needing the hint feature to finish the game, but I can imagine it's very helpful to direct players towards what they need to continue enjoying the game if they're truly stumped. The search for collectibles was mostly pretty smooth and incorporated into the process of beating the game, so it didn't take too much more time to backtrack and find anything I missed. In summary, it's a great game! I highly recommend it to anyone seeking comfy vibes, puzzles, music, and a sense of connection between themselves and the characters in games (despite having [i]no signal[/i], hahaaa... Yeah, sorry about that).

<3 I cried. Going into it I had no preconceptions and I've come out with a wonderful experience. Beautiful little game. Also, there are blahajs.

This game is wonderful and thought provoking, I love a good puzzle and story. To you the creator(s?) I want to really drive home that you made a beautiful game. I hope that you will make more in the future because I know I want more lol