no signal

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

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.

This game made me enjoy sliding block puzzles so for that alone I think it deserves a recommendation. But truly, this game does a fantastic job at creating this atmosphere of isolation, and as you go along and learn more about the characters from the text logs, this feeling only grows deeper. No Signal is not a game trying to tell the most dramatic or grandiose of stories, but rather something very personal and introspective that I think players that give it a chance will find themselves delighted with.

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.