Dead Signal
- October 20, 2023
- Reflect Studios
- 10h median play time
Get on Steam"Dead Signal" is a first-person shooter horror game where players must navigate through a mysterious research facility filled with deadly creatures. Using various weapons and stealth, players must solve puzzles and uncover the facility's dark secrets while avoiding being detected. The game features a "reflect" mechanic, allowing players to record their actions and replay them to manipulate the environment and outsmart enemies.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game offers a thrilling and challenging experience, combining elements from both 'Welcome to the Game' and 'Observation Duty' for a unique gameplay loop.
- The atmosphere is immersive and the sound design effectively builds tension, making players feel constantly on edge.
- The mechanics are accessible for newcomers while still providing depth for experienced players, making it enjoyable for a wide audience.
- The game suffers from significant optimization issues, leading to performance problems even on high-end hardware.
- Many players experience frustrating random deaths due to poorly designed mechanics and RNG elements, which can detract from the overall enjoyment.
- The tutorial and in-game instructions are lacking, making it difficult for new players to understand the mechanics and objectives.
- gameplay53 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay is generally praised for its fun and engaging mechanics, offering a mix of challenge and accessibility that appeals to both new and experienced players. While some mechanics can be difficult to grasp initially, the overall experience is described as polished and enjoyable, with a good balance of tension and variety. However, there are minor criticisms regarding certain mechanics feeling repetitive or overly simplistic compared to previous entries in the series.
“The gameplay loop is extremely enjoyable and the game feels pretty polished.”
“The time management mechanic alongside the many antagonists you'll face will fill you with a constant sense of having to hurry, ultimately blending into a great experience overall.”
“The mechanics are easy to understand, but even after you understand them, the game stays scary.”
“Poorly thought out mechanics just prove the dev has never beaten his own game.”
“The game is a little too dry, with the only mechanic being repetitive watching of cameras and delivering packages, while there are enemies randomly spawning.”
“Despite being set in the same universe as 'Welcome to the Game', core gameplay elements from the previous entries are completely absent.”
- graphics19 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 37 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the beautiful visuals and atmospheric design, particularly at higher settings. However, players report significant performance issues, especially on lower settings, leading to a frustrating experience with low frame rates and optimization struggles. Overall, while the game showcases impressive graphics, it suffers from technical shortcomings that detract from the experience.
“Incredible atmosphere, fairly easy to understand mechanics (with some trial and error), awesome visuals, nice variety of gameplay, runs at 4k/60 max settings (DLSS balanced) on a 4070s.”
“Don't get me wrong, Dead Signal is like playing a top thriller or horror movie with its outstanding visuals and graphics.”
“This game was clearly made in Unreal Engine 5 and is beautiful; the graphic settings scale well, though I would like to see a way to remove motion blur without needing to turn post-processing down to the lowest.”
“I would definitely recommend this game, but do be warned that you'll likely have to play it on lower graphic settings.”
“I put the graphics on the lowest setting with no shadows and no detail to the point where it looks like a GMod map and still the game only runs around 30 fps, completely unplayable.”
“Put it back in the oven until it has completely standard options like ultra-widescreen resolution support or, bare minimum, resolutions that make sense and fill empty space with black bars to preserve screen ratio instead of squishing and stretching the visuals like a PC game out of the 1990s.”
- optimization15 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 47 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received significant criticism, with many players reporting severe performance issues even on high-end hardware. While some users have experienced smooth gameplay at maximum settings, the overall consensus indicates that the game is poorly optimized, leading to graphical problems and inconsistent performance across various setups. Many players express frustration over the lack of effective fixes from the developers.
“Needs optimization though.”
“Some substantial performance problems, but maybe those can be worked around?”
“As a side note, this game is not particularly well optimized, and does not work well on weird screen resolutions such as my own (2560x1080).”
“It's cool and all, but I wish these developers would pull their heads out of their asses when it comes to optimization and proper fixes; they never have.”
“Horribly optimized game. I have way above the minimum required specs, got 16GB of RAM, an RTX 3060 Ti, and a Ryzen 7 CPU.”
“I don't know if this was just a case of poor optimization or if the game is just that demanding of specs, but it is a big issue, especially when lower settings mess with textures, making it sometimes really hard to tell what you're looking at.”
- atmosphere12 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 8 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its eerie sound design and immersive visuals, creating a consistently tense and creepy environment that enhances the horror experience. Players note that the atmospheric elements, including music and environmental sounds, significantly contribute to the game's overall tension and replayability, making it particularly effective when played at night. Overall, the atmosphere is considered a standout feature, elevating the gameplay and providing memorable moments of fear.
“Incredible atmosphere, fairly easy to understand mechanics (with some trial and error), awesome visuals, nice variety of gameplay, not as many 'hidden/obscure' mechanics as WTTG2, runs at 4K/60 max settings (DLSS balanced) on a 4070s.”
“The scares are good, and the atmosphere is incredible.”
“This game is constantly accompanied by a windy, droning eerie atmosphere sound effect that sets the tone as you're constantly looking either for small reports on your cameras or, more dangerously, for threats around you, with it only seemingly ceasing on the rooftop.”
“Very creepy atmosphere, and the RNG factors always keep the inevitable replaying fresh.”
- music6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received high praise, particularly for its impressive title screen and main menu tracks, which are noted for their intensity and quality. Reviewers appreciate the overall atmosphere created by the music, highlighting its seamless performance without any issues.
“It also has the best title screen music I've ever listened to!”
“Amazing atmosphere & music!”
“Main menu music had no reason to go that hard!!!”
“I live for the safety of elevator music.”
“Music/sound.”
- story6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's storyline is praised for its strong worldbuilding and continuity, particularly with recurring antagonists, creating a tense and immersive horror experience. While the premise involving a dark web worker is intriguing and ties into a larger narrative, some players feel the ending lacks depth and resolution. Overall, the story is engaging and enhances the game's replayability.
“I like the storyline and other elements related to the worldbuilding, like the continuity of some of the antagonists like Lucas.”
“It's fairly stressful and tense, usually delivers well on the horror factor, it's replayable, and the story works well with it and how the game tries to rationalize in-universe everything that's going on.”
“This game also starts to tie in the world of WTTG, so I'm super excited to see where the story goes from here on out.”
“The ending is a bit meh; I wish there were more to conclude the story.”
“The story is fairly stressful and tense, usually delivering well on the horror factor, but it feels lacking in depth.”
“The premise of the story and the concept of a dark web worker are intriguing, but the execution falls flat.”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with frequent freezes and bugs that hinder gameplay, making it frustrating and often unplayable. Players have reported instances of characters behaving erratically, leading to unfair deaths and an overall negative experience.
“Keep restarting my computer and uninstalled the game and it still freezes my whole screen.”
“Only issue is Delfalco is incredibly buggy and has killed me after he left the premises many times.”
“I had played this months ago, so I forget about specifics with this game, but I remember it being a buggy, unplayable, unfun, and unfair disaster that I could only bother to do on easy mode after a few attempts on normal.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is noted as entertaining, particularly with a standout funny elevator scene. However, some players express discomfort with the developer's past "troll" updates that manipulate gameplay, leading to mixed feelings about the humor's implications. Overall, while the game has its comedic moments, it raises concerns about privacy and developer intentions.
“But the elevator is so damn funny.”
“I wrote a funny review but I have to change it so that people can be enlightened.”
“Funny”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, often feeling overwhelmed by the search for events, which detracts from the overall enjoyment and intended atmosphere of the game.
“I know there are more than enough events, but often it feels tedious to search for them.”
“Really wanted to like this, but it's just tedious and ridiculous.”
“It makes it tedious rather than scary.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -150 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The game offers high replayability due to its engaging horror elements, well-crafted story, and improved noir mechanics, which enhance the overall gameplay experience. Players find the tense atmosphere and challenging nature of the game contribute to its replay value, making it enjoyable to revisit.
“It's fairly stressful and tense, usually delivers well on the horror factor, it's replayable, and the story works well with it and how the game tries to rationalize everything that's going on in the universe.”
“Great replayability, fun gameplay with the reports, great horror aspects, and the new noir mechanics are a massive upgrade, making it challenging.”
“The game lacks significant changes in subsequent playthroughs, making it feel repetitive after the first run.”
“While the initial experience is engaging, there isn't enough variety to encourage multiple playthroughs.”
“Once you've completed the game, there's little incentive to return, as the outcomes remain largely the same.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is not heavily emphasized, as the reviewer finds it enjoyable but expresses a reluctance to engage with the more intense "nightmare mode," suggesting a preference for a less emotionally taxing experience.
