The Signal From Tölva

67%
Game Brain Score Based on 1,280 reviews
  • story
  • gameplay
  • graphics
The Signal From Tölva Game Cover
A fascinating setting and fizzing gunplay make for a lean, thoughtful exploration-led shooter.
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In "The Signal From Tölva," you explore a beautiful, alien world as a rogue AI in a striking first-person adventure. Discover hidden secrets, combat rival AI entities, and uncover the mystery behind the enigmatic signal in this immersive open-world game. Engage in thrilling battles, solve puzzles, and upgrade your skills as you navigate the treacherous landscape of Tölva.

  • Mac OS
  • PC
  • Windows
  • Linux
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

67%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,280 reviews
story140 positive mentions
optimization40 negative mentions
  • The game features beautiful graphics and a unique art style that creates an atmospheric experience.
  • The exploration aspect is engaging, with intriguing lore and a mysterious story that unfolds through collectibles.
  • Combat can be satisfying, especially when using tactics and managing resources effectively.
  • The gameplay can become repetitive, with long distances to travel and limited enemy variety.
  • Performance issues are prevalent, with many players experiencing low frame rates and technical glitches.
  • The story is vague and not well integrated into the gameplay, leaving players feeling unsatisfied with the endings.
  • story728 mentions

    The story in the game is primarily conveyed through scattered data logs and collectibles, creating a mysterious and fragmented narrative that requires players to piece together the plot themselves. While some players appreciate the atmospheric exploration and the intrigue of uncovering lore, many find the storytelling vague and unsatisfying, often leading to confusion and a lack of engagement with the plot. Overall, the narrative is seen as a secondary element to the gameplay, with potential for deeper development that remains largely untapped.

    • “The story is there if you're paying attention; it's a mystery that teases you with data files you find throughout the game.”
    • “I highly recommend it for its beautiful world, its fun movement and gunplay, and the quiet-yet-tense atmosphere that surrounds you as you uncover its story.”
    • “The story itself is somewhat light on certain details, but as you wander through this mysterious world, you'll find yourself piecing parts of it together yourself as you explore wrecked ships and strange ruins.”
    • “The whole story of the game is vague and I still did not really understand the premise of it.”
    • “Without reading the PDF the game ships with, explaining the universe, the story feels more like bullet points, rather than a narrative.”
    • “The story is incredibly vague and the entire point of the game is to scan artifacts to unlock theoretical puzzle pieces of the story that you can read about or not.”
  • gameplay416 mentions

    The gameplay in "The Signal from Tölva" is characterized by a straightforward and repetitive loop of exploration, combat, and territory control, often described as a mix of walking simulator and FPS mechanics. While the game features solid shooting mechanics and an engaging atmosphere, many players find the overall experience lacking in depth and variety, leading to a sense of monotony over time. Despite its aesthetic appeal and some interesting ideas, the gameplay is often criticized for being simplistic and unbalanced, with a reliance on basic mechanics that can become tedious.

    • “The gameplay is a straightforward and well-balanced capture territory FPS.”
    • “The gameplay is fun, the world is visually interesting, and the sound is really good - they put some work into making it a part of the environment.”
    • “Gameplay is a mix of scouting the planet, scanning and understanding various signals, securing areas to create new spawn points for your faction, and fighting off enemies as you encounter them.”
    • “The combat feels groggy and uninvolving, the gameplay is mostly walking, the world is shallow and uninteractive, and the guns handle poorly.”
    • “Sadly it's quite hollow, the gameplay loops are too simple to be entertaining for long.”
    • “The gameplay is a pain to play with, dreadful weapons, clunky movement, sensitivity is a pain to change, choppy graphics even on low settings with a good computer and a dull world without inspiration.”
  • graphics270 mentions

    The graphics in "The Signal from Tölva" are generally praised for their artistic style, often compared to the aesthetics of "Borderlands," featuring beautiful landscapes and intriguing designs of robots and structures. However, many players report performance issues, including frame rate drops and poor optimization, even on modern hardware, which detracts from the overall experience. While the visuals are appealing and atmospheric, some users note that they lack the polish expected from more recent titles, leading to mixed feelings about their quality relative to gameplay.

    • “The graphics are easy on the eyes, whether it be the landscapes or the mysterious structures dotted around or the cool robot designs.”
    • “The graphics were breathtaking all the way through.”
    • “The graphics are gorgeous, there's a solid progression system, and the game isn't too incredibly mentally taxing, so it's a good relaxer.”
    • “Even on decent, modern hardware in 2024 (seven years after the game came out), I still had to turn a couple graphics settings down, and had the framerate hover between 45-90 fps - generally hovering around the higher half of that, mind you, but the regular drops to sub-60 were pretty stark and felt especially unwarranted... especially considering how simple the game looks, it feels like a case of just plain terrible optimization as opposed to intense computing or visual fidelity.”
    • “I've read around about Unity engine games performing poorly on NVIDIA GPUs, but even on low graphics settings, I was struggling to get even 30 fps.”
    • “On high graphic settings, the fps goes to below 5.”
  • atmosphere191 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its eerie, immersive qualities, enhanced by excellent sound design and beautiful visuals that evoke a sense of mystery and exploration. While some players find the atmosphere captivating and meditative, others feel it can be slow-paced and occasionally lacking in engagement, leading to mixed opinions on its overall impact. Overall, the game's atmosphere is a standout feature, drawing players into its unique, alien world, though it may not resonate with everyone.

    • “I highly recommend it for its beautiful world, its fun movement and gunplay, and the quiet-yet-tense atmosphere that surrounds you as you uncover its story.”
    • “The atmosphere in this game is amazing.”
    • “The signal from Tölva has atmosphere aplenty, a compelling and cohesive art style and really pulls you into an original world that feels ancient and cryptic.”
    • “For a game that's so focused on exploration and walking around barren lands, it just has no atmosphere to make that truly engaging.”
    • “Overall, then, Tolva is an ambitious, largely failed experiment that is supremely successful at evoking an atmosphere of a ruined interstellar empire, but otherwise feels hamstrung by its small team’s limited development resources.”
    • “To repetitive all weapons feel the same way only damage increase the world is boring you can't really call that exploring cause you just see where everything is combat is always the same atmosphere is nearly not there.”
  • optimization114 mentions

    The game's optimization has received widespread criticism, with many players reporting significant performance issues such as stuttering, frame rate drops, and poor utilization of high-end hardware. Even on powerful systems, players have experienced inconsistent frame rates, particularly in demanding scenarios, leading to an overall perception of the game being poorly optimized. While some users noted decent performance on specific setups, the general consensus is that substantial improvements are needed for a smoother experience.

    • “The game is finally decently optimized.”
    • “As regards performance, for the most part it ran smoothly at high settings/4k on my machine.”
    • “Performance is really good (Linux version).”
    • “Performance is also terrible even with my 2080ti and i9 Intel CPU.”
    • “The gunplay is alright, the exploration is slow, the world is pretty, and the story is a little hard to get into but none of it matters because the game is so horribly optimized it's almost unplayable.”
    • “Unfortunately, its terrible performance makes it unplayable on a PC that runs Witcher 3, Far Cry, and the like perfectly well.”
  • music94 mentions

    The music in the game is described as ambient and minimalist, contributing to an eerie and atmospheric experience, though some players found it too quiet or sparse to enhance engagement. While the soundtrack complements the visuals and setting, many recommend supplementing it with personal music to evoke stronger emotions during exploration. Overall, the music is appreciated for its subtlety and ability to create a relaxing ambiance, but opinions vary on its effectiveness in maintaining player immersion.

    • “The atmosphere is good, the visuals and music are beautiful and/or creepy at times.”
    • “A feeling of awe is pervasive for me as I navigate this often beautiful landscape with epic sci-fi vistas - think floating objects and ships a la book covers by famous illustrator Chris Foss and you're getting there, this is all backed up by great minimal-ambient music of the school and tone which I love.”
    • “It's definitely atmospheric and mysterious, and the music helps to add a strong sense of melancholy to proceedings as you stomp around the rusted graveyard of Tolva.”
    • “I was actually pretty off this game to start with, but I found that after a couple of hours when I turned off the game music and just put on my own, I actually became much more engaged with the game and its world.”
    • “There's little to no music, so you're left with the clanking of your robot, the odd bird cry, occasional distant gunfire as the various factions play out their disagreements with each other, and the low rumblings of old engines or whatever hides behind the motley-painted walls of the ruins.”
    • “Story is told by notes you found throughout the journey and without the support of quality music and effects, the game stands so dull on its own.”
  • grinding52 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and monotonous, with players noting the slow pace of movement, repetitive missions, and unengaging combat. Many reviewers found the vast, empty environments and the need to traverse long distances without meaningful encounters to be frustrating, leading to a lack of motivation to continue playing. Overall, the game seems best suited for those who enjoy grinding and resource collection, but many recommend waiting for a significant discount before purchasing.

    • “The very slow pace of the game, the vast open areas that are mostly empty, the very few story moments and the abundant walking with mind-numbing monotony make a game that does not inspire the player to push harder, but instead make a game that is tedious and unrewarding to play.”
    • “But the tedious grinding, extremely slow walking, and pointless mazes are just not fun.”
    • “It was fun for the first 2 hours but after that quickly became tedious and frustrating to play; I wouldn't recommend buying this unless on sale for more than 50% due to the overuse of the same missions and technical issues.”
  • replayability30 mentions

    Overall, the game has been criticized for its lack of replayability, with many reviewers noting that it offers a limited experience that can be completed in 10-20 hours. While some believe it could have potential for replay value, the consensus is that the game does not provide enough variation or incentive to warrant multiple playthroughs. Players suggest that it may be worth playing if purchased at a lower price, but ultimately, the replayability is minimal.

    • “I think it could have good replay value.”
    • “Things that will make the replayability value higher.”
    • “If you're looking for replayability, you might be disappointed at $20, but as an experience, I found it 100% worth my time and money.”
    • “You can finish the game in 15-20 hours and there is essentially no replayability.”
    • “Finally, the game has 0 replayability.”
    • “My playthrough was about 10 hours and sadly the game has not much of a replay value for me.”
  • stability28 mentions

    The game exhibits a range of stability issues, including frequent bugs, glitches, and microstutters that can disrupt gameplay, such as enemies behaving erratically and controls occasionally becoming unresponsive. While it runs well on Linux and has not crashed for some players, the overall experience is marred by visual disturbances and minor audio sync problems. Despite these flaws, many players still find the game enjoyable, suggesting that the issues do not completely detract from its appeal.

    • “Runs great on Linux.”
    • “The game is very buggy.”
    • “It's fun, but also weird because glitches that never occurred are happening in this one, in which enemies just start running in large circles or just freezing in a spot.”
    • “There are frequent microstutters, where the action kind of freezes for half a second – especially when collecting resources.”
  • emotional6 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is mixed; while some players find it holds a special place in their hearts, others feel it lacks depth and emotional investment, primarily offering enjoyable gameplay and exploration rather than a profound narrative experience.

    • “Holds a heartfelt spot in my absolute favorite games.”
    • “I'll preface by saying I hate giving games a bad review, especially indies, as I know the level of hard work and emotional connection to the results not being loved.”
    • “It's not a game to put much emotional investment into, so don't expect much more than a short bit of decent shooter gameplay and the fun of exploring the map.”
  • monetization2 mentions

    Players express a desire for the ability to toggle ads, suggesting that the current monetization strategy detracts from their enjoyment of the gameplay, particularly the gunplay mechanics.

    • “I would like to have the option to toggle ads, and then I can fully appreciate the gunplay.”
  • humor2 mentions

    The humor in the game is highlighted by the amusing interactions with allies and AI, particularly the comedic timing of a robot's laughter following victories or defeats, which adds a lighthearted touch to the gameplay experience.

    • “Hearing one of your robots laugh after a victory or death is pretty funny.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

69% average critic score

Buy The Signal From Tölva

Play time

8hMedian play time
9hAverage play time
5-15hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 10 analyzed playthroughs

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