The Signal State
- September 23, 2021
- Reckoner Industries
- 8h median play time
Get on Steam"The Signal State" is a narrative-driven cyberpunk thriller game. As a hacker, uncover a global conspiracy by manipulating data and infiltrating systems. With multiple endings, your choices and hacking skills will determine the outcome in this immersive, atmospheric adventure.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game offers a unique and engaging approach to logic puzzles, reminiscent of Zachtronics titles, with a focus on modular synthesis.
- Puzzles are well-designed and progressively increase in difficulty, providing a satisfying challenge for players.
- The visual design and interface are polished, creating an enjoyable experience while solving puzzles.
- The game is relatively short, with many players completing the main campaign in around 4-6 hours, leaving them wanting more content.
- Instructions and objectives can be unclear, leading to confusion and frustration during gameplay.
- The UI and controls have been criticized for being clunky and lacking quality-of-life features, such as an undo function.
- story140 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 66 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The story in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it underwhelming and disconnected from the gameplay. While some appreciated the minimalistic narrative as a backdrop to the puzzles, others criticized it for being convoluted, poorly written, and lacking engaging characters. Overall, the story serves primarily as context for the puzzles, but many players felt it could have been more compelling and better integrated into the gameplay experience.
“The story is a nice backdrop to the puzzles.”
“I had a great time working through challenging puzzles, and the story was decently engaging.”
“The story is interesting dressing to the puzzles, and the puzzle progression has been absolutely perfect.”
“The story itself and dialogue didn't work for me unfortunately, with characters having little to no flavor and the scenario felt overly contrived.”
“The story is kind of a mess; it's got heart but it feels very disconnected and distant from the gameplay.”
“I found the story rather annoying and completely unrelated to the puzzles, or logic basics, or synth basics, so it just seemed like a random aesthetic that was forced into a puzzle game with no creative effort on integration.”
- music96 mentions
- 42 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its relaxing and chill qualities, while others find it repetitive and distracting during gameplay. Although the soundtrack is described as serviceable and fitting for background ambiance, many users express disappointment that the game does not fully embrace its musical theme, focusing more on math-based puzzles instead. Overall, while the music complements the visuals and gameplay, it lacks depth and variety, leading some players to turn it off entirely.
“It's bright, colorful, and vibrant with nicely drawn portraits for all characters and a fantastic soundtrack that's relaxing and never gets tiresome.”
“A wonderful mix of logic puzzles, electronic music concepts, and solar punk aesthetics.”
“The music is fantastic and oddly familiar.”
“Furthermore, the music in the game is uninspired and quickly becomes repetitive.”
“The game's poor controls, uninspired music, and repetitive gameplay make it a title that I cannot recommend.”
“You cannot create any kind of sounds or music in this game; the modules are just a skin for blocks of code that you use to change values around.”
- gameplay54 mentions
- 26 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a mixed bag, featuring solid mechanics and engaging puzzles reminiscent of Zachtronics titles, but it suffers from poor controls, repetitive elements, and a lack of auditory variety that contributes to a monotonous experience. While the game introduces interesting concepts and builds on them effectively, many players find the puzzle setups confusing and disconnected from the narrative, leading to frustration. Overall, it offers enjoyable moments but may disappoint those seeking depth and challenge, especially experienced players.
“It introduces the core concepts in simple scenarios so you can understand the mechanics of the environment, then builds from those into more sophisticated exercises in applied thinking.”
“Good zach-like with gameplay based on modular synths.”
“But the puzzle mechanics are 10/10 great!”
“This lack of auditory variety only adds to the overall feeling of monotony that permeates the gameplay experience.”
“The game's poor controls, uninspired music, and repetitive gameplay make it a title that I cannot recommend.”
“Negatives: the setup for the puzzles doesn't really make sense - the purported functions of what you're building aren't really reflected in the gameplay, so you just have to take Matey's word for it that, for example, an electric fence really needs a modular synth patch that sums random numbers and cycles between 3 inputs.”
- graphics38 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are generally praised for their aesthetic appeal, with many users highlighting the charming analog style and relaxing atmosphere. However, some players noted instances of graphical glitches, such as rendering issues and flickering transitions. Overall, while the visuals are considered good and contribute positively to the experience, there are suggestions for improvements in specific areas.
“The music and graphics are outstanding.”
“I love the art style and variety in each component, as well as a plausible backstory to even why you're doing all this work in the first place.”
“Chill atmosphere and nice graphics/story, but the puzzles are top-notch and well worth your time playing!”
“There's also a certain amount of graphical jank: the cable plugs sometimes render above other cables, and screen transitions to the puzzle selection screen flicker for some reason.”
“This is literally just a game-ified version of VCV Rack; even the visuals are pretty much the same.”
“I found the story rather annoying and completely unrelated to the puzzles, or logic basics, or synth basics, so it just seemed like a random aesthetic that was forced into a puzzle game with no creative effort on integration.”
- optimization28 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 79 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received mixed feedback, with users noting significant loading performance issues due to reliance on a single CPU core, leading to unresponsiveness at times. While the game encourages creative problem-solving through various optimization challenges, some players feel that the tools provided are insufficient, and the depth of optimization could be improved. However, recent updates have enhanced leaderboard management and made optimization easier, allowing players to revisit puzzles with new modules for further refinement.
“It's not the most difficult game of its type, but it can have you chasing minimum area and wire length optimizations.”
“Since then the developers have updated the game and made the optimization easier to manage and completely eliminated my issue with the leaderboards.”
“The span of available modules increases throughout the campaign, and after hitting the end you're able to revisit old puzzles with newer modules that weren't available the first time through, allowing even better optimization.”
“Loading performance seems to be significantly lacking by utilizing only a single CPU core.”
“Your set of tools is never quite as complete as you'd like, so you're always digging deep to find a clever optimization or workaround.”
“Visual representation is an important aid to design, and also a fun way to stylize one's solution, but wire optimization encourages jam-packing everything into one corner of the entire rack, wires taut, no spaces.”
- emotional10 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is mixed; while the "wholesome apocalypse" setting resonates positively with some players, the poorly animated cutscenes fail to deliver emotional depth. Players experience a rollercoaster of feelings, from frustration at their own performance compared to others to moments of unexpected pride in their problem-solving abilities, often leading to humorous self-reflection. Overall, the emotional engagement is inconsistent, with moments of joy and confusion overshadowed by a lack of impactful storytelling.
“I rather liked the 'wholesome apocalypse' setting.”
“At times it made me feel like a genius when I know full well I'm not.”
“I build these complex logic devices then I forget what I made does and have to rebuild. 10/10 would cry again.”
- grinding6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, particularly due to the leaderboard system that requires optimizing a single score based on "wire length." This focus on optimization leads to repetitive and frustrating gameplay, as the core puzzle mechanics fail to provide genuinely challenging experiences, resulting in levels that feel either trivial or overly laborious.
“The leaderboard system is based on a single score that includes a factor for 'wire length', which is extremely tedious to optimize.”
“Trying to optimize for space or shift modules to make space is very tedious for these reasons.”
“It's a Zachtronics-style game with all the trappings, except that the core puzzle mechanic isn't able to support anything that's genuinely difficult for an engineer like me, so all of the levels wind up either trivial or tedious.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game suffers from low replayability due to its reliance on a limited selection of premade modules, which restricts player interactions and flexibility. Reviewers have rated this aspect poorly, with some giving it a score of 0/10.
“Loses some flexibility and replayability by committing to a small number of premade modules with limited interactions.”
“That's a 0/10 for me on replayability.”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game features a chill atmosphere complemented by appealing graphics and a compelling story, reminiscent of Zachtronics titles while offering a unique twist on puzzle mechanics. Players appreciate the immersive environment that enhances the overall experience, making the challenging puzzles even more rewarding.
“Chill atmosphere and nice graphics/story, but the puzzles are top-notch and well worth your time playing!”
“It has the same atmosphere and feel as Zachtronics games, yet it gives its own unique twist in the puzzle premise.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Users appreciate the direct control over speed, which enhances troubleshooting by providing clear visibility of the values as they progress through the system. This feature contributes positively to the overall stability of the experience.
