Editorials
‘Signalis’ and the Oppressive Mechanics of Survival Horror [Hands-On Preview/Interview]
“I’m often a bit unsure if we really made a horror game at all,” Yuri Stern tells me.
Stern is one-half of the German studio rose-engine, and the co-designer on the upcoming dark sci-fi game, Signalis.
“I’m more concerned with atmosphere, symbolism, and character than with scaring the players,” Stern said via email. “For me, the horror in Signalis comes mostly from the oppressive systems and mechanics of old-school survival horror, which allows the story to be concerned with more personal themes.”
Signalis is set in another solar system, in the distant future, under the rule of an authoritarian government. Much of its industry, including an ongoing war effort, is conducted with cloned “Replika” units: artificial humans that are built from templates and designed to be replaceable.
You play as Elster, a Replika, who’s ended up stuck on an icy moon at the edge of the system after her starship crashed. The ship’s pilot’s gone missing, and Elster’s attempts to find her lead her to a mining colony that isn’t as abandoned as it initially looked.
There’s a lot more I’d like to say about Signalis‘s story, but even vague spoilers (up to and including the name of the mining colony) would rob it of some of its impact. As I’m writing this, I cleared my first run through the game over a week ago, and I haven’t really stopped thinking about it since. It’s a dense, sprawling narrative, which tries to build a world and society around you on the fly, and much of the story has been deliberately left up to the player’s interpretation.
“We tried to make a game that allows for different readings,” said Barbara Wittman, the other half of rose-engine, via email. “One theme of the game is the feeling of ‘otherness,’ and not fitting into an authoritarian society… it also combines themes that we were both really excited and passionate about, like dreams, androids, horror, and retro-tech sci-fi.”
Signalis has been built to feel a lot like a late-’90s survival horror game, with a sharply limited inventory and slightly awkward aiming controls. Like the first few Silent Hill games, Signalis‘s mining colony is littered with puzzles, the presence of which further unhooks you from any sense of reality.
You constantly have to juggle your weapons, ammunition, and health supplies against the tools, keys, and random debris that you need to advance further into the colony’s corridors. Individual fights aren’t hard to win, but they require you to use up resources that you might not be able to replace, and even then, enemies in Signalis don’t stay dead unless you incinerate their bodies with a flare.
Elster herself is a cloned soldier in a fascist society. Her limited inventory, according to an early file, was hard-coded into her personality as a method to preserve resources, because Replikas are typically more expendable than supplies.
The game is set in a procession of narrow hallways, mineshafts, and underground corridors. Everything around you is falling apart: physically, societally, organizationally. It’s not about jump scares; it’s about feeling like anything you can do is, and was always going to be, the wrong move. As Stern said, Signalis is essentially a game about oppression, both mechanically and narratively.
“Hopefully, we’ve managed to create a story that’s interesting on various levels,” Stern said. “I’m very curious how different people will interpret the game. While writing, I incorporated a lot of very personal elements into the game, so it’ll be interesting how it’s perceived by players of different backgrounds, but I’d rather not reveal too much.”
Signalis will be released for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, and Nintendo Switch on October 27.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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