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Games Like Signalis: Retro Sci-Fi Survival Horror

Signalis brought back 1990s survival horror, a six-slot inventory, scarce bullets and save rooms, and set it in a cold sci-fi facility with a story of memory and loss. These games share its rules, its retro look or its slow cosmic dread, from PS1-style puzzles to lonely space stations.

The games

6 of the 15 games in this guide are outside your choice (PlayStation) and are left out. Show them all.

  1. Crow Country art: low-poly Mara holds a handgun by a crow-topped ticket booth beside a giant crow statue SurvivalCrow CountryPS1-style survival horror in an abandoned 1990 theme park, with puzzles, scarce ammunition and an optional mode without fights.
  2. Tormented Souls key art: a twisted figure stands in a red-lit corridor lined with suits of armour, glowing light behind it SurvivalTormented SoulsFixed cameras, combined-item puzzles and a hospital-mansion that slips into another time, built the way the 90s classics were.
  3. Tormented Souls 2 key art: Caroline, in an eye patch and leather jacket, holds a yellow nail gun and a lit lighter between a church at night and a candlelit room hung with chains SurvivalTormented Souls 2The sequel keeps the fixed cameras, limited saves and item puzzles, in a Chilean mountain clinic with a nightmare other side.
  4. Hollowbody key art: Mica holds a red glowing lantern and a pistol as pale, long-haired figures reach for her through grey smoke beside her crashed hover SurvivalHollowbodyTech-noir survival horror in a sealed, ruined British city, searching for a missing partner with scarce resources.
  5. Heartworm key art: Sam stands at an open gate in a chain-link fence before a fogbound house PsychologicalHeartwormLate-90s style survival horror about grief: a world built from memories, and only a camera to defend yourself.
  6. Super Lone Survivor key art: the survivor in a white surgical mask above a ruined city skyline under a dark blue night sky PsychologicalLone Survivor2D pixel-art survival horror in a diseased city, where hunger, sleep and pills blur what is real.
  7. Alisa key art: Alisa in a blue dress and striped stockings reclines on a floral chaise with a tommy gun, one hand on a doll's head, brass gears around her, against dark red wallpaper SurvivalAlisaA late-90s console horror recreated, pre-rendered rooms, fixed cameras and a Victorian mansion of mechanical dolls.
  8. WORLD OF HORROR key art: a lighthouse shining under a spiral sky above a Japanese seaside town, in 1-bit pixel art Multiple endingsWORLD OF HORROR1-bit cosmic horror in 1980s Japan, for the Lovecraftian side of Signalis's story.
  9. System Shock 2 remaster key art: the metallic face of the AI SHODAN with glowing green eyes and wires spreading out like hair SurvivalSystem Shock 2: 25th Anniversary RemasterWake alone on a starship whose crew have become something else: one of the roots of sci-fi survival horror.

Signalis mixes three things: the rules of 1990s survival horror, with a six-slot inventory, scarce bullets, save rooms and item puzzles; a cold science-fiction world, an off-world facility full of corrupted machines; and a story about memory and loss that slides into cosmic dread. The games below each share at least two of those.

For the survival horror rules, Crow Country is the closest in spirit and quality: a PS1-style theme park in 1990, a small arsenal, puzzles and monsters, with an optional mode that turns the fights off for players who came for the mystery. Tormented Souls goes further back to the fixed-camera mansion and its combined-item puzzles, with mirrors that move Caroline into another time. Alisa recreates the look and controls of a late-90s console game outright, and Iron Blight does it in first person with no HUD at all, counting every bullet in a collapsed Eastern Bloc town. Tormented Souls 2 keeps the fixed cameras and limited saves and takes Caroline and her sister to a clinic in the Chilean mountains with a nightmare other side, and Echoes of the Living, in Early Access, is a 1996 zombie outbreak in a fog-bound European town, played through fixed cameras with a small inventory and every bullet counted.

For the sci-fi facility, Endoparasitic is the most like Signalis in how it feels to fight: a top-down lab on an asteroid, one working arm and bullets loaded one at a time. Endoparasitic 2 continues it on an infested arcship, now crafting vaccines and ammunition to stay alive. ROUTINE gives you an abandoned lunar base built to an 80s idea of the future, terminals to read and machines you mostly hide from, and System Shock 2 is one of the games this whole style grew from, a starship whose crew have become something else. Hollowbody keeps the tech-noir mood on Earth, in a sealed and ruined British city.

For the story of grief and a world that comes apart, Heartworm sends a young woman into a world built from her memories with only a camera to defend herself, and Lone Survivor does it in 2D pixel art, where hunger, sleep and pills blur what is real. Mouthwashing has no fights at all, but shares the lo-fi look, the stranded crew in space and the slow breaking of the people aboard. WORLD OF HORROR is the pick for the cosmic side: 1-bit mysteries in 1980s Japan as old gods wake.

If you only try one, play Crow Country for the closest mix of puzzles and fear, or Endoparasitic for the closest sci-fi fights.

Questions

What is the closest game to Signalis?

Crow Country is the closest in its puzzles and survival horror rules; Endoparasitic is the closest in its sci-fi fights with very little ammunition.

Are there sci-fi survival horror games like Signalis?

Yes: Endoparasitic, ROUTINE and System Shock 2 are set in labs, bases and ships in space, and Hollowbody is tech-noir survival horror on Earth.

Are there games like Signalis without much combat?

Mouthwashing has no fights at all, ROUTINE is mostly about hiding, and Crow Country has an optional mode that removes the monsters' attacks.

Are games like Signalis on consoles?

Crow Country, Tormented Souls and Alisa are on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, Tormented Souls 2 and Hollowbody are on PlayStation and Xbox, Endoparasitic on Xbox and Switch, and ROUTINE on Xbox.

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