In the last week and a half Ive played two games that couldnt be more tonally opposite: Citizen Sleeper, with its sadly sweet yet beautifully endless sense of hope, and Signalis, unforgiving and unrelenting in horror and heartbreak.
I can't help but feel my experience of each of the games was enhanced by the fact I played them in such proximity.
Both games grapple with dystopian settings rife with repression, exploitation, and severe dehumanization. In both games you play a character that is a sapient agent but denied recognition as a "human." Both games take place mainly in highly dangerous areas of mass exploitation - metal salvage yards for Citizens Sleeper and Mines for Signalis. Both games severely limit the tools with which you can fight back against those who wish you harm. And both games feature a biological clock - your body is breaking down in real time and there is no way to stop it.
Signalis offers no reprieve from the horror. It presents a wholly corrupted world from which there is no escape. A world in which the tomb we built for ourselves is already sealed and all we can do is bear witness to our own suffering and the suffering of the characters we meld with. In this way it is cautionary, it terrifies us into recognizing that our world could yet become so dark and reminds us to respect the depths of possible suffering.
Citizen Sleeper never shies away from depictions of horrific events. It's an incredibly politically charged game in which you play the whole game as a person with literally no legal rights. In order to survive, you must find the cracks in the systems that bind us and crush us, to slip through and ultimately try to thrive even in the shadows. Urging us to look closer at the world around us and to seize every potential for solidarity, Citizen Sleeper focused my attention on the lines still available to alleviate suffering and prevent future captivity.
Signalis sharpened pain and fear while Citizen Sleeper urged me to take solace in the tools still available to me.
Remarkably complementary games despite their complete tonal difference. I can't help but feel that I'll be thinking of Signalis and Citizen Sleeper both for a very long time to come.
