The Signifier would have caught my attention any day of the week, fascinated as I am about stories of mysteries, identity, and AI. Its concept about exploring the psyche of a woman who has died suspiciously through her memories is ambitious, but if pulled off correctly could result in a thought-provoking and powerful experience. By the end of the game, I wasn’t convinced they’d succeeded. But as a high school footballer once said before becoming a meme: they had us in the first half, I’m not gonna lie.

You play as Frederick Russell, the inventor of an experimental AI-powered machine that can visualise and play back people’s memories. He’s been pulled into a mysterious investigation about a woman’s death, and the story kicks off as you investigate her final memory of life. As the story progresses, more of her life becomes revealed to you, giving you access to memories from further in the past, and even dreams. At the same time, pressures from powerful companies and shady government agencies are counting on Russell to choose their side. While there are some mind investigative elements here, the majority of The Signifier involves exploring the woman’s (Johanna’s) mind, as well as some light puzzle solving.

I want to commend developer Playmestudio on their concept, in particular the memory sequences. Memories, of course, are never remembered perfectly, and these sequences demonstrate this by having the scene look glitchy, low-poly, and sometimes just a mess of colours and shapes. It looks somewhat like what you’d get if you took a panoramic series of photos and plugged them into a #D modelling software. The effect it creates is powerful, even unsettling when the tone calls for it. The vague shapes and distorted sounds are the perfect way to depict the unreliable nature of memories, and the way we remember specific places and sounds.

The world of The Signifier is larger than the scope of the story itself – something I appreciate very much. Going on in the background is a fight between technological progress and regulation, in which Russell finds that Johanna’s death could have had something to do with her role within the tech giant she worked for. There is more going on with the world than Russell or even Johanna, but the story surrounds her circumstances and psyche. It allows the story and its mystery to be more focused and personal, rather than getting wrapped up in some global conspiracy. The story starts off strong, and seems to get stronger as the memory sequences reveal more about Johanna and her troubled life.

The cracks start to show when protagonist Russell seems incapable of portraying much emotion apart from polite friendliness and mild confusion. The voice acting overall is good, with everybody sounding natural enough. But there is a general lack of personality among the characters, with only a few exceptions. In such a small personal story, this is to its detriment.

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The game is quite short, lasting only about 3-5 hours on your first playthrough. There was definitely room for the story to be expanded, leading me to believe that the sudden end to the story may have been the result of a lack of time or resources, rather than a lack of inspiration.

There were also some technical issues, despite my computer meeting the recommended requirements. The game crashed multiple times, on startup and between loading screens. The game autosave frequently so you’re not likely to lose progress, but it’s an annoyance nonetheless. There was also frequent clipping, when holding objects and just exploring the world.