The Signal From Tölva Reviews
A wasteland you'll love to wander, but not a game you'll necessarily relish, The Signal from T'lva is a dark, frustrating work.
The Signal From Tölva serves up a promising sci-fi concept, one that is made more intriguing by the ability to manipulate robot factions and some occasional awe-inspiring sights and sounds. But sometimes a slow burn can be a bit too slow thanks to its plodding movement speed, and that's the case here. If you're willing to wade through some deliberate pacing and lots of walking between repetitious shootouts with similar robot enemies, there are some intriguing bursts of action and sci-fi lore waiting for you on the hills of Tolva.
A fascinating setting and fizzing gunplay make for a lean, thoughtful exploration-led shooter.
It’s funny that people still argue about games as art. Because when I play The Signal from Tolva, with its Ian McQue inspired landscapes and robotic citizenry, I can’t help but see it as one. From top to bottom, including the lore document that’s not even “part” of the game, such tender care went into every detail of Tolva that it’s clear to me its as much a work of art as any film. Like THX 1138, Metropolis or Blade Runner, The Signal from Tolva is a great example of science fiction as art. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a wholly unique experience and an adventure well worth exploring for the inquisitive gamer.
It falls a bit flat on some of the more traditional fronts for an open-world shooter, but The Signal From Tölva still makes for an atmospheric, absorbing trek across a strange and ancient landscape. Impressive effort.
The Signal From Tölva is a small but compact title. It neither overstays it's welcome nor vanishes into the ether quickly. The game supports it's fantastic art direction with quality gameplay.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The Signal From Tölva has a lot of ideas but ultimately fails to follow through with a huge majority of them. While combat is fun, a huge part of why it is fun is because it is a break from how monotonous the game is. While the design for weapons and some parts of the terrain are interesting, the rest of the game just does not live up to it. The game, like the game-world you explore, is empty for the most part with some interesting pieces scattered here and there.
The Signal From Tölva will find its crowd in those patient enough to sink into the planet’s atmosphere, into its silence and barrenness while engaging in the occasional firefight and lore reveal hidden inside objects that aren’t always in sight.
The Signal From Tölva is a thinking man's shooter, letting players piece together an interesting story as they fight their way through a sci-fi playground controlled by autonomous AI factions. It doesn't always succeed at what it sets out to do, but at its peak, it's an excellent mix of the best bits of the Far Cry and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.
The Signal From Tölva looks fantastic, with an intriguing setting and some interesting ideas working together for an incredibly strong start, but the game is quickly bogged down by it's inability to escape the vortex of open world busywork. Also, it contains a lot of robots.
The Signal From Tolva is an interesting game that shows a well-groomed graphic area, remarkable sci-fi settings and interesting music but not always the top.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Signal From Tölva is a complete experience that makes this open-world first-person shooter a delight, and carefully places the world of Tölva onto your shoulders for an exciting excursion onto a foreign planet. The game hides its linearity well, but thankfully not at the expense of enjoyment because of rigidity. Instead, you’re free to do as you please, and by following the path laid out before you and are able to see the events unfold as intended and given story beats where necessary to keep you enthralled in this planetary mystery.
The Signal from Tölva offers a beautiful world and artstyle with colourful landscapes, unique places, a compelling story and a wonderful implementation of its sci-fi theme. Yet it can´t fill its world with enough to keep it interesting for many hours, can´t offer a really fun Shooter experience for me and has not much that let it stand out Gameplay-wise. I´m sure there are people that can enjoy this game, especially if you´re a fan of its Gunplay but overall, I´m disappointed.