• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Signal from Tölva |OT| STALKER, you are being sci-fi Far Cry'd

S

SomTervo

Member


The Signal From Tölva is an open-world first-person shooter set on a hand-crafted distant, haunted, future world. Unlock savage weapons and recruit robots to fight alongside you as rival factions struggle to discover the source of the mysterious signal. What you discover will decide the fate of a world.

DEVELOPER: Big Robot Ltd
PUBLISHER: Big Robot Ltd
PLATFORMS: PC (Steam, GOG)
RELEASE DATE: April 10 2017
LANGUAGES: English
GAME LENGTH: ~7 hours (lows of 5, highs of 9)
GAME SIZE: ~2GB
GAME COST (average between Steam and GOG): ~ £15.50 / ~ €18.16 / ~ $19.25
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

(Big Robot being the developers of wacky procedurally generated stealth adventure Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Tölva, however, is not procedurally generated.)

zOs419U.jpg



Gameplay

Handling a bit like Far Cry in terms of combat and a bit like STALKER in terms of faction-based open world design, players assume the control of a robot handler orbiting far-future Tölva – a planet where a mysterious signal has been detected. Jack into various robots on the planet's surface, explore the valleys and crevasses of Tölva to uncover secrets, and battle opposing robot factions in dynamic conflicts across the planet's surface.

From the Steam store page:

Features:

  • Explore a single-player shooter set in a sprawling, hand-crafted landscape.
  • Delve into science fiction mystery as you investigate the haunting highlands of Tölva.
  • Fight a war of territory control against dynamic and ferocious AI.
  • Recruit allied robots to fight alongside you.
  • Equip electronic countermeasures, plasma shields, and savage beam weapons for intense skirmishing.
Synopsis:

In the distant future, star-faring robotic factions sift through the ruins of an ancient civilisation. On the highlands of Tölva, beneath the shadow of abandoned war machines, they found something.

Was it the source of the signal you were so interested in? And will the trail lead to enlightenment, or something more sinister? You hijack a drone and you begin the search for yourself.

The Signal From Tölva is a journey into a wild science fiction landscape, filled with danger and beauty: you must survive terrible hazards, navigate through impossible spaces, and fight an ongoing battle to control this haunted, blighted world. You will make use of a range of powerful tools to overcome your enemies and uncover secrets: hack robots to battle alongside you, equip powerful weapons, and detonate savage defence systems.

Fight, explore, and solve the mystery of The Signal From Tölva!
Click to expand...

RxxqKl6.jpg


MINIMUM SPECS:
OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz, or equivalent.
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB, or equivalent.
Storage: 2 GB available space

RECOMMENDED SPECS:
OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz, or equivalent.
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA 970 GTX , or equivalent.
Storage: 2 GB available space

6hGHD2T.jpg


SOME LOW-QUALITY GIFS:

c7cwmBw.gif

34d26bea6d719bb52e7d9a45c91e55aebd489955.gif

tumblr_oh1za6XX4b1u4rawro1_500.gif

whaleskeleton_bunker_windy.gif

zealots_surveyors_bunker_battle.gif


My first (quick and dirty) OT, don't be too harsh pls
 
S

SomTervo

Member
derFeef said:
I love STALKER :)
I enjoyed Sir.

I am going to play this.

Former RPS editor Jim Rossignol worked on it, IIRC?
Click to expand...

He did, I got a chance to chat with him at Rezzed the other week. Their first follow up since Sir, You Are Being Hunted.

Moobabe said:
Nice OT!

It's worth noting that the world isn't proc gen - for people who don't like that sort of thing.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Good point,will add.

zeox said:
nice OP!

5 hours though? a bit shorter than I'd anticipated
Click to expand...

Thanks – a couple of reviewers said 5 hours, but judging by some game-complete Steam reviews it can be up to 10 hours. Adjusted the number in the OP.

(It's not an expensive game.)
 
S

Sidon

Member
It's fun sofar. The laser combat is a standout, punchy yet 'lasery' (in contrast to the pretty meh laser combat of, for example, Battlefront).

Didn't get too far yet, but will play more.
 
D

Diancecht

Member
Said this on the other thread: "It's short but fucking amazing. Loved the art style, atmosphere and combat. Whole thing has a Stalker vibe to it, especially the radioactive areas. Sounds muffle, glitches start to happen, you see shit that aren't there... Fantastic!"

It's short but I was just about to get bored with it so 5 hours was the sweet spot IMO. Gave this a 7.8 on my review.

+ Reminds me of Stalker.
+ Amazing art direction.
+ Intriguing story.
+ Great sound design.
+ Cool world building.
+ Fun combat mechanics.

- Gameplay loop is a bit routinised.
- There are some performance issues.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Sunk a couple of hours into this today.

Really like it. As mentioned elsewhere, even though half the weapons are energy ones, they pack a beautiful punch. Especially the long-range rifles, they have a wonderful heft and shunt to them.

My only criticism thus far is that only on-foot travelling feels a tad bland. It feels like it desperately needs Tribes-style Skiing of some sort of 'wheel feet'.

That said, the issue completely melts away whenever you find a cool place to explore (and there are some very cool places) or you get into a gunfight (which is often).
 
A

a very cute dog

Member
I'm enjoying this a lot so far, though it's not particularly deep. It's a meditative Far Cry experience with a nice, isolating mood and painterly style. Worth twenty bucks, I think.
 
D

derFeef

Member
This game is very pretty - so I love the no HUD option they patched in. I am just walking around and soaking everything in so far.
 
1

120v

Member
been waffling back and forth on getting this all week. had my eye on it for awhile and judging from the Lets Plays it looks perfectly decent but the reviews have been so negative... kinda hard to bite the bullet knowing i can wait til a steam sale or whatever
 
EdwardTivrusky

EdwardTivrusky

Member
Looks interesting, i'll keep an eye on this and it's also good to see The Precursors mentioned a couple of times too. Love that game :)
 
D

DocSeuss

Member
derFeef said:
After playing I can safely say it's a lot less STALKER though.
Click to expand...

It's weird, because the impression I have is that he wants to make STALKER, but he keeps not making STALKER. I mean, this game was made with like... just four people or somethin, so that's pretty impressive, but I wish he'd make STALKER already.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
I'm really loving a Far Cry experience made bite-sized. It's really refreshing being able to tangibly see progress through a game so neatly and not have it be a time sink.

That said, the STALKER-esque moments are definitely far between.

DocSeuss said:
I'm... not sure if I like it? Couple different reasons. Gotta digest it more.
Click to expand...

I think the only thing really killing it for me is the locomotion. Every minute or so I wish I could ski like in Tribes. Thumping along relatively slowly on metal feet isn't fun.

Robots can have wheels for feet; it's an easy fix.
 
S

ScientificPizza

Banned
The lorebook that comes with this is absolutely fantastic, I just wish more of that more was implemented into the world

I really, really like this game though. I'm only about two and a half hours in, but I've been thinking about it all day today at work. It's art style is wonderful and the combat is fun, not excellent, but good enough.

I'm glad to see them go in this direction after Sir You Are Being Hunted and I hope they do more games like this.
 
D

derFeef

Member
I really like this game. I hope they do some dlc for it, I would pay for sure. Have not played that much but I just like the exploring and shooting :) Also all the fitting scifi sounds and effects are really adding to the atsmophere.
 
R

r1chard

Member
Enjoyed: the atmosphere, the art (love Ian McQue's art, am seriously considering trying to get one of his models), the combat

Didn't enjoy: the bare minimum everything else like any more game around the basics, or the confusing, minimalist story/plot (I literally accidentally triggered the end of the game), the maze "puzzles", the press-f-to-collect-stuff, the 4-menu-steps-to-load-the-old-previous-save-game (ok, that last one is a minor gripe ;-)

(I enjoyed Sir a lot, which had more varied game play and encouraged me to complete it more than once)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Sci-fi open-world action RPG GALIX: New Horizons announced for PS5, PC
News Trailer
1
405
Magic Carpet replied
Coming Soon to Game Pass: Far Cry 6, Remnant II, SteamWorld Build, and More
37
3K
Jesb replied
Outcast: A New Beginning | Review Thread + |OT|
|OT| Analysis Review 2
52
4K
Gamer_By_Proxy replied
Blasphemous 2 Releasees on August 24 | Summer Game Fest
News
15
1K
Bartski replied
Coming to Xbox Game Pass in February: Bluey: The Videogame, Tales of Arise, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, and More
Hype Platform 2
69
4K
Magic Carpet replied
Top Bottom