Loud and clear

A low-budget sci-fi game with smarts, Big Robot’s The Signal From Tölva is a cerebral treat.

Following on from the interestingly flawed Sir, You Are Being Hunted, The Signal From Tölva is a game about adapting to and managing your limitations. Which is exactly what developer Big Robot has done: This tiny British team has defied its constraints with a rugged and characterful sci-fi shooter that skilfully blends splendid world-building with taut action. You explore the planet Tölva remotely, hijacking a surveyor robot to investigate the signal in question. Other surveyors will happily ignore you—though later you’ll be able to recruit them to fight alongside you— but robot factions (Zealots and Bandits) scattered across the map will shoot on sight.

You have a handful of objectives at any given time: As you complete them, you gain access to better gear, and rank up. It’s technically open-world but there’s some subtle gating, and the way the environment is designed often funnels you down relatively narrow routes.

These are smart choices for what is a relatively compact world, giving Big Robot some control over the pacing and storytelling without making you feel too forcefully guided.

Your activities are limited. You tag map markers to set waypoints, and take out pockets of enemies in mid-to-long-range combat when you get there. You capture bases and beacons as fast-travel points. You scan the odd artefact, and dabble in a bit of resource-gathering.

In practice, there’s rarely a dull moment, and it’s all in the details. Exploration is enjoyable partly thanks to the sheer physicality of it. You don’t walk, you stomp. There’s a jump button you barely need, but you press it anyway, because it feels brilliant.

Sometimes the view is a little bland, with nothing to look at except sparse plains and arrangements of rocks, but you rarely have far to travel before finding something to marvel at. Remains of abandoned ships tempt you over to sift through the wreckage; elsewhere, enormous craft hover ominously overhead, making you feel desperately small and fragile. There are fascinating hints at the history of the place, which clearly stretches a long way back. Among the sights, some are oddly sad, like a large broken-down robot, trapped and alone, emitting haunting, ethereal sounds that echo around the rocks.

The slow-burn exploration is punctuated by bursts of crisp, satisfying combat. When it’s time to engage, it’s the sound design that stands out: Laser bolts whoosh and energy beams snap and fizz as they scythe through a bandit’s outer shell, before your target explodes with a thunderous boom.

Naturally the noise can easily alert other patrols. At times, you’ll finish one fight only to find yourself immediately embroiled in another. These are among the game’s most tense and exciting moments, particularly when you’re on the cusp of activating a new fast-travel point with your plasma shields down, and only a sliver of energy left.

robot army

You won’t necessarily have to fight alone. It’s not long before you get your hands on a command module, which, as you rank up, lets you recruit more (and more powerful) surveyor allies. That said, AI allies have an bad habit of wandering into your line of fire. Nor is that the only annoyance. Factions will fight among themselves for territorial control, which includes bases you’ve already secured. With no way to defend or fortify them, it can feel a bit unfair when you die and you’re forced to make a long trek back from the previously activated checkpoint.

And though you acclimatize to the pace, towards the end it can feel like Tölva is dragging its heels. You face a long trudge to the last couple of critical missions. But these are minor blemishes. The Signal From Tölva is Big Robot’s finest achievement to date: a lean, intelligent sci-fi shooter with a watchmaker’s eye for detail, that knows its strengths and plays to them beautifully.

There are fascinating hints at the history of the place