A pleasant surprise
Normally I don't ussually play fps games because they all feel the same to me. The Signal from Tolva seemed to have something special about it so I decided to give it a shot, and it turns out I was right.
It's not your traditional crazy-action-fps game as a lot of people might have initially expected, but a rather more serene, exploratory and aesthetic experience. From the first moment it becomes clear that the game was made by artists. Personally, I found the game's alien sci-fi setting and presentation to be perfect for me. It really felt like I was there, exploring an alien world where something weird is going on, not having a clue and having to figure out everything myself, all in the middle of a conflict between local robot factions.
The exploration of Tolva will require a lot of walking around, collecting materials and scanning for artifacts. For this reason, I can see why some people would consider it to be a walking simulator, especially the ones who thought they were in for a more action-heavy experience. But this wasn't an issue for me at all. Tolva is anything but dull. It was a pleasure walking around, searching for clues and enjoying the scenery.
The combat itself is quite satisfying. Basically whatever you would expect from a standard fps, but as I said, it's the setting that really makes it stand out. It felt a bit like Star Wars droids fighting each other. Interestingly, weapon upgrages come as a reward for exploration, creating an interplay between combat and exploration, which I found to be quite original.
The game also comes with a free DLC called "The Polar Regions", which is besically more of the same thing, if you enjoyed the main campaign.
PS: As of 2021, any issues/bugs seem to be resolved, at least it plays fine for me. My only "complain" is that it runs on 45ish FPS on my GTX 1650 SUPER (on the highest settings). From a game like this, I would expect better performance for my hardware, which means perhaps poor optimisation issues.
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