The Signal State
Worth it · Strategy · 2021
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $5.99, the lowest Steam price we have tracked since Sep 2021.
- Length
- 7.8h 10.2h to 100%
- Value
- $0.77/hr
- Reviews
- 87% of 697 positive
Full price
Today
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Buy now or wait
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, The Signal State puts your logic skills to the test with complex puzzles inspired by modular synthesizers. Repair machines, rebuild an abandoned farm, and be part of a revolution that will change the fate of agriculture once and for all.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, 1366 x 768, 502 MB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS.
The value story
June 2026 is where it bottomed out, at $5.99. It has been discounted 49 times in the 5 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 60 percent, about 5 weeks apart.
Against its own genre it lands in the top 4 percent on value. It is pricier than 89 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 90 percent. EXAPUNKS ($19.99, scores 90) outscores it, and so does Opus Magnum ($19.99, scores 88). Both sit among its closest neighbours.
More about The Signal State
1 of the 385 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here comes from a buyer who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written September 2021 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 75 percent of the 134 reviews written there were positive, against 87 percent overall, and those are 21 percent of everything written about it.
The drop-off
77% start to 3% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
What players say
(no spoilers in review) This game is... shall we say... "heavily inspired" by Shenzhen I/O. Quite a few things are maybe too on-the-nose, from the music to the conversations. That said, its hook is different enough that this is worth playing. Shenzhen I/O, despite being "board design" and somewhat mixed signal still relies heavily on writing firmware. There's none of that here, it's a lot more on the analog side of...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
A good puzzle game to play, it can be a bit hard to solve the puzzles. But there are some great guides for how to solve them.
I mostly enjoyed The Signal State, but I have to admit that puzzle fans would not be missing much by skipping it. Honestly, the same may even be true for people who would otherwise enjoy this kind of game. The puzzles are decent, but the experience is undermined by a number of rough edges: * UI transitions that should be instantaneous-such as entering or leaving a puzzle-often take two or three seconds. * When...
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
The Signal State scores 71/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/1577620/the-signal-stateReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 28, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.