Undungeon
Undungeon
Game
Game2017
The Signal From Tölva
Developer Big Robot Ltd
The Signal From Tölva is an open world first-person shooter game developed and published by Big Robot. It was released on April 10, 2017 for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Taking place in the far future, the player character is a hacker-for-hire who hijacks a surveyor robot to investigate the barren world of Tölva in search of a strange signal. The game contains walking simulator elements, with tactical engagements being… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
206 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 20, 2026 · last updated Oct 21, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
71
Fresh
138 positive · 57 negative
95% range 64–77%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 138 | 57 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 7 | 1 | 2 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
631 of 911 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
70% recommend · 136 yes, 58 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 194 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (766 of 1,121 positive).
Players say the game is a slow, meditative exploration shooter with gorgeous visuals. [1][2][3] Some find the gunplay clunky and the world empty, leading to boredom. [4][5][6] Many caution it is not a typical FPS and recommend managing expectations. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
Walking simulator that loves to waste your time with atrocious gunplay. Its biggest offense is that it's boring, though. You'd think you can't go wrong with anything that combines robots and guns together, but this manages to take two cool concepts and turn it into a snorefest. Yawn.
- [7]
The Signal From Tölva is fantastic game but only if you understand what to expect and probably more importantly, what *not* to expect. Most of the negative reviews seem to be from the perspective that this game failed to deliver as a pure FPS experience. And it most likely does. I can't say too much about that point of view as I have played very few standard FPS games as it would take a unique setting and story like …
- [9]
This isn't a game for everyone, and that's pretty clear to see by the reviews. Just so you're aware dear reader - it is on the slow side and could easily be marked as a walking simulator if it wasn't for the FPS combat and the occasional territory tug-of-war. I'd say it sits mostly as a relaxing experience where you stomp around collecting things, littered with FPS moments and the occasional puzzle room. There is a …
- [2]
slow open world shooter in moody sci-fi world with gorgeous environments and enormous VIBES.
- [1]
It feels like someone took a piece of concept art for a lonely planet and simply let you walk around inside it, so quiet sightseeing and low, constant tension blend in a very odd way. Instead of big scripted moments, it gives you slow, clunky firefights and stark, painterly vistas, so it ends up feeling less like an FPS and more like a kind of meditative space sim.
Summarised from 34 of the 205 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
70% of the 194 Steam reviewers we collected recommend The Signal From Tölva. The complaint that keeps coming up: clunky, unfair gunplay and slow movement. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
The Signal From Tölva received mixed reviews, with an aggregate score of 69/100 on Metacritic. Chris Schilling of PC Gamer rated the game 80/100, calling it a "lean, intelligent sci-fi shooter" with a "fascinating setting" and a "watchmaker's eye for detail". He criticized the fact that the game can be "unfair" due to the existence of friendly fire against allies and no way to defend and fortify bases from other factions. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Eurogamer called the game a "dark, frustrating work", praising the game's artistic style, story and sound, but criticized the "strong element of grinding", saying the game later becomes "tedious". Glenn Wigmore of IGN rated the game 6.5/10, calling…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 206 · most liked firstIt might have taken almost a decade and some incredibly heavy discounts, but I noticed I missed The Signal From Tölva passing 100k units sold some time last year. A milestone, of sorts, for a forgotten game (which I am as proud of as anything I have ever made.) Thanks to all who worked on it!
positive · AI labelView post →Also it delights me when people do find The Signal From Tölva, because approximately 8.2 billion people missed it so far. And it's a lovely game that we poured a staggering amount of effort into.
positive · AI labelView post →This, one of my favourite of Ian's paintings, was the basis for @olninyo.bsky.social's amazing "broken hammerhead" character model in The Signal From Tölva. (And actually one of the main reasons that game exists at all.)
neutral · AI labelView post →The Signal From Tölva is fantastic game but only if you understand what to expect and probably more importantly, what *not* to expect. Most of the negative reviews seem to be from the perspective that this game failed to deliver as a pure FPS experience. And it most likely does. I can't say too much about that point of view as I have played very few standard FPS games as it would take a unique setting and story like this one to draw me into the genre. While it is definitely falls under the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It feels like someone took a piece of concept art for a lonely planet and simply let you walk around inside it, so quiet sightseeing and low, constant tension blend in a very odd way. Instead of big scripted moments, it gives you slow, clunky firefights and stark, painterly vistas, so it ends up feeling less like an FPS and more like a kind of meditative space sim.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is not the usual kind of shooter. And while i found the experience to be pleasant overall, i have a strong feeling that a lot of people seeing guns and shooting will not get what they expect. The game loop is: you explore the world, capture places from enemies and find and scan mysterious things. The combat give you money and the scanning unlocks things to buy. Over time you get better weapons, better shields, a better additional ability and hazard suits that unlock parts of the map. You…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I should begin by saying that I really want to like Signal from Tölva, but it's a difficult game to enjoy. I have, at time of writing, played six and a half hours of the game on hard mode in a single sitting. It is a slow-going experience that constantly teeters on the edge of becoming monotonous and that doesn't do enough to engage or excite the player. While I don't recommend the game, I do not regret the purchase. Maybe you would enjoy it. I would encourage you to watch footage or to read…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →a game that's boring in a good way! progression is simple but nicely gated/balanced (better and different types of weapons + hazardous areas requiring proper gear unlocking down the line), the map is big but not massive, open from lots of different angles, there's rich and diverse sci-fi lore to scan and dig through giving an even greater purpose to exploration, the mazelike "puzzle" sections are super neat, the sound design is both natural and electronic further punctuating the dissonance of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Walking simulator that loves to waste your time with atrocious gunplay. Its biggest offense is that it's boring, though. You'd think you can't go wrong with anything that combines robots and guns together, but this manages to take two cool concepts and turn it into a snorefest. Yawn.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This one caught my attention quickly when i started playing again, it's an exploration SF FPS : you play the role of some kind of pirate/investigator who hijacks robots-workers on a newly discovered planet that shows signs of the visit of an ancient civilization and weird artifacts emitting strange signals. 2 other factions sent their robots there, which leads to conflicts and a race to discover stuff. I liked this game a lot, at the beginning i played it one hour or 2 from time to time,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man I really wanted to like this game but its just so empty and lifeless. This is an open world shooter and while yes the map is pretty big, its just so barren. You do have groups of enemies patrolling but there's no variation to enemy types and it's just the same objective every time. Even if it is pretty cheap on a sale, you won't be missing much here. 100 Backlog Games of 2025: 44/100
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wow, terrible. I can't believe it, but honestly Sir, You Are Being Hunted is the best game they could make. If you buy ANYTHING FROM THEM JUST GET IT. It the peak of these ♥♥♥♥♥♥, run around in an empty map and find ♥♥♥♥ games. Tolva has the worst excuse for gun combat I have ever seen in my life, and they all shoot about as straight as someone pissing in the quick stop bathroom. It goes everywhere! Its annoying, then it takes five years to reload EVERY WEAPON. I think I'd rather slam my toe in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just to say "The Signal From Tölva" is an amazing game. Looks great and is a lot of fun. If John Sladek were still with us, it's a game he'd have been ideal to write a tie-in novel for, put it that way.
positive · AI labelView post →The shooting's clunky The movement's clunky The world is clunky The performance is clunky The whole game is clunky It's too open, and unpopulated for it to be even remotely exciting for me. It takes forever to get from one objective to another with no way to make it fun to traverse between them. Because of this, I frankly couldn't be bothered to try and understand what little story the game has. All that being said, the idea of a game where you have to capture points of interest while AI…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To sum this game up, it's stupid and annoying. It's like a multiplayer fps, but you're by yourself. You do have some bots (bots in two ways, as you play as robots) on your side, but they're not around much. You can eventually buy some gun to control them, but it sounded cumbersome and confusing and not worth the effort. So you play as a yellow robot and you are fighting a war against other colored robots. If you are not the same color as those robots, then they want you dead. Like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →5 hours in, and the game has stopped being entertaining. At around 5 hours into the campaign, you hit a wall of progression and start to lost the moajority of firefights you get into. Although the respawn is almost instant, the veeeeeeeeryyyyy sloooooooooooowww waaaaaaaaaaaaaalkiiiiiiiiiiiiiing towards where you need to get to makes you not want to take 10 more minutes of slow walking to the same fight area. Movement is clunky and glitchy. I got stuck between rocks and walls many times and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is hard to recommend this game. Not a bad game by any means. But after the first half hour of playing, you've pretty much seen it all. The mechanics and overall gameplay is fine, the combat is fun, there's just not a whole lot to do. The story is somewhat interesting but it isnt presented in an interesting way at all. The gameplay loop is essentially, collect money, read logs, shoot some robots to take over areas, scan things in order to progress the story, i.e. read more logs. A LOT of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →READ THE INCLUDED LOREBOOK I really can't overstate this, its a really good read and breathes so much life into this game that, on its own, is a pretty shallow open world shooter The Magnitudes Universe is genuinely super interesting and its a shame that this dev didn't do anything with it in the last decade
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I know I barely played it, but based on what I saw and what others say, its not worth the time investment, let alone the money. The story set up is quite vague and you have to learn about the story reading subtitles while a robot mutters something in its language. Atmospheric, but not particularly engaging or enticing. The visuals look fine, but the art style is a bit bland. There is no interesting soundtrack. The camera angle while moving makes you think your not just crouching, but laying…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Signal From Tolva has a lot of charm. The graphics are easy on the eyes, whether it be the landscapes or the mysterious structures dotted around or the cool robot designs. The background music adds to the eerie atmosphere of the planet. The gameplay is a straight forward and well-balanced capture territory fps. The story is there if you're paying attention; it's a mystery that teases you with data files you find throughout the game. Even so, it does leave something to interpretation. More…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game is criminally underrated. the game feels extremely alive since all the robots have jobs and can start their own wars. the game feels like it would move on without you. every robot feels unique. with all their own weapons and ranks. it feels like they advance with you. the visual effects in the radioactive areas are very atmospheric. it definitely feels like i shouldn't be in those areas too long. the weapons are very varied and fun tho i feel the SMG's are a bit overpowered. the game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →THIS IS A VERY CAUTIOUS RECOMMENDATION A problematic first-person exploration-shooter hybrid, Tolva attempts to channel the spirit of such classics as Far Cry and STALKER, with some of the otherworldliness and ambivalence of Morrowind, but never achieves such heights. Its gorgeous, impressionist sci-fi sandbox is let down by mediocre and unfair-feeling gunplay, bugs, limited progression and a dearth of rewarding activities. Graphically impressive and blessed with an evocative, understated…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game, 7 or 8/10. Nice action, graphics and originality. Was unconvinced at first, but ended liking it and finishing both campaigns. Do yourself a favor: use the Map waypoint marking offered, helps a whole lot. Maps of both campaigns in Steam Guides. *** Disclosure and Spoilers: 70 y.o. gamer, use my own C.E. tables in all games, and offer some help for other old gamers. Health Max, Float, Simple Values, 200.0000. Address ends in 8 (hex) Health Current, idem. Address ends in C (hex), 4…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →slow open world shooter in moody sci-fi world with gorgeous environments and enormous VIBES.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really this is more of a "mixed" for me, but I don't think I'd recommend it to other people. This game is about robots fighting over a wasteland full of crashed starships and non-Euclidean mazes. I know that may sound cool but really most of what you will be doing in this game is walking, and not in a Death Stranding way (where walking is the point) or in an ARMA way (where walking builds up the tension to the next gunfight). The map is just too big, or maybe too empty. What could have been a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Doesn't do anything to hook you in, just large open maps with little to nothing in them. Initial story setup seems intriguing ... until you realize there aren't any actual quests or NPCs to get quests from, just "interest points" on the map that are just "Liberate X bunker" or "Kill ambush bots at Y". Maybe some of the guns are worth sticking around for but by the point you unlock them, you would have already died from boredom. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So simple and repetitive.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A whacky exploration game where you need to clear/capture all points to end the story. There is not much gist into it. Story is told by notes you found throughout the journey and without the support of quality music and effects, the game stands so dull on its own. Gunplay where most of the game is centered around, is a bit tactical thus fun, however it feels unresponsive and clunky at most times. Most favourable side of this game is being short; you can finish in 6-8 on average. In the end,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This isn't a game for everyone, and that's pretty clear to see by the reviews. Just so you're aware dear reader - it is on the slow side and could easily be marked as a walking simulator if it wasn't for the FPS combat and the occasional territory tug-of-war. I'd say it sits mostly as a relaxing experience where you stomp around collecting things, littered with FPS moments and the occasional puzzle room. There is a story present, but it's not spoon-fed so don't expect Deus Ex style branching…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →All the guns are pretty much the same and bringing bots with you takes up a weapon slot that could be used for a gun that actually kills enemies since the follows you bring are useless. This game is more of an adventure game where you discover pretty shapes and read the text you get from them and that is about it. Performance is also terrible even with my 2080ti and i9 intel cpu. I would only recommend this if you can snatch it up for $5.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved this game. I've beaten it twice and it's tempting to go back for another run. The exploring portions are fun and very surreal with all kinds of massive sci-fi wreckage. The combat is simple, fun, and tense at times. The sci-fi premise is cool and drives the exploration and combat in a fun way. I would recommend it if you're looking for a more simplified shooter with great visuals.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is essentially a walking simulator with some sluggish gunplay thrown in. 95% of your time in game will be holding shift to sprint around an open barren map with almost nothing going on. You'll pick up resources that are way more numerous than they need to be. Gunplay is a little bullet spongey and enemies will multiply rapidly while you get ~40% stronger by the end of the game. Faction warfare is meaningless and mostly down to RNG spawning patrols sniping things behind you. Your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun little game, seems completely forgotten which is a shame. It isn't perfect but it's a nice change. Pros: + nice design, the map and the robots look good + fighting is interesting once you get the better gear + native linux version + the design is nice + no real plot - it is there, but it's so insignificant, the game is in practice just cleaning up the map - which is a nice experience sometimes. The whole gameplay loop is taking over enemy bases while looking for a few kinds of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Innovative concept for it's time and age (when I originally played it). Ian McQue vision in concept art and inspiration. Exploration, command bots, upgrade and FPS combat. Meant to be taken in bursts/short playtime. If you get frustrated, come back later as there is a bit of old school trial and error figure it out at times. This was a bit of lightning in a bottle at the time. If they made an update (add more innovation and modernized) and co-op version of this now, it could be an amazing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →OK in short bursts - nice and chill. Shoot red robots and blue robots. Take over their bases. Say, 'all your bases are belong to us!' Collect junk and scan stuff. Clear the map, basically. I paid £3.74. It's worth that at least.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is always a bad sign when in a game, you suddenly question yourself. "Why the fudge am I playing this game?"; "Oh look something over there. I can't believe how much I don't care."; " I'm not sure if there was a story or not..."; "Why does this game run so badly? Is my GPU dying? Am I dying?"; " I wonder what's on TV. Wait, I got no TV."; "Can you die if you eat your toenails?"; "In third grade, was Cathy trying to tell me something?" "Am I still under 2 hours so I can ask for a refund? How…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unusual robot experience. Talk to robots, destroy robots, explore rocky side. No directions given, only follow the signal. Some allies might help you in combat but not often. Game have some neat artistic style, hand painted textures and overall high quality feeling. Without clear goal at first might throw off some players but despite that it's worth checking. Explore and improve your stats, weapons. I think Signal From Tölva is unique experience nonetheless.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got the game for its art direction but it seems like they did nothing with that direction. Walking around is boring, you can't run fast enough and fast travel is not enough imo. You have only 3 kinds of weapons and 2 types of enemies. This is a "less is less" kind of game. It has some kind of potential for an atmospheric walk about on a mysterious planet with some huge elements for scale but there were only one or two things that they went for big scale. And those elements were just, sitting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is honestly a slog to play through
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Screw this! I like the idea of the game, it's pretty much a singleplayer Battlefield game where you unlock new parts and weapons for the robot while you level up. Problems start once the enemies get the energy shields. You pretty much have to fight off around 5 bots at every base and all of them take the same amount of damage and have the same shield as you. It becomes so hard to kill them all before your health is down and the strategy of taking them out from a distance gets completely ruined…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You're a robot. Wander, shoot stuff, take over a base, shoot more stuff, take over another base, then do it all over again. The sandbox is large for an indie game and flows well; nothing feels copy-pasted. Story-telling is done entirely through collectible text logs, so there's not much to it. There are two different endings, and you'll sort of know what is happening, though depending on if you actually read all the text logs, you might not know why. Enemy AI is decent; game can be hard if you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What the hell happened to my save file? And to have gotten as far as I did in this? Sure won't be starting this up again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't think of anything negative to say about this game. it's good, I guess. but also.. at some point I stopped playing it and I haven't thought about it since until I noticed it in my library just now.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game idea buzzing around in my head, blending The Signal from Tölva with The Forever Winter. A future war fought between two armies of largely autonomous drones. You hack into one, blend in with its allies, then sabotage, aiming to bring down both sides. Lose a drone—repeat, now in a new location.
neutral · AI labelView post →found it boring and empty in the first time I played. Now I've beaten the game for the fourth time, and finally realized, that I simply adore pointless walking and shooting. I wish the game had more content and better fast travel, but it's a good one
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Signal from Tolva is an interesting game. I bought it on release, tried to play a few times, and didn't manage to finish it till now - the trick was playing on Easy. The Signal from Tolva (TSFT from hereon) has an immediately interesting setting if you enjoy science fiction. And with the developer stating their intent was to capture the essence of STALKER (one of my favorite games) it seems like a match made in heaven for me. But I had some issues really getting hooked. TSFT is largely a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Signal from Tolva is a game that really aches for a middle button, between Yes and No on the recommendation option. Is there some potential for something good here? Yes! There's a lore book for an interesting setting, the bones for a fun FPS experience, and even some side mechanics that, if someone had spent another twice as much effort/energy/money on developing, could make for a game I would enjoy. Is this potential realized? Not really. Without reading the PDF the game ships with,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Signal From Tölva is the definition of a combat and exploration sandbox. You do three things in this game: walk, shoot and solve the very occasional puzzle. There's not a lot here besides that and, quite honestly, none of the 3 activities are really ever developed to really interesting degrees. But The Signal From Tölva manages to be more than the sum of its' parts. Thanks to its' well-defined setting, standout worldbuilding and level design, all these elements come together to create the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I thought this game was boring at first but then I realized it is boring but in the good way. This game is made up of 3 parts; reading, walking, and fighting. A chunk of this game's lore is delivered through signals you find and are trying to solve the mystery of what the signal on Tolva is. The rest of the game is walking from point A to point B and getting in increasingly dangerous fire fights. It was a real treat that I'm glad I gave a 2nd try.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It aches so to not recommend this game, but alas. It's an atmospheric walking simulator with a super cool premise, but fails to deliver consistently. There's just a lack of things to do here. I don't mean things to interact with (even though it'd be welcome too), but rather a lack of commitment from the devs. The landscapes are gorgeous but they're very simple are once you've seen two or three, you've seen them all. This last comment could be applied to the whole game, by the way... three…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beginning is slow and boring, a lot of walking around looking for garbage with not much reward.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is nothing in this game that makes the time spent slow walking from one thing to another worthwhile
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay wise it's pretty much the ubisoft/ea openworld type. You run around an openworld, capture points, collect stuff, shoot gun and ocasionally upgrade them. The walking speed is pretty low and the game could have benefited by adding something like a hoverbike. The environment look quite good but seem pretty empty except from the ocasional big structure. The performance is pretty bad for how it looks. Even my 2080 super had some hickups here and there and i'm sure it runs worse on lower end…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Would like to have the option to toggle ADS, and then I can fully appreciate the gunplay. Sale price is incredibly generous too. Game has potential but I personally don't think it's for me at least for now.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Welp, this is what you get when you want to be something cool but lack any good ideas and just fill in your game with popular stuff just to mark features as "we got them!". -Explore a single-player shooter set in a weird, sprawling, tranquil alien landscape. "Weird sprawling landscape". If you take a generic rocky desert, paint it a bit in different colours and throw some scrap on it - it does not make it weird, unique or even alien - it could as well be your local towns junkyard. Considering…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cant quite put my finger on it, but this reminds me of another title and I liked that one too!. Its a different approach to the FPS open world (within reason) as you play as hacked robots and you can jump from one to another. Story driven but many ways to complete it so you do have some freedom. I rather like the atmospheric. Might get repetitive eventually, but don't all these sort of games.?.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall, it's a fantastic experience. Think Far Cry mixed with sci-fi. Is it worth 20 dollars? Only if you're a big fan of this kind of open world design. The story is VERY light, though the signal data you collect IS a lot of fun to read! AND it comes with a lorebook that's great for lore-lovers. The content in missions is very simple, but is very nicely executed. The world is nicely sized, with FANTASTIC art direction that makes you feel like you're in a painting. And it comes with a free…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →pleasant, fun, an easily digestible brief stalkerlike
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd like to once again reiterate that the indie video game named "The Signal from Tölva" ruined search results for DIY PC components in Icelandic for years. I wish the developers a hearty "fuck you too".
negative · AI labelView post →There is nothing going on in this game, it's just so lifeless and empty. The basic premise is, that you are a robot that lands on a planet and has to explore the environment by shooting the same three robots endlessly. That's it. The artstyle looks really nice, but this feels like an early prototype than a game. There is nothing to explore, every single location is the same with the same few enemies patrolling randomly. There is no story, no items to find , the progression system is boring.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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