Playmestudio’s The Signifier charts its own course by taking players, in science fiction fashion, into the memories of a deceased executive for a prominent AI tech company. Part detective story, part sociopolitical thriller, this is a surreal tale with high ambitions. While the final results are decidedly mixed, the distinct visual and just-weird-enough experience manage to carry it through its rough patches. You play as Russell, a near-future scientific researcher who uses an artificial intelligence named Evee and special neurological equipment to research the human mind by generating explorable, interactive visions of the subject’s memories. With the confluence of AI, social media and brain scanning, a new oversight authority called the Technology Safeguard Bureau has emerged as a watchdog group and is keeping an eye on the moral, ethical, and privacy issues of Russell’s work. But when Johanna Kast, a top executive for the leading AI company, Go-AT, turns up dead in her apartment of an apparent drug overdose, the TSB show up at Russell’s doorstep to pressure him into using his technology to dig into the circumstances surrounding her death. Over the course of five chapters and six hours of gameplay, you’ll explore Johanna’s past in your own unique way. Working out of an old brick warehouse, Russell has developed a machine that allows him to enter select scenes from Johanna’s memories. Initially, only a moment from shortly before her death is available. However, as you proceed, more memories are unlocked from different sources both within Johanna’s memories and the real world.