I’m not joking. I f*ckin’ love keycards.
I’m not sure what it is about the keycard, but I think it is the pinnacle of door unlocking technology in games. Perhaps it’s the nostalgia of hunting down keycards in Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. You know the ones I mean.
When I was a young lad, I thought opening a locked door via a keycard was peak scifi and I couldn’t wait to work at a place where I’d have a keycard strapped to my waist on one of those zippy-line-things or a lanyard around my neck. Now, of course, I don’t ever want to leave my house and I recognize that keycards aren’t quite the pinnacle of scifi tech I once thought they were, but I still love collecting them in games.
Most recently in Signalis (a game you should absolutely go play right this second, available on everything including Game Pass), a PS1-style retro-scifi survival horror in the vein of Silent Hill, I was reminded of my love of the keycard. The good folks at Rose Engine even gave me the opportunity to collect five of them for one door. They didn’t stop at collecting them, however, they even gave you the chance to write your own in a very cool retro punch-card computer.
Anyway, that’s all. I think the keycard is an underused item in the modern gaming landscape and I miss them. Make keycards great again.
Jordan Galbraith 