I have a dream, that one day on the rings of Halo and in the symbiote-infested New York of Spider-Man 2, PlayStation Kyle’s and Xbox Chad’s can one day come together and tell the big developers and their PC overlords that we’re done with the console wars. We’re tired of having to buy multiple consoles and then having to get additional peripherals because your TV only comes with two HDMI ports. We’ve made great strides with many AAA and even some lesser indie games offering up the option for you to play with your friends regardless of which big box sits next to your TV and what the cover of the disc looks like. This is something that’s slowly becoming an expectation, and sadly, one that is sorely missed in the newly released console port of Perish.

In the event you’ve never heard of Perish, it tasks you with guiding The Pariah, your avatar, through the depths of Purgatory to the fields of Elysium. To accomplish your goal, you’ll have to fight like Hell slaying demons, monsters, and all manner of creatures inspired by Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Christian lore while you complete a series of randomized objectives and slay gigantic bosses. It’s part roguelike part boomer-shooter that you can bring three friends along for… if they are on the same platform, with the only cross-play being offered in the PC counterparts since this is sold on all of the big three stores. This is by far my biggest disappointment in the game and what drags it down from being a great game to a good game for me.

As a single-player experience, this is a tough sell and one that will require perseverance. Your Pariah starts with a very basic kit, which is essentially a 300 style Spartan kick, a small bag of throwing daggers, and bombs that’ll leave a trail of liquid that causes enemies to slip to their deaths and a broken sword. I’ve always heard that size doesn’t matter and this is literal proof of that since it gives you just enough of a blade to get you by until your next unlock, but quickly became an afterthought once I opened up bigger and better options. After a few runs, you’ll likely save up enough to get a full loadout of rings, crowns, and other tools of death that almost make you forget the broken dagger was ever a thing. The journey in between will be filled with high highs and basement-level lows as you struggle and tear your way through some objectives clearly planned for a group, even if they are simplified a bit for the solo players.

Death comes at a heavy cost. Literally. You will lose most if not all of your unbanked gold. Over my 30 or so runs, I’ve seen the counter go from the thousands to the hundreds in the blink of an eye. This is one of the biggest cases of risk vs. reward I have ever seen, as after each completed objective you’ll earn one of those token roguelike upgrades and be given two options: return to the hub area that houses the shop with all accumulated gold from that run, or proceed to greater challenges and risk losing it if things go sideways. The upgrades purchased from the hub are permanent unlocks, but are mostly limited to a set number of slots that can be filled for each piece of equipment, with the biggest in number being the rings.

Outside of the previously mentioned temporary buffs and repeated runs, the roguelike elements are thrown to the wind. Each level has a small bank of possible objectives and is always laid out exactly the same, meaning every piece of lore, additional upgrade or secret is in the exact same place no matter if it’s your first or 30th run. This is something I wish the developers would’ve taken a page from Destiny and at least given me different starting or endpoints, even if I had to do the level backwards. The good news is that after you’ve got a few major bosses under your belt, you can swap out your crown for one that allows you to skip forward a bit and alleviate the earlier slog through the same levels you’ve likely seen before.

This is probably as good a place as any to mention that as of this writing, I have only made it about halfway through the game, seeing most of the objectives for the first half of the levels within. Most of these objectives revolve around either killing things, finding things, or moving things, all essentially being accomplished in the same way. These are easier said than done thanks to the never-ending spawns of enemies that just appear in your vicinity, which didn’t necessarily bother me, but I feel like it’s worth noting since it may turn off some players.

The game offers both melee and ranged combat, with either option being a valid choice depending on your play style. I leaned more on the ranged guns thus far, but even if I had to use the swords, axes, and hammers, my Pariah felt like a worthy killing machine, I just wish he was one with more pockets because you can only carry one weapon at a time with the option to select a new one between each level from a small selection of your unlocked options. Regardless of which you choose, in-game challenges unlock both passive buffs and secondary fire options. Out of everything I have unlocked thus far, I keep finding myself going back to the machine gun, even after unlocking a sniper rifle, shotgun, and a flamethrower, each having their own strengths and weaknesses with the machine gun being the most well-rounded gun that mows down both enemies and bosses with relative ease. The gunplay is solid, feeling in line with the greats like Serious Sam or Painkiller, even if it’s a little heavy on the auto-aim by default, but that can be adjusted if you see fit.

The presentation is really where this game shines, especially in the visuals. The lighting and textures really stand out making each area look as beautiful as they are ominous, however, the mishmash of themes doesn’t always seem to flow naturally from level to level. In other depictions of the Netherworld, the world around you tends to get darker and more sinister the further you make it into the depths of Hell; however, here it seems to be the inverse taking you from what looks like 9th Circle of Hell, bloody rain and all, to underground tunnels and then golden adorned castles that just made me question why everything was happening and the Dark Souls style riddles spouted by the NPCs didn’t clear this up for me in the least. That could be because I kind of phased them out and really focused on the catchy heavy metal music that is featured in most of the levels, courtesy of Joe Campbell-Murray of the band ZILF. This was very much the metal equivalent to the hypnotic trance music from Hotline Miami and its sequel.

The enemies are the one area that suffer a bit in the visual area, mostly due to looking somewhat stiff or coming across as re-skins of other enemies you’ve already killed a thousand times over. The bosses definitely make up for it though, specifically Deimos and Phobos, gigantic humanoids with exaggerated body-horror-ish features. One of which comes adorned with a giant cage filled with severed screaming heads or Kathorao, the Xenomorph Alien Queen’s half-sister who spawns the zombified corpses of the suiciders from Serious Sam. 

As I mentioned before, this game lacks crossplay and since most of my friends these days are PC elitists, I was only able to complete a few runs with my son over Xbox Live, which needless to say, made this a much more enjoyable experience and turned my struggles at the roughly 25% mark to a breeze straight through to what should be the half way point of the game. We never experienced any lag, disconnects, or server errors, but we also didn’t have anyone drop in randomly despite playing for what felt like hours on end on a lazy Sunday. Even after posting a few messages in the game’s LFG boards on Xbox Live and Discord, I have yet to find a single other player.

I would hate to discourage you from buying Perish because of the online community, or obvious lack thereof. It is an enjoyable, although slightly repetitive shooter that doesn’t rely on other players, but it definitely elevates the experience. Maybe if enough of us jump in, we can garner enough support to possibly get the folks at ITEM42 to sacrifice some virgins, goats, and grasshoppers to the gods over at Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to get everyone on the same page.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Solid Gunplay
• Outstanding Visuals
• An Addictive Heavy Metal Soundtrack
• Loads of Unlockable Items
• Great Risk vs Reward Gameplay

Cons

• Some Levels Get Repetitive Early
• Lack of Crossplay Support
• Some Wonky Enemy Models
• Can Only Carry One Weapon at a Time

Perish was developed by ITEM42 and published by HandyGames, a subsidiary of THQ Nordic. It is available on PC, PS4, PS5, X1, XSX. The game was provided to us for review on XSX. If you’d like to see more of Perish, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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