The Persistence Review: A Virtue or a Curse?

There’s something that has perplexed me for a while now – specifically, why developers put so much time and resources into VR only content in a world where only a sliver of the market has access to the uber-expensive peripherals. When The Persistence released a few years ago for PSVR, it fell into this bucket, but the folks at Firesprite Ltd have righted this wrong by porting the game to multiple platforms sans the wearable screen and gadgets that kept a huge chunk of the population from experiencing its brand of unique horror.

The game opens in what looks like the aftermath of the film Event Horizon, as the camera pans throughout a desolate space station that is littered with dead bodies and enough blood and viscera on the walls to give Dexter Morgan a boner the size of the continental US. You are awoken by the calm voice of the sentient AI that runs the show, which we’ve all seen enough sci-fi movies to know isn’t a good sign, which brings you up to speed. Your team was on a super important mission before something or someone turned everyone into chum. You’re a clone who will need to work your way through the station completing a set of objectives that will, in turn, allow you to work your way to the heart of the base where you’ll find a cloning device that will allow you to rebuild the populace and save the day. The problem here is that the zombie-like creatures roaming the base have already made it to the cloning apparatus, so obviously, there are a lot more of them than there are of you.

The shadow of the fact this was originally a VR only experience looms heavily on the game, casting an awkward shadow over some of the gameplay elements. There is a warping mechanic that is limited and a staple of how most VR only games offer movement, but it feels unneeded in most cases. Because of this I often forgot about it, usually only remembering it existed after I died from not using it. This doesn’t really make or break the experience, but it feels like an unneeded ability in most cases that was carried over without a reason. What feels a little more off and left me instinctively pressing face buttons throughout was the requirement to look at any items you want to pick up or interact with, as aiming and hovering is all that’s needed.

As the tagline suggests, death is just the beginning as this is a roguelite of sorts, but this is a much looser form of the genre than you may be accustomed to. Upon death, you’ll be warped back to the starting chamber in a fresh body, with everything but your immediate inventory of collected weapons and such intact, free to start anew. It’s much like if you were playing Alien Isolationbut every time you die, the ship shifts around like the Hellraiser box requiring you to seek out the next major objective from the starting point.

Contrary to pretty much every other recent horror release that doesn’t have Resident or Evil in the title, the game is heavy on combat, giving the player the option to sneak about at a snail’s pace (what kind of horror game doesn’t let you run? Or at least jog?) using stealth attacks, go balls to the wall duking it out in hand to hand combat, or use a small variety of firearms to deal with the varied forms of the zombified creatures. You will start off small with only the harvester as a means of defense, which doubles as a tool that acquires stem cells (one of the forms of currency) from the enemies if you successfully land a one-hit stealth attack. Jamming the tool into enemy brains like a power drill to the skull sounds much cooler than it is thanks to wonky animations that look like you’re shoving it up their butt, not their head. The stealth attacks generally work as they should, but I personally found it way more gratifying (and hilarious) to time my swings perfectly, knocking the shambling creatures back over and over again like I was Neo dodging bullets. The major downfall here was that I felt kind of robbed in missing out on the XP bumps, when my method of handling the creatures was obviously more involved and difficult, typically giving me nothing but a handful of credits or smaller chunks of experience. Using the other guns or melee options works as expected with limits on usage, although “ammo” is handed out so frequently it becomes a non-issue and makes one on one combat a breeze. It’s only when you’re facing enemies in groups of three or more that it really becomes a challenge, but that is few and far between in my many runs.

The combat and resource gathering is the bread and butter of the gameplay, as there don’t seem to be any meaningful puzzles found within the game. You simply explore the space station, find story-related segments here and there that open up the next objective or new clone variations, stock up on the varied forms of XP and money, upgrade your character, and repeat until you either beat the game or get burnt out from its repetitive nature. Some of the more nagging shortcomings you’ll find include enemies that come out of nowhere and kill you without warning or so much as a faint groan that they are on to you, panels that explode as you walk by them without warning, and the occasional issue where you fall through the floor or get stuck in an environmental asset.

Much like the gameplay, the visuals are entirely one-sided. The environment looks astounding in most cases, with the sleek metal fixtures offering lifelike reflections of light and shadows, but when you get a good look at the zombies, they look extremely dated, especially in well-lit areas. I’ve encountered close to a half dozen variations, each tweaked slightly from the norm being better at visual or audible detection or being faster/slower than their counterparts, but almost all look and move in the same way. It’s like being stuck in the areas from the Half-Life series that prominently saw you facing off with the head crab controlled humans. As I write this, I am perplexed by the fact that the enemies showcased in the marketing images I’ve included in this review look light years ahead of the ones I found within my playthroughs, on the Xbox One X no less.

If nothing else, The Persistence is a prime example of how VR content can be ported to the standard consoles for a similar experience with only mild transitional issues. The game handles this area better than I expected, but is dragged down more by the repetitive nature of the game and some less than amazing mechanics that left me wanting more. Because of these, I am not willing to pay the price of retreading the same ground over and over again.

6 out of 10

Pros

  • Great Environmental Design
  • Transitions from VR Only with Only Minor Hiccups
  • Unique Blend of Roguelite/Horror

Cons

  • Some Mechanics Don’t Feel Entirely Fleshed Out
  • Overly Repetitious
  • Bland Creatures
  • Weird Harvesting Animation

The Persistence was developed by Firesprite Ltd and published by Perp Games. It was released on NS, PC, PS4, and X1, as well as Oculus, PSVR, and Vive. The game was provided to us for review on PC and X1. If you’d like to see more of The Persistence, check out the developer’s website.

 

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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