Developer: Firesprite, Fabrik Games
Publisher: Firesprite, Perpetual Europe
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Tested on: PC
The Persistence Enhanced – Review
Virtual Reality is a thing that feels like it’s forever in the works. Some games succeed in bringing a pretty amazing experience, but the motion sickness, lack of full control, and relatively little access to VR technology are still bothersome. Perhaps this is a reason why (great) VR games such as The Persistence, reviewed by us earlier here, actually also bring their game to the masses that don’t have VR at home with updated versions. With the Enhanced version come better graphics and a few other smaller improvements. Like our first outing with the game, we will be playing the non-VR version on PC.
Story
The story of The Persistence is easy to understand and you will jump straight into it. The Persistence is the name of a ship, and the ship’s AI wakes you up as “the last survivor”, while you are essentially just the consciousness of one being on the ship. Each time you die, you get cloned and you need to try again. This is also a direct link to the title, as you will need to repeat your progress on an entire ‘deck’, which could be seen as an elaborate level. Starting out, the ship is slowly heading towards a giant black hole, which gives you your first assignment: Save the ship.
Sadly, the ship is infested with humanoid-like aliens. The mutated bastards feel like attacking anything on sight, and they will try to make it difficult for you to reach your goals. Your goals are to do what the ship’s computer tells you to do, to save the ship from this infestation of aliens. Things such as reaching a certain room to take back control, sneak past a ton of enemies, and harvest resources to get stronger, will be the meat and potatoes of the experience. It’s great how the game jumps straight into its story without too much of an introduction, making you really feel like part of the crew.
Graphics
Graphically The Persistence Enhanced doesn’t feel that enhanced. The graphics are smoothed out a bit for more atmosphere, but other things such as in-game text on i.e. a map still feel like they belong in a VR game. Also, we are quite sure that the game still requires about the same specs as it would need to run the VR version, which sucks and might frustrate PC players, as they will need to lower their settings accordingly. The difference between low and medium graphics kind of demolishes the enhancements made in this enhanced version, so playing at low settings destroys all reasoning to play this new version. Other than that, the game feels very much like a well-communicating game. There are big indicators if you can pick up something, and interface buttons are easy to access. The overall design and interior decoration feel a bit like an advanced escape room in a way, making everything around you part of an immersive experience that’s challenging your senses.
Sound
Music and sounds in The Persistence were already great, and the Enhanced edition keeps this up. If anything can describe the sounds well, it’s that they make the game feel a lot like an interactive movie. You go in, getting hyped with tension at the right moments, listening to creepy sounds in the dark, all accompanied by music that grabs you by the throat. While there are a lot of great things to be found in The Persistence, the sound elements might actually be our favorite, because of how well it works. It just really gives the game a rollercoaster-experience type of vibe that it wouldn’t have gotten with poor sound design.
Gameplay
The Persistence Enhanced is not really a first-person shooter, but more of a game that forces you to sneak around and survive. Calling it first-person horror survival would be more in place. The game gives you a silly melee weapon that you can use to harvest substance from enemies their skulls when you are sneaky enough, but also a shield to timely block incoming attacks. Starting out with these two items, it’s the safest bet to take out your enemies quietly. That being said, you cannot always single out your enemies and take the stealthy approach. Sometimes, you’ll have to improvise and use the resources at your disposal, such as the harvested aforementioned substance.
In the game, enemies may drop guns, or you may find resources to make your own weapons. These weapons might be melee weapons, guns, or perhaps even a serum that turns enemies into temporary allies. It’s fun to experiment with all these fabrications, upgrades, and more. While ammo is scarce, the right gun might save you from a volatile situation, and there are plenty of resources to be found to invest in the short-term as well as permanent upgrades in case you die. Dying sucks, cause you will need to redo all you did on an entire floor (level). On the other hand, the rooms get hustled around, which allows for some interesting gameplay and exploration. This way, the game has adapted the scheme most roguelikes use and doesn’t get boring fast.
Where the Virtual Reality origins might get in the way of the graphics and the performance of the game a bit, you can actually also feel the VR mechanics while playing the game in non-VR. This means that i.e. looking at a container for a couple of seconds opens the container, and the game has challenges that are abundantly clear, as the developers used to develop with the boundaries of VR. This somehow works really well, creating a game with clear rules that does not feel unfair. The focus is on thrilling fun, and not on very hard difficulty.
Conclusion
The Persistence Enhanced is still a great game, though the enhanced bit does not feel enhanced enough. There are still plenty of visuals that feel too much like they are best in VR, not having enough updated and tweaked options. That being said, apart from some performance issues, this doesn’t influence the awesome atmosphere, sound, and gameplay this game has.
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