Developer: Firesprite
Publisher: Firesprite
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: Xbox One
The Persistence – Review
The Persistence initially released as a VR game for PlayStation VR and has now finally arrived on consoles and PC playable without VR hardware. Even without the VR equipment, this game still delivers a terrifying space horror experience that is not for the ill-hearted. The game is filled with a lot of effective scares and it has some solid gameplay that needs some practice before mastering its controls to effectively progress in the game. Set on a stranded spaceship overrun with horrific creatures, this game brings a great first-person horror experience to PC and consoles.
Story
In The Persistence, you are the last survivor on board of the spaceship, the Persistence. This ship is overrun with terrifying creatures created by a malfunctioning clone printer that keeps making new enemies for you to encounter on this ship. As security officer Zimri Eder, you’ll need to work through tasks to get the ship running again. To do this, you need to traverse through multiple decks on this ship to activate the designated targets. As you progress, the challenge will get bigger with stronger enemies that pose an even bigger threat to those that you encountered before. Zimri Eder herself is long dead, but you will control a cloned body with her consciousness. If you die, your mind will be uploaded to the next clone for a new attempt. At some points, you will unlock teleportation to higher deck levels so you won’t have to go through all the decks again to get where you need to be.
Serena, whose mind has been uploaded to the ship’s computer, will guide you on your expedition on this ship. As you progress on the decks and encounter bodies of other crew members, Zimri and Serena will talk with each other about those that have died and they will converse constantly as you progress through the game. With these conversations, you’ll get to know more and more about the ship and its crew.
Graphics
As The Persistence was initially brought out for PlayStation VR, the game already looked very well and they ported these graphics perfectly to the PC and console versions. The whole interior of each room perfectly fits the futuristic space theme of the game, with a lot of futuristic objects like hologram screens and high-tech equipment. Each enemy has its own unique design, with more powerful creatures looking even more horrific, but awesome. The guns and the various equipment you find look very detailed as well. You can just see that a lot of time and effort has been put into creating the whole graphics side of the game.
Sound
After playing for a while, we’ve come to the conclusion that the sound in The Persistence has been done perfectly in every way. The combination of the eerie background music with the constant screaming of enemies and environmental sounds makes this game very creepy and keeps you on guard throughout the whole game. Even when you’ve cleared rooms, sudden things will happen with a pretty high volume that keeps scaring you. It constantly sounds like an enemy can attack you from behind at any moment, which CAN happen at any moment if you don’t pay constant attention to your environment. Aside from the screams, the background music won’t only intensify when in battle as it will also get tenser randomly to freak you out even more. All in all, the sound in this game is perfectly executed for many perfect scare moments.
Gameplay
The Persistence is a horror-action roguelike played in the first-person view for the optimal feel of the game. Having some quite simple controls and game mechanics, the game is far more difficult than it looks like. To make the game interesting, each time you enter a deck, the whole area is randomly generated, so each exploration can hold new surprises and challenges. The trial and error type of gameplay in this game fits these randomly generated areas perfectly as new challenges will always pop up for an instant test of the things you’ve learned in your previous life.
As it was primarily a game developed for VR gameplay, there are still some mechanics left from the VR game. For example, the teleportation mechanic requires you to point where you want to teleport to, which could have been replaced by the direction you’re moving to, but it also lets you pinpoint the exact location to teleport to. Aside from this, you can move around like in any other FPS game and using your weapons functions with a press on the button. Changing weapons is done with a pop-up menu that freezes the game to easily switch weapons while in combat. A shield that activates for a short while after pressing its command is for blocking incoming attacks, but it does require some timing as activating too soon will let it wear off before the enemy’s attack makes contact. A flashlight serves for lighting up dark places, but it will also make you easier to detect, so make sure that enemies won’t see you using it.
There are three types of currency in this game, Stem Cells for upgrading your clone’s stats, Fabchips for creating equipment and improving your gear and Erebus tokens to unlock all the available equipment. To use these Fabchips, there are multiple machines called fabricators found throughout each deck that let you create your own weapons and equipment. There are four types of these machines, melee, firearms, experimental and grenade fabricators. Each of these holds multiple variants of weapons to purchase for defending yourself. Erebus tokens serve for unlocking and upgrading these weapons and equipment. After upgrading, these items will be stronger, but the cost to make them will be increased. The experimental fabricator gives you access to a range of interesting equipment that can slow time, teleport you to safety or even control gravity to smack an enemy through the whole room. Each item deserves to be tried out to see if it suits your style. In the safe room where you respawn after dying, you can upgrade your own stats like health and melee power with the stem cells you’ve gathered in your explorations. You can also find plans for your suit and equipment that can be created here.
In The Persistence, there are many different enemies that all have their own weaknesses and strengths you need to learn before taking them head-on. The standard engineer uses physical attacks and is the easiest enemy to fight. Berserkers are colossal enemies with huge power and can take quite a few hits so fighting from a distance is a good strategy for these enemies. Lurkers rely on sneaking and dealing damage from unseen places. Weepers are a special kind of enemy that uses screaming to lock you into place and drain your life quite quickly. The Bloodhound is one of the stronger enemies that can take a lot of hits and will deal massive damage when they get near you. They will follow you through the whole level until you’ve killed them. Each enemy requires different tactics to kill them and it is up to you to find out how.
Conclusion
Despite being a VR port, The Persistence still stands its ground with great controls and delivers a creepy horror roguelike experience, set on a futuristic spaceship with many creepy and strong enemies in randomly generated areas that have surprises ready around each corner. The game plays very well, but requires a lot of perseverance to go through many deaths to learn from your mistakes and defeat the challenges you earlier couldn’t beat. The Persistence is nothing more than a great horror roguelike that will keep on challenging you to move after each death. If you’re not an easy quitter and you like a good challenge in an everchanging environment, then The Persistence is definitely worth spending your money and time.
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[…] 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 […]