The Persistence

Review based on VR version - using original HTC Vive. Having played The Persistence quite a bit on PSVR a year or two back, it was an instant purchase for me on Steam, in the hope of getting a perfect version of the game at last. As with most PSVR titles, while still a top notch game and visually impressive - the graphics could feel a little blurry on the PS4 and wasn't quite reaching its potential. I haven't had a chance to play much tonight but I've played the original enough to confidently review this already and can already see some of its shortcomings. The Good: The Persistence is a fantastic stealth horror action game with some light rogue-like elements in regards to character upgrades over multiple plays/deaths - and some randomisation to the specific decks/levels you visit. While there are lots of comparisons to be made to System Shock, Alien Isolation and Dead Space, its definitely its own unique title. While definitely firmly in the stealth horror camp, it feels more arcadey (in a good way) than other titles in that genre, so I find it quite a fun "one more go" kinda gameplay - rather than outright terrifying :D The combat can feel simplistic (and at times totally OP if you're having a great run and stocked up on items/weapons along the way) - but it can also be incredibly punishing, especially in the early game when you're learning the ropes and more prone to panicking when a creature jumps out at ya! Oh and draining the enemy of their precious genetic code is always totally satisfying ^^ The Meh: Unfortunately at this time (launch day on Steam) the game doesn't seem to have altered much from the original PSVR release. It should only be played seated, and ideally with a joypad, i'm using an old x360 controller without issues there. The majority of actions in-game such as interacting with buttons and picking up items are done by staring at the item in question (Gaze interactions) - as such there is permanently an icon in the dead centre of your vision so the game knows what you are looking directly at. Motion controls unfortunately are not supported (even using the joypad style controls on them) and neither is room scale movement - making it one of the more inanimate VR titles to release in 2020 :) Now thats not necessarily a bad thing as sometimes you want a great VR game to play without needing the energy to run a metaphorical mile - but it does feel like the Devs have missed a trick by not updating the engine to support actual motion controls - picking up items by hand, using weapons directly etc. The level of immersion would be increased dramatically and it would help declutter some of the UI in-game (for example item names could appear over the item in your hand rather than popping up whenever you look at it in the world). Graphics options in-game are entirely missing - no way to increase textures, supersampling isn't making a noticeable difference and theres a heavy level of antialiasing which muddies the visuals giving it that PSVR look. Final Thoughts: It might look like the cons outweigh the pros above - but bear in mind the majority of these are just additions to the existing game I would have hoped to see in the PC version. The fact is that the base game, even if directly ported across from PSVR, is really tight and a whole lotta fun...I'm just glad its even got a PC release so that more people get a chance to try it for themselves :) I can highly recommend it, just know what you're buying into controls-wise. Hopefully the Devs can still make some significant updates that could improve some of the above issues. While I really REALLY hope they can eventually bring out support for tracked motion controls, I wouldn't buy into this expecting that to happen - the entire game was constructed around seated joypad control and the Gaze based interactions so it would require significant reworking of the entire games systems to support that. Hopefully graphics options are added to the game soon so we can boost the visuals, with that i'll be more than satisfied with the purchase :)

REVIEW OF THE NONVR VERSION Great System Shock Clone! Although the controls take some getting used to, and there are some QoL things missing, the core gameplay loop of system shock is there. Sprinkle the tiniest bit of roguelike (And I do mean the tiniest as, apart from weapons, you keep everything after you died), some randomly generated Decks, and you got a ton of replayability. This is really a great step for immersive sims as a genre and hope it gets the appreciation it deserves! If you come across this game and you like system shock, then just do yourself a favour and grab it!

FYI. Though it lists this on the sidebar...THIS GAME DOES NOT SUPPORT VR CONTROLLERS, which to me defeats the purpose of it being a VR title.

|Oculus Quest 2| Their idea of VR is using your VR headset instead of your monitor. It does not support the controls so you still just sit there using your mouse and keyboard which completely defeats the purpose.

Review for the non-VR mode: The Persistence is a first person roguelike with some survival horror elements mixed in, originally the game was released as a PSVR title and the VR game design shows throughout the game - some of the things translate pretty well outside of VR but unfortunately some of the control/interaction mechanics feel a little out of place and more importantly the horror atmosphere doesn't adapt that well to non-VR mode. My run though the campaign took roughly 5.5 hours (with 21 deaths) and I got what seems to be the best ending, although the game has some replay value with different modes, unlocks/leveling and the campaign maps being generated from a tileset every time you die - I have absolutely no desire to play the game again. Campaign has the player tackle a few objectives that are split between 4 decks of the ship you're on board of, along with a small area for the grand finale. During the first portion of the game, my impressions were reasonably positive - despite some minor issues. However during the latter portions of deck 3, the repetitive nature of the game was starting to take its toll and during deck 4, it became obvious that rather than introducing new challenges - the last portion of the game was padded out to extend the campaign length in the worst possible way: Add lot, a whole lot more of the same enemies while being a lot more stingy with giving the players the opportunity to craft the actually functional weapons. Rather than being an enjoyable challenge, the 4th deck became an annoyance - one that ultimately started to highlight the flaws of the game. Minor things such as the lack of environment & visual variety (as you might expect from a starship), automatically switching to a weapon each time you pick one up and giving you the same introductory voice line about it (making you go back to menu to select your actual main weapon again), some enemies being able to spin 180 degrees in a split second when you teleport behind them, some of them lacking any sort of hit reaction when hit by some of the weaker weapons - became more and more annoying. Along with some more major issues like the clear lack of balance between weapons and equipment as some of them are far superior to others - and too bad if you upgraded ones that are next to useless in the "endgame", I guess you could grind out more resources to upgrade the worthwhile ones. Would I recommend the game? No, definitely not at a full price, there are much better roguelike games out there. For the fans of the genre, I'd recommend waiting for a sale or if the dev team patches out some of the issues and takes a look at the weapon/equipment balance in general.

The Persistence is easily one of the best horror roguelike experiences I've played to date and it gets huge bonus points for being completely playable in VR (without motion controls though sadly, but don't let that put you off trying this out!) Forced to die over and over again only to be reborn in a freshly cloned body each time you're tasked with completing a series of escalating tasks on board an ever changing space station filled with murderous zombie clones (the cloning machine was probably a bad idea). With each run you'll collect resources that can be used to grab permanent upgrades to your stats, unlockable blueprints for new items, upgrades to those items and a whole host of great beneficial things that will help you progress further each time you die & need to start all over again. Fans of roguelikes or just those looking for a solid scifi horror experience should definitely check this one out, it's an absolute blast in VR! https://youtu.be/j-3Q6mQVQoo - Enhanced Edition VR gameplay with ray tracing!

Look at you hacker,a pathetic creature of meat and bone,panting and sweating as you run through my corridors.How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine ? Still waiting for the system shock release and you can´t wait? Try this!

The Enhanced version simply has the best lighting and shadows of any VR game, not even Alyx comes close. My Index hmd is at Valve due to RMA, so used my Rift CV1 ss 2.0. Then again, this is a very dark game, and it looks awesome using an oled hmd. Using Rift CV1 ss 2.0 (17 mill pixels per image) might be somewhat bold, and enabling all ray-tracing effects, ray-traced reflections and DLSS Quality, I no longer got 90 fps with the Asus Strix OC RTX 3090. But the ray-traced reflections did not look right, caused some strange shimmering, and image quality with deactivated ray-traced reflections looked much better, at least in VR with the CV1. Enabling all ray-traced effects and DLSS Quality I got close to solid 90 fps - only a few places couldn't keep up with the 90 fps. Maybe with the RTX 3090 DLSS Balanced with all ray-tracing effects enabled would be optimal (and ray-traced reflections disabled) - at least when using Rift CV1 ss 2.0. Gamepad is bad, but I forgot about it after a few minutes. I actually like picking items up by looking at the for about 2 or 3 seconds, very convenient. Aiming with the hmd works fine too. And the graphics are second to none. Using raytraced effects and DLSS the flashlight is simply mind-blowingly awesome! This is Cosmodread done right with about 50 times better graphics ;-) Not sure the VR version is for everyone though, had a bad scare last night, lol - this game is truly VR horror. Thus this game is the first VR game with full locomotion supporting both RTX raytracing and DLSS, and it has the best lighting of any VR game. That's truly an awesome experience, and having to use a gamepad certainly will not keep me from playing this game. And beneath the graphics, there's actually an awesome System Shock like game with many weapons and upgrades. I don't think cpu matters much for this game, but it'll chew up all the gpu power it can get, lol. Btw, the Steam version supports native Oculus drivers. One error though, the game no longer remembers the VR setting, it now constantly starts in 2D, at least when starting the Steam version from Oculus Home. Also having to finish one deck before saving is annoying. My rating: 9/10.

Really creepy sci-fi vibes reminded me of films like Event Horizon or Pandorum where everything has gone wrong and the story unfolds. Good movement options to suite all a player types in VR as well.

Хоррор-рогалик, в 2020 вышедший на PC. Особое внимание заслуживает VR-режим.