The Persistence

The Persistence is a Virtual Reality hybrid of survival horror and a roguelike game developed exclusively for PlayStation 4 by Firesprite – the studio responsible for working on the visuals for The Playroom – a set of mini-games released for PlayStation 4 premiere.

Plot

The Persistence takes players to the year 2521 when the interstellar flights are a part of people’s everyday life. One assumes the role of a crewmember of the titular spaceship sent deep into space to conduct an experiment on a dying star, which is about to turn into a black hole. During the research, there is an accident resulting in severe injuries of most of the crew. In an attempt to save the situation, IRIS, an onboard computer, reconstructs their bodies, however, as a side effect, the injured crewmembers become mutated. At this stage, the main protagonist enters the game, after he is woken up from hibernation. A player is tasked with finding a way to turn the engines back on allowing him to escape into safer parts of the Universe.

Mechanics

In The Persistence, one observes the action from the first-person perspective. During the game, a player explores consecutive rooms and cabins of an enormous ship (the layout of which is procedurally generated), solves numerous environmental puzzles, and fights the encountered enemies using a diversified arsenal – a player gets at his disposal e.g. gravity bombs and a pistol shooting dark energy bullets. Moreover, the main protagonist is equipped with a special device allowing him to recover stem cells from the bodies of the fallen enemies, which enables him to develop particular traits and abilities (speed, endurance, stealth). To top it all, in the game, one can find a serum, which temporarily increases the main protagonist’s strength – this proves extremely useful when there are no weapons around. Nonetheless, as the enemies usually attack in groups (eliminating them is not easy), one can sneak past them and hide beyond their sight.

Interestingly enough, in the game, protagonist’s death is permanent – whenever he dies, a player has no other choice than to assume the role of another character woken up from hibernation. Each playthrough features different challenges – thanks to the procedurally generated content, the arrangement of the ship’s locations as well as the distribution of all the items and enemies change each time, which significantly increases the replayability ratio of the game described herein.

Game modes

The Persistence focuses on the single player mode. However, together with the game, an application has been published, which allows inviting other players to join the game – using this app, the companions can control the doors, distract enemies, and disarm traps with their smartphones.

Technical aspects

The Persistence for PS4 delivers high-quality 3D visuals – claustrophobic and futuristic rooms resemble the locations one might remember from System Shock. One should remember that the game requires a Virtual Reality headgear in order to work.

Last updated on 09 March 2020